When looking to attain HAPPINESS, attention is often focused on things like, the acquisition of economic wealth. The thinking goes, the more money a person acquires, the more freedom they can enjoy, and the happier they will be.
People also think the more stuff they own the more they will “BE“. Entangling possessions with their sense of self, can lead to all kinds of insecurities, because the flip side goes like this, the more stuff you have the more you have to lose.
Being a success is also seen to bring with it a sense of status. Society looks up to high achievers, putting them on a pedestal, so we can all aspire to be like them.
So ACHIEVEMENT becomes a measure of SELF-WORTH.
However if you’re looking for happiness in such things, you’re likely to be disappointed.
True happiness, will not come from anything external to you, from things like money, image or status.
Instead look to internal values and feelings that result in a sense of FULFILMENT.
FULFILMENT comes from things like personal growth and understanding of self, close relationships with friends and family and a strong sense of community and contribution. Such goals are more spiritual in nature.
We’ve included a number of guides on this website, that cover both ACHIEVEMENT and FULFILMENT.
These two aspects of life can coexist if you know how to balance them. Your primary aim should be to look after your spiritual health “BEING or fulfilment”, and secondary purpose is “DOING or achievement”. The aim should always be to bring BEING into any DOING.
Get Results: muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone
When things go wrong, sometimes the best thing to do, is do nothing at all and see how things play out.
Bad decision-making is usually a result of making rash decisions, under pressure and when you’re highly charged with emotion. This is not a good time to be making decisions.
Give yourself some space and time to think things through, even get someone else’s view, to try to get a different perspective.
I like to use the decision matrix to help me think choices through in a rational way, again, if you are finding it difficult to look at the issue objectively, get some assistance from someone you trust to help you with it.
But coming back to the initial point, sometimes the best decision is to do nothing, just let it be, and see how things progress. Sometimes things sort themselves out, without any intervention.
This is not to say you should bury your head in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening, hoping it will go away, this would be a disempowering coping strategy.
Instead, understand that doing nothing will always be one of your choices and not making a knee jerk reaction is nearly always a good idea.
Get Results: we can’t all be right but we could all be wrong
Eckhart Tolle describes, in his book A New Earth: Create a Better Life, how much of Mankind is currently under the control of the Ego and this is the cause of much social unrest and conflict around the world.
The Ego is thought you identify with, and to a large extent, is concerned with self-preservation, and in order to carry out that function is fearful by nature. It is preoccupied with the fear of pain and destruction.
Being rather imaginative, it comes up with all sorts of mind constructed scenarios resulting in its demise. It tries to build itself up so that it is more on the one hand, while resisting change and uncertainty on the other, instead opting for routine, consistency and predictability..
The Ego believes that by having more (possessions, ideas, psychological positioning) it will be more, and the more it is, the less chance of being nothing. While at the same time, fearing the more it has, the more it has to lose.
There is no scenario, that can end well, from a mindset of fear. Fear makes us inward looking, exclusive and more selfish because we believe the lie of scarcity, if there is not enough to go round we better grab our share, while we can.
Fear creates division, which in turn breaks communication, which in turn creates misunderstanding. For us to be more there needs to be an “other” that has less. We can’t be better or stronger if there isn’t an “other” to be less or weaker. There is no greater “other” than an “enemy”.
We all hold opinions based on social, political and cultural upbringing. Our parent’s, family, friends, colleagues, and mainstream media tell us their opinions and we make them our own, without really taking a long hard look at the logic and spirit behind them. These opinions become our beliefs and values, and over time, set into rigid thought patterns. We base all our decision making on these beliefs and values, they shape all aspects of our lives. Some of them serve us, but many hold us back from pursuing the kind of lives we would like to live, because they are consumed by fear.
Our Ego, in its attempt for growth, has us believing “we” are right and “they” are wrong. Our stance of superiority has us believing our perspective is the only valid one, so we fail to listen and be empathetic to other’s counter views, which are equally valid from their perspective. We can’t all be right but we could all be wrong.
Those with superior education might consider their views more informed, but if the source of that knowledge, turns out to be biased, than they might just be more brainwashed and less open to opposing narratives and views.
The media is largely responsible for fueling our fears, but they only supply what interests us, so while under the influence of the Ego, we pay more attention to, and takes interest in, fearful stories and bad news, so that we might avoid such situations ourselves in the future.
Get Results: awakening
What is the solution for escaping such a destructive situation? Return your self-preservation instruct to servant and end its role as master. Open your heart and mind to opposing perspectives. Embrace an empathetic mindset and allow yourself to learn from others. Without the Ego in charge, there is only love and inclusion, and from that comes peace and prosperity for all.
Get Results: can ambition and spirituality coexist
Simultaneously seeking Spirituality and Ambition can seem like a contradiction but they aren’t, if you approach them in the right way.
The seeming juxtaposition comes from the fact that spiritualism tells us we are already enough, and that when we try to find ourselves in DOING, we, in fact, lose ourselves in DOING. It tells us that salvation comes from this moment consciousness, and that psychological time only serves to trap us in the Ego (identification with thought), which is only concerned with past and future and uses the present as a stepping stone to the future, with no intrinsic value of its own.
Ambition on the other hand has, at its very core, discontentment with the present situation and the desire for some future salvation, something better than what is. Ambition is also accessed through thought and if we identify with these thoughts, we are lost in the Ego.
So how can you reconcile the two? How can you be content with the present, yet yearn enough to motivate you to go for more or better? Well the answer comes from understanding that, you are already enough and that you really won’t find yourself in DOING, or in HAVING, or WANTING, and you shouldn’t be motivated to be better or have more, or be richer, for any self gain, or constantly losing yourself in thoughts of what might or could be.
Instead seek ambition only for selfless reasons, focusing on a present moment perspective. To contribute more, participate in the game of life as much as possible, not for yourself but in the service of others or the planet, or whatever floats your boat. See ambition as a game to be enjoyed, and an opportunity to express yourself, not for the serious pursuit of gain, for doing so is false, it’s Ego motivated and will keep you away from your true spiritual self. Instead do it as a method of expression, aimed at helping and contributing to make the world we live in a better place, even if it’s in a very small or narrow way. After all we can make the world a better place, even by the simple act of smiling at a stranger, as they walk by.
The Ego wants more, better, and seeks gain for selfish reasons, because it is consumed with fear… of loss, and of not being enough, and in that pursuit comes greed, fear and the desire for power, which ultimately are doomed to end in pain. When you fight to be better, you position yourself separate from others, and adopt a competitive mindset, classic Ego positioning.
Alternatively when you act to serve others, for the good of others, you take up an inclusive mindset. It maximises your impact, without using it to serve your Ego, or trying to pump yourself up. When you do it to make yourself feel better, you have moved under the influence of the Ego. Use your Ego to serve you, don’t let it take over as master. The difference is subtle, but vastly different at the same time.
Live you life by focusing your attention on this moment, the moment you live your life though. Stop living in and identifying with thought. You can still use thought for goal setting and planning purposes, when necessary, but even that process can be done while remaining in the moment, without getting lost in thought and letting it take over you.
Get Results: acquire knowledge, be motivated, be productive
Getting results in any aspect of life can be difficult, and having heavily researched the subject of success and getting results, I can tell you there are so many aspects to it.
However, when you boil it down to its primary components there are three, Knowledge, Motivation and Productivity. Everything else falls into these three.
Things like self awareness, taking responsibility, being committed, having a strong work ethic, being brave enough to overcome fear, fall under the motivation category.
Being focused, improving decision making and problemsolving fall under, productivity.
Finding reliable sources of unbiased, accurate information, under knowledge.
I love the fact you can say the same things a myriad of different ways, the following graphics have been done to illustrate this.
Get Results: know want and doGet Results: learn, desire, actionGet Results: learn, focus, executeGet Results: know, care, do
Check out our guides for more information, you’ll find links in the sidebar (desktop) or below (mobile)
Before reading on, please take a moment to think about this statement…
Spirituality is mumbo-jumbo!
Now, answer the following questions. Answer them honestly before moving on. Even better, write them down, because I want you to see how with a couple of simple points I can prove spirituality to be mumbo-jumbo and that anyone who believes in it is as “unconscious” as everyone else, and that includes you.
#1 – Do you agree with this statement?
#2 – If not, why not?
#3 – How does this statement make you feel? What emotion is most prominent? Come on you believers, you should be good at this bit.
#4 – What inner dialogue is going on in your head?
#5 – What are your initial thoughts about the person responsible for writing this statement?
Only when you have honestly answered these questions, should you read on.
Get Results: pause graphic
So hopefully you have done what I asked before arriving here. If you didn’t please do so before progressing.
So I said spirituality was mumbo-jumbo and that you were as “unconscious”, spiritually speaking, as everyone else.
How can I prove this? Well, by your answers and reactions. If you felt a string of negative emotions to the statement above and if you felt a degree of hostility towards the author of that statement then you are indeed as unconscious as everyone else.
You are attached to the idea of spirituality and that attachment or identification, is proof that you’re trapped in the Ego.
So for you spirituality is indeed mumbo-jumbo, because the Ego is anything but spiritual. Now I don’t mean for you to take offence and you may well do from an egoic state, but what I want to prove is how easily, even well practiced, enlightened people can be overcome by the Ego.
You have an attachment to the idea of spirituality, you have your sense-of-self invested in it. You see yourself as spiritually aligned, and you don’t like that to be criticised or doubted by someone outside your sense-of-self. When someone outside your sense-of-self attacks an attachment within your sense-of-self, you feel anger to some degree, depending on your strength of attachment and the degree to which it is being attacked.
If you didn’t feel the slightest negative thought or anger towards the author or the statement, then well done, you truly are enlightened.
Well, apart from the fact you felt compelled to check the article out in the first place. If you are truly 100% enlightened, would you have felt the need to have even clicked through to this page to begin with? Maybe there is an element of doubt in your spiritual beliefs in the background of your subconscious. Hey, spirituality is not easy, that pesky Ego isn’t a quitter, it will keep you on your toes. Bringing awareness to this fact, is the very thing that will break its control over you.
Hopefully you have gained some degree of self Awareness from this exercise, which was, after all my true intention. Please don’t take any offence. Peace and love.
Get Results: Books give a soul to the universe, wings in the wind, flight to the imagination and life to everything
Reading books is one of the most effective methods for the acquisition of knowledge, because it’s an opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants, to learn from others experiences, trials and tribulations, experiments, time, effort and expertise.
If you’re not the reading type, then audio versions are available for many popular books and are a great substitute. Check out Audible for some very affordable listening plans. I use it myself, listening in the car to make the most of travel time.
The most important part of reading a book or listening to an audio book, with the intention of learning something, is to put what you learn into practice, otherwise what’s the point? Knowledge is not power, it’s the potential for power, providing you put it to work for the good of yourself and others.
I hear people bragging about reading or listening to a book a day, Really? How can you read a book a day and possibly, gain anything of true value. Just reading without the time to reflect on the insights you have uncovered, seems nonsensical, unless you’re only gaining one or two insights from each book. Hey, if it works for you go ahead, but if you look back, having forgotten most of what you have read, then maybe it’s time to find a good book to read and take your time absorbing its valuable teachings, and to re-read it again and again.
There are a number of high quality books around, that are worth taking time over and re-reading. These are what I would describe as all time classics. Here are my favourites, if you haven’t read them, check them out by following the links.
Please note: these are affiliate links, I get paid a small commission if you decide to buy, and I thank you for that. The books are genuinely my favourites and well worth checking out.
Spiritual/Wellbeing
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now: A guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
Wealth, Business, Marketing
Wealth and Wisdom Classics: Think and Grow Rich. The Science of Getting Rich, The Art of War by Napoleon Hill
The One Thing by Gary Keller
Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck by Chip Heath
Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Build a Brand in 30 Days by Simon Middleton
Keep checking back for updated recommendations. Also check out our guide for the acquisition of Knowledge.
Knowledge is power, or at least it’s the potential for power. Knowing what to do is vital for success, but it comes about in a variety of ways.
The best method is probebly learning through DOING. But lessons can be learned, and shortcuts can be takens by paying attention to the journey of those that have gone before you.
Role models and mentors can make a huge contribution to your progress, and shorten the time needed to reach your goal, as long as you pick sources that provide accurate information, unbiased by their own agendas, and self interests.
If you don’t have direct access to role models, books are a great alternative and gateway to knowledge.
Below is a number of ingredients to the acquistion of knowledge, which is one of the three components of the Get Results model, the others being motivation and productivity. We will, over the coming months be linking from this page to fresh, relevant content related to the component it is linked from, so please keep checking back.
Clicking on the posters will take you to more in-depth information. If it doesn’t click through, the information isn’t available yet.
Get Results: Knowledge requires reliable sources of informationGet Results: Knowledge requires verifiably credible and unbiased sourcesGet Results: Knowledge requires roles models mentors mastermind teamsGet Results: Knowledge requires accurate informationGet Results: Knowledge requires knowing how, what and when particularly whyGet Results: Knowledge requires putting knowledge into actionGet Results: Knowledge requires developing skill from the prractice of doing. (Click on poster for more info)Get Results: Knowledge requires learning, comprehension and recallGet Results: Knowledge requires testing variableslGet Results: Knowledge requires asking expansive questionslGet Results: Knowledge requires hiring talent to do it for you
Knowledge Quotes
“Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.” – Anton Chekhov
“The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.” – Socrates
“Knowledge is power if applied.”
“Power is gained by sharing knowledge, not hoarding it.”
“knowledge comes from learning, wisdom comes from living.” – Anthony Douglas Williams
“knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
“The first step towards knowledge is to know that we are ignorant.” – Richard Cecil
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
“intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” – Salvador Dali
“As knowledge increases, wonder deepens.” – Charles Morgan
“Doubt is the key to knowledge.”
“knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows.” – Alfred North Whitehead
“If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come.” – Arapaho
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” – George Bernard Shaw
“The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action.” – Herbert Spencer
“Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.” – Peter Drucker
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realise the extent of your ignorance.” – Thomas Sowell
“We are all ignorant. It’s what you do about it that counts. I wish more people felt comfortable asking questions, the world would be a better place if they did. After all, division is built from ignorance.”
Lead Magnets otherwise known as “opt-in bribes” or “opt-in incentives” are the little bonuses you promise your website visitors in exchange for their email address.
Why do you want their email address you may ask, well you want it so that you have a method of contact, a direct way of keeping in touch with them, so that you can let them know when you have something to share.
Imagine what would happen if your website crashed and your audience couldn’t find it, you could simply send them an email to let them know where they can continue to follow you while it’s down and explain what has happened.
If you have a time sensitive offer that needs to be acted on quickly, you could easily send them an email to make them aware of it.
Getting your audience’s email doesn’t mean you should keep pestering them with endless communication. But it’s a way you can keep in touch with them directly, rather than hoping they can still find you or them having to keep checking your site to find new content.
In fact growing an email list is one of the most important things you should be doing in your efforts for on-line success, no matter what type of business you run, whether it is an e-commerce site, an affiliate site, or a site that just provides information, like this one.
You’ll need three things to grow your list, an opt-in form on your site, an auto-responder service (sends automatic emails to subscribers) and a lead magnet (see below for examples)
The list below is a general lead magnet list, but when you create a lead magnet yourself, obviously, you should make it relevant to your business/niche. It’s no good offering a recipe download when you’re in the furniture restoration niche.
Make sure it provides value in some way, and is not available elsewhere on your website without your visitors, first, exchanging their email address.
Lead magnets can come in the form of a PDF document, HTML page, video, audio file, slide presentation, or whatever best suits the content you’re providing. People like to have something they can keep and is easily accessible on their preferred device, whether that be phone or computer, and preferably, without having to go on-line to access it, so make it downloadable, where possible.
Lead magnet ideas
White papers – A white paper is an authoritative guide or report designed so the reader can understand a specific topic or issue. Traditionally they have been used by government bodies and business to business (B2B) marketing.
Re-organised blog posts – Put existing content into a PDF download and call it an e-book – Blog posts aren’t always particularly well organised, they are rarely in the best order to be able to consume information about a specific topic, but rather, in the sequence they were written and posted. So if you write an article about say, lead magnets and then do another post about the subject taken from a different perspective, some months later, the two posts may be separated by other content, which means the audience have to search for the two posts separately. If you’re organised you should link the two posts via page links, but many times this doesn’t happen. You could even put them under their own specific category, but if you talk about a lot of topics, this could become unwieldy. So putting the posts into one document and offering it as a lead magnet could be beneficial to the reader.
Ebooks – are one of the most popular choices as an opt-in bribe. They range from a few pages, up to hundreds of pages in length and are usually in PDF file format. If you’re very knowledgeable about your subject, share it in an ebook
Recipes – we used recipes in an early example of what not to do, but they’re a great idea as long as you”re doing a cooking related blog.
Resource lists – People love resource lists because they provide tools that actually help get things done. I have a resource list here, that you can check out
“How to…” guides/tutorials – Another favourite of many blogs. Teach people to do something that’s important in achieving their goal or solving a problem. These can be in text form as a PDF file or in video/audio format. If you’re going the way of video, host them on platforms such as Youtube or Wistia, you can always embed them within your blog posts, on your own website. Make sure that you don’t list them publicly though, otherwise, people won’t need to exchange their email address, to access them, they’ll simply go to your Youtube channel to view them.
Tips and tricks – if you have any nifty short cuts or other time saving tips and advice, when doing something specific, or using a particular piece of software, then share these with your audience via an opt-in.
Case studies – If you can access case studies that prove a point or show some achievement, relating to your niche, share them.
Quiz or Competition – Allow people to enter a competition or quiz in exchange for that all important email address. People love to spend time doing quizzes and winning prizes.
Offer a link to a Questions and Answers or a Frequently Asked questions document where you spell out important information that you know your audience are desperate to know the answers to.
Provide a “5/10/20” day training series in return for an email. A multiple video training series gives your audience an ideal opportunity to get to know you a little better We’re conditioned to deal with people face to face, and while this is not always possible, video allows viewers to see the person behind the brand. Make sure you give them some great information to-boot, and you’ve got a very compelling persuader.
Interview your client/supplier/yourself/industry leader/influencer
Tell a story
Reviews
What’s new/hot in your niche
Your opinion on (your industry, economic trends, best practice)
Discount
Software
Consultation
Free trial
Physical gift
Notification for future announcement
Newsletter/webinar registration
Notification of latest blog posts
The “Take Away”
The more perceived value your audience sees in your lead magnet, the more likely they are to opt-in. The best advice I can give you is, test different options and see what work for your particular niche. Use best practices as a starting point, and build on these, but you won’t know what’s best for you and your audience until you try and compare results.
There is some evidence that offering different lead magnets on individual articles, relating to the content of that article, can significantly increase opt-in rates, and this seems logical when you think about it.
If you have a site wide opt-in for say, “Facebook lead generation tips” and this appears at the bottom of an article about “Creating Content”, they reader is unlikely to find your lead magnet offer interesting, because it’s not relevant to their interest at that time, and as a result, they will most likely leave after reading the article without opting in. However if it was relevant to the content, they would surely find it more compelling to opt-in.
The added benefit of this approach is you are segmenting your audience into their specific interests based on which offer they opted in to. They may find multiple lead magnets also more engaging and encourage them to hang around on your site longer.
I recently read an article by Jeff Bullas that talked about “Content Upgrades” being an effective lead generator. Basically a Content Upgrade is something that is related to your article that adds extra value. So it could be a PDF version of the article that the audience can download and store on their device, or a checklist version of the article containing the main take-away points from the article. It could even be a video or audio version of the article containing extra value in the form of extra information or deeper insights into the material.
Summary
Getting email addresses from prospective customers should be one of the main objectives for your website, and lead magnets are one of the most effective tools available to you in achieving that objectives. It’s considered much easier to get new visitors to part with their email address, than it is to part with their money, so selling the click, is a sensible marketing strategy for new visitors, who don’t yet know you.
Use your email communication to build trust, liking and credibility in the eyes of the receiver, all which are needed before people will part with their hard earned money, and buy from you.
For more marketing information, check out our marketing guide.
Think of an advertising system where you can target specific prospective customers based on how they are searching for your services. You can appear to them at the very moment they are looking to buy from suppliers just like you.
You only pay when someone clicks on your advert unlike traditional print media where you pay a fixed fee whether you get leads or not.
Depending on the type of business you have, you can scale up your marketing or narrow it down. You can re-market to visitors that have visited your site without buying so that you increase brand awareness. Research shows that a prospect will interact with your brand at least 7 times before buying.
The advertising platform that does all this is called Google Adwords, otherwise known as pay per click (PPC) advertising.
The importance of being on page one of Google search results
If you’re not on the first page of Google, prospective customers aren’t going to find you. Think about it, do you look beyond the first page of Google search results when you’re looking to buy something on-line? Research shows that most people don’t.
Click through rates vary massively even if you do appear on the first page of the search results, depending on what position you’re listing appears, for instance the first 3 positions on Google get over 60% of all the traffic with the bottom 3 positions getting less than 10%.
In a recent study on the effectiveness of social media as a sales generator compared to PPC and SEO it concluded, “As far as driving on-line sales goes, social media is an astoundingly ineffective channel. If you want to grow your on-line sales, the evidence is clear: SEO and PPC are where you need to invest”
SEO is a long term strategy, simply because it can take months to get a decent listing position, providing you follow the SEO guidelines for onsite and offsite SEO, all of which takes time to put in place. Whereas PPC is immediate, there’s no waiting months to see results. As soon as your adverts get Google approval, they go live. I have had adverts go live within minutes of setting them up.
Quick Tip – Success in Pay Per Click isn’t just about getting your advert displayed as much as possible for the least cost. It’s about getting it in front of good prospects that are interested in buying your product or service. You don’t want to be paying for people who are just looking for information, particularly if your budget is tight or you’re bootstrapping. You don’t want them clicking through your advert and bouncing off your landing page either, ideally you want them to buy if they click through your adverts, or not click at all, if they’re not interested in your product or service. How you achieve this balance is where the magic happens. Focused targeting is the name of the game.
DIY or pay someone else to do it for you?
Now you can learn to do Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising yourself, there’s lots of free information available out there that takes you through the process. However much of it may be out-of-date, with Google constantly making changes to its system. There is also a lot of mis-information circulating that you should be aware of.
Alternatively you can pay an expert to do it for you, many of which will want a large up-front commitment of £300-£800 to set the system up for you, followed by a minimum contract period. I used a very reputable SEO company to do PPC for me some years ago, and after spending £1000+ I didn’t get a single sale out of it. I still get calls from PPC businesses now that promise the world but don’t ask anything about my business, and without knowing about it and my prospective customer profiles, how can they know who to target?
I decided to learned the system myself from the ground up, and I still use it successfully today because I’ve tested it, tweaked it, and improved it as I’ve gone along. I use it for my own business (not related to this site), and it works for me. I have learned to build on each campaign by split testing, peeling and sticking, dropping poor performing adverts and replacing with new improved versions, in an ever improving spiral. It takes time, I’ve spent lots of money as I’ve gone along but I’ve learned, DOING is the only way to learn in this game.
I highly recommend you try PPC for yourself, it’s made a huge difference to my business. I compete with some of the big UK based experience companies and have consistently ranked higher than them, so it can be done with the right targeting. And with a ROI of well over 300%, it can also be profitable.
Local business campaigns can be effective for as little as a couple of pounds per day, of course if you want a bigger reach you’ll have to employ a bigger budget. Return On Investment is what it’s all about. If you can make £2 for every £1 you spend, than spending £10k a month means you’re making £20k, spending £100k means you’re making £200k, and that’s how you should look at it.
For more about marketing, please check out our Marketing guide.
Below is a blog post I did back in 2013, but which was on another website, I thought I would include it here as it has some relevance today.
Get Results: Google Adwords
I have been using Google Adwords for my photography business for 7 years now. Initially I used a third party to execute a campaign for me, but after spending about £1000 without getting a single sale, I decided to cut my losses and end the whole sorry saga.
However in the back of my mind I thought the basic premise of Adwords was a sound one. Your ads appear to anyone searching for your product / service, at the very time they want it. Surely this is one of the best ways to target your customers? So why was my previous experience of Adwords such an expensive disaster? Had I not given it enough time? The company that ran my Adwords campaign thought I should have given it more time, I ran it for approx 4 months. Only when I questioned why I wasn’t getting any conversions did they talked about changing certain aspects of my site to improve performance.
I decided to run my own campaigns and set the whole thing up from scratch. I read a lot of stuff online, and invested in what turned out to be a great book a “Ultimate Guide to Google Ad Words: How To Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes” by Perry Marshall. which was great at giving me a clearer understanding of the psychology of how Adwords works and then how to develop the campaigns to get better and better results. I read much more after that book but would have to credit it for getting me off to a solid start, so thanks Perry.
Once I had a clearer understanding of the techniques that make the difference between a successful campaign and one that empties your pockets faster than an hole in the bottom of them, I understood why I hadn’t got anything out of my previous attempt. I now get more in voucher sales from my site than I spend on Adwords and with a good chance of up-selling those vouchers once they are redeemed, I find Adwords to be an invaluable sales channel.
The moral being that if your product is suitable for online selling (and not all products are) and if you know your customers have a tendency to look for your service online, which I did, then Adword can be very profitable if you know what you are doing.
So what did I do to change my results, from having no sales to actually making a profit from Adwords? Well first of all I took a close look at my customers. Who was buying what from me? Initially I had Ads selling portraits, with lots of different keywords that included Babies photoshoots, Family photoshoots, Pet photoshoots, and Mother and Daughter Makeover photoshoots. Once someone clicked on the Ads they were taken to a page that sold vouchers for all of of these photo experiences. The first thing I learned to do was split my business into all the separate experiences and who the likely buyer of those experiences would be.
Makeover photo shoots – Usually purchased as a gift for friends or relatives, sometimes bought for self, enjoyed by 12 year olds up to middle aged women. Having said that the purchaser is often an husband or boyfriend.
Newborn Baby photo shoots – usually purchased as a gift for friends or relatives, sometimes bought by mother of newborn babies.
I then split these separate experiences into their own campaigns, chose keywords that were relevant to each such as baby photos, newborn photo shoots for the baby campaign, makeover photo shoot for ….guess what …the makeover photo experiences…and so on.
I kept the number of keywords down to about 1-2 per ad group, making sure that each keyword was included in the Advert and again on the landing page, which contained information about just that particular kind of photo experience. What was I doing? I was focusing my Ads towards specific customers who were looking for specific photo experiences. So someone looking for a baby shoot would type in say “baby photo packages” into the search engine, which would trigger my ad to appear on their search results. They would see my headline “Baby Photos just £30” and hopefully would click on it to find out more, they would then go through to see my landing page which would give more information about my baby photo packages. They then have the option to buy a voucher for the package there and then, or give me a call to order one.
This way of structuring my Adwords campaign has helped turn my fortunes around. It sounds like common sense but wasn’t how the so called experts that managed my first campaign had gone about it.
Adwords can work for you but you need to know what you’re doing. I guess that applies to any kind of advertising. I am sure there are many great PPC agents that can execute very good PPC campaigns for you, but only when they understand your business, your products and your customers. If they don’t ask many questions about your business at the start, how can they know enough to give you the best return on your investment. I will be going into my Adwords experience in more detail in future posts.
Summary
Google Adwords can work for local businesses, but you really need to know what your doing, otherwise it can be an expensive waste of time. The key to setting up a successful Adwords campaign is to know your business and focus on each of your product offerings (either individual products or by category depending on the nature of your business) and the type of customer who buys that particular product offering. Focus is the key here. If you are using an agent to do your Adwords campaign for you, make sure they understand your business as well as you know it. Even if you do use an agent to manage your Adwords campaign for you, I would suggest having a basic understanding of how Adwords works, so that you know if your agent is giving you the best service. I would suggest reading “The Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords” by Perry Marshall, it contains everything you need to know at this time. Adwords is ever evolving so you will need to stay ontop of the changes to get the most from the platform.
Hope you found something useful in this one….thanks for stopping by.
” by Perry Marshall. which was great at giving me a clearer understanding of the psychology of how Adwords works and then how to develop the campaigns to get better and better results. I read much more after that book but would have to credit it for getting me off to a solid start, so thanks Perry.