Lessons I learned from a Google online business training
This week I went to a special event in my hometown. The local government invited Google to host a marketing and entrepreneurship training day. During the event I learned some valuable lessons, I would like to share.
Customer privacy matters
During the opening, the director of Google Netherlands stressed the fact that nowadays Google tries to be as open as possible about data usage. They go to great lengths to ensure that people won’t share anything to Google that they aren’t aware of or don’t want to share. Becoming open about data usage and privacy to your customers will lead to more trust in your brand. By showing that you handle their data with great care, customers are willing to share more with you or do things for you like buying or subscribing.
How to grow brand awareness
By far the most interesting and rewarding workshop I attended was about raising brand awareness. Did you know that on average a consumer has to hear about your brand at least 7 times, before they will make a purchase? Neither did I, until this event!
First of all it is important that you know your target audience. Have a clear picture of who you want to target and why. Try to find two words that fit your business. One that describes your activity, for example: cakes, websites or clothing. The other word should be the unique value you offer, for example: delicious, innovative or excellent. Combining these yield an unique point for your business.
Afterwards it is important that you communicate what problems you can solve for your customers. Think of them as patients that suffer from a form of pain and you are the doctor offering a medicine.
It’s important that you remain consistent in your messages, otherwise your message won’t stick. And always try to promote your brand, whenever an opportunity arises. Try to grab them or create them. For example, with a blog or social media.
Don't’ get started with Search Engine Advertising out of the blue
The last two workshops I attended were focused on full-funnel marketing and Search Engine Advertising (SEA). There are generally four phases in a funnel:
- See: passive phase were the consumer is just browsing the web
- Think: comparing various options for a product
- Do: the actual purchase
- Care: after a consumer has purchased a product from you, make sure they stay happy and remember you. For example, have excellent customer support, build a mailinglist or offer a loyalty program.
Before starting with paid advertising, make sure that SEA offers any benefit to you and your website is 100% user-friendly and working. If you manage to get a lot of clicks on your adds, those clicks are worth nothing if your landing page is full of bugs. Without a clear plan what you want to achieve you are just wasting money.
If you decide to continue, it’s important that you understand who you target audience is, in which part of the sales funnel you want to insert your message and in what context they are browsing the web. For example, if you have an ice-cream place, probably most of your target audience will be searching on mobile phones on a hot day for a nearby ice-cream place.
Afterwards make sure that your landing pages match with the advertisements. It’s would be weird to target people that search for electric cards and let them land on a page were they first have to choose between an diesel, petrol or electric car. Then make sure you use prober tracking tools like Google Analytics. Without these you have no idea if your expensive advertisements are generating leads or conversions and if these actions provide a nice ROI.
Finally make sure you have the time and budget to optimize your advertisements. A lot of people think they can create a website, and put one or two campaigns online every month. The truth is that proper digital advertising takes time and money. You have to constantly track and optimize your advertisements.
Conclusion
The most important takeaway from this event that you should be consistent in your messaging and try to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Furthermore: have a clear plan when getting started with internet marketing.
Training events from Google like this one are totally worth attending. Often they are free and you learn a ton in just a few hours. Also you have opportunities to network or share knowledge with other entrepreneurs. I recommend searching if there are events like this in your area that will happen soon.
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