It's targeted at users of Zoho, one of the business applications my company sells. Mostly small companies buy Zoho. I realize now that users need more time to understand this relatively new way of getting services for a business application. Mistake 1: I went for quantity over quality with Google AdWords. Because of this stupid mistake I squandered my monthly ad budget in a couple of days. How I fixed this: I realized that getting 100 good visitors to my site is more financially effective than getting 1,000 bad leads, so I changed to more specific and less generically popular AdWords. Mistake 2: I underestimated how curious people are on the internet. Mistake 3: I ignored humans. When people -- particularly people who own small businesses -- have questions when they are asked to spend hundreds of dollars. Avoid doing what I did and save yourself some time and money.
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Last month my company launched an entirely new website. Hooray! Well, not so fast…
The site — please excuse my self-promotion — is called Marks Group Live. It’s targeted at users of Zoho, one of the business applications my company sells. It’s a new type of offering, which is part of the problem.
Mostly small companies buy Zoho. The only ways for them to get help is support from Zoho, watch free videos on YouTube or hire partners like me ar rather high hourly fees. My site is aimed at financially conscious users. Sounds good, right?
Well, it’s been a slog. Growth has been slower than I expected. I realize now that users need more time to understand this relatively new way of getting services for a business application. I’ve made other mistakes. Stupid mistakes. Here are my biggest (so far).
Mistake 1: I went for quantity over quality with Google AdWords.
Think about it — if you need help, service, consulting or training with a business application you’re probably going to Google it, right? So I jumped into AdWords, and wound up throwing a bunch of money right down the toilet.
Why? Because I didn’t understand a basic concept about Google AdWords: for B2B marketing it’s all about quality over quantity. Sure, Entrepreneur.com get millions of visitors every day on their site — it’s how they sell ads. But for a company selling to other businesses there are leads and then there are leads. Using generic and popular keywords meant I was paying for tons of visitors on my sight who weren’t the right kind of leads for me. They immediately left — my bounce rate was 95 percent. Because of this stupid mistake I squandered my monthly ad budget in a couple of days.
How I fixed this: I realized that getting 100 good visitors to my site is more financially effective than getting 1,000 bad leads, so I changed to more specific and less generically popular AdWords. I chose quality over quantity. My bounce rate is going down and people are spending more time on my site. Fingers…
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