It's no secret that we're all about inbound marketing here at Business Actualization. We haven't, exactly, been subtle about it.
So, you may find it surprising that we do acknowledge there are other ways to market your business, including Google AdWords. In fact, back in December we did several posts about effective Google AdWords campaigns.
But, that was so last year.
This week we were invited to rap about Google AdWords by none other than Google itself! Not the whole company, obviously, but three experts who hosted a webinar that we, as Google partners, attended.
We, in turn, invited our friends and clients so we could translate the digital marketing speak, and answer any questions our clients (and, potential clients) had about using Google AdWords to bolster their business. Not all AdWord campaigns are created equal.
There was coffee, there were Starbucks pastries, there were cool blue clicky pens that light up and there was...knowledge.
Arjan Dijk, VP of Global Small Business Marketing at Google answered questions about small businesses and how they could succeed on the web. His main point? Think about what makes you, your company or service or business, different and go from there.
Pretty basic marketing thinking, but also a great reminder to get back to basics no matter how complex the web seems.
Fred Vallaeys is a Google Adwords Evangelist and he gave a hit list of hints: great, relevant, fresh content and reviews. Lots of good reviews. He also went into details about Adwords, how they work, what they cost, that was pretty useful to our team-- and the guests we invited. We are nothing if not content and story oriented-- and we insist our clients venture into the world of reviews and testimonials.
Did we mention that our small group included a client from Swedish Motors in Marietta, PA. Keith from Launch CI who is a business process optimization consultant and Gwendolyn Mccomsey, a Doula? Her business Mind, Belly, and Soul offers pregnancy & childbirth service in Lancaster, PA.
Last up from Google was Ben Wood, the guy with the clearest message and the best accent. His title is Director, Channel Sales Americas. He said there were three reasons to work with a marketing or advertising firm: market knowledge in a world of complex choices (his exact phrase was "dizzying array"), performance and time.
No arguments from us on any of those points. We know our clients want knowledge, a marketing campaign that performs and have other ways to spend their time-- like running their business.
It was, definitely, an hour well spent and afterwards we discussed ways that AdWords could complement inbound marketing campaigns.
Then we all got to try on Adam's Google Glass device (he's an official Glass Explorer and is exploring development projects for both Health, Fitness & Marketing Applications - Pictured at a Glass Explorer Meet-up in NYC that took place with notable Glass Developers) and engage in voice commands that mimicked old Star Trek episodes. Which, eventually, resulted in the writer in the group taking bringing up maps to nowhere and generally creating a scene not unlike this one and the Business Actualization data tracking and reporting guy taking pictures of the wall (to debunk any privacy concerns of Glass in public places).
What can we say? Digital marketing? That we know. From AdWords to Inbound to the next steps in any technology that will help you grow your business.
Prototypes of high tech, cutting edge devices? Let's just say that some of us, might need a webinar on that sort of thing.
