Transformation Marketing is proud to release their newest client: Papa John’s. We have taken on the Papa John’s franchise that has 14 locations between Lincoln, Omaha, Bellevue, Kearney and Council Bluffs. We took Papa John’s on as a client with the expectations to help grow their local business in these locations using traditional and social media. We are currently running television, radio and Facebook ads for Papa John’s in those locations.

You can find Papa John’s on:

Facebook
Lincoln
UNL
Omaha/Bellevue
Kearney
Council Bluffs

Twitter
Lincoln
Omaha
Kearney
Council Bluffs

FourSquare
Check in at any of their 14 locations!

Urban Spoon
Check in at any of their 14 locations!

Food Spotting
Check in at any of their 14 locations!

Flickr

Facebook, like Twitter, is a fantastic social tool that we’ve seen many companies have great success with in the past. However, like always, this type of marketing works… when used correctly.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m going to quickly recap the points to brought up in the Tweets Gone Bad blog, since they are also very relevant for Facebook.

1. If you don’t know how to use it, don’t learn using your business page.

2. Learn how to connect to your audience; don’t oversell.

We’ve also addressed how to handle negative feedback in past blogs. (See: Negative Feedback: How it can HELP your company) But here’s a sample of what NOT to do:

Nestle was apparently fed up with spam on their wall, so instead of simply deleting truly irrelevant posts (like we do, here at Transformation Marketing), here’s the post they sent out:

“This page is for fans of Nestlé. Linkspamming, abuse etc will be removed, and repeat offenders will be excluded… we welcome your comments, but please don’t post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic – they will be deleted.”

Now, this alone was unnecessary, but when they started catching heat for this, they took their blunder even further by responding like this:

Needless to say, we don’t recommend talking this way to your customers.

The Balance

There are a few balances to Facebook. One balance includes an audience and good content. The other balance includes overposting and underposting.

You can be putting out the best content in the world, but if no one is seeing it, it’s worthless. On the other hand, you can have a huge audience, and if your content is… excuse my french… crap, then it’s, again, worthless.

If you’re only posting once a month, you’re page is likely to be forgotten. If you’re posting 3-4 times a day, you’re page is likely to be overlooked when you actually post something important. (Keep in mind that there are times when it’s okay to overpost, but those occasions are few and far between.)

If you would like to report of an Ad Gone Bad, please contact us at info@transformationmarketing.com.

Note: We are a marketing firm, not a law firm. We are not aware of any copyright laws we may be violating by posting pictures of advertisements that are in the public domain to this blog. This site is just for fun. If you own the rights to any of the pictures or ads posted and feel that violated your copyright, please contact me and we will remove it. If you want us to fix your marketing mishap we can do that too.

When someone clicks on a paid ad or even a natural search result there are a series of questions that run through their head about the webpage they are viewing.

• “Am I in the correct place?”- In about 3 seconds your visitor will determine if your website is offering an answer to what they are searching.
• “Is this what I expected?” – If the ad or description of your website is properly attuned to your product or service, the visitor will quickly recognize what they are looking at. But if not, they will likely leave your website.
• “Do I trust this site?” – Establishing some kind of trust with your visitors is key to keeping them on your website. Testimonies and affiliations are great ways to do this.
• “How long will this take?” – A long intimidating form or several dense paragraphs of text will often lead the person to leave your website. Most visitors don’t want to invest the time in reading or researching.
• “What should I do next?” – Marketers answer this question by using a call to action. Perhaps you know that big red button is supposed to be clicked, but does your website visitor know that?
• “Where should I go next?” – Presenting too many options could be a deterrent to your visitors. A page full of links, icons, and text could confuse the next steps of your sales funnel.
• “Should I click the back button?” – The back button is everyone’s favorite tool. If any of the questions above are not answered, you will have a higher risk of losing your latest visitor.

Before you check off this little list, we have one more bit of of advice to share with you. You are a bad judge of your own website. You know exactly how to signup for your own newsletter and you know exactly where your company contact info is listed, but is it obvious to others? Ask a five people to perform a specific task on your website and you will get five different answers.

At Transformation Marketing we work with you to create highly optimized landing pages for your paid search marketing campaigns. We work to create a tightly themed correlation between your keywords, ads, and landing page to achieve a high quality score and high conversion rates.

Well, many of our clients know this now, and it’s by no means a secret, so I’m going to share some news… I (Lacy) am expecting a baby in May this year! For any of you who have gone through the trials and joys of having a child, know all the wondrous things that come with it. One of those things being, choosing a hospital.

We began this process not really knowing what to expect or where to go. We got some great advice from friends and family, but the best advice we got was from my aunt and from our doctor. They said: go tour the hospitals. See what each has to offer, and then you can make an educated decision based on that. Well… I’m sure glad we did!

We picked a night that worked around both of our busy schedules, made sure we were avoiding the time the staff changed over and we started at Bryan LGH. To our disappointment, when we got there, we didn’t get any further than the front desk. They didn’t even direct us to the maternity unit. All we were told was, “We only give group tours twice a week. Come back on Tuesdays at 5:30 pm or Saturdays at 3 pm.” This worried me. We had taken time out of our busy schedules to do this and I was told (by my aunt, who works at a hospital and has toured many) that we could drop by any time and that someone would give us a tour.

Well, we decided to take a risk and head to the next place anyway. We had already taken the night to do this, we just as well give it a shot. When we got to St. Elizabeth’s, the gal at the front desk was on the phone, but someone else saw us and asked to help us right away. They gal said she wasn’t sure if they could give us a tour tonight, but that we were more than welcome to go up to the maternity unit and ask. So, we did. The gal at the desk there informed us that they had been very busy all night, but that if there was anyone they could spare for a bit, they would be happy to give us a tour. And guess what… They didn’t just spare us anyone. They spared us the charge nurse.

This gal was so wonderful to us, showing us everything we could possibly need to know, answering all our questions, and though she had to take a quick call in the middle of the tour (they were busy, so we understood, of course) she gave us the full tour and made us feel right at home, personalizing everything to our specific needs. The rooms were beautiful, they had so much to offer and we could not have possibly asked for anything more. By the time we left, there was absolutely no question to where we were going when our son (oh yeah… We’re having a boy, by the way) came along.

Now, I’ll never know if Bryan LGH is actually even more beautiful and fabulous than St. Elizabeth because I’ll never go back. How much do you think a hospital makes off of a delivery? This is our first and probably not our last, so how about 2 or 3 deliveries? Oh, and of course I told all of my friends of our poor experience so how about all the rest of my 20-something friends and family. (For the sake of numbers let’s just say we’re up to 30 deliveries.) The last kick in the pants for Bryan… I work for a marketing company and write for their blog. They just lost a pretty significant number of potential customers. All because the person at the front desk wouldn’t give us the time of day.

Moral of the story: When someone comes to your front desk… What do you want their first customer service experience at your company to be?

Alright… In case you missed the last “When Signs Go Bad” blog, click here. Now, if you’re ready for round two…

Common mistake. We’ve seen several signs like this.

Hey.. If it works…

You can repair anything, huh?

These guys are really good at math!

…?

Woops… Didn’t think that one through, did we?

Again, which one, then?

Get the point?

And again, we wanted to leave on a high note!

Hope you enjoyed!

If you would like to report of an Ad Gone Bad, please contact us at info@transformationmarketing.com.

Note: We are a marketing firm, not a law firm. We are not aware of any copyright laws we may be violating by posting pictures of advertisements that are in the public domain to this blog. This site is just for fun. If you own the rights to any of the pictures or ads posted and feel that violated your copyright, please contact me and we will remove it. If you want us to fix your marketing mishap we can do that too.

Looking back to the pictures taken 12 weeks ago, it’s hard to believe the “Transformation” that this building has experienced. Over the last couple weeks, the drywall has been finished, the walls were primed, and are now being painted by Hue Decorative Finishes. By this time next week, we’ll have started carpeting and if everything goes as planned, by this time next month, we’ll be moving into our new office building. We are thrilled with how the building is turning out and are anxious to get in!

For more pictures of the building progress, please see our Facebook Page or Flickr Photostream.

This month Google announced that they were rolling out updates to their Automated Rules. The first big change was the ability for advertisers to now create up to 100 rules. Previously it had only been 10 rules, so that’s a huge improvement. Second, they added the ability for users to undo the changes made by a rule.

If you aren’t familiar with AdWord’s Automated Rules we’ll briefly describe them. Automated Rules help users manage their account in ways like scheduling ads for special promotions, adjusting budgets, and raising keyword bids.

We are always excited to hear about enhancements to AdWords, but this particular feature has always been a sticky point for some people who misunderstand what Automated Rules can do.

Automated Rules Do Not Replace Human Optimization and Management
While the ability to place boundaries on your account specific to key occurrences can help curb some areas of profit loss within your campaign, there is no replacement for a qualified Google AdWords professional working on your account day after day.

Many people misunderstand the term automated to mean something that you turn on or off. The truth is that you must first create the rule and before the rule can be created you must first understand what specific keyword or ad needs to be adjusted in order to ensure a more successful campaign. When you create a rule you are presented with many different options for keywords, ads, and ad groups. There have even been instances where rules fail to update the programed changes.

Unfortunately there is no Automated Rule that will optimize your campaign for you. A successful campaign will always rely on an individual that understands the intricacies of your business’s products and how to create keywords and ads that effectively promote those products. At Transformation Marketing we have the knowledge and tools to ensure your campaign is performing at its peak performance. Give us a call at 800-618-1215 or email us to get more information on how we manage and optimize your business’s PPC campaign.

Now, before I even get started on this let me say one thing: Compared to what we usually post on the “When Ads Go Bad” blog series, were the ads during the Superbowl bad? NO! Not even close. However, when you get the chance to be advertised during the the most viewed ANYTHING of the year, we’re not talking regular advertising. You have GOT to stand out above and beyond the rest. Especially when you know it’s a time where many people watch just for the ads.

This year, those ads left much to be desired. As I said, they weren’t necessarily terrible, but most were forgettable at best. So, today, instead of picking on the bad ads like we normally do, we are going to commend the ads we thought were the most successful of the Superbowl. (We’d rather not give the mediocre ads any more publicity, because A) They’re not quite bad enough to make fun of, B) They’re not funny to begin with and C) We can’t remember half of them, anyway because they were boring.)

3rd Funniest Superbowl Commercial of 2012:

Doritos – Man’s Best Friend

2nd Funniest Superbowl Commercial of 2012:

Bud Lite – Here We Go

Funniest Superbowl Commercial of 2012:

M&M’s – Sexy and I Know It

Now, do all Superbowl Ads have to be funny? Not necessarily. But they do seem to be the ones we remember the longest. But, just to show that we’re not being bias, here’s one more “not funny” yet good ad from the 2012 Superbowl:

Budweiser – Prohibition

If you would like to report of an Ad Gone Bad, please contact us at info@transformationmarketing.com.

Note: We are a marketing firm, not a law firm. We are not aware of any copyright laws we may be violating by posting pictures of advertisements that are in the public domain to this blog. This site is just for fun. If you own the rights to any of the pictures or ads posted and feel that violated your copyright, please contact me and we will remove it. If you want us to fix your marketing mishap we can do that too.

We are excited to release yet another one of our client’s websites… Hue Decorative Finishes! Fran Upp, owner, has been a delight to work with. Fran is full of energy and artistic ideas, which allowed us to get very creative with her site.

Website Features:

-Facebook Feed
-New and fun layout for the “About the Artist” page
-Sample Product Gallery
-Blog
-Online Shop

We also have the pleasure of working on social media for Hue Decorative Finishes. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Nix & Company, a new client to Transformation Marketing, launched their new site! We are excited to release this sleek site to all of our blog readers. There are many great features to this site that we were excited to be able to implement to make it very user friendly.

Website Features:

-YouTube Video on side column
-E-mail Registration
-Social Links
-Online Class Registration
-Downloadable Notes

We are also excited to be able to be working with Nix & Company on their social media. Nix & Company can be found on Facebook and Twitter.