Twitter Provides Simplicity, Speed and Visibility: The power of Twitter is its simplicity, speed and visibility. Its 140-character requirement made it immediately popular. Twitter can break and share news faster than Google. In today’s world of fast-moving global connectivity, it’s important to be first. Twitter also gives its users visibility by driving new traffic to websites and blogs.

How can wholesalers and manufacturers optimize their tweets for more visibility and referral traffic in the least amount of time? Below is some advice, along with best practices, tools and apps you can use to produce better tweets in less time.

Make It Personal: Put a real voice in your tweets to avoid being a spammer. Mix in a few personal tweets with your business-related tweets. You could tweet about watching the birds feed from your office window or any other minor observation that people can relate to, showing your personal interests in addition to business topics.

Optimize Your Twitter Profile: This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many large and small companies fail to optimize their profile. Your name in the Profile Settings and your username are like title tags so take advantage of that. Post an optimized image using your name as the filename, which Twitter will use as the ALT tag for your profile image as well. Craft your description (bio) with relevant keywords. The keywords in your bio can come up in search results when people search for similar tweets to follow. Also include a hashtag or link if applicable.

Tweet Structure: While this structure may not fit every one of your tweets, it’s a suggested order for best practice: (1) Headline or Topic Phrase, (2) Link, (3) Hashtag.

Hashtags: The # symbol (called a hashtag) is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. Following are best practices for hashtags:

1. Use no more than 3 hashtags per tweet.
2. Avoid starting a tweet with a hashtag.
3. Find hashtags by performing a keyword search like on Google, and then use the words that move faster and fit your topic area.
4. Too many hyperlinks (hashtags) will devalue your tweet.
5. Using the hashtags used by big influencers will get you noticed by those in that niche.

Re-tweets: This is the re-posting of someone else’s tweet to all your followers. The way you re-tweet is important.

1. When using the RT button on Twitter, remember it’s used by high-level influencers.
2. Cut/paste the Tweet into the Tweet box using RT = Headline, link, hashtag, RT @______, your comment, or
3. Use your own comment or headline, your own content and link via @twitterID.
4. RT is a popular tweet you want your name to be associated with for indexing on Google.

If you ensure your Twitter account is fully engaged with people in your community or niche, you will attract re-tweets naturally if you’re perceived as a trusted friend. In that case, you can ask via DM for a re-tweet.

Twitter Measurement: Tracking your Twitter progress with Google Analytics provides important metrics such as referring traffic to your website or blog. Bitly can also be used for a single account or multiple client accounts, letting you shorten, share, and track links with your bitly account directly from your browser.

Twitter Favorites: Favorites (flagged by a small star icon next to a tweet) can be used when you like a tweet and want to save it for later. If someone tweets kudos about you or your brand, mark it as a favorite so it’s saved in your Twitter history. Otherwise it goes into Twitter’s archives, which are enormous and difficult to search.

Twitter Tools: Some top influencers never use automated services. Others say avoiding automation tools is a mistake. If you have a full-time job and yet want to grow on Twitter, you can use a few of the tools below. Just use them responsibly and as they are intended.

Triberr is a platform consisting of a group of trusted bloggers sharing each others’ content. It has increased in popularity over the past year. When you join, you are exposed to other bloggers’ content, which you can tweet. The result is your own content also gets shared.

Buffer is a new app that takes the pain out of scheduling tweets and posts. It can help you add the great articles, pictures, and videos you choose to your Buffer and then automatically shares them for you throughout the day.

Rapportive is a plugin you can use with Gmail for social sharing. It shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox. You can grow your network by connecting on not just Twitter, but also LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. (Rapportive was recently acquired by LinkedIn.)

TweetDeck is a Twitter app that lets you respond to mentions in a timely manner.

Twitter Automation Tools: Sets up trusted, automated feeds to other social networks.

• Twitterfeed: Sets up trusted automated feeds to other social networks.
• Wisestamp: Dynamically adds your latest tweets into your email signature.
• if this then that: Connects any two web apps in creative ways. You can set up “if this happens, then that happens” in tasks and outcomes. For instance, you might want to:

1. Greet every new Twitter follower
2. Thank people who give you a #FF (followfriday) nod
3. Post all photos shared via Twitter to Flickr
4. Receive an SMS when someone DMs you
5. Thank people for an RT

In conclusion, wholesalers and manufacturers can optimize their tweets for more visibility and referral traffic by adopting the suggestions above. What’s stopping you from producing better tweets?

Surya’s new pin boards on Pinterest are designed to interest potential shoppers. According to the company’s press release, “Surya’s Pinterest boards showcase latest trends in home décor to stimulate prospective shoppers’ imagination and drive traffic to Surya dealers.”

Surya targets designers and home décor shoppers by creating and sharing virtual pinboards on Pinterest, the highly visual social network that is all the rage these days.

Surya has 24 décor boards on Pinterest featuring its spring introductions, designer products and latest colors and trends. The company plans to update their boards regularly, which is recommended to keep shoppers’ interest.

“We have been creating mood boards for years in our catalog, but couldn’t find a simple tool to share digitally,” said Satya Tiwari, president of Surya. “Pinterest is what we were looking for all along, and we are thrilled to make our virtual pinboards easily accessible to Surya community.”

Surya has been expanding its social media presence under the SuryaSocial brand to connect with its customers. Surya posts daily on its Facebook page, which has over 32,400 fans. Sounds like a great plan for many wholesalers and manufacturers with products that are appealing to the eye and need only to be demonstrated.

Tips for Your Pins and Boards

Engage. Make your pins engaging. Interact with your shoppers on a personal level to build relationships and fans. This can lead to brand loyalty, but you must use the right approach by making your pins relevant and interesting to your audience. Stick to your expertise, and tell your audience what they want to know.

Share. When pinning on Pinterest, be sure to include your images on Facebook and Twitter as Pinterest integrates with both of these sites. This puts your pins on the most important social networks so they’ll be shared far and wide.

Price. When pinning, enter a dollar amount in the description, and the platform will automatically add the price to the corner of the image while listing that pin in the Gifts section of the website. This can greatly expand the visibility of your merchandise. Listing the price also simplifies the purchase process because prospects know the price beforehand.

Optimize. Check out this infographic by Pinnable Business. It tells you everything you need to know to succeed on Pinterest.

In closing, most products sold by wholesalers, manufactures and retailers are essentially visual in nature. Take advantage of this and make Pinterest an extension of your site.

In fact, Las Vegas hosts the largest share of North America’s 250 largest tradeshows, more than its next two competitors, Orlando and Chicago, combined. The city offers more than 150,000 hotel rooms ranging from budget to five-star luxury. Additionally, a recent Hotels.com survey found Las Vegas hotels to be the most affordable of any major destination.

Las Vegas is also one of the easiest places in the USA to get to. McCarran International Airport offers over 900 daily flights, with nonstop service to 130 cities. And we all know the city is famous for top restaurants and shows, not to mention the casinos and other attractions that make people want to attend meetings there. Las Vegas makes working a trade show fun and it’s a very accommodating city.

The two ASD Las Vegas tradeshows for consumer goods are a great opportunity to find new products. We’ll give you a rundown of the new products found by one of our TopTenWholesale staff members browsing the floor in March.

Xhale Steam Stones advertises its products as “the next generation of hookah,” urging people to stop smoking and start steaming. Xhale steam stones simulate the smoking experience with vapor instead of smoke, so you are steaming rather than smoking. It’s like an electronic cigarette where an evaporation of a liquid takes place, looks like regular smoke, but lacks the harmful chemicals found in regular smoke. With Xhale Steam Stones, a user can steam large thick clouds of great tasting vapor without the irritating the throat, allowing the user to enjoy a unique and great tasting hookah experience. According to Xhale Steam Stones, their product gives smokers no tar, no carcinogens and no carbon monoxide.

Nostalgic Images, a wholesale company that offers signs, novelties and closeouts featured its WaterWiz, a water gun with pump action that shoots 25 feet when attached to plastic bottles of 2 liter, 24 oz, 20 oz or 16 oz size. Don’t let the kids get hold of this!

Bufallow Arts & Crafts exhibited beautiful ceramic and clay pots, as well as other lovely sculptures of animals and a wood-carved map of Africa. To find out more about these exquisitely carved pieces, contact the artist, Lameck Mlingo: email mlingolameck@gmail.com or lameckgold@yahoo.com. Sorry, no website.

Idea World Co. was established in 1991 and specializes in developing new products. It is a venture company headquartered in Korea that invests in R&D for the development of practical, convenient products. Some of these products include Brushpicks with a wing, tiny brushes to remove plaque and food for oral hygiene; Cloud Nine insoles of soft silicon to provide joint protection and shock absorption in slippers and shoes; Comfy Footies, moisturizing socks for indoor and outdoor activities; Sun Visor, a UV sun visor that provides 99% UV protection and many more practical, useful products.

Designed4Life USA, which offers natural products in many different categories: home decor, health-beauty, culinary and home accessories. These natural solutions include Massage Stones made of natural crystal salt extracted from the Himalayan Mountains, a Salt Therapy Pillow, which can be heated (or chilled) to reduce pain, swelling and inflammation and Himalayan Salt Lamps and Candle Holders, which are both healthy and beautiful.

Haunted Memories offers a line of spooky, changing portraits based on antique photography. First, you see the portrait as the person appears normally, and then it changes to a “horror” view of the same person. These 5×7 changing portraits include aunt Bertha, Grampa Zachary, Little Willie, granny Hazel and many more. This can make a great gag gift.

ScribbleBand is a new, patented wristband made to write on. You can write reminders, notes and phone numbers on your wrist and then erase. Great for kids and adults alike. A real novelty item created by a teacher/parent who got tired of seeing students writing on their hands or arms.

Well, there were thousands of products exhibited at ASD, some new and some we’ve seen before. This is just a collection of unusual new products you may not have seen. Since ASD is one of the most comprehensive shows for consumer products, we hope to see you again at ASD in August.

The speaker discussed the fact that most suppliers deliver the product to the retailer and hope that the retailer positions the product to maximize the sales opportunities for both the retailer and the supplier. Suppliers often forget they only have one product or product range, and the retailer has to focus on hundreds or thousands of products.

One world-famous soft drink company looks at the whole customer journey and believes the messaging before the consumer gets to the product on the shelf is just as important as the merchandising itself.

In fact they aim to achieve eight message locations on the customer journey before the customer gets to the product. According to the company’s research, eight messages is the number of messages needed to maximize sales once the customer gets to the shelf where their product located.

This got me thinking about the other products we sell in retailing and the science of messaging and the relationship of this with product placement as a strategy when suppliers and retailers work together as partners to grow sales.

A Danish supplier of products recently told me that, as a result of a conversation we had together, he had started working with his retailers to plan the positioning of his product in store and how it would look in the eyes of the customer, the result was a 33 percent increase in sales.

This was with no extra capital investment, simply by studying the opportunities and then monitoring the changes.

Product Messaging

Product messaging also must compliment the retailer’s brand, and in my opinion, it should not dominate the retailer’s brand. To achieve this, it has to be done in partnership with the retailer and with respect for both brands. A common form of messaging is a supplier positioning a brand sticker on the front door. I think this is ineffective and the customer is more concerned about a retail branding message on the front door, not a supplier sales message. Suppliers need to be very clever about getting their brand message across.

Messaging can start before the customer gets to the store; in fact, in today’s market the messaging can start when the customer ”clicks” onto the store webpage or on a blog or other marketing tool that is being used by the retailer online.

Consider the following messaging options

1. Can the supplier work as a partner online in a messaging strategy?
2. Does partner messaging work? (“At XXXX store we believe in XXXXX” or  “At XXXX retail store we always use XXXXXX product ourselves”)
3. Can the supplier’s product be associated with other products in a messaging journey on the customer’s route? (“Don’t forget, you will also need XXXX” on suitably linked products”)
4. Product Placement by the supplier on lifestyle promotional material to imply that the happiest customers always use the product. Product placement is often used when you go to the movies or watch a lifestyle TV program.

Product Placement

You will need to position the product within a sightline, but you may also want to position the product in a secondary location as well. If the customer misses it the first time, you then get a second chance at getting them to buy.

While many retailers and suppliers are focused on online retailing as the means forward to grow sales, it may also be worth looking at the physical retail journey and not just focus on the product placement, but the messaging journey prior to when the customer picks up the product.

The next time you go to buy a soft drink, just count how many messages are communicated to you before you get to the actual product, then compare that with the product you are selling. Do they match?

John Stanley of John Stanley Associates provides conference presentations, workshops and consultancy to the retail industry in 30 countries. He can be contacted at john@johnstanley.com.au.

Last week, Google introduced some new features in search results that make search more social and tie in with its Google+ social network. This latest change is called Search Plus Your World. The new features will display personal results in the SERPs, mostly from the Google+ network. Search Plus Your World is available to users who are signed in to Google and searching on https://www.google.com in English. The following features will now be integrated into your search results: People, Pages, and Profiles.

Google says it wants to enable its search engine to not only understand content, but also people and relationships, making it more social. Below is a brief description of the three new features.

1. Personal Results: Lets you find information that’s only relevant to you, such as Google+ photos and posts. You will see your own and those shared specifically with you.

2. Profiles in Search: Available in autocomplete and results, this feature enables you to immediately find people you’re interested in.

3. People and Pages: This helps you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic, enabling you to follow them with just a few clicks.

These results will contain data from the Google+ network rather than Facebook or Twitter. Google says the reason for this is due to their terms of service with social networks like Facebook and Twitter that do not allow them to crawl those networks deeply. However, Google is open to crawling other networks in the future. Below are some examples of what you can do with the new features.

Personal Results: Say you’re in the market for a big ticket item and want to know what experience others had with various brands. Of course, you can search the web; but who can you trust? That’s why most people prefer to learn what their friends think. Here’s what you can find with Search Plus Your World.

• Google+ posts. You can find relevant Google+ posts from friends talking about the car they just bought, or a home entertainment console. You’ll likely find links shared by your friend talking about their buying experience with various brands.
• Photos. You might find great photos of your friends’ car or some other product right in your search results page. You can also find your own private photos from Google+ and Picasa, based on captions, comments and album titles.

Google+ Profiles in Search: Google states in its blog: “Every day, there are hundreds of millions of searches for people. Sometimes, it’s hard to find the person you’re looking for. Once you do find him or her, there’s no quick way for you to actually interact. Starting today, you’ll have meaningful ways to connect with people instantly, right from the search results.”

When you type the first few letters of a person’s name, Google autocompletes it and displays their own search results page, which includes their Google+ profile page and “other relevant web results.” Once you’ve found the person you’re looking for, you can see every single web result for them, excluding others with the same name.

People & Pages: If you search for a topic like [music] or [soccer], you might see prominent people who frequently discuss this topic on Google+ appearing on the right-hand side of the results page. You can connect with them on Google+, strike up meaningful conversations and discover entire communities in ways that simply weren’t possible before.

Control: You can control your results on Google Plus Your World with a prominent new toggle in the upper right of the SERPs where you can see what your search results look like with or without personal content. By clicking the toggle, users can view search plus your world results or non-personalized results.

Security: Last, but not least, Google says it sets a high bar for Search Plus Your World when it comes to security and privacy by providing SSL encryption. Therefore, when you’re signed in to Google, your search results, including your private content, are protected by the same high standards of encryption as your Gmail messages.

Email marketing has been around since the early days of the Internet and is still one of the most popular and cost-effective ways to reach your wholesale customers and prospects. While some may believe email is strictly a direct response marketing tactic, think again. Email campaigns can extend beyond sales and conversions into branding with customer conversations, feedback and customer engagement.

Once you have permission, you can communicate with your customers about your products and services while giving them the option to unsubscribe if they so wish. That means you can send them coupons, sale notifications and other promotional emails in addition to the transactional emails they receive when buying your products or services. Since email is free, a few examples of keeping in touch with customers are:

• Thank you for your order
• Confirmation of shipment
• Confirmation of receipt
• Information about orders/returns
• Request feedback on products or service
• Customer success stories
• Happy birthday

There are many ways to keep in touch with unobtrusive emails that maintain a good relationship with your customers and remind them that your wholesale company appreciates their business. These email messages provide the opportunity for your customers and prospects to form an opinion of your brand. Well-executed email campaigns that do not solicit sales go a long way toward improving your company’s image.

Another great way to brand your wholesale business is to create a company newsletter that informs on product news, trends and styles. Try to anticipate what your customers want to know and then create that type of content. For instance, clothing, accessories and jewelry wholesalers can research the latest styles and trends each season, publishing information on those topics. Your content might even become so popular that you can sell a few text ads to brand suppliers in your newsletter. Just remember to give customers something they care about so they don’t delete or unsubscribe.

You can monitor the opens, clicks, traffic, blog comments, etc., to see what resonates with your readers. When it comes to frequency, there is no hard and fast rule. Publish as often as you can provide valuable content. A suggested frequency is once a month, but if you can’t, publish quarterly. Be consistent and announce the frequency ahead of time. If you publish industry news regularly like we do at TopTenWholesale, you might want to send your newsletter out every two weeks.

Yet another great idea is to create a members’ club offering exclusive discounts or promotions to your email list subscribers. You can make them feel special by creating unique offers that make customers feel appreciated and part of an exclusive club.

Lastly, don’t forget to continually solicit new email addresses wherever you can. You can solicit email subscriptions to your newsletter through different media: in your email sig, on social media, on your website or on your business card. Make it easy for customers to subscribe. Once they give you their address, you have the opportunity to communicate directly with potential and existing buyers. That’s the beauty of email marketing – so take full advantage of it to build your wholesale brand.

Shopping by smartphone has grown significantly over the past year, and that means general merchandise vendors can take advantage of creating compelling mobile emails for their subscribers. The tips below can help B2B marketers put together mobile emails designed specifically for smartphones that can help boost conversions.

In May 2011, the Nielsen Company reported 38 percent of U.S. mobile phone owners use smartphones, and usage is up from 29.7 percent in October 2010. Another study done by ExactTarget in May 2011 indicates most smartphone subscribers take advantage of the phone’s email capabilities:

• 53% check email several times a day
• 29% check email throughout the day
• 66% check at least once a day

Furthermore, email was found to be the most effective conversion tool, as 55 percent of respondents took action based on emails received on their smartphones. The survey also found other communication methods were not as effective:

• 41% took action based on text messages
• 35% took action based on Facebook recommendations
• 32% took action based on shopping apps

Despite the above consumer preferences, not many B2B marketers have created mobile marketing campaigns for their email audience. Most of them are challenged by the constraints of the small mobile touch screen. However, they are not exploiting the unique opportunities available from the anytime-anywhere access of mobile subscribers. Below are some tips to help B2B marketers create mobile emails for a growing mobile audience.

Understand Your Smartphone Audience. Mobile emails are naturally suited to some audiences but not others. Estimate what portion of your audience reads your emails on a mobile device by tracking pertinent data. To realize ROI, you need to weigh the value of that portion of your audience. Also note the portion of your smartphone users that are repeat buyers, which account for the majority of a firm’s revenue. If so, then the straight percentage of users may not be your only criteria. You must consider the total value of that population to your business.

Plan Your Mobile Email Campaign. Even if very few of your subscribers currently access email with smartphones, the growth trend indicates this will change.

• Look at the content, purpose and goal of your messages. Some emails will be very useful for people on the go, such as daily coupon deals that don’t require printing.

• Review mobile design principles. Many times, you can use the same version of your emails for both desktop and mobile. However, you must ensure your message will render well on both smartphones and desktops.

• You don’t need to create separate versions for different types of smartphones. Find a common denominator and deliver a version that works across all devices.

Expand Your Mobile Email List. Few marketers use mobile capture to grow their lists. Expanding your email strategy to use mobile allows you to expand your email list to a smartphone audience. Whether you are a restaurant, retail store or entertainment venue, people respond to a call-to-action when they are at a specific location interacting with the brand. Smartphones let you exploit that.

Adjust Layout for the Small Screen. Your goal is to simplify usability. You don’t want to make your smartphone subscribers zoom in or scroll to read your text. You also don’t want them struggling to get to your landing page because their finger can’t hit the right link. Below are a few things you can do to make things easier for mobile subscribers:

• Use a single column of text. While 320 pixels are often recommended, 450-500 can also be used with good results.
• Increase font size, usually 16-18 pixels for body text, and 21 or 22 for headlines.
• Leave enough space around buttons and links for a finger to tap them without hitting the wrong one.

It’s important to apply design principles and create compelling content to get conversions. If your mobile email is compelling enough to engage a reader, then the landing page or point of sale must also be easy for a user to read and use. Test your mobile emails on as many mobile devices as possible before sending to your audience.

Adjust Content for the Mobile Environment. People reading email on their smartphones are likely to be in the midst of other activities. Email can be filling a gap while they wait in line or when they take a break from their main activity. Take this context into consideration when creating content.

Tighten the focus and the copy in your mobile emails. Don’t try to accomplish too much in one email; stick to one idea, concept or offer. Crisp writing is always desirable, and it is mandatory when addressing a mobile audience. Convey only what is essential. Keep messages short, succinct and appropriate for the small screen.

The subject line and ‘from’ field are very important. Since mobile email apps don’t allow a preview, the subject line and the ‘from’ field must get a reader’s attention with a total of 60 characters.

Succinctness is important in the subject line. Your first 35 characters are those that show up across most mobile devices. The key to the ‘from’ field is don’t get it wrong. You want it to meet your subscriber’s expectations. Some companies send emails from a specific person so the ‘from’ field doesn’t show the company name, only the person’s name. However, if it’s not familiar to your audience, it can work against you.

In closing, smartphone shoppers have grown exponentially over the past year, and general merchandise vendors can take advantage of creating compelling mobile emails for their subscribers. B2B marketers can follow the above tips to put together mobile emails designed specifically for smartphones to help boost conversions.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project just came out with a mini-study stating that 83 percent of all American adults own a cell phone. Of these, 42 percent own a smartphone. That translates into 35 percent of all adults owning smartphones.

You can imagine what this means for online merchants and retailers in terms of their paid search and SEO programs. Since smartphones have a small screen, only the top ad positions will be seen for paid and organic listings. That means these merchants need to get their websites optimized for mobile in time for the holiday season.

When reviewing stats of the last two years’ mobile shopping patterns, Google found a statistic they describe as a “double-peak” on mobile devices. The first mobile query peak occurred around “Black Friday,” and the second one occurred the “last weekend before Christmas.”

Google found that mobile queries increased from 2009 to 2010 in much the same pattern, and they predict there will be greater volume this year, following the same double-peak pattern described above.

Google and other researchers have found that people doing searches for products and store locations on mobile phones are more likely than others without these devices to go into the store and make a purchase.

We reported research recently on the TopTenWholesale Blog indicating that consumers browse on their smartphones; however, when it comes to making a purchase, they use their tablets rather than smartphones because of the larger display with more detailed product information.

According to data from a 2011 AdMob survey, 65 percent of respondents said they used their smartphones to find a business, and then made a purchase at the store in person. There is plenty of data that backs up the theory that people use their mobiles to search and they buy in the store.

Getting back to the upcoming holiday season, AdMob research found that both smartphone and tablet users intend to start their shopping on mobile devices before Thanksgiving this year.

Using the above information, retailers can get ready for all the people who will do the better part of their holiday shopping on mobile devices, smartphones and tablets. Tablet users have been found to be more engaged and to spend more than any other type of online shoppers.

Online retailers and merchants must optimize their websites for smartphones and tablets using HTML5 and creating apps and landing pages. When it comes to paid search, Google made an important announcement that the phone numbers in paid search ads will now be clickable. Clicks on a phone number in your ads will be charged at the same rate as a click to your website. For more details, you can read the announcement on the Google blog.

For all retailers and online merchants that still do not have an optimized mobile presence: there is still time to get this done before the holidays.

 Forum Publishing has been connecting wholesalers and retailers with their trade magazines and directories since 1981. As a result, the organizers of the New York Value Merchandise Expo will be honoring their dedication and service to the industry during their September trade show at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Martin Stevens, CEO of Forum Publishing, shared with us the significance of this award. “Our company started in 1981, long before the computer and even the fax machine, to help flea market vendors and independent store owners source merchandise to grow their businesses. We have come a long way since our humble beginnings, and it is humbling to be recognized for our efforts over the last three decades,” said Stevens.

The ceremony will be taking place at 5pm September 11th, and there is an open invitation to all in the industry to join in. The event will take place at the Registration Area at the end of the show.

References:
Retailers Forum Magazine – www.RetailersForum.com
Value Merchandise Expo – www.vpexpo.com
Javits Convention Center – www.JavitsCenter.com

As most of you know, running an AdWords campaign can be very competitive depending on the popularity of your keywords. It can also be very confusing for small business owners (SMBs). Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tool where you could compare your campaigns to your competitors or find out what’s wrong if yours aren’t performing? There’s a new free tool that does just that and can also tell you how to improve your campaigns. This is a review of the AdWords Performance Grader, which lets you audit your PPC accounts to improve your campaign performance.

This tool is easy to use and provides the same kind of account analysis you might get from a consultant or agency. It gives you actionable insights and competitive intelligence with instant reports.

The AdWords performance tool grades your account against thousands of other AdWords accounts in the same spending range. For instance, if your monthly spend is $500, then it compares your account with other advertisers spending between $10 and $600 per month. That way, you can compare your account performance with that of other advertisers in the same spending category. It compares advertisers in different industries at the same spending level because comparing big and small spenders within the same industry is not fruitful.

Say your business falls in a competitive industry using the keyword “insurance,” where big advertisers like Geico and Progressive spend millions monthly on AdWords, whereas local insurance agents spend as little as $50 per month. Even though the large and small advertisers are in the same industry, it’s not fair to compare their performance because the big advertisers have a huge budget plus dedicated personnel and technology that ensure every possible advantage. That’s why the grading tool compares advertisers from different industries with the same average monthly spend on AdWords.

Grading Tool Key Metrics. As you know, different advertisers have different objectives such as lead generation, direct response, branding, or a combination of objectives. Additionally, advertisers employ different tactics for AdWords success. So there are many different opinions as to what the most important key performance metrics should be for an AdWords campaign. Therefore, the grading tool is set up to compare the same key metrics that Google deems important, which are:

• Quality Score
• Use of negative keywords
• Impression share
• Click-through rate
• Long-tail keyword optimization
• Account activity
• Ad text optimization
• Landing page optimization

Grading Calculations. The tool assigns your campaigns a comparative grade for each of the above metrics. For example, in the Quality Score category, it calculates your account’s average Quality Score and then compares your score against other advertisers in your spending range. If you have the highest Quality Score in the group, you get 100%. A score of 51% means that you’ve doing better than over half of the other accounts in your spending range for that metric. Your overall account score is based on how you did in all of the different categories compared to the other accounts in your spending range.

Your Account Data. The company claims it doesn’t save your AdWords account credentials. In order to analyze your account performance, it must download several AdWords reports. The grader stores some aggregated statistics about your account, like your average Quality Score, in order to make the relative rankings accurate. However, that information is not shared, sold or used for any purpose other than for providing your relative score.

In conclusion, the AdWords Performance Grader is free and can help SMBs fine tune their AdWords campaigns for better performance. What’s not to like?

With 87 percent wireless penetration in the United States, wholesalers and retailers can both gain by using mobile marketing to reach their customers and prospects. SMS (short message service) is one of the most effective mobile marketing channels in the advertising realm. That’s because of its simplicity, widespread adoption and extensive reach. All cell phones can receive SMS, which means you can reach 5 billion subscribers worldwide – a great way for wholesale and retail merchants to reach their target market.

ABI Research estimated consumers worldwide will send over 7 trillion SMS messages in 2011. According to Nielsen Mobile, the average consumer sends 600 messages per month and uses less than 200 voice minutes. On top of that, 22.7 percent of the U.S. population uses wireless rather than landline phones. When you look at the fact that over 90 percent of text messages are opened and read, versus less than 40 percent of email solicitation messages read, you can see that mobile marketing is a great opportunity.

Wholesalers and retailers can use SMS in the following ways:

• Reach customers who don’t have smartphones
• Reach your customers for retention and loyalty programs
• Acquire new customers
• Drive sales through coupons and discounts

Here’s how SMS campaigns work. Mobile subscribers use a Common Short Code (a 5 or 6 digit carrier-approved number) to send SMS messages in order to receive promotions, alerts and other content on their devices. This enables them to access mobile applications and participate in various activities such as: customer feedback, voting and polling, news and offer alerts, contests, surveys, games, couponing, direct marketing and mobile commerce. Short code campaigns are rapidly growing in popularity because of their simplicity and easy access to consumers. Mobile coupons, incidentally, get a 10 to 20 percent higher conversion rate than print coupons.

Setting Up an SMS Campaign. There are three types of SMS campaigns you can use: text blasting (bulk messaging), keyword response and smart texting.

Text blasting/bulk messaging involves a single message is sent to a group of users. Systems that offer bulk messaging functionality usually have an address book that stores names and phone numbers to create groups of recipients.

In most countries, it’s illegal to send unsolicited text messages. Therefore, it’s important to create and maintain your list of phone numbers to text with care, knowing who has opted in and that they may later opt out. This is important because most people will not tolerate unauthorized use of their phone number. Service providers have tools to help you manage opt-outs, and some stand-alone software has default opt-out rules.

Keyword response involves an automated reply sent to all incoming messages containing a specific keyword. For example, if you requested a response that requires texting the words “I accept” to a mobile phone number, the response would be “Thanks for texting! You’ve accepted our free trial. We’ll send you the software in 24 hours.” This is a good way to gain leads for future sales, but you must follow up on every message.

Smart texting is an advanced form of keyword response where an incoming text message triggers a complex interaction that could involve requesting further information from the user. For example, you might ask a consumer to text the word “Report” to describe the report they want among many offered. It could be something like “Report SEO for Retailers.” The response could be, “Thanks for requesting the report SEO for Retailers! Do you want it sent electronically or postal mail? If so send address by return.” The report could then be sent as requested.

Commercial Service Providers. There are many commercial providers that offer bulk SMS services. Some offer international service with local numbers (in the case of incoming SMS) to many countries, while others cover a specific country. Message costs vary, and sometimes there is also a monthly subscription cost. Commercial providers can provide a simple setup in addition to other services such as free web-based or desktop management tools; a technical helpline is often provided at no cost.

Conclusion. Mobile marketing and SMS are very attractive promotional channels for many reasons. SMS mobile marketing is particularly effective because these brief messages can deliver personal, immediate and actionable content to a targeted audience that has opted to receive such messages. Additionally, research indicates mobile coupons get a 10 to 20 percent higher conversion rate than print coupons. Lastly, there is significantly less clutter in the SMS channel from too many brands using it at this point.

As wholesalers and general merchandise suppliers know, word of mouth is a powerful thing. When buyers have a choice to make, they like to turn to their friends and colleagues because they trust the people they know. On the web, word of mouth has become “word of click.” Similar to the Facebook “like” button, Google +1 provides suggestions from friends and colleagues by showing recommendations online in the form of +1s in the SERPs. It’s faster and simpler than getting the good word in conversations around the water cooler. Soon, Google +1 will also be seen on Google AdWords ads.

With the +1 button, Google made it easier for people to get recommendations in the SERPs from the people they know while they’re actually searching. We first wrote about that in “Wholesalers Benefit with Google +1 on Product Pages.” With a single click, the +1 button lets Google users recommend the content they like on the web to their friends when it’s most useful − on the SERPs (if they’re signed in).

In the coming weeks, Google will provide +1 buttons users can click to recommend Google AdWords ads. Just think how much more powerful your ads can become in search results. You don’t need to make any changes to your account to take advantage of Google +1 on ads. The final landing page URL of your ads can also appear on the Google profile of any user who +1’s your ad.

Here’s How the +1 Button Works on Ads
Inside Google AdWords shows the following example for a hypothetical hotel in Madrid. The example says Brian had a lovely stay at this hotel and then started researching accommodations for his next trip to Spain. If Brian searched on Google while signed into his Google account, he would see the Grand Hotel’s ad and presumably click the +1 button on the ad to recommend it to his contacts.

Subsequently when Brian’s friend Kate plans her trip to Spain and signs in to her Google account, she inputs a query and also sees the Grand Hotel ad – plus the personalized annotation that Brian +1’d it. Presumably, Brian’s recommendation of this hotel helps Kate decide where to stay in Spain.

So that’s how the +1 button works. Think of it as a way for fans of your business to recommend the products you offer for all their friends and contacts to see. Google believes +1 can help you get more qualified traffic from your ads because searchers will be exposed to more personal, relevant ads. You can also add the +1 button to your website to give your customers the opportunity to +1 your site after having visited.

Wholesalers can get more information about how +1 for ads works at the AdWords Help Center. Wholesalers can get complete information and watch a video about adding the +1 button to their website at Google Webmaster Central.

Google just introduced a new tool that can help wholesalers and general merchandise suppliers with reputation management, adding another social layer to its search services. The tool is called Me on the Web and allows anyone with a Google account to monitor their personal information on the web by creating email alerts that are delivered as soon as the information is found by the Google search bot.

Me on the Web is now a part of the Google dashboard, appearing under account information. Here, you can set up search alerts for your data very quickly without having to go to the alerts setup section. Alerts can be set up for your name, email address and other information, like a web address. From the dashboard, you can also click links for information on How to manage your online identity, How to remove unwanted content and About Me on the Web.

The post on Google’s Public Policy blog says Me on the Web is supposed to help users manage what others say about them online. It also indicated this new service supports three types of data use: unidentified, pseudonymous and identified, with each mode having its own particular user benefits (quotes below from Google’s Public Policy Blog).

“Unidentified. Sometimes you want to use the web without having your online activity tied to your identity, or even a pseudonym—for example, when you’re researching a medical condition or searching for that perfect gift for a special someone. When you’re not logged into your Google Account (or if you never signed up for one), that’s how you’ll be using our services. While we need to keep information like IP addresses and cookies to provide the service, we don’t link that information to an individual account when you are logged out.

“Pseudonymous. Using a pseudonym has been one of the great benefits of the Internet, because it has enabled people to express themselves freely—they may be in physical danger, looking for help, or have a condition they don’t want people to know about. People in these circumstances may need a consistent identity, but one that is not linked to their offline self. You can use pseudonyms to upload videos in YouTube or post to Blogger.

“Identified. There are many times you want to share information with people and have them know who you really are. Some products such as Google Checkout rely on this type of identity assurance and require that you identify yourself to use the service. There may be other times when it’s more desirable to be identified than not, for example if you want to be part of a community action project you may ask, “How do I know these other people I see online really are community members?”

Me on the Web uses the existing Google Alerts service that sends emails to users whenever their requested search query is found by the Google bot. However, you can request Me on the Web alerts directly from the Google Dashboard, which is much easier than requesting an alert.

Google cautions that users should know what mode they’re in when using Me on the Web and other Google services. They recently updated the top navigation bar (upper right hand corner) in many Google services, indicating to users whether they are signed in or signed out.

While Google doesn’t specifically mention it, Me on the Web can also be used to fight against online vigilantism, where a person or a community attempts to expose individuals or malign their reputation. We’ve seen some recent examples of this in politics and in other personal attacks – some genuine and some non-genuine with devastating effects.

Even though Me on the Web concerns privacy, Google says it is not another privacy setting, it simply is a way of providing “the freedom to be who you want to be.” The tool is particularly timely, since privacy issues are a political hot potato. Currently, legislators are considering new laws to protect users in view of the many Internet privacy invasions that have spread online, like the recent furor over implementation of Facebook’s photo recognition technology.

We gave wholesalers and general merchandise suppliers a heads up about Google +1 in April, and now the Google Blog is offering +1 buttons that can be placed on any web page via a short code snippet. While the code and button is supported in over 40 languages, the +1 activity is only showing on English-language search results on Google.com at the moment. Eventually, Google plans to expand +1 globally.

Google is rolling out the +1 button for English-language search results on Google.com. If you want to be able to +1 search results and search ads sooner, you can opt in through Google’s experimental search site. However, you must be signed into your Google Account to see recommendations from your friends and contacts in Google search.

Google +1 buttons across the web will make it easy for you to recommend content to your friends and business colleagues. Google believes this will make search results more helpful and relevant.

Add +1 to Your Web Pages
You can get the +1 button code and learn all about implementation on Google’s +1 webmaster site. Here’s how you or your webmaster can add +1 to your pages to help your site stand out. Remember, +1 buttons let users recommend content to others on Google search results.

You can also watch a video to learn more about the +1 button and the advanced options. Note that if you install the button on your site right away, it might only show up when you and your visitors are both logged in to your respective Google accounts. But that is only temporary, and eventually, the buttons should be visible to all whether logged in or not.

As you have probably noticed, the +1 idea is similar to the Facebook Like button. The Like button has become the defacto means of sharing what is liked on the web.

Does +1 Impact SEO?
When +1 first launched on Google’s search results, the company said it would consider +1 click data “as a potential signal to improve search quality.” The +1 button FAQ explains this further as shown below:

Question: “Does +1 affect my site’s performance in search?”

Answer: “Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For      example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1’s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query. This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality. For +1′s, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality.”

While you don’t need to rush to get the +1 button immediately, it would definitely be to the advantage of general merchandise suppliers to get +1 buttons for product recommendations fairly soon.

The first thing to do is install the Alexa toolbar to IE or Firefox, in order to maximize the count from clicks from the toolbar. This can be further enhanced by setting the toolbar’s home page as your own home page, since the click counts go up every time you launch the application, or even refresh the page. However, this is not a step to abuse; it’s becoming harder every day to “fool” Google and other major search engines into believing that a page gets unique visitors with every click.

Try placing an Alexa widget on your website or blog, because every visit to the site will count as a click, and it helps overall page rankings when your page rank invariably goes up, and more visitors learn about your site through the increased exposure. It all works organically, and the results can be exponential in growth, if the content is engaging and useful to visitors.

Encourage others within your network and circle of friends to use the toolbar, and be especially conscious of giving instructions on how to make the most of the app. A little helpful guidance from the start, will pay off handsomely in the end.

Use social media to gain more coverage, and apply some strategic moves by using search-friendly names on each graphic file, and links embedded within your content, to increase effectiveness across the board.

Participate in as many forums and blogs as possible, and share your URL as well. This is not only good for organic growth through users getting to know your content on their own terms, but it also gives webmasters a chance to help you, since most of them have an Alexa toolbar installed already.

Don’t forget about China’s influence! The Chinese blogosphere and community of netizens is growing at an unprecedented pace, and if you’re able to post content in Chinese, it will do amazing things with traffic, as the user base is so enormous in East Asia.

Ask you friends to help out, by reviewing and commenting on your site. The increased interest in your site through active discussions and commentaries will boost visibility quite a bit, and produce results that are measurable.

Post those blogs, and get your name out there! Alexa can be used to track and measure the amount of traffic your site generates, and it’s also good for letting webmasters and users alike show interest in your content, by learning about the various ways you can improve rankings.

Take a shot at Pay Per Click (PPC) operations, to boost visibility even further. Buying ads on sites like Google or Yahoo, for example, will bring huge traffic, and it’s made even more beneficial if it relates to webmasters.

A super-visible, well displayed ad placed with a powerful search-based site like TopTenWholesale.com will give Alexa all it needs to make your site stand out. This will drive lots of webmaster traffic to your website, which will definitely improve your Alexa rank as well, so build an advertorial and marketing budget that includes buying banners and links for traffic from webmaster forums and websites.