How-to videos put more sexy golf carts on the road

[Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog]

We all have a dream. America’s 25 million small business owners are making their dreams happen. But it’s never easy.

For E.C. Hundley, his dream had four wheels, an engine, and a smooth ride. As the proprietor of Everything Carts in Martinsville, Va., E.C. built a business that custom assembles souped-up, street-legal golf carts. He also sells cart accessories online, and his business now employs eight people. With your dream, some hard work, guile and a penchant for online marketing, you can do something like this, too.

Let’s see how E.C. is using YouTube to build his business.

Did you get your business online from the start?
Oddly enough, we started out as a local retail store, and we never thought about taking our business online. After the first 8 months, we were going broke with just one employee, and I figured we had to do something if we were going to survive.

So you took your business online just to keep it alive.
Yes. At that point we had maybe $1,500 in inventory sitting on the shelf, so we started putting some of it on eBay. We then got with a friend who’s a web designer, and he built our website. Since then we have revamped the site about four times to make it friendly for our customers. It saved our business.

How much of your business comes from people finding you on the web, compared to other channels?
Our direct web activity is about 70% of our sales. Most of the rest is via telephone, and we also promote our business via a print catalog.

Tell us about your YouTube channel. What kind of videos do you make, and how do they help your customers?
I help people with installation of the products we sell. Our call volume had gotten really high on some of our products, so helping people over the phone was taking a lot of time. Then I remembered watching a Photoshop tutorial on YouTube, and I thought to myself this is the answer to our problem. So we started shooting a few how-to videos and posted them on our YouTube channel, and soon those calls stopped completely.

Do the videos help you sell more, too?
Yes. The videos also help us earn new business, because our customers can see that we know the products we sell, and they can buy with confidence.

What are your future plans for online video?
With the success we’ve had with the few videos we have done, we have now built a studio just for shooting how-to videos. This way the customer can see how the products are installed and get a better idea of how it is going to look. One of the toughest parts of selling a product online is that the customer usually just gets to see a picture of what they’re interested in. With video they get a better idea of the real look and size. It is the closest thing you can get to seeing, touching, feeling the product.

That’s the real power of video, isn’t it? How hard was it to get started building a YouTube channel?
It was the easiest Internet task we had ever done. It’s pretty easy and inexpensive to make good-looking videos today, too.

What advice would you have for other business owners or managers who are considering YouTube as a marketing channel?
The main advantage of producing online videos, especially for an online business, is it makes your business real. Customers need to see that your company has real people behind the website.

Eric Meyerson, Video Business Marketing Lead recently watched "1981 primitive Internet report on KRON"

Introducing ‘Improving Online Conversions for Dummies’

[Cross posted from Inside AdWords]

Are you eager to optimise your Conversion Rate, but feel a little bit overwhelmed by all of the tools available to help you? Today we're delighted to introduce Improving Online Conversions for Dummies.

We have just released a simple, easy to follow mini book, in conjunction with John Wiley Publications, to help you get a better grasp of the conversion improvement tools offered by Google. Improving Online Conversions for Dummies explains how you can make sure your ads show on searches that are most likely to convert into sales. Understand which ad clicks and impressions lead to conversions, better apportion your marketing spend and even develop your own conversion attribution model. Discover the secrets to getting more bang for your buck with this ebook.

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For more information, visit www.google.com/conversion/fordummies

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

Google Places Brings a Smile to a Dental Practice

A dentist by trade but an entrepreneur at heart, Dr. Jeffrey Prager has tried many tactics — including television, radio, newspaper inserts, phone book ads and direct mail — to attract new patients for his Bellingham, Washington-based dental practice.

Challenge

Dentists primarily rely on word-of-mouth referrals from existing patients, but they’re also open to welcoming new patients from other sources. That’s why Dr. Prager was intrigued when one of his patients suggested that he check out Google Places as a way to build an online presence for his dental care practice, Bellingham Smiles.

Action

Realizing that he could have his business listing appear for free when people searched on Google.com or Google Maps for services like “dentist in bellingham,” Dr. Prager claimed his listing and built out the Place page for his business. As his practice continues to evolve, he updates the Place page for Bellingham Smiles to reflect new treatments and promotional offers. For example, from time to time, he adds a new video or updates his business description. “It’s best to stay on top of it and modify it as you add new services and any new emphasis in your practice,” he says.

In many cases, patients come to him via his Place page in hopes that he can save a tooth that has been targeted for extraction by another dentist. It also helps him publicize his niche expertise in laser procedures that help patients avoid painful gum surgery.

Dr. Prager's free business listing on Google.com

Place page for Bellingham Smiles

Results

The free business listing and Place page that Dr. Prager set up through Google Places have become his marketing powerhouse. “It’s the highest return on investment (ROI) of any marketing that I do. That’s pretty powerful since I do a lot of marketing,” he says. “Google Places has been very helpful in getting people who want to save their natural teeth to find me. The thing that counts in marketing isn’t what you spend, it’s the ROI. I would say Google, in all of its forms, is our best ROI.”

Now aware that a strong online presence is essential to helping people find him, Dr. Prager urges other businesses to take advantage of Google Places as well. “If you’re not listed on Google somewhere, you are invisible to potential clients, patients and customers,” he says. “A lot of people will not go to a business of any kind if they don’t have a website. They want information before they call or visit. That trend is only going to increase.”

To create a Google Places account for your business, visit www.google.com/places.

Posted by Bernadette Cay, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Going Google across the 50 States: Google Apps and Google App Engine are a powerful combination for West Virginia business

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: Over the past couple months, thousands of businesses have added their Gone Google story to our community map and even more have used the Go Google cloud calculator to test drive life in the cloud. To highlight some of these companies’ Gone Google stories, we decided to talk to Google Apps customers across the United States. Check back each week to see which state we visit next. To learn more about other organizations that have gone Google and share your story, visit our community map.

As the former VP of Technology at a major financial services firm, Ray Malone has spent most of his career focused on business intelligence, data warehousing, and development of web-based applications. So, when his wife, Tina Malone, decided to start a new business out of their home in West Virginia, Ray naturally helped her pick out the technology that best suited her needs.

Today, with Ray’s help, Tina is running MSaven.com, a successful marketing business that provides companies with text message marketing, print advertising, and the ability to offer online coupons. The technology that powers the company is an important part of its success, and Ray shares with us how Google Apps and Google App Engine play a pivotal role.

“In 2008, my wife Tina came up with the idea for MSaven.com, but there was a catch – she expected me to set up our IT infrastructure with little to no money. I had been using Gmail and almost every other Google product for a long time so it was an easy decision to use Google to build the business. Now, our entire operation runs using both Google Apps and Google App Engine, and the combination of performance and scalability has been awesome.

We use Google Apps for everything from emailing to creating online documents and spreadsheets. I recently used a Google spreadsheet to create a financial calculator showing advertisers how much they could potentially make with our firm – I shared the spreadsheet with a prospective advertiser and walked him through it over the phone. We were both able to tweak specific inputs on the spreadsheet and see the results in real-time. It was a powerful way to communicate without having to be in the same room.

I’m constantly using Gmail and Google Calendar, and access them extensively from my Android-powered device. Both allow me to coordinate with our sales reps and contractors. Some of our contractors are located internationally so the Talk feature, integrated in Gmail, has been the primary communication channel.

With Google App Engine, I’ve built our entire web application. Python was a new language for us, but within a few months we were building dynamic content and connecting to vendor systems. Here’s an example of how it works – when a consumer sends us a text message requesting a coupon, we connect to the vendor’s system through an API (this is the vendor that is providing the coupon), and the right coupon is dynamically generated and sent back. If this is the second time the consumer has contacted us, a different coupon or message is sent back. All of the logic, and the ability to generate and send coupons is built with Google App Engine.

I’ve developed many systems over the years and used other well-known email clients, and this type of performance can’t be beat. You can do everything better with Google Apps.”

Posted by Michelle Lisowski, Google Apps Team

The AdWords Small Business Center: the key tips, tutorials, and updates you need for a successful AdWords account

[Cross-posted from Inside AdWords]

Today we're happy to announce the launch of a new website - the AdWords Small Business Center. Many of you asked for an AdWords resource focused on learning and the top tips for small and medium businesses, and we listened. This new central learning hub allows you to share AdWords best practices and provides the key information you need to know to run a successful AdWords account.

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Learn the essentials

Whether you're new to AdWords or not, the AdWords Small Business Center allows you to explore insightful topics as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced user. It covers everything from strategies for writing great ads to ways to improve your website, all in an easy-to-navigate format.

Stay up-to-date

Stay in the loop by visiting the Inside AdWords blog right from this new site. It makes it easy to read about the latest trends and product updates and use them to grow your business.

Explore new possibilities

Want to discuss one of the tips on the site with another small business owner? Visit our recently launched AdWords Small Business Corner, a discussion forum in which other small and medium business owners who use AdWords exchange advice on the strategies that have helped them grow their businesses. Use it to share your AdWords experience or simply learn from others.

We hope you find the AdWords Small Business Center useful. Check it out today!

In the coming weeks, make sure you're also on the lookout for our blog post on AdWords Train & Gain, a challenge to help you become more successful with your online advertising. We'll be giving away cool prizes like Android phones and, for one lucky winner, a trip to Sydney, Australia for a free consultation with an AdWords expert. Sign up now or find out more details and official rules.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

IAB's Long Tail Alliance AdSense webinar

[Cross-posted from the Inside AdSense Blog]

To keep you updated with the latest industry news, insights, and best practices, we’d like to let you know about an upcoming educational opportunity held in partnership with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

On September 14, 2010, the Google AdSense team will be co-hosting a webinar with the IAB Long Tail Alliance to cover “What You Need to Know about AdSense.” Members from the AdSense team will cover tips and best practices to help you maximize your AdSense revenue.

Click here to register for the webinar.

If you’d like access to future IAB Long Tail Alliance seminars and events, you can become an IAB Long Tail Alliance member. Membership provides you with access to an ongoing series of web seminars, resources, and events that are all specifically designed for small and growing publishers. Register using the promotional code GOOGLELTA to receive $100 off the price of a membership.

Posted by Stephen Kliff, AdSense Marketing

Going Google Across the 50 States: Maryland start-up hopes to level the playing field in education

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise blog]

Editor’s note: Over the past couple months, thousands of businesses have added their Gone Google story to our community map and even more have used the Go Google cloud calculator to test drive life in the cloud. To highlight some of these companies’ Gone Google stories, we decided to talk to Google Apps customers across the United States. Check back each week to see which state we visit next. To learn more about other organizations that have gone Google and share your story, visit our community map.

This week we head to Maryland where StraighterLine is trying to level the playing field in education. StraighterLine’s mission is to disrupt the high cost of online education courses by directly partnering with colleges and vetting courses through national clearing houses to provide students with the lowest cost options for taking courses and earning credits online. Joseph Thibault, Course Manager at StraighterLine, shares their story.

When we jumped into the world of online education head-first, our small staff was spread across the US. As a result, we decided to use Google Apps because of its ability to facilitate this virtual office. The ability to share docs, communicate synchronously, and work collaboratively on docs provided us with a quick and easy way to improve courses, our brand and website.

Google Apps has sped up the rate at which we collect information and communicate internally and with students. By using forms in Google Docs we can easily collect survey data from new students to help us focus our marketing efforts. We also use forms to collect course evaluations so that we can improve our courses and services quickly. Creating a form in Docs only take a few minutes to create and the summary and charting features allow us to do a quick analysis with just a few clicks.

Gmail has also been a huge benefit to StraighterLine. Students can easily get in touch with us through Gmail and chat, allowing them to get help and continue learning in seconds rather than hours. At StraighterLine we’re happy to say we’ve gone Google!

Posted by Ashley Chandler, Google Apps Team