Monthly Archives: September 2016

What are the Simplest Steps to Promotion?

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The majority of working people feel like they are owed a promotion. Whether its long days at the office, being underpaid or sacrificing precious time with your family, we all expect to be rewarded for hard work. So, why are so many employees stalled on their way up the career ladder? There are a number of potential reasons why. Here, we will look at the main reasons why your promotion is eluding you and how to tackle these problems.

Be Deserving

It may sound harsh but this is the problem facing many individuals who are looking to advance. You have to remember, the people who are promoted are those who exceed expectations. If you are putting in the minimum effort, or even an adequate job, this is usually not enough to stand out. You may believe you are sacrificing a lot for your job but you need to examine your work objectively- are you really doing enough to warrant a promotion?

The good news is, all is not lost- there is always time to aim higher. Those who are given greater responsibility, usually earn it through hard work. This means putting in more hours and using this time to give your boss more than they asked for. Productivity is incredibly important and this should be one of your main goals. Once you are excelling within your current position, ask your boss if you could take on more work. Yes, this does mean increasing your workload but this is usually what it takes to garner success.

Be a Leader

The majority of promotions facilitate a move into a position of leadership. Therefore leadership skills are paramount. If you are working hard without reward, you should ask yourself whether the problem could be to do with your potential as a leader. Qualities such as trustworthiness, teamwork and the ability to remain cool under pressure are all prized among employers.

Fortunately, there are ways in which to improve on your managerial potential. For example, ensure you have a strong working relationship with your peers. This illustrates your ability to work within a team, something that will be noticed by your boss. Conversely, although team work is important, don’t be afraid to stand out for all the right reasons. Also, try to approach every obstacle in a calm and positive manner- even if you don’t particularly feel like it. Managers are faced with problems on a day to day basis and potential candidates will need to be able to cope with this pressure.

Be Vocal

It may seem obvious but you need to make sure that your boss actually knows that you are looking for a promotion. Those who quietly get on with their work may appear settled within their role and therefore could be overlooked when a position opens. In fact, there are many workers who don’t like the idea of a managerial position so you could forgive your boss for making that assumption.

The way in which you broach this subject with your employer will depend on you, your job and the relationship between the two of you. As a rule, it’s best to approach the subject softly- after all you don’t want to put them in an awkward position. Organise a meeting with your boss to discuss your role within the company and the potential for advancement. Try to appear eager but focus on factors such as taking on more responsibility and personal productivity as opposed to positions and wages. Once your employer is aware of your ambitions, there is a much greater chance that they will consider you in the future.

Earning a promotion can take a lot of hard work and determination but the potential benefits are definitely worth the extra effort for those seeking a step up.

 

 

Simple Ways to Improve your Adwords Performance

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Google Adwords. What the Dickins…? I know. If you suffer with Googlephobia creating high ranking Adword campaigns may seem impossible, but don’t worry, you’ll be pleased to know that Google Adwords isn’t as complicated as it may seem. In fact, with a few tricks up your sleeve, you can be on your way to creating successful Google Adword campaigns before you know it.

Google Adwords

So, the purpose of Google Adwords (if you’re not familiar) is to generate traffic to your website, which in turn will help generate conversions. When key search words are entered by a user on Google, the highest ranking ads that correspond with the search terms will appear at the bottom and the top of the page – the top of the page being the preferred and most beneficial position. When someone clicks on your ad, you pay Google Adwords a fee (your bid).

Google Ad Rank

It’s important to explain Google Ad Rank before we go any further. The position of your company’s ad will depend on your ad rank. This is determined by the combination of your bid (the amount you are willing to pay each time your ad is clicked on) and your quality score (determined by a Google metric based on your ad’s clickthrough rate [CTR], keyword relevance and the quality of your landing page).

Now, it’s fairly easy to create Google Adword campaigns; once you’ve logged in, followed the prompts and entered your billing information, you’re away. The tricky bit (some might say) lies in the ability to create successful Adword campaigns in terms of rankings and clickthrough rates.

Choose the right keywords

Well-chosen keywords and phrases will give your ad the best chance of being displayed to the right people. Your keywords should match the search terms customers would enter into Google to find products or services like yours. Your keywords should also match the keywords on your landing page. Your landing page must then, of course, meet the user’s expectations as expressed via their search query. To get ideas for keywords, you can use Google Keyword Planner. This is a free Adwords tool that helps you choose relevant and high-ranking words for your ads. The Keyword Planner is also useful for selecting the most relevant keywords from your own website – the quality of this will depend, however, on the quality of the content on your website.

Identify Negative Keywords

This might sound weird, but makes sense when you think about it. As a pay per click (PPC) advertiser your objective is to attract traffic that will lead to conversions. It’s therefore important to avoid key words or phrases that are too general as these may lead you to pay for clicks from people who aren’t at all interested in what you have to offer.

Once your Adword campaigns are up and running you can use Adwords to view the search terms that are triggering your ads to be displayed. Search terms that aren’t valuable to you can be added as negative keywords which will prevent your ad from being displayed when those keywords are entered.

 

Use all relevant ad extensions

Ad extensions are an Adwords feature that enable you to display additional information with your ad. Various ad extensions are available such as sitelinks, callout extensions, location extensions, reviews and more. Use the ad extensions that are relevant to your business to help your business stand out from your competitors.

Optimise your ad text for longer headlines

The most important part of your ad is the headline as this is the part that will most likely grab the viewer’s attention. Google now enables you to place more information in the headline where it’s most likely to be noticed. By doing this, ads have a 6% increase in CTR compared to ads with the standard headline and description. It’s important to note that headlines must be a complete phrase or sentence and end in punctuation such as a full stop or question mark.

Review

As soon as your Adword campaign is running, Adwords will start collecting data regarding the ad’s performance. You can use Adwords to see performance statistics for your campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on this on a regular basis (weekly) to see how well your ad campaign is doing and whether adjustments can be made to your ad based on the data.

Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is a free AdWords tool that enables you to find out how many ad clicks are turning into actual customers. It can also help you identify which ad campaigns and keywords are proving to be most successful to your business. It’s a great way to review progress and make adjustments where necessary.

Final Thought

Google Adwords can be a great way of driving traffic to your website. It’s not for the fainthearted that’s for sure, but with the right knowledge, Google Adword campaigns can lead to a great return on investment. Kerrrching!