Paid Search: Using Negative Match

Negative match is an option in paid search (talking about Google Adwords today) where you can choose keywords or related keywords that you do not want your ad to show up for. For some people, you may be thinking, “why would I not want to show up for something? I want to show up for everything!” A good amount of advertisers out there use broad match when setting up their keywords and I’m sure some even use exact match or phrase match, but probably few use negative match.

When you use broad match for a keyword, your ad will end up showing up for a lot of different searches that are similar or even related to your keyword. This is not always good because the searcher may be looking for something completely different than what you are offering. And if by chance these people don’t realize that you don’t offer what they want until they click your ad, you will be wasting and losing a lot of money that could be spent on more qualified traffic.

Here are a couple examples of when you might want to implement negative match on keywords:
Example 1
Your Site: Features places to surf in Hawaii
Broad Match Keyword: Hawaii surfing
You may show up for “Hawaii surfing lessons” or “Hawaii surf rentals”
Negative Match: “-lessons” or “-rentals”

Example 2
Your Site: Las Vegas buffet
Broad Match Keyword: Las Vegas buffets
You may show up for “Las Vegas hotels” or “Las Vegas shows”
Negative Match: “-hotels” or “-shows”

Analyze your AdWords Search Queries Report to see what keyword variations trigger your ad. Utilize this to clean up your keyword list and save money!

National Pen is on Twitter

Keeping it short and sweet this week. We are now on Twitter! We want to help your business succeed! Follow us on Twitter for marketing tips and special offers!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sample Customer Survey Questions

2 weeks ago I posted about the importance of surveying your customers. This allows for you to learn more about what is important to your customers, how customers feel about your products/services, and/or what customers thought about their shopping experience. You can use this information to improve your products/services and shopping experience. You can also use the information you find out about your customers to better target them – providing them what they are most interested in so that they are more likely to convert. Below are some sample customer survey questions you can use to learn more about your customers.

Rating Questions (Typically from Poor to Excellent or N/A)
Overall Shopping Experience
Selection of Products
Ease of Finding What You are Looking for
Information Presented to Help Make Shopping Decision
Shipping Options
Customer Service

Yes/No Questions
Would you shop with us again?
Would you recommend us to a friend?
Did you receive your order in a timely manner?
Was your order fulfilled correctly?

Open-Ended Questions
What else would you like to share with us?
How can we improve your shopping experience?

This is just a sampling of the types of questions you can ask, there are many more and you can always customize the questions to your business. Remember, this information is useful – analyze it and consider what your customers say. Customers keep your business alive – listen to them. :)

Help Us Choose a Winner for Our Design Contest

A few months ago, we decided to have our first employee design contest. We have now chosen our 5 finalists and need help in determining a winner. The winner will be determined based on the number of orders the design gets.

Help us choose a winner! Order some pens with your favorite finalist design to cast your vote!

We thank you on behalf of our candidates!

Below are our designs submitted by our finalists, visit our Employee Design Contest page to buy pens with your favorite design.

Back in September 2008, we also launched our Contour Mania Contest asking you to help us create a new design for Our Contour Pen. We had a great response and saw many awesome and creative designs get submitted. In fact, the winning design we chose is even being sold on our website today!

Bottom Line: Contests are a great way to engage your customers!