Since 1995, Hands On Technology Transfer, Inc. (HOTT)
has offered hands-on IT classroom training throughout North America.
As the need for technology in business has grown, so has HOTT.
Today, the Chelmsford, Mass. company offers courses to more than 10,000
students a year in over 70 cities in the United States and Canada, covering
over 30 technical subject areas ranging from programming languages to
network and system administration. HOTT (www.traininghott.com) also
offers Microsoft, Java, and Linux certification programs, as well as
classes for accredited post-secondary degree and other certificate programs.
| "Using
Google for both search engine results and paid placement has cut
our marketing budget in half, while it's doubled our sales. I've
been looking for that magic bullet for 9 years. Now I've found
it with Google." |
Approach
Traditionally, HOTT relied on direct mail
and mass advertising to market its classes. President Roland Van Liew
says that initially, company practice was to drop 2 million pieces of
mail every year at a cost of more than $1 million. Even though HOTT
could target these mailings by region or field of interest, inevitably
the response rates topped out as mailing lists and messages were refined.
Meanwhile, in the 9 years since HOTT began, competition in the IT training
business has heated up. Online training and certification is now common,
and the number of venues for hands-on training has grown dramatically.
An economic downturn in 2001 put additional pressure on many technical
training firms.
Van Liew says one source of leads was via search engine listings, and
at first he relied on those. But he felt this might be short-sighted.
"Even though a substantial number of our leads came from search results,
I wanted to find a way to lessen our dependence on expensive marketing
methods," he says. "We have a number of competitive advantages, but
not enough potential clients were receiving our message." To augment
searches, Van Liew opened his first pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
campaign in 2001 with a provider other than Google. But, he says, "We've
always watched Google, hoping that a Google advertising program would
help us even more with quality leads."
Van Liew's team opened a Google AdWords™ campaign in the summer
of 2002. HOTT's goal was to increase its growth rate, drive down marketing
costs, and increase profitability.
Results "Because
HOTT has rolling open enrollment for its courses, it's terrific
that AdWords campaigns are set simply to run all the time."
Van Liew quickly recognized the value of
AdWords PPC advertising. "We had more control over our campaigns than
our CPM program gave us," he says, adding, "Because HOTT has rolling open
enrollment for its courses, it's terrific that AdWords campaigns are set
simply to run all the time." When necessary, he says, HOTT can quickly
optimize any of its nearly 3,000 keywords. Gaining visibility for schedule
updates and product rollouts is now possible in days, or even hours.
Unlike his experience with direct mail, Van Liew has learned that AdWords
actually gains efficiency over time: "The marketing engine only gets stronger,"
he says, "because our results continue to improve. I love that." He says
that HOTT now generates twice as many qualified leads as it did just months
ago – and notes with satisfaction that HOTT spends less than 5 percent
of the marketing budget of a major competitor. Even better, he reports
that HOTT gets 4 times more business for each marketing dollar than this
same competitor, making HOTT the more profitable company. Overall, the
results of using AdWords exceeded Van Liew's expectations of a 20 percent
revenue increase – and helped to double the company's profits.
Van Liew has put his new-found marketing success into perspective. "Using
Google for both search engine results and paid placement has cut our marketing
budget in half, while it's doubled our sales," he says. "I've been looking
for that magic bullet for 9 years. Now I've found it with Google."
About Google Advertising
Google AdWords is currently used by
thousands of businesses worldwide
to gain new customers in a cost-effective
way. AdWords uses keywords to precisely target
ad delivery to web users seeking information about a particular product
or service. The program is based on cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, so
advertisers only pay when an ad is clicked on. Advertisers can take
advantage of an extremely broad distribution network, and choose the
level of support and spending appropriate for their business. For more
information, go to www.google.com/ads.