CWC’s Highlights of 2014

It’s now been over five years since I started Click-Winning Content and in June I celebrated five years as an AdWords partner.

It’s been another busy year working with new and existing clients, attending networking events, giving presentations, being active on social media and keeping up with changes to Google AdWords and Analytics and the online marketing world.

Here are the highlights from the year that was

1. Awesome Business Friends

Even after five years I love providing services for Google AdWords and Analytics. And this year I added Google+ services to our portfolio.

One of the key reasons I enjoy being in business is the people that surround me. This includes clients and the network of fabulous people who refer business to me, support me with a listening ear, share their knowledge and add value to my clients with services that I don’t offer. I’m constantly impressed by business owners who are 100% committed to making their business work, who are willing to invest time and money into making it successful, and who act on advice when offered.

2. Growth in AdWords clients

In 2014 AdWords Partners in Australia and New Zealand helped around 250,000 businesses succeed online.

And we helped our fair share!

We’ve had a rush of new clients this year who invested in AdWords because they realised that:

• a well managed AdWords campaign can add huge value to their business in terms of generating leads and sales.
• having a well managed campaign means outsourcing the management to a Google Partner.

From February 2015 we’ll be expanding our capacity in order to work with more new AdWords clients.

If you’re interested in giving AdWords a go in 2015:

• Read This Before You Hire an AdWords Manager
• Discover 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t DIY AdWords Management
• Read more about the Click-Winning Content team

3. Updating the CWC website

For at least a year I wanted to update this website to a new design and make it fully mobile responsive, but took never took action due to:

     A. not making the time

     B. having trouble deciding what theme to use

     C. Worrying too much about negatively impacting my Google ranking

     D. Insert other excuses.

I finally took the plunge and updated to a mobile responsive theme in the middle of the year and couldn’t be happier with the end result, especially the version that you see on mobile devices.

Read what I learned in 5 Tips for Successfully Moving to Responsive Web Design.

I am eternally grateful to both Judy Brandt Design and Tessa Needham for their services in creating this new version of the website.

4. Attending Google Events

As always the Google Partner team provided wonderful marketing support to help us grow our business, including a free MasterClass event and inviting us to host a Partner Connect event in conjunction with our design partner in Traralgon, Italicherry Design.

During the event, Google live-streamed presentations to help businesses learn about effective digital marketing, which our guests found incredibly valuable.

Read more in my wrap-up of the event on the Italicherry Design website.

In September we attended the Google Analytics conference, where the highlight for me was the keynote presentation by Avinash Kaushik, who wrote the book that inspired me to learn more about Google Analytics and how to help businesses get more value from their data.

Read a summary of my key take-aways from Avinash’s presentation in Google Analytics: It’s not about the data.

The year was also busy working with partner organisations to promote Google AdWords, Analytics and Google+, including:

• Presenting three webinars; two for the Australian Business Women’s Network and one for Active Management
• Two live presentations for the Melbourne WordPress User Group
• A joint presentation for the Victorian Small Business Festival
• Participating in my first Google Hangout on Air hosted by the Google Partner team
• Being interviewed about Google+ by the Australian Business Women’s Network for my first podcast.

5. Google Plus

Google+ made this year even better in so many ways, particularly because it makes it so easy to keep in contact with people I already know and to meet new people from all around the world.

The Plus Your Business Academy

To build my Google+ skills and knowledge I’ve been part of the fabulous Plus Your Business Academy training program run by Martin Shervington.

Get into Google+ Training Videos 

To help more Australian business owners and bloggers tap into the value of Google+ for building connections, sharing content and increasing web traffic from Google, Kylie Saunder and I created and launched the Get into Google+ Short Snappy Video Training Program.

If you need help getting more from Google+ in 2015, check out the video training program or contact me to find out about setting up a small group training session.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and enjoyable holiday season, and thank you for your support in 2014, including:

• Working with new and ongoing clients
• Providing referrals for new business
• Reading this blog
• Being available for a conversation or advice when needed
• Plus all your social media +1’s, likes, tweets, comments and shares.

Bring on 2015!