by Joe B on February 28, 2012
Donʼt make the mistake of underestimating the importance of a compelling landing page. This is where you can see real results of your website redesign.
An effective landing page:
- Leaves out any website navigation.
- Keeps the description of the offer clear, simple, and concise.
- One company found that they had a 32% conversion rate with a longer description and form field. They cut it down, which brought their conversion rate to 53%.
- Keep the form above the fold.
To maximize efficiency, consider these questions:
- How fast can you launch a new landing page?
- Can one person do it in 15 minutes?
- What is the cost of experimentation?
Landing pages are where the magic happens. They are the gateway to your conversion offers that create engaged and interested leads. Make sure you can grab their attention with an interesting offer, but also coherently explain what you are offering through the landing page!
Download the free eBook: 7 Steps to Website Redesign Success to see some other vehicles for original content.
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by Joe B on January 4, 2012
As we start a new year, I thought I would list three ways you could increase the effectiveness of your website by increasing quality visits and conversions.
1) Improve your search engine optimization (SEO) by doing some Keyword Research
SEO is vital to your website being found for the right keywords in online searches. One of the best ways to improve your SEO is to do some Keyword Research.
When doing Keyword Research, you’ll want to research the terms that your potential customers might use to find you.
- Be careful not to use industry jargon (i.e. technical terms used by those in your industry) unless those are the terms your customers use.
- The terms your customers use to find you may change over time. For example, what we now call laptop computers have been called portable computers and notebook computers.
- Your main product or service may change over time.
So update your website to include the right Keywords.
2) Improve your website’s visibility by blogging
One of the best ways to increase quality visits to your website is by blogging. The simple rule is that the more content you have on the web, the better your chances of being found in search results. And there is no better way to increase your content on the web than by blogging. Be sure to include your Keywords in your blog posts and your blog posts’ names.
3) Place Calls to Action on your website
One of the best ways to convert website visitors into leads and customers is through the use of Calls to Action. A Call to Action is simply a directive to the website visitor (e.g. Click Here to download Free eBook). Often a Call to Action will offer the website visitor more information in exchange for their email address. Once you have an email address (a lead), you can set up a nurturing campaign where you send the lead more information about your product or service. (Always have an opt out option in your emails and stop your nurturing campaign if they opt out)
Of course, there are many more ways to improve your website. These are just three to help get you started.
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by Joe B on October 25, 2011
Does your website have a process for converting your website visitors into leads for your business? If it does, you are one of the lucky few because most websites today are glorified online brochures.
You see, in order to convert a website visitor into a lead, you must give the visitor a compelling reason to do so, such as a free white paper download offering more information. You do this through a call to action whereby the visitor gives you his name and email address in exchange for whatever you are offering. The problem with most websites is that their only call to action is the “contact us” form. The “contact us” call to action is the most common and least effective call to action. The reason it is not effective is because it offers no specific reason to take action. What will the website visitor get in return for contacting you? A sales pitch? That’s what they are thinking.
Most small business owners mistakenly believe their sales funnel is shorter than it really is. They believe that once somebody sees their beautiful website and reads how great they are, that person will pick up the phone and call them. Studies have shown that people who use the internet to research their purchases spend a lot of time researching before making person to person contact with a business. And the more expensive the product or service, the more time spent on online research.
Your website is a marketing tool. It should be generating leads for your business. If your website is basically a glorified brochure and your only call to action is contact us, maybe you should rethink the purpose of your website.
We use a software platform called HubSpot to help us generate leads through our website. If you’d like to learn how HubSpot can help your website generate leads for your business, click the button below.
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by Christi on October 20, 2011
Is your website a static brochure or is it a lead generating machine? When people think about designing a website, or redesigning a website, they sometimes overlook the most obvious question which is, “Why?” Why do you want a website or a redesign? Often we hear that the reason is to get a “fresher look” or to incorporate new products or services. Sometimes, business owners want a redesign so they can make edits themselves. However, once they are able to make edits and add content, many times, the website still remains static and changes are seldom made.
What is missing here is the development of goals and strategies for your website. It is much easier to work on generating leads for your website when you have a plan in place. A lead generating plan for your website should start with some basics:
- What kind of content can I create on an ongoing basis that will attract visitors (and search engines) to my website?
- How will I research keywords that are necessary to include in my content?
- When people visit my website, what compelling calls to action can I offer that will encourage them to convert from a visitor into a lead?
- What different offers can I create for people who are in different places in the buying cycle?
- Once someone has converted to a lead for my business, how am I going to nurture that lead into a sale?
- How am I going to analyze my strategy in order to see what is effective and where I need to make adjustments?
All of these questions can help you start creating a strategy for turning your website into a lead generating machine.
Need help? Contact us and we can help you get started!
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by Joe B on October 19, 2011
Content Is SEO King
We are constantly telling our clients that blogging is one of the best SEO strategies there is. That’s because search engines love content, fresh relevant content. And the best way to provide fresh relevant content is through relevant keyword rich blog posts.
As we are fond of saying on this blog, your website/blog is like a trotline with every page/post being a hook baited with relevant keywords (Google bait). The more pages/posts you have, the more hooks and Google bait you have. And the more likely you are to show up on a search results page.
Now What
So you’ve got your blog articles out there. Now one of them appears on the first page of someone’s search results and they click, go to and read your blog post. Now what?
What do you want them to do now?
- Download a White Paper or eBook
- Fill out a questionnaire
- Read another article
- Contact you for a consultation
- Or something else
Do you have a call to action that is relevant to your post or your business? Without a call to action, many, if not most, people will think nice article and continue searching the web for more information. You need to give them a reason to give you some information about themselves (e.g. name and email address) in return for something such as a white paper related to the blog post. Once you have their name and email information, they become a lead. Now you can use email marketing to nurture these leads and convert them into customers.
Inbound Marketing is a process and not a tactic. This process uses tactics, such as:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Lead Generation (through Calls To Action)
- Email Marketing
- Lead Nurturing
to achieve its goal, which is securing customers for your business. Many businesses stop after using the first tactic (SEO), thinking more visitors equals more customers. While that may be true to some extent, to be truly successful, you need to go through the entire process to achieve maximum results.
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by Joe B on August 31, 2011
Is your website a traditional advertisement for your business or something more?
About.com defines advertising as
the paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.
That sounds like a lot of websites we see. Websites are paid, public promotions by firms of their products to their existing and potential customers. But where websites can and should differ from traditional advertising is websites can be personal. It is possible to have a personal interaction on a website.
Traditional advertising is what we refer to as “outbound” or “interruption” marketing. The traditional advertisement has to interrupt you and gain your attention before it tries to promote its products or services. That’s why we see and hear so many goofy ads. They are trying to gain your attention through silliness.
Websites are examples of “inbound” or “attraction” marketing. Websites are found by people searching for the information they contain. Websites can increase their “attraction” or likelihood of being found by increasing the amount information on them that people are searching for. One of the best ways to do this is through a blog. Each blog post gives your website a new opportunity to be found.
So don’t look at your website as an advertisement. It can and should be so much more. Don’t waste your money or your visitors’ time with silly gimmicks to gain their attention. You already have their attention. Remember they were looking for information and found your website in the process. Give them the information they are looking for.
Make your website a lead generating machine. Let us show you how.
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by Joe B on August 9, 2011
For one of our fellow HubSpot users, HubSpot did save his business. Marcus Sheridan, owner of River Pools & Spas, writes in The Sales Lion “Just How Much Can 800 Days of Inbound Marketing Change Your Life??” I suggest you read it.
Marcus and his two partners started their pool company in 2001. By 2005 their swimming pool business was in shambles. They had just found out they had suffered a $200,000 embezzlement and the IRS was after them. After fighting tooth and nail for threes years, they were just beginning to see the light when the economy tanked. Many swimming pool companies started closing shop.
In March 2009, Marcus stumbled across a company called HubSpot and learned about Inbound Marketing. By November 2009, he was shocked at how well this Inbound Marketing stuff was working. While many of his competitors had gone out of business, his business was gaining ground. Today their swimming pool company has orders to install pools practically to the end of the year. This is happening in this economy.
As Marcus says, “the lesson remains the same- consumers trust those persons that are willing to openly and honestly give as much helpful information as possible.” Marcus learned how this thing called “blogging” could help his business. If he would simply answer consumer questions, Google would reward him with more visits. And by using HubSpot and its process, he could turn those visits into leads and ultimately sales.
We’ve found the same to be true for our business. We started using HubSpot in December 2010. Since that time, we have started blogging every weekday to provide useful information to small businesses. And we, like Marcus, have seen our number of leads and sales increase over the last 8 months.
If you’d like to know more about HubSpot and how it can help your business, email us at info@wharton-marketing or call us at 870.404.1985.
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by Christi on June 3, 2011
Most businesses we talk to about internet marketing want the same thing. They want to get more customers from their website. However, when you take a look at the website, the only “conversion” form is the “contact” form. It is true that most people start their purchase process on the internet now. It is also true that you want your website show up in search engines when people are looking for your product or service. However, in reality, often people are going to spend a little time and do some research before they are ready to “contact” anyone.
You may be thinking, “Once people come to my website, they will see how wonderful my business is and they will not need to search any further!” Depending on your product, that may be true, but in most cases, it really isn’t. You need to create offers that are a bit more compelling than “contact us.” Creating compelling offers is something that we have learned from HubSpot, and it is very effective.
Instead of just “contact us” why not offer more information in the form of an eBook or white paper? How about offering a checklist that would be useful to your visitors? Now, you have given your visitors a way to engage with you that is low pressure. They don’t have to talk to anyone. They can just fill out your form and get the information. If your offer is compelling enough and it is something that adds value, most people are happy to give you a little information (e.g. name and email address) about themselves in exchange.
Of course, getting information does not give you license to start spamming your visitors. However, it does give you an opportunity to offer them even more value. If done right, compelling offers and follow up are a very effective way to convert your website visitors into leads. Then, you have the opportunity to convert your leads into customers. And you will have built a relationship of trust and value along the way!
What kind of offers do you have on your website? Are they effective? I would love to hear about them in the comments.
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