by blogmistress on July 9, 2012
Monday is a great day to start improving your internet marketing to help your business. Here are three things you can do this week to help you attract more visitors, and convert them into leads and customers for your business.
- Identify new keywords – check out your analytics (you do have analytics for your site don’t you?). See what keywords people are using to find you and then brainstorm what words are working and what needs improvement. Use a keyword tool to see how many times those words are searched, and then optimize your site for those words.
- Create new blog posts. Blog posts are a perfect way to optimize for your newly identified keywords. Use the keywords in your post title and in your post as well. Use those keywords effectively so they can be ranked by search engines and make sense to your readers too. Provide useful information to your readers. This will help you attract more traffic.
- Now that you have optimized your posts and have attracted more traffic, you need to create a great call to action. What can you offer your visitors to convert them into leads for your business? Perhaps you can create an informative whitepaper or eBook. Maybe, you should offer a demo or a sample of your product. Be creative and come up with something that is useful and helpful to your visitors and that will get them engaged.
Okay, those are 3 easy steps that you can take this week to get started improving your internet marketing. Get started this week and then repeat these three steps each week and see what happens. What ideas do you have for improving your internet marketing this week?
Want some more ideas? Download the free eBook, Essential Guide to Internet Marketing today.
by blogmistress on July 6, 2012
Are you protected against the “Internet Doomsday” virus? According to Reuters, “About a quarter-million computer users around the world are at risk of losing Internet access on Monday because of malicious software at the heart of a hacking scam that U.S. authorities shut down last November.”
Make sure you are protected. You can find out how to identify and clean up this virus at dcwg.org. So many businesses rely on the internet for sales and leads. It is well-worth taking the time to make sure you are safe!
by Admin on March 27, 2012
We all use equipment with lithium-ion batteries, cell phones, laptops, tablets, etc. And we have all experienced the battery charge in that equipment not lasting as long as it once did. Even if you don’t use the equipment for a few years and try to charge it, it won’t work.
A number of factors can accelerate battery degradation (see study from Battery University).
|
Battery Temperature
|
Permanent capacity loss when
stored at 40% state-of-charge
(recommended storage charge level)
|
Permanent capacity loss when
stored at 100% state-of-charge
(typical user charge level)
|
|
0°C
25°C
40°C
60°C
|
2% loss in 1 year; 98% remaining
4% loss in 1 year; 96% remaining
15% loss in 1 year; 85% remaining
25% loss in 1 year 75%; remaining
|
6% loss in 1 year; 94% remaining
20% loss in 1 year; 80% remaining
35% loss in 1 year; 65% remaining
40% loss in 3 months
|
By not charging your battery fully, your run time might be a little less, but your battery will last longer. Heat is also a factor in battery degradation. Keep this in mind when recharging the batteries in your equipment.
by blogmistress on March 21, 2012
Sometimes the best laid plans just don’t work. It could be that you have the wrong tools or maybe outdated tools. Maybe your technique wasn’t correct. Probably the main reason for failing when it comes to internet marketing is because you didn’t have the right plan or perhaps you didn’t have a plan at all. What makes an internet marketing plan fail?
- No clear goals – if you don’t care where you are going, anywhere you end up is fine. Or is it really? Sometimes we don’t get where we want to go because we didn’t have a destination in mind in the first place. Decide on realistic, measurable goals for your business before you start to implement any internet marketing plan. Your goals will help you determine what tools and techniques are correct.
- Focusing on things that will not help you achieve your goals. - Let’s take your website as an example. Everything on your website should have a purpose. Perhaps you should have content that is search engine friendly to help you get more organic traffic. If your goal is to convert traffic into leads for your business, you should probably have clear calls to action to help you achieve that goal. If your focus is on having just the right color of blue as your background color or using a particular font, you need to think about how those things will help you achieve your goals. When is the last time you visited a website just to admire their background? When is the last time you filled out a form on a site because of the font they used? Oh, and by the way, that perfect shade of blue that you love so much will look different on my screen than it does on your screen or your customer’s screen.
- Adding elements to your marketing without understanding how they fit into an overall plan that will help you achieve your goals. – Perhaps you are told that you have to be on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Google+. While those are all great marketing tools, you need to be sure that you are using them in a way that fits your overall internet marketing plan. Too often, businesses feel like they have to jump on the latest thing without deciding first how it can be used to help them reach their goals. Without a plan, many businesses end up wasting time and money on efforts that are not moving them to their goal.
- Not measuring your results. – If you are not measuring your results, how will you ever know if you meet your goal? How will you know if you are veering off course and need to adjust? Measuring your results is an often overlooked but very important part of internet marketing.
- Not working with people who understand the importance of having an overall internet marketing plan with measurable goals.
Don’t fail! Make a plan and do it right. In the long run, you will save money and you will have measurable success.
by blogmistress on February 29, 2012
It is important to have a system in place that tracks your conversion performance. Wharton Marketing can provide you with ways to analyze the effectiveness of each individual landing page and offer to make sure you are getting the most out of your marketing efforts.
- Your offers should be living, breathing documents that are constantly changing.
- They need to help educate your prospects on the buying process.
- If your landing pages and offerings do not seem to be reaching their full potential, you should try to:
- Attach their links in your email newsletters.
- Have your pay-per click ads go right to the landing page.
- Use them as the next step after a trade show or event.
Website design is not a one and done deal. Your web pages should evolve and improve over time. This is especially important for your landing pages since they help convert your faceless website visitors into opportunities that you have collected vital information about.
by Admin 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.
by blogmistress on February 24, 2012
You many want an interactive and flashy homepage that entices your user; however, it is important to understand that fundamentals need to be addressed first. Always keep in mind what is most important to your visitors!
Source: HubSpot, The Science of Website Redesign, June 2011
What is most important to your visitors is that they are able to find what they want. That makes sense. Remember, inbound marketing is all about being there when your customer is looking for you, giving them what they want and converting them into leads/customers for your business.
Your homepage is the face of your services or products. You only get one chance to impress that visitor, so make sure you carefully place the essentials you want them to know on your homepage. It should also act as a launching platform to places where they can contact you in the future (i.e. blog, social media, etc.)
In order to really get the most out of a website redesign, companies need to construct their website in the context of a greater Internet marketing strategy.You can get our checklist of the key issues to address on your homepage from our free eBook: 7 Steps to Website Redesign Success.
by Admin on February 23, 2012
Insure that your Websiteʼs Assets are In Order and Safe
You can actually do more damage than good by trying to undertake a website redesign on your own without understanding how you must protect the existing assets of your current site.
- Website assets such as content, inbound links, keyword rankings, and conversion tools are critical to a strong web presence.
- To preserve your web presence, you must keep track these assets to insure that they are all transferred in the redesign process.
It is important to do an asset assessment before you embark on a website redesign.
If you do not fully understand the importance and practice of proper SEO, doing a website redesign can be more damaging than helpful. If you do not feel comfortable around SEO work, it may be best to hire specialists to perform the redesign so all the hard work you have put into making a web presence does not disappear. Be sure to ask your website designer if s/he understands the importance of maintaining your current website’s assets and of using 301 redirects in a website redesign. If not, find another website designer.
Don’t guess when doing a website redesign – find out how to do it right! Download our free ebook: 7 Steps to Successful Website Redesign today!
by Admin on February 16, 2012
Once you have your internet marketing strategies in place, you need to find the best way to use all the techniques to get found online and generate new customers.
5 Steps for Analyzing & Refining Internet Marketing Strategies
- Implement an Analytics Program: In order to analyze, you need to have an analytics program in place.
- Identify Opportunities: Figure out what you want to improve. Get in the mindset of constantly looking for new opportunities.
- Set a Metric for Success: Your metric should be quantifiable and involve a set time frame.
- Refine: Analyze how your programs performed and make changes.
- Evaluate: Determine if you’ve met your success metric. Continue to monitor it to make sure the improvement has a long-term effect.
Metrics to Analyze
Before diving into how to improve them, let’s first discuss what the relevant metrics are. This is just a minimal list of what you should be monitoring.
- Website Grade: How well optimized is your website overall?
- Traffic: Overall, how many people are coming to your website?
- Leads: How much of this traffic are you converting into leads (e.g. potential customers)?
- Customers: How many sales did you close this month?
- Customer Acquisition Cost: How much are you investing to draw in each new customer?
- New vs. Repeat Visitors: Of your overall traffic, how many visitors are returning to your site, and how many new people are finding you?
- Effectiveness by Channel: What promotional channels or referring sources are sending you the most traffic?
- Traffic by Keywords: Which keywords are drawing in the most visitors to your site?
Steps for Improvement
The following are some elements of your website you can refine so you can reach your broader goals:
- Keywords: Try new keywords or variations of keywords to see if they help you get found better.
- On-Page SEO: See if changing a simple on-page factor can help boost visits.
- Conversions: Try new things with your conversion forms or landing pages.
- Content Strategy: Determine which content is generating the most traffic.
- Social Media Promotions: Evaluate which social media channels are generating the most site visitors and leads.
- Lead Nurturing: Maybe you’re sending emails too frequently — or not frequently enough.
The key is to alway keep experimenting and testing.
Get more information on Analyzing & Refining Internet Marketing Strategies as part of a successful internet marketing strategy from the Free ebook: Essential Guide to Internet Marketing. Download it today!
by blogmistress on February 15, 2012
Having a mobile friendly website is essential to a successful internet marketing strategy. 
Smart phones have changed the way people shop, communicate and live. According to a survey by telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson, 35 percent of Android and iPhone owners in the U.S. use apps such as Facebook before getting out of bed. In 2010, over 50% of internet access was done via a handheld device. Many of the under 30 crowd don’t have a land line and never use yellow pages.
We used to say if you aren’t on the web, you are invisible to much of your market. Now, you have to think about being found and seen on mobile or you will be invisible to much of your market.
- Try it out and see. Look at how your website shows up on a mobile device (or if it can even be rendered by mobile). Does it need some work? Think about adding a mobile friendly version of your site that will render when it is being viewed on mobile.
- Check out your social media presence. Are you building your network on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter? If someone asks, “Does anyone know someone who _______________?” (fill in the blank), will anyone think of you and your business? If you have social media accounts that you don’t use to engage and inform, you may not be on the radar for a recommendation.
- Consider offering mobile coupons and running mobile ads to drive traffic to your location. Studies show that mobile ads are five times more effective than internet ads.
Get some great tips and advice for being not just mobile friendly but for using mobile as part of a successful internet marketing strategy from the Free ebook: Essential Guide to Internet Marketing. Download it today!
