by blogmistress on March 12, 2012
One of the best things about internet marketing is that it can be measured. You can actually “see” whether or not you are getting results. So, that begs the question: Are you getting results? Surprisingly, many businesses don’t know if their website is really working for them, they just know that it “looks pretty” and that they get “compliments” on it. This is known as the “spray and pray” marketing method – put something up and pray that it will work.
Often times, what makes a website great and what gets results are the things that you don’t see like:
- Well researched keywords placed in the right places on the site
- Clear calls to action
- Well-made landing pages
If you are basing your marketing on how things look on the surface, you may be missing the point. It is like finding a great looking dress or nice looking suit. It may look great on the hanger but once you try it on, you find that it is poorly made. The fabric is shoddy or the fit isn’t right. Just because it looked great, doesn’t mean it will work.
Don’t spray and pray, do it right and get results – which in the case of most businesses, means more leads and customers.
Is your website getting results?
by Admin on March 8, 2012
Your Facebook page should strengthen existing relationships, and also forge new ones. You will need to closely monitor your Facebook page to understand what you fans want.
Things to Consider:
- The most frequently used activity for young Facebook users is wall posts.
- The older Facebook demographic is more interested in using Facebook for themselves.
- Share original content:
- 60% of links shared on Facebook are published content.
- Additional 36% of shares were embedded content.
- Put like or recommend buttons at the top of the blog article.
- Community will build up a reputation for the article by “liking” the content.
- Post articles on the weekend.
- 51% of American companies block Facebook at work.
Source: HubSpot, The Science of Facebook, 2011
Your Facebook page should be the launching point to your home website, blog, and conversion offers. By encouraging discussions on your Facebook wall, you will be fostering a community in which your newest visitors interact with your most dedicated and loyal customers. In doing so, your existing customers’ excitement to share and interact with your material and page could impact your more casual fans’ decision to purchase your product.
by blogmistress on March 7, 2012
Setting up your Facebook page is just the first step when you are using Facebook for business. It is essential for you to distribute remarkable content that your fans will want to share so your fans can attract more visitors to you Facebook page.
Action Items:
- To increase your Facebook exposure, you need to design offers and content that will motivate people to “like” or share your page. 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations.
- Posts with the word “video” in them are shared 30% more on Facebook than posts that do not.
- Posts that use buzzwords or business jargon like “optimize” significantly decrease the number of fans for a Facebook page. These pages have 100 fans, as opposed to the average page with 624 fans.
- Posts with digits in the title tend to be shared more often.
- Lists using words like “top” make tremendously successful Facebook posts.
For your customers and prospects to find your Facebook page engaging, they will need enticing materials and regular posts.
Find out how to really rock it with your social media presence to attract more visitors and convert them into customers with the Social Media Tune-Up Guide.
by blogmistress on March 6, 2012
Although Facebook has made it easier than ever to set up a business page, there are some steps that you may have overlooked. When you are setting up you Facebook page, keep this in mind:
- People have profiles; businesses/brands have pages.
- Create and treat your welcome page like a landing page. Add calls to action; don’t miss the opportunity to generate some leads.
- Set up Custom Tabs for resources using the FBML application.
- If you are a single location business, set up a “places” page.
- Add useful applications such as Discussions Boards and YouTube Video Box.
Facebook pages must be as inviting as possible. The format of your page should first be focused on creating an engaging environment for your fans, which when executed properly, will result in generating and collecting more information about your leads.
Be as creative as possible, and determine which activities or apps would best supplement your company’s brand.
by blogmistress on March 5, 2012
Think social media is just a place for social interactions and “fun?” Think again! Social media can be a powerful inbound marketing tool for your business. It can have an impact on your traffic, leads and inevitably, sales. Consider this:
- US Internet users spend 3x more minutes on blogs and social networks than on email.
- 93% of US adult Internet users are on Facebook.
- 1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook.
- 49% of people use Facebook to share content.
- More than ½ of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks.
- 79% of US Twitter users are more likely to recommend brands they follow.
- 67% of US Twitter users are more likely to buy brand they follow.
- Pinterest is the fastest growing website – EVER!
Social media amplifies your content, your website and your brand. It allows for you to establish and foster a more personal relationship with your potential customers, and when done correctly, can generate website traffic, inbound links, and leads for you.
Social media has become a major part of consumer culture, and it is time for you to capitalize on it. Get started with our Social Media Tune-Up Guide!
by blogmistress on March 2, 2012
Recently, Google announced 40 new search updates. What does this mean for you and your website? Well, it depends. Let’s take a look at some of the things that they say will make a difference to you and your business:
- Fresher images. We’ve adjusted our signals for surfacing fresh images. Now we can more often surface fresh images when they appear on the web.
- Improvements to freshness. We’ve applied new signals which help us surface fresh content in our results even more quickly than before.
- Panda update. This launch refreshes data in the Panda system, making it more accurate and more sensitive to recent changes on the web.
These three changes are directly aimed at trying to give users fresher content. Fresh news often breaks on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Google is usually behind in presenting fresh information because it has to find it and then index it.
So, how does this affect your business? Google rewards fresh content. That means, you need to be continually adding fresh, relevant content to your site. The easiest way to do this is with a blog. On your blog you can be easily and quickly add new content.
Google is also working to improve it’s local search results. They say:
- Improved local results. We launched a new system to find results from a user’s city more reliably. Now we’re better able to detect when both queries and documents are local to the user.
If you are a local business, make sure you have all your local listings up to date.
One of the more interesting updates has to do with how Google evaluates links:
- Link evaluation. We often use characteristics of links to help us figure out the topic of a linked page. We have changed the way in which we evaluate links; in particular, we are turning off a method of link analysis that we used for several years. We often rearchitect or turn off parts of our scoring in order to keep our system maintainable, clean and understandable.
Google has declined clarifying the link evaluation process, including specifying the method that they have “used for several years” that they have now turned off. Very interesting . . .
Bottom line: SEO is an ongoing process. It is never a once and done proposition. Learn more about how you can improve your SEO from our SEO 101 eBook.
by blogmistress on March 1, 2012
Make sure that your website is always improving. You should always be reviewing your metrics to see what offers are most successful and improving on them to convert even more visitors into qualified leads for your business.
Focus on these three metrics:
- Visitors
- How many people are coming to my website?
- Where are they coming from?
- Leads.
- How many visitors converted to leads?
- What did they convert on?
- Sales.
- How many leads converted to sales?
These metrics will help you determine what parts of your website need revision. Metrics are pivotal for pinpointing the exact pain points of your website. By doing small, but constant adjustments to your website, you will be able to maximize the utility of your website so it becomes a platform for generating visitors, leads, and ultimately, sales.
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 blogmistress on February 27, 2012
It is important to understand that original content is what will generate more traffic. Content creation is a continuous process that must be given priority. A blog is a great way to deliver fresh, new content.
Consider this:
• Blogging results in a 55% increase in website visitors.
• Search engines like fresh content, which will increase your number of indexed pages.
• People like fresh content:
• Companies that blog have 2x as many twitter followers than those that donʼt.
• Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than those that donʼt.
Original content is your websiteʼs messenger: it will inform your prospects on what you do, and how passionately you do it. With a vast array of formats to create content on, you should always be continuously contributing original content to keep your prospects engaged and constantly interacting with your website.
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.
