by Admin 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.
by Admin 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.
by blogmistress 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.
