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 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 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 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 21, 2012
The King of Rex, and endorsed by the Mayor of New Orleans, has decreed that all commercial endeavors must cease and that pleasure rule for today. Therefore, we must follow their orders and will return to our blog tomorrow.
HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!!
by blogmistress on February 20, 2012
A good social media marketing plan takes into account where your customers are. What types of social media is your target market using? Are they more involved in Twitter or Facebook? Maybe, for your brand, Pinterest is the popular place.
We’ve been enjoying the parades here in New Orleans leading up to Mardi Gras. The crowds are huge and a large majority of them are using mobile for a variety of reasons. Some are checking out what the upcoming parades are on the local parade apps. Some are texting friends to try to meet up somewhere. Many are posting updates and pictures of their adventures to their favorite social media sites.
Now, if you are a bar or restaurant along the parade route in New Orleans, you probably have all the business you can handle right now (if you don’t, there is something seriously wrong). However, how about businesses outside the parade route, or even outside of New Orleans. Lots of people, all over the country are watching the New Orleans parades online and getting updates through Twitter. If you have a business that could benefit from some of the Mardi Gras excitement, maybe you should start taking part in that conversation, if that is where your customers are spending their time.
This is just one example of how your business can benefit by finding out where your customers are spending their time online and joining the conversation. Get some tips on how to kick up your internet marketing strategy by downloading the free ebook: Essential Guide to Internet Marketing today!
Happy Lundi Gras!
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 Admin on February 14, 2012
Lead nurturing is the process of developing that relationship with your potential customer by sending targeted, relevant, and valuable messages to them in a timely manner. Companies that excel at lead nurturing are able to generate more sales-ready leads at a lower cost-per-lead.
Email Marketing Best Practices:
List Building
- Create opt-in opportunities.
- Give people a reason to opt-in.
- Only send messages to people who have explicitly opted in.
Sending
- Stay relevant.
- Get personal. Use a name and email address in the “from” line of your email that your recipients will recognize.
- Get into the mind of your recipient and ask, “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM) Make the value clear in both the email body and the subject line.
- Don’t rely on images.
- Be consistent.
- Brush up on CAN-SPAM regulations to make sure your email practices comply.
Converting
- What do I do here? When someone opens your email, make it clear what they’re supposed to do.
- The landing page is part of your email campaign. Make sure your email offer and landing page flow.
Measuring
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures response.
- What about open rate? Open rate is an increasingly unreliable metric. Focus instead on how many clicks your email received.
- Unsubscribe rate measures annoyance and spam. You want to make sure your unsubscribe rate does not exceed 5%.
- Conversion rate measures actions. Test different landing pages to improve the conversion on your website.
Lead nurturing is all about developing relationships with your leads. Do it right and it can payoff big time.
For more information on nurturing leads with email marketing download our “Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”.
by Admin 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.
