Why Use A Content Management System (CMS)

by Admin on July 17, 2012

Content Management Systems vs. Static Websites

In the old days, most, if not all, websites were static and were created using HTML, Javascript and/or Flash. You could not edit these websites unless you understood the code or had special software. This made it expensive to maintain these websites.

Content Management Systems (CMS) were created to solve this problem. A CMS allows a person, who doesn’t possess programming skills, to update a website (i.e. create pages and make changes to pages). This can greatly reduce the cost of maintaining a website.

Some of the benefits of using a CMS are:

  • If your CMS is open source (WordPress, Drupal or other), you are not stuck with your web developer, there are thousands of other developer familiar with these CMSs ready to help you.
  • Ability to update your website from any computer using a browser without using your web developer.
  • Built-in search capability.
  • Plugins or add-ons for adding photo galleries, calendars, tables, forums, membership only sections, selling items, etc.

So if you’re tired of paying your web designer every time you want to make a small change to your website, you should look into converting your site to a CMS. Many CMS website designers can keep the look and feel of your current website if that’s what you like.




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Lead Generation and Calls to Action

by blogmistress on July 16, 2012

When people land on your website/Facebook page/Pinterest page, etc., what will they find? What is on your site that converts visitors into leads and customers? On every part of your web presence, you should be giving people an opportunity to become a lead or a customer. This is where CTAs (Calls to Action) come in.

There are different types of CTAs depending on where your visitor is in the sales process. For an ecommerce site, the CTA is easy- Buy Now. For other businesses, you may need a little more creativity. You may need to create offers that inform and nurture your visitors.

When you are creating CTAs, remember to always keep your visitors’ needs and desires in mind. Offer CTAs that inform and educate. Often, visitors are looking for information that will help them in their buying decision. You can create whitepapers and eBooks that are informative about your product or service that will educate your visitors. Perhaps, your visitors are looking for special offers. That is another great CTA. Offer a special deal for your visitors that they can’t get anywhere else. Not only is this effective for turning visitors into customers, it’s also a great way to track the effectiveness of your CTA.

What CTA can you create today that will convert your visitors into leads and customers for your business? Creating CTAs is an important part of inbound marketing that you cannot ignore if you want to be successful at internet marketing.

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Is Your Website’s Navigation System Important?

by Admin on July 13, 2012

Many websites have bad navigation (menu) systems. How many times have you found a site on google, clicked on the link and been taken to a beautiful website, only to discover that you can’t find anything on it? Some websites look like their menu system was an afterthought with no rhyme  or reason. A beautiful website with good SEO is wasted if visitors to the website can’t find what they are looking for.

Website navigation has become so important that it is now an area of specialization called “Information Architecture”. While many small businesses don’t have either a website or budget large enough to warrant the hiring of one of these specialist, their website designer should be aware of the navigation system’s importance. At the very least, you should ask a few people to look at your website and try to find something. If they have trouble, you should probably rethink your navigation system.

Your website’s ease of navigation is extremely important. If visitors to your website can’t easily find what they are looking for, they will go to your competitor. So don’t let your navigation system be an afterthought.




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Does Your Website Perform?

by blogmistress on July 12, 2012

1&1 Internet recently reported that up to 40% of small and medium size businesses still don’t have a website. That is shocking news. Social media has, in many cases, taken the place of the business website; but business owners need to understand that social media, while very important, is a tool in an overall marketing strategy. A business website is also a very important tool, but it must be a website that performs.

In the past, a business could just put up a static site and call it a day. Today, your website must attract visitors, educate them and convert them into customers. That is a lot to ask of a website, but when done right, it can bring a significant return on your investment. Businesses must integrate social media, content, blogging and more to meet the demands of today’s consumers.

Consumers now want to be educated, they want to be informed more than “sold.” This is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior.

website performance

What are you doing to inform consumers about your products and services? When a visitor comes to your site, are they getting information that will help them make a buying decision? Can they find it easily? Realizing the power of information is a great first step in making your website an inbound marketing machine that performs like a champion.




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Do You Really Need SEO?

by blogmistress on July 11, 2012

SEO New Orleans

Is this you?

SEO refers to search engine optimization. It is the science (and art) of helping your site (and thus your business) get found online. Inbound marketing consists of three steps:

  1. Get Found
  2. Convert
  3. Analyze

The reason getting found is first is because it doesn’t do you any good to have a beautiful website with great functionality if people can’t find you when they need or want your product and services.

We often get calls from businesses that have beautiful websites that are not getting visitors. In most of these cases, a quick review of the website in question will reveal that the website’s designer did not include even the most basic on-page SEO.

SEO is not only very important, it’s also something that is an ongoing process. Adding new, fresh content on a regular basis is a great way to improve your SEO. The easiest, and least expensive way to do this is through blogging. Blogging gives you the opportunity to rank for your keywords. Every time you write a new post that is informative to your readers and uses your keywords, you are adding another page to your site for search engines to index and deliver to people who are searching.

Ignoring SEO is part of the “spray and pray” style of marketing – you throw something up on the web and pray that it will work. Obviously, the “spray and pray” method of internet marketing is not very effective. Don’t ignore SEO. Use it to help your site get found by people who are looking for you.

Need help getting started with SEO? Download the SEO 101 eBook now.




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5 Business Blog Topics

by Admin on July 10, 2012

business blog ideasClients often ask us what should they blog about on their business blog. Here is a list of 5 business blog topic ideas to get you started.

  1. Frequently Asked Questions by Customers. A great place to start is with questions your customers often ask you. Make a list of the top 5 or 10 most asked questions, then write a blog post for each of them. If your customers or potential customers are asking you questions in person, others are likely seeking answers to the same questions online.
  2. Customer Case Study. Post a story about how one of your customers used your product or service with great results.
  3. New Product or Service. Write a post about a new product or service that you will be offering.
  4. Trends in Your Industry. Talk about where your industry is headed- new products or services on the horizon. Show readers that you are the authority in your industry.
  5. Conference Report. If you’ve attended a conference, seminar or class where you obtained information that might be helpful to your customers, write a report discussing the highlights and ideas you learned.

These are just five business blog ideas to kickstart your brain and get you started. Tell us in the comments about your ideas for business blogging.

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3 Ways to Improve Your Internet Marketing

by blogmistress on July 9, 2012

Internet Marketing New OrleansMonday 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

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Internet Doomsday Virus

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!

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The Golden Rule

by blogmistress on June 26, 2012

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That rule is not only golden for our personal lives, but it is golden for our businesses as well. People remember where they get good service. They remember where someone gave them a little bit more than expected- a lagniappe in our neck of the woods. They remember, they return and they also refer others.

You may be wondering how this transfers to online marketing. Think about your presence online. You can offer a little bit more information with a blog. You can provide information and discussion through social media. When you are online looking for information, don’t you appreciate the businesses that take the time to provide just a little more information and keep that information up to date? What about businesses that respond to your comments and questions on social media? Doesn’t that make a better impression than those that ignore you and your questions, and offer only the bare essentials of information?

We offer lots of information about online marketing on this blog. Some have told us we should keep some of these things secret because our competitors may see what we are doing and try to steal it. That is absurd. If we are doing something that is helpful to businesses, we hope that anyone who does internet marketing would do the same, go the extra mile. It helps everyone in the long run.

Do unto others . . . it’s golden.




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Marketing Isn’t Rocket Science . . . It’s Harder!

by blogmistress on June 18, 2012

inbound marketingMarketing isn’t rocket science . . . it’s harder – that chapter title in Rules of the Hunt by Michael Dalton Johnson really caught my attention. Johnson contends:

Marketing is not a do-it-yourself job. The talent and creativity needed to do it well are rare. There are no easy-to-follow formulas. Marketing is no place for amateurs.

He continues:

It’s remarkable how many people think that, by starting a business, they have somehow become marketing experts.

The basic concepts are simple and easy to understand, but, like many things, the devil is in the details. The old adage about poker comes to mind: It takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.

While marketing doesn’t take a lifetime to master, unless you have a few years of successful marketing experience, you don’t know much about marketing.

I suspect that businesses lose millions, perhaps billions, each year both from the cost of paying for marketing that doesn’t work and sales lost by amateurish marketing.

Does that sound harsh? It is actually true. Many say that marketing is just common sense, but for many it is common sense after the fact. People see something that is working and they say, “that makes sense.”

With the growth of the internet and social media, marketing is becoming more and more competitive. The average person is bombarded by around 3,000 marketing messages a day. The challenge is in making your message stand out. The world of internet marketing can be very dangerous for do-it-yourselfers.

Some businesses try to save money by opting to hire:

  • Anyone who is under 25 (often a relative) because they grew up using the internet and know their way around.
  • Someone who claims to be an “expert” because they have been online for a long time and they seem really nice.

While there is nothing wrong with being young, related and nice, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to know your way around the internet, none of these are actual qualifications of a true internet marketer. By hiring someone who does not have measurable, successful marketing experience, a business risks losing precious time and money.

Entrepreneurs often think they have to do everything on their own and build their business all by themselves. That simply isn’t the case. By working with experienced marketing professionals, business owners can often build their business faster, more efficiently and more economically than they can when they try to go it alone.

Need help with your marketing? Contact us!

 

 

 

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