Internet Marketing Tips, Tools and Strategies

Google Analytics isn’t just for seeing how many website visits you get in a month; it is a powerful tool that gives you the ability to understand your customers and their needs based on statistical information. Customer behavior is often dictated by their geographical location and thankfully Google Analytics gives you information on customer location.

So how do you get location data in Google Analytics? Well Google has a handy section under visitors called “Map Overlay”. This allows you to see where your website visitors are located in the world, which you can drill down from country, to state and even to city level maps. 

If you are a company that targets customers in your local area - your surrounding neighborhood, city, or maybe the entire state; knowing how to access this geo-information can help you make improvements to your website content, advertising, etc. to increase traffic and conversions. How?

Find the content that is bringing your target audience and improve on it. Are particular products or content phrasing on your website resonating with a particular audience? Do people in your area use search strings that your website contains? Find the keywords that are driving your target location traffic to your site and write content focused on them.

Really understand who buys your product. Are you under the assumption your customer is from suburban locations? Google Analytics can show you that urban or rural users are actually the bulk of customers searching for your product or service. Knowing exactly who your client is, not who you think they are, helps you develop marketing and sales tactics that work.

Locational information also can tell you if you are limiting your business. By viewing your Google Analytics location information, you might discover that there is potential for expansion to another state or even internationally! Or, maybe you might want to consider adding an ecommerce option to your website that allows users to buy product from areas you aren’t currently doing business with.

Knowing where your customers are located helps you understand them. Understanding your customers allows you to market yourself and your company effectively for success! So be sure to start utilizing Google Analytics location data right away to start understanding where your customers are located and what they need.

Don’t currently use Google Analytics or need some help understanding what all the numbers mean? Contact WSI for an analytic consultation today.  

One of the best things you can do to increase your leads and sales with online marketing is to focus on traffic conversion. If your site is really good at converting traffic (email opt-ins, e-commerce sales, lead forms, etc), you won’t need as much traffic. Too many business owners and marketing professionals focus on traffic and very little time is spent on traffic conversion strategies. Often times you need a lot less traffic then you think to make a lot of money using online marketing.

Here are 4 Traffic Conversion Strategies you can implement to increase conversion.

1) Soft Conversion – I call this traffic conversion strategy the "soft conversion". I call it a soft conversion, because it's a soft introduction to your company. You aren' trying to sell anything at this point, you are using the "give to get" strategy to establish this introduction. This is a must have for every business, I don’t care what industry you are in, you need to build your email mailing list. Using a soft conversion strategy, which is essentially opting into your email mailing list somehow, you are building one of your most important assets in your business – your mailing list.

There are businesses that earn on average about $1 per person on their list every time they mail to them. I know of companies that have over 100,000 people in their lists and each time they send out a high quality email, earn a 6 figure income per mailing. This is not the norm, but even for the small local business owner, having a list of 500-1,000 people to mail to each month keeps you relevant and in front of your target audience. Make sure that your soft conversion opt-ins are tied to your email marketing software and build your list automatically.

Some Ideas for a "Soft Conversion"
• Whitepaper Download
• Sign Up for our Newsletter (come up with a good offer to get people to sign up, give something away, discounts, monthly giveaways, etc).
• Free Information Kit
• Video Access (have a great informational video to share, have people opt in to view it)
• Webinars
• Brochure download

Soft conversion strategies require follow up of some kind. Consider setting up some autoresponders to engage these leads over the next 2,4,10, 30 days to pull them back to your site for main conversion. Your main conversion would most likely be your full lead page offer or product sales page.

2) Landing Pages – Improving the pages that have your offers on them can increase traffic conversion considerably. Split test some different landing page designs and layouts, offers and call to actions. Give the page some time to determine if it’s working or not. Often times people get impatient and change their landing pages too quickly without getting enough data to determine if a change is necessary or not.

If you are a local business trying to drive new leads, don’t overdo it! The simpler, the better in most cases. Make sure you have 1 phone number on the page that is highly visible. Often times, using a local number for a local online campaign (SEO, PPC, Email) is better vs using an 800#. You can also display a lead capture form on the page as well. With the lead capture form, asking for less information at this point will improve traffic conversion, so make sure you are not asking for too much from the prospect at this point or you might just drive them away. Get their Name, Email and Phone number. You may even have to leave the Phone number as “optional” at this stage in the lead generation process. A lot of people do not want to be contacted by phone or do not want to give out their phone number

3) Sell Benefits & Optimize Your Content – Stop trying to sell yourself or your company and simply sell the benefits of what you are offering. Using bulleted lists outlining the benefits of your products and services helps your traffic quickly scan your content and find the solution to their problem. Solve problems with your benefits list vs talking about what your company does. Monitor your conversion rates and if they are not where you would like them to be, start split testing pages or make 1 or 2 changes at a time to measure the impact. Going back through your site and re-focusing your content to sell benefits will improve conversion rates along with modifying your content to be easier to scan for online readers (shorter paragraphs, bulleted lists, use headings).

4) Use Video – video can play a vital role in traffic conversion. Using a video on your landing page, home page or elsewhere will provide a much higher level of engagement with your traffic then text will. This is also a huge differentiator as most businesses do not take the time to produce a video. You probably don’t even need to go and spend much money to create a video, use a Flip Camera and shoot it yourself. Video can provide a much higher level of personal touch with your prospects then your typical web page content. There are all kinds of data online as to the conversion rates of pages with video, do your own research and I think you will find that not using video is a big mistake.

Judging by most of the traffic conversion strategies that we see sites using online, especially for small to medium sized businesses, most companies could double or even triple their conversions in a short period of time simply focusing on these 3 key areas outlined above. What would 2x-3x’s the amount of leads from the same amount of traffic do for your business?

Understanding the term 'conversion' and how it applies to internet marketing is very important for anyone running a business with a website. There are lots of internet marketing tools to drive traffic to your website. The trick is turning that traffic into sales and customers and that job falls on your website.

Here are 7 tips for improving your website's conversion rate.

1. Deliver Your Message - If you're walking around the mall and see a great outfit in a store window you may take a second look and consider going in. However it is the store across the way with the large 40% off all woman's boots is probably more likely to entice you into their store. You need to do the same thing with your website. When consumers are searching for products make sure your listing shows up with an appealing call-to-action.

2. Shorten Your Copy - People who are searching the web are not interested in lengthy copy. Be short and keep copy in short sections. This will help decrease your bounce rate.

3. Make Yourself Accessible - You don't want customers hunting for a way to reach you. Put your phone number on every page and use a contact us form with less than five entrees.

4. Utilize Auto Responses - Put a contact us form on every page of your site. Then when someone fills out your form you have their email address as well as the information of what page they were on when the filled out the  form. Use this to follow up with an auto response back to them.

5. Design For Your Audience - The overall layout of your site needs to be pleasing to your target audience. Design your site to enhance their experience.

6. Make Color Work For You - There are many studies out about how people react to certain colors. Get some information on color psychology and fill your site with colors that will speak to the mood you want your customer to be in while viewing your products.

7. Use Images Wisely - When planning your website don't focus so much on layout and content that you forget to choose great images. Photos can make a big difference in keeping your visitor on your site.

It is no big secret that content is a huge contributor to your search engine ranking. Unfortunately it is possible to have terrific content within your site but still not rank on Google's first page. 

Having quality content is a great first step but it needs to be done with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind from the start.

Google uses two things to prioritize its search rankings.

1. Inside Content - The most obvious determination of rank is within your content. Google will search your content for related keywords. Keywords should be used in headings, sub headings, bullets and internal link text. 

2. Outside Content - The second factor in determining your rank is slightly more complicated to master. Google looks at your website and then looks at all the external links that point to your website. Google sees these links as recommendations for your site and the content that you have within your site. Basically it builds your credibility and Google ranks your website based on the number of related links. 

Adjusting the keywords you use and the frequency with which you use them is a fairly simple task. Getting these external links to your site is not as simple. Blogging and writing articles to appear on content marketing websites, such as HubPages and Squidoo, can increase links back to your site and hopefully ignite conversation about your topics and point to your site within the conversation. 

In addition to these methods you can also ask a related website to trade links with you. Offer to post a link to their site in return for a link from their site to yours. 

Finally use conversation as a tool to accrue links back to your site. Social Media Marketing is a great way to reach a large target audience and get them talking and clicking back to your site. Social media sites vary greatly but whether you're sharing a video, promoting a blog or plugging a webinar these sites spark interest and encourage conversation. Combining content with conversation is key to SEO success.

These days website traffic can be increased through numerous methods. Whether you're initiating a PPC campaign, sending targeted emails or adding valuable content to your site you need to keep one constant in place. Your goals!

The ultimate (macro) goal may be to sell a product or gain a customer. Other macro goals may be:
    •    Downloading a whitepaper
    •    Signing up for an e-newsletter
    •    Requesting a quote
    •    Submitting information in return for something of value
    •    Viewing a product, service page or consuming some form of content (article, video, blog, etc.)

These macro goals can take time to achieve. Equally important to success are smaller (micro) goals that help build to your ultimate goals. Micro goals are the steps it takes to complete the macro goal. These may include:
    •    Opening an email
    •    Clicking on a PPC ad
    •    Browsing your website and viewing multiple pages
    •    Putting products into a cart and providing billing information
    
Initiating an analytics package can easily help you track the actions of consumers during a visit to your website. Where did they spend the most time, what actions did they take and what was the bounce rate upon the initial arrival? Understanding the steps taken prior to completing a macro goal can help you better understand your consumer and how to direct them where you want them to end up.

Landing pages are tricky and extremely important tools. Many people believe that success has been reached when someone clicks through to your landing page, however that is only half the battle. You got their attention enough to push them further but it's the landing page that needs to seal the deal and drive your consumer to take action.

Tafadzwa Marapa recently shared 6 rules of creating powerful landing pages:

1. Determine your customer goal - It's up to you to decide what you want your visitor to do upon reaching your landing page. If you don't make it obvious what they should do upon arriving to your landing page then there's a good chance they will leave without taking any further action.

2. Make your landing page consistent with your ad - Using a consistent message from your ad to your landing page will help the visitor to understand the action you are encouraging them to take. It also let's the visitor know they've landed in the right place. This increases the likelihood that the visitor will follow and complete the path you've set out.

3. Present a professional design - Your landing page should meet or exceed the design standard set by your website. The page needs to look professional and be well designed with quality graphics.

4. Don't offer extra links - Keep your landing page to one message goal. Don't throw all kinds of links in there and hope the viewer finds something they like.

5. Call for action - If a consumer has clicked through to your landing page they are interested in your product. Make sure they know what to do upon arriving to the landing page to complete the process.

6. Track your results - Is your PPC campaign cost effective? Make sure you can measure your results. Track your conversion rate & the marketing cost per sale.

Click here to read Marapa's blog post entitled The rules of creating powerful landing pages.

Yes. Does that mean you should? Probably not. And here's why - if you're like most small to medium sized business owners, you most likely already wear a lot of hats within your organization. You may already feel like you do not have enough time in a day to complete everything on your "to-do" list, and if so how much time are you really able to dedicate to managing your pay per click campaign? Unless you are able to spend a couple of hours per day (yes, per day) you may be wasting your clicks.

When pay per click marketing first came out, it was easy for small and medium sized business owners to set up a pay per click campaign, choose a few keywords, and let it run for the month. But as internet marketing practices become more specialized, pay per click becomes more competitive and requires constant attention. How much time are you willing and able to devote to pay per click management? Consider this -

- How much is your time worth, or how much would you have to spend to hire someone in-house? Conservatively, let's say that amount is $50/hr.
- You should spend a minimum of 5-10 hours per week on your PPC campaign, checking keyword performance and ads, which is $250 per week or $13,000 per year! And that's on the low end.
- WSI is working with a $2+ million pay per click management tool that enables us to have access to the latest and greatest in PPC technology far above and beyond a basic Google Adwords account. And we are able to track multiple conversion points (Call Tracking, Email Tracking, Web Form Tracking, Sales, Email Marketing Sign-ups, and a multitude of Web Events). We also optimize our campaigns around the keywords that lead to "conversions." Google Adwords tool can only track conversions from Web Forms and Sales, which means you are probably missing out on tracking 60% of your conversions.

We understand that in current economic times, small and medium sized business owners are looking to shrink their marketing budgets, increase their ROI or both. And while it may be tempting to tackle some of your internet marketing campaigns in house, keep in mind that you get what you pay for. WSI guarantees that we will get you better PPC results than if you manage your campaign yourself. Contact us today to find out how.

Conversion Architecture™ is based on the principle that every website, regardless of industry, should be targeted to a specific customer profile. Our job as Internet Marketing Consultants is to analyze your customers and come up with these customer profiles, based on consumer behavior and objectives, and integrate them into your website. The goal is for every element of your website to persuade visitors on your site to take the actions you want them to - which will lead to a conversion.

Many business owners have a hard time wrapping their head around the concept that your "average customer" does not, in fact, exist. It is necessary to take a closer look at your customer base and really analyze them using audience profiling, segemented needs analysis, and other tools to increase the number and quality of your sales leads. Otherwise, by focusing on everyone, your site may not appeal to anyone.

The next step is to monitor and measure your results. Look at every click on your website as a step towards conversion. You want your visitors to build confidence in your site with every click, until they finally convert into a customer.

Every company uses different Internet marketing methods like pay per click advertising, custom landing pages, social media, and many others. But no matter what your Internet marketing mix looks like, your website is your primary marketing vehicle and your Internet marketing strategy begins and ends there. Conversion Architecture™ is an invaluable step in solidifying this important building block of your marketing plan.

At WSI, we specialize in Conversion Architecture™  to help you reap enhanced Internet profitability.

Get in touch with us today to develop or revisit your Internet Marketing plan.

At WSI, we have been saying this for years....SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click), and E-mail marketing are the most effective ways to increase company wide "conversions", and now Forbes Media has just completed a study that confirms this.

Forbes Media "Ad Effectiveness Survey" polled 112 marketers online back in February and March to learn more about their attitudes towards digital marketing. Not only were these forms of internet marketing considering most effective at increasing conversions, but also considered most effective in demand fulfillment rather then demand creation. That is the true beauty behind effective internet marketing, your message appears at the exact time the prospect wants it to appear, its not forced, the prospect has the control.

Internet marketing is not a "demand creation" marketing medium like TV or radio. TV, Radio, and even magazines can be effective in creating demand for your product, but we get bombarded everyday with thousands of marketing messages and most people are simply tuning out. A greater ROI can be derived from effective internet marketing campaigns because we are focusing only on those who want to learn more about our products and services, and not wasting our time/money on those who don't. In today's economy, a great website marketed effectively on the internet, can be the difference maker between those companies who survive and those who don't.