Internet Marketing Tips, Tools and Strategies

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.

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.

Earlier this week, eMarketer published an article that reaffirmed what WSI is always telling our clients - even in a poor economy, you have to invest in your online marketing spending to make money. In fact, for a lot of businesses, increasing your business spending or reallocating marketing dollars into cheaper and more effective (read: online) media during a downturn can help you come out on top as the economy picks up.

The eMarketer article goes on to discuss the correlation between businesses that are continuing to succeed and greater marketing spending. The bottom line: "Almost two-thirds of small businesses that expected increased revenues had raised or planned to raise marketing spending, compared with just 32% to 36% of businesses with flat or declining revenues." Additionally, "the survey showed small businesses shifting marketing initiatives toward cheaper digital media and away from traditional channels. The top three marketing tools used were social media, e-mail newsletters and search."

Contact us today to find out how WSI can help your business leverage these three (and other) marketing tools to maximize the effectiveness of your business spending. You may think you can't afford to increase business spending or increasing online marketing spending right now, but the truth is you can't afford not to if you want to survive and thrive in the current economy.

We encourage you to read the eMarketer article in its entirety here. 

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.

As companies continue to struggle in the current economy, many are seeing their marketing budgets cut with more cuts anticipated for the last quarter of 2009 into 2010. During this time of change and scrutiny over every advertising dollar spent, it is important to note that the online advertising sector continues to grow as business are taking their marketing strategies online. According to eMarketer, digital spending will account for 17% of total ad spending in the US by next year, up from 15.4% currently and 13.9% last year. An "Interaction 2009" report done by GroupM Interaction indicates that companies are also increasing spending on search and mobile marketing and decreasing traditional media spending. According to this report, the future of marketing is so-called "intention marketing" with a combination of paid and organic search along with mobile and social media marketing.

Savvy marketers are already following this trend, according to a 2009 accountability study done by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Marketing Management Analytics (MMA). The number one strategy is taking offline marketing online, and reallocating spending into lower-cost digital media like SEO, PPC and Social Media Marketing.

WSI can take a look at your current marketing strategies online (and offline) and provide the online marketing how to that every business needs in this economy. For every industry, there is a correct marketing mix online that will get you the best ROI possible. And one of the significant benefits of WSI's online marketing strategies is that everything we do is 100% trackable so you know almost immediately how well your campaigns are working and where there is room for improvement.

To find out more about the online marketing strategies WSI can provide, as well as a complimentary analysis of the marketing mix online for your business, please contact us today. As we kick of the fourth quarter of 2009, there's still time to end the year and start off the new year with a bang!

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.

Think you have squeezed every last dollar out of your Pay Per Click campaigns? Or think you have your Custom Landing Page down to a science? Maybe....maybe Not.  As the old saying goes, "You can't improve what you can't measure." This holds true even more so during tough economic times like we are facing today. The answer is effectively managing your Analytics.

Marketing managers and business owners are looking for ways to trim marketing budgets and increase ROI  (we should always be looking to do this, recession or not). If you can spend less and make more money, why wouldn't you want to do this?

Ask yourself:
1)  Does my print ad in the local newspaper really work? And how well does it work?
2)  What is my Yellow Page Ad costing me per lead? 
3)  Is my website unattractive to my visitors?
4)  Is my search engine optimization (SEO) work giving us the leads we are looking for?
5)  Are my email marketing campaigns even reaching my prospects INBOX or going straight to Junk Mail?
6)  I am spending all this money on a radio ad, but how can I measure its effectiveness?

If you are asking yourself these questions then its pretty clear that you probably aren't up to speed with Web Analytics. You can track and measure all of these marketing campaigns effectiveness. Without proper analysis and not being able to make informed decisions, business owners and marketing managers might stop campaigns that might be working or just need some tweaking. 

Check out our Analytics Webinar and Whitepaper on Web Analytics and How to Optimize Your Marketing Dollars During a Recession.

Optimize Your Marketing Dollars During the Recession (410 KB)

Watch the Webinar
 

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.