WSI Blog - Internet Marketing Tips and Strategies

Site visits are not the true measure of your overall internet marketing strategy if you are using your site to generate new business leads. Many businesses get caught up in only tracking how many visitors they drive to their web site. Truth is, anyone can track site visits, and this is far from what you need to be paying attention to. While seeing your site visits climb each and every month is exciting, the true measure of your internet marketing success comes from contact form submissions/email marketing sign-ups/online sales/whitepaper downloads/etc, and phone calls generated.

Every business should be using some type of web analytics software to track the overall activity on their site. We use Google Analytics (free) for most of our client’s sites, but there are many other paid analytics software programs out there that are very good. Using your analytics software, you should be tracking all leads/sales generated directly on the site "Goals" or "Conversions," and setup ways to track all of the phone calls that have been generated from your website and pay per click ads.

An easy way to track your web form submissions in Google Analytics is to setup Goals. Not only will this give you a more accurate picture on what keywords are leading to conversions, but there is also evidence now that Google's search algorithms are taking into account how well your site converts to determine overall organic ranking. This makes sense considering Google's business is setup to deliver the highest quality, most relevant sites to their users, and a great way for Google to determine relevancy and quality of a site is to look at how many people interact or convert (fill out a form, sign up for email list, purchase an item, download a whitepaper) on the site.

Tracking Phone Calls is essential with internet marketing. How many people use their existing phone number and stick it on their web site? Just about every business we encounter has done this. Take the time and setup a tracking number just for your web site, one that will allow you to record phone calls, track number of calls, and even provide a list of who called, where they called from. Use only this number for your web site, setup additional numbers for your Pay Per Click campaigns and other off-line marketing mediums. WSI VoiceMarketer is a tool that we use to track the effectiveness of not only our own site, but many of our clients. And with Click-to-Call options available from both computers (need Skype or similar service installed) and Smart Phones, combined with Google Integration (a WSI Voice Marketer service), you can track what organic keywords let to a specific phone call.

Every internet marketing strategy can be tracked and measured, more so then you ever thought possible. Take the time to setup analytics goals and tracking phone numbers with your internet marketing strategies, and you will see the true picture of how well your marketing dollars are performing

LinkedIn has grown to include more than 55 million users in 200 countries worldwide. LinkedIn has grown on the principle that every person is connected to one another by no more than six degrees of separation. It’s amazing how many people we are connected to through other people we know. LinkedIn allows you to easily get introduced and make new contacts for your business (new prospects, vendors, suppliers, employers, employees, friends, networking, etc).

Surprisingly, when utilizing LinkedIn, it's not always your “strong” contacts that prove to be most valuable when looking for new job opportunities or business opportunities. They typically belong to your same circle, both professionally and socially, and don’t typically recommend a person or business outside of this network. Instead your “weak” contacts are the ones that can open up new doors and introduce you to new opportunities.

Using LinkedIn, you can quickly and easily increase your sphere of influence using your “weak” contacts. When used properly, you can use LinkedIn to generate leads, increase your credibility, increase your visibility, communicate more effectively, and manage your brand.

Make sure when getting started on LinkedIn you have a social media strategy, even if it’s a basic one.
Ask yourself – What are the needs of my business? What do I want to accomplish by using the site? Who am I trying to reach?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you target the right LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn users. LinkedIn Groups are a great way to make new contacts. Start by finding relevant, local, LinkedIn Groups that you can connect to. Join, monitor, engage (social media is a 2 way street, you need to respond and interact with other peoples post, don’t just push your posts to the discussion boards). Using a “Push” strategy on LinkedIn will probably fall on deaf ears. Make sure you make time to interact with what other people in your network are talking about.

Other Tips:
- Fill Out Your Profile Completely – a poorly thought out or 50% completed profile lacks professionalism and will turn others off from connection with you.
- Use the 1st Person – it has been found that using (I/We/us) is more effective at reaching people then the 3rd person (he/she/it).
- Use Keywords – similar to optimizing a website, optimize your posts with your targeted keywords.
- Get Personal, but Keep it Professional – let people know what you are interested (hobbies, activities, music, books, etc), but keep it professional. Showing you are human and not just a lead generation machine will help people connect with you.
- Join Groups - joining Groups on LinkedIn can be one of the most powerful ways to grow your sphere of influence. Most Groups allow you to post discussions - use this as an opportunity to introduce yourself, network, promote webinars, etc. Don't over self promote, make sure your reciprocate when you can by responding to other's posts. Also, by joining relevant groups, you can contact people in your groups for FREE on LinkedIn, even if they are not a connection.

Content marketing continues to be a great way to improve search engine visibility in 2010, and improve the "stickiness" of your site. Content marketing is when you publish, promote, and syndicate content this is valuable, interesting, and relevant to your brand and overall marketing strategies.

Focus on creating "keyword" rich content that aligns well with the keywords you are targeting for your site and be sure to provide content that reads well and is written for the user, not for the search engines. Many clients tend to get one or the other of these key points, but often fail to utilize both strategies (keyword rich content & written for the user). A recent client of ours provided a well written article, but failed to use any of the keywords that we were trying to target for the search engine optimization campaign. I suppose you can't always use your keywords for every article, but it certainly makes sense to try.

Create optimized content that is specific to what your target audience is searching for:
• Identify the information needs of your target audience
• Analyze your ideal persona's needs
• Include a clear "call to action" in each article and content piece. Your readers will often do what you tell them to do. Call Now! Get More Information. Download Our Free Whitepaper. Buy Now.
• Provide information that fulfills the need of each of your personas - Can't always be done with 1 content article, provide multiple articles over time that speaks to all of your target audience.

Once your content is written, you need to distribute it. First, make sure your content article is on your website as a web page. You can offer a PDF version, but an actual page will allow you to setup internal links to other pages (improves SEO and usability) and add analytics to track the popularity and success of your articles. Use an initial push strategy to begin marketing your content (social media, article marketing sites, blogs, and market it on your own site). This will help get people interested in your content and hopefully they will begin to share it with others. Wherever possible, always include a link back to your article on your site or a targeted page on your site.

Social media sites have changed the way consumers interact with businesses. In the past, marketers could maintain a positive spin on issues that would arise with their products or services, by using a combination of media advertising and news coverage. Only extreme, newsworthly stories got any visibility beyond a small number of people, and big companies had entire departments devoted to dealing with issues that would arise that could affect their brand. With the growth of social media sites, so has the opportunity for consumers to easily comment (positvely & negatively) about a companies products and service. These comments and posts are available to view by millions online in seconds.

Are you monitoring the chatter about your company? How are you dealing with negative reviews?

FREE Social Media Apps
Try Google Alerts or Yahoo Alerts. Two free tools that will allow you to monitor keywords relating to your business, brand, products, and people. 
Technorati - the leading blog search engine, will help you keep your finger on the pule of what's being talked about online. Lexicon
Monitter - find out what people are talking about on Twitter. Monitter provides real time monitoring of the Twittersphere.
Tweetburner or Budurl - lets you shorten and track your URL posts so you can determine where your social capital is getting the best results.

The introduction of social networking and social media has leveled the playing field (to some extent) for all businesses. I mention "to some extent" because implementing a solid social media strategy takes a lot of time and skill, those who invest the most social capital tend to get the best results. Most small business owners simply don't have the time or resources to create enough social capital to make an impact vs. the mid sized to large companies who hire full time marketers or outsource to agencies to manage their social media campaigns.

Savy companies, who are open to communicate directly with consumers, can leverage social media in their favor. Responding quickly to negative posts or complaints, in a positive way, can strengthen your relationship with your existing clients and generate new business. Consumers who post negative comments should be met with offers to resolve their issues in a polite soft tone. Avoid re-acting negatively or giving away the farm each time someone files a complaint. Need to strike a balance that works for your company that will help you resolve issues without costing you a fortune in both the bank account and brand degredation.