WSI Blog - Internet Marketing Tips and Strategies

Sending out an email message to your opt-in list? Just because they asked to receive information from your business does not mean they'll automatically open every email you send. Emails are initially judged by the subject line. It's important to make that subject line compelling enough to entice the recipient to open your email.

The first step in creating an email marketing campaign that gets opened is to create a successful headline and keep it to 50 characters or less. And those 50 characters need to catch the readers' attention. Consider highlighting a discount, offer or news item in your subject line. These items can drive open rates. Personalization is another tool that can drive consumers to open your email.

The formula for a subject line should include exactly what your readers can expect, what's in it for them and what exactly do you want them to do. Take it a step further and personalize the subject line with the reader's first name. This will secure their interest and action. Another tip to drive action is to instill a sense of urgency such as: "Sale Ends Today."

Subject lines can also flag spam filters. To help ensure your email stays out of spam folders avoid putting words like 'Free' in full capitalization and avoid using extra punctuation such as FREE!!!! It's perfectly acceptable to use the word 'free' in your subject line but keep it simple and understated.

Make sure you continuously test how these tips work for you and how your audience responds to them. Consider spitting up your email list and try a personalized message on the first group and an email with no personalization on the other group. Try this method with mentioning price savings vs. no mention. Analyze what your audience responds to and alter your subject lines accordingly. Always testing the success of your messages and evolving with your results will keep your subject lines fresh and your open rates high.

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.

Email marketing can be an extremely valuable method of marketing to your target audience. Every dollar spent on email marketing generates as average of $57.25 in revenue. That is a fantastic statistic however there are some methods to making your email as successful as possible. Consider the design of your email. Below are some key areas to evaluate your design practices.

1. Design for the most popular email clients
Different email platforms will all display your email in a slightly different way. Design your email in HTML, plain text and perhaps a rich text version. Make sure you review how your email will appear in the top email clients such as, Outlook, Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL Mail.

2. Follow the best HTML practices
~ Use HTML coding
~ Validate HTML content
~ Avoid using scripts
~ Avoid using forms
~ Use universally supported fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman & Tahoma in 10 pt or size 2 copy.

3. Use color & graphics/buttons effectively

Color should pull the eye to your content, not make it harder to read. Evaluate the readability of your design and adjust as necessary. Use buttons and graphics to draw attention to your email content and make it clear to the viewer what their next step should be, clicking through.

4. Consider the size of your email design and graphics

Keeping an email to 500-650 pixels means that your email will reach the viewer without the need for them to scroll through the email. 54% of consumers will be viewing your email in a reading pane. Cater to them and avoid large image headers, and put key content and links at the top. It is also a good practice to keep your email to 40-50 kb.

5. Use alt tags to make your emails disabled image-friendly

Some email clients do not automatically download images and mobile devices will often show emails without their images. Make sure your email works without its images by using alt tags through out.

6. Make it easy to click through

Place text, image and navigation links throughout your email. Including 25+ links will get you a 12% higher open rate and 29 % higher click-through rate. Links should be relevant and call-to-action links should appear several times. Never use a full URL as a link, hyperlink keywords instead.

7. Promote yourself

Consider including a link in your email to forward the message to a friend. Use emails as an opportunity to promote your social networking pages such as Facebook, Twitter & your blog.

Blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website and to share your product and industry knowledge. However just because you publish a blog does not guarantee you a reader following. Follow the tips below to improve the success of your blog.

1. Narrow down your target audience
Blog readers are looking for something specific. They may frequent multiple blogs on the same topic in order to stay on top of current trends in their area of interest. Look at your products and services and determine who you are ultimately trying to reach. Then you can share with them your industry expertise and current market trends.

2. Give them valuable information
Determine what information your audience would find valuable. If you're a home builder your reader might enjoy some building tips to cut down on heating costs. Blog readers will come back if you continue to educate and inform them. Immerse yourself in your industry trends and share that knowledge through your blog.

3. Speak the language
Write your blog as if you were speaking to your audience. If you write a medical blog and your audience is made up exclusively of medical professionals then feel free to use technical jargon. However if your medical blog will be frequented by potential patients make sure you aren't speaking over their heads. If they can't understand your content they won't continue to read your blog. 

There is a lot of information floating around about social media. Some people rave about how great social media is while others believe it's a total waste of time. Below is a list of common misconceptions that businesses often have about utilizing social media.

"Sites Like Twitter And Facebook Are For Kids"
Fear: Business owners have trouble understanding that it could be possible that the same site that kids use to socialize with friends could also be utilized to connect a business with it's target audience.
Fact: Yes, there are a lot of teens and college students on social networking sites. However the fastest growing demographic has been those 35 and up. In fact internet users age 35-54 make up 40.6% of MySpace visitors. Social media is a great way for organizations to reach out and connect with their audience to grow business.

"Building Online Relationships Is A Waste of Time"
Fear: There is no reason to network with people you will never meet. It will not drive my business.
Fact: Social media is a medium in which you can network with your target audience, clients and customers. There is no such thing as time wasted when you are networking with your target audience. Not all of your contacts will become customers but they can still provide feedback on services and products plus you can keep them informed about what is happening in your organization.

"You Cannot Measure Social Media"
Fear: It will be impossible to measure ROI on social media.
Fact: Social media is internet based which automatically makes it measurable. You can look at the number of fans that increased over time, the number of comments posted on your channel, the number of discussion threads on your forum, or the number of ratings your video received. These performance indicators can be measured to determine campaign success.

"Social Media Is Free"
Fear: I can easily create my own Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn page. Why is it being suggested that I need to pay money to implement these campaigns.
Fact: A lot of the technology is free but simply creating an account on Facebook is not a social media campaign. You need to ask yourself:
~How do I increase the number of fans I have on my Facebook page?
~How do I get users to subscribe to my YouTube channel?
~How do I get people to retweet my message to their followers on Twitter?
~How do I get users to subscribe to my blog?
You need the campaign, creative and the drive to get your social media plan working for you.

"This Is Something I Can Probably Do In-House"
Fear: We have employees who are using social media. Why not use them to grow our business online?
Fact: Most employees are probably using social media for personal reasons, connecting with friends, sharing photos etc. When leveraging and monetizing social media for business it's an entirely different ball game. For creativity, campaign ideas and experience the key is to find an expert in this field to put your plan into place.

With these common misconceptions explained you can click here :
to read more about Social Media Marketing

It's safe to say that 2009 was a year of economic crisis for markets across the globe.  Budgets were tightened and businesses have had to re-evaluate themselves  and make changes in order to surpass the economic conditions.

With 2009 behind us many believe that 2010 will be a year of recovery. As businesses re-evaluate their budgets and practices as a result of 2009 they are spending drastically less money on traditional advertising mediums such as radio, newspaper and television. Advertising in these areas involves costly ad production and media buys that are most effective by investing a significant amount of money.

One medium that has grown both in users and in advertising spending has been the internet.
In 2010, the US Internet population will grow to 205.3 million users, or 66.2% of the total US population. It is anticipated that this number will increase again in 2011 to 210.9 million (67.3% of the total population.) By 2013, 221.1 million people will be online (nearly 70% of the US population.)
With the number of people using the internet steadily increasing internet advertising has done the same. 2009 saw an increase despite the economy with $20.34 billion spent on advertising online in the US and for this year that number is projected to increase to $23.42 billion. It is estimated that by 2012, marketers will spend $31.05 billion in advertising dollars online.
Recent economic set backs have made businesses leery of investing in marketing and advertising however it is an important method of contacting your target audience and growing new business. Focusing on internet marketing such as PPC, Social Media Marketing and SEO, is a cost effective way of reaching that audience and achieving growth. Usage of the internet is growing and advertisers are listening. 

Upon visiting your site potential customers will either "surf" (engage with your content) or they will "turf" it (leave without participating.) You only have about 7 seconds to engage a visitor to your site and that includes the time it takes for your site to load on their computer. Ultimately you want your visitors to visit multiple pages of your site and click through when given the opportunity, or if you create a great landing page they should be able to "convert" on that page without needing to see anymore pages.

Considering how challenging it can be to get a consumer to your site you don't want to lose them by making it hard for them to find what they need via search. The key is making sure your site pages are listed in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Visibility on SERP is achieved through SEO to increase your organic search standing, through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, and indirectly through Social Media. Ultimate success is often achieved with a combination of the two. Since it is easier to guarantee your standing in PPC it is important to create a conversion-focused PPC ad that compels a consumer to click through.

Here are 3 tips to create a successful PPC ad:

1. Include Strong Call-to-actions or Promotional Offers
- Use compelling words like "save, "order", "buy" etc. If there are no current sales "free shipping" or "compare" are also successful.

- Keep the most important information within the "Title Tag" which is the line of text underlined in blue. Pay attention to how any characters each search engine will display in the Title Tag and make sure your most important information is within that range.

2. Ensure You Write Your Keywords in the Title Tag First
- Do not begin your title tag with your brand name. It won't be as well received by the user and it hinders SEO efforts.

- Following your keywords use action words in the title such as "learn", "discover", "find" etc.

- Add secondary keywords or geographies you business services to the title tag.

- Last but not least, put the brand name of your company.

3. Go Social
- Social media is an umbrella term for medias that integrate technology, social interaction and include pictures, videos, audio and written communication.

To learn more tips to help ensure your website is "surfed" rather than "turfed" check out our recorded webinar, "Surf and Turf with Surf and Social."

Before you can market your website with tools such as social media marketing and PPC ads you need to make sure your site is doing the best job it can do. Here are 6 tips to ensure that your website is ready to be promoted.

1. Research Keywords
People are searching for your services and you need to find out what words they use. They may not use the proper words to describe your product but their words are the words you need. Put these keywords on your site thus making it easier for the consumer to find you because you'll show up on the search engine results page (SERP).

2. Be an Expert in Your Field
In order to trust you and your services a customer needs to view you as a resource in your field. Include content on your website that can help educate your consumer thus building their trust in a partnership with you.

3. Communicate With Your Target Audience
If you have a blog on your website open it up for public comments. Let your community converse with you and each other about products, services, trends and more. Communication builds a relationship on a more personal level.

4. Make Your Website Available
A website does not keep office hours. It needs to be open 24 hours a day. If you are an online retailer you need to be able to process orders at any hour, any day of the week.

5. Network
If you are an expert in your industry your consumer should see you around. Join professional organizations and participate in your professional community. Get your name and brand on other sites and social media networks.

6. Update, Update, Update
Keep your website new and fresh. Add new content frequently and keep up with current market trends.

If you are trying to increase your website visibility through a PPC campaign or by improving your organic search standings it's time to think about the speed behind your website. When ranking PPC standings Google has added loading time to it's ranking and organic searches will soon take page load time into account as well. There's no reason to allow messy coding to prevent you from getting the best possible search engine rankings.

The goal was once to keep a page load under 100kB per page. Today that can be more difficult but if your site falls between 300kB and 500kB then you need to reduce your page size. You can use Google's Page Speed plug-in for Firebug to get a page speed analysis.

The best place to start evaluating the loading time of your site look to these four areas:

1. (X)HTML: What is Your Code Weight
Make sure your HTML is clean and simple. Avoid unnecessary tables and inline images. HTML should not be over 30kB - 50kB on a single page.

2. CSS Sheets
Keep sheets minimal and well written. Divide the sheets so they are organized within the site structure. Remove any unused classes.

3. JavaScripting
Make sure all JavaScripting files are external and with everything else, keep them lightweight.

4. Images Optimization
Using the correct image files and reducing image size is a common cause of slower page loading. Use JPGs for photos and PNGs for line art. Avoid GIFs when possible as they do not compress as well as PNGs. Make sure image files are compressed correctly to avoid an oversized page.

This information came from today's blog post: Need For Speed: Give Your Web Pages a Nitro Boost by Kristine Schachinger. To read her tips in more detail click here: http://budurl.com/NFSBlogWSI63

You may have a beautiful and user friendly website but that alone will not insure that consumers are finding it. Contrary to some beliefs the best way to increase visitation to your site is not through costly print, radio, TV or online banner ads. The ultimate way to attract more visitors is through content marketing combined with a good SEO strategy.

Filling your site with fresh content that is valuable to your target audience and then promoting that content can have a major effect on your site's exposure in the search engines. The ultimate goal it to write great content that your relevant for your target audience, promote the content on your site and additional content marketing sites/article marketing sites. Promoting on article marketing sites can help drive new links alone will and improve your search engine rankings. Finally promoting your content within social media outlets, YouTube and blogs will complete that extra step to taking your content virally.

The most important factor here is that your content be relevant and of high value to your reader. In order to take the first step towards content marketing is to create a content blueprint. Here are 6 steps to creating a content blueprint:

Step 1: Define your business goals
What do you want to achieve in the next 12 months?

Step 2: Identify your ideal website audience
Who exactly do you want to be visiting your website? This is typically the person most likely to be making the decisions about your product or service. As a homebuilder you may want to target housewives for example as they may be the primary decision maker when it comes to building a new home.

Step 3: List the types of information they require
For each target audience what questions will they typically ask and what is the information most requested about your company, product or service?

Step 4: Determine the action you want your target to take
What is their call to action? Watching a video? Signing up for your newsletter? Whatever you direct them to,m that information needs to help your visitor solve their problem and ultimately encourage them to engage with your company.

Step 5: Research search keywords
Use keyword research tools such as Wordtracker or Google's keyword tool. Find out what people are searching for and use the tool to identify niche topics that you can create content for.

Step 6: Create your blueprint
Sort your content by target audience and create a sitemap and navigation plan to channel your content effectively to your visitor. For each piece decide what channels you will use to promote. Consider website, blog, YouTube, Podcast, LinkedIn, Facebook and anywhere else you anticipate your target frequenting.

Create a schedule for when you will create and publish content. Publishing regularly will increase visibility. The best part about content marketing is that the information you create and share is actually increasing the value of your business.

Lastly make sure you have a way to measure your success. Install Google Analytics to monitor website visitation and set business goals that you can measure.