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.
Here are some quick Pay Per Click Marketing tips for you to consider when managing your own campaigns.
• Set Goals - Determine the goal of your campaign (sales, leads, brand awareness)
• Know your audience – allows you to narrow in on keywords, ad text, landing pages to avoid potential “roadblocks” in the conversion process.
• Less is more! – don’t try to do too much with 1 campaign. Creating multiple, highly targeted campaigns with focused ad groups and keywords that align well with ad copy and landing pages, will improve your quality score, relevancy, conversion, and squeeze more out of your PPC budgets.
• Geo Targeting – if your business is local, have your pay per click ads only display in a 10, 15, 25 mile radius of your office or primary market. If you are on a limited budget, the smaller the radius the better.
• Content Networks – avoid content networks until you have a good feel for your campaigns. Test content networks in small increments to see what works and what doesn’t.
• Keywords – find niche, long tail keywords that convert and you will get more from your budget. Spending time on keyword research is vital to your success. Review your keywords on a regular basis and search for more. What might work today, might not work tomorrow. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!
• Landing Pages – make sure the page you are sending your traffic aligns well with the keywords and ad copy. Investing in a good landing page with a well crafted PPC campaign can produce excellent results.
• Analytics – study your analytics data and conversion goals. You need to know what is working and what is not producing results.
• #1 Position Isn’t Always Better– businesses are obsessed with obtaining the #1 paid ad position in the search engines. Why? They believe that being #1 will produce the best results, but this is not necessarily true. It depends on the keywords, bidding strategy, landing page, and conversion results from various placements. A #3-5 position can generate better results with a well thought out campaign with a good landing page vs. a #1 position with poor keyword to ad alignment and a below average landing page. And it will cost you a lot less! That doesn’t mean we don’t see the value in a #1 position, if we can get there by achieving a good Quality Score, and good results for a reasonable investment.
Obviously, there is a lot more to PPC than what I can provide in a blog post, and to do it well is going to take a lot of time. If you are going to manage your own campaigns, you need to stay educated and up to speed with the industry changes. There are lots of great resources online and Google even offers some good educational tools to help learn more about PPC and how to manage a campaign.
Over the past 2 years, online shopping alone has increased to over 875 million consumers (According to Nielsen’s Global Online Survey). That’s a 40% increase in 2 years. Not to mention all those who use the internet for research and to find local business services, which accounts for nearly 80% of all US adults.
Think of all those opportunities for your business. Pay Per Click (PPC) is an effective and powerful marketing tool that allows your business to get instant exposure online. We have found that PPC marketing returns are some of the strongest in the marketing industry, and averages about the same return as search engine optimization (only 8% of marketers experienced a poor ROI according to www.eMarketer.com), but produces almost instant results.
Pay Per Click marketing allows you more control over your marketing dollars and the ability to pin point market niches more effectively than SEO. PPC is like having an ad in your local newspaper and only paying for the prospects that actually read your ad! According to www.eMarketer.com, PPC advertising will grow to a $16.950 billion dollars a year in marketing spends.
No wonder Newspapers are going out of business, television advertising is decreasing along with radio. Internet marketing is here to stay and Pay Per Click marketing is a valuable marketing tool to consider for most businesses.
Step 1: Define the Success of Your Campaign
In order to define the success of your campaign, you need to know what your goals are. Is your site solely for informational purposes & branding? A lead generation site? Are you selling products and focused on transactions? Start at the bottom of your sales funnel and work your way up to the top where a visitor/prospect first enters the funnel.
Step 2: Pinpoint Your Ideal Customer
One of the biggest mistakes most companies make is they craft their marketing campaigns and websites according to what they want to see versus finding out what your customer wants. This isn't about you. Most businesses feel compelled to tell their story to their presumed audience, which more times than not, is off the mark. It's too easy for an online visitor to leave your site and find another site that speaks to them and what they want (whats your bounce rate?).
Create an artificial persona complete wtih name, age, marital status, etc of an imaginary prospect that you feel fits the mold of the typical person you have sold to in the past. Create multiple profiles and prioritize them in order of importance. Remember, you can't be everything to everyone. Pick a niche in your industry, stick to it, and become an expert in that niche. If you pick to many ideal customer profiles, you will end up appealing to no one. Once you know who you are selling to, you can craft your message so that it appeals to them.
Step 3: Select the Right Domain
Most companies consider their home page their landing page. Sometimes this works, but most of the time it does not. Your landing page may be part of a targeted micro-site or a single page hosted separately with its own domain name. When selecting domain names, pick those that have your targeted keywords in the domain name itself (ex: chiropractorchicago.com) to improve overall Google Quality Score and conversion. Consider one or more "vanity names" targeting a specific product or service.
If your landing page is hosted on your domain (this is the best strategy for sites that have good PR scores already and have been around for awhile), build your landing page URL with your targeted keywords (ex: www.ableelectropolishing.com/electropolishing-lp.htm is a sample custom landing page we just created, "electropolishing" is their top keyword).
Step 4: Wireframing
Create a "sketch" of the page layout and start by listing all of the key components that should go on the page. Do this before you create the web copy because the space available in your layout will dictate the amount of copy that you will have to work with. Place the most important elements above the fold (the area in a browser that a visitor can see without scrolling).
Step 5: Write for the Web People do not read the same way online that they would offline. They scan for key elements - headlines, bullet points, graphics. Within seconds, the brain will determine if this is the right page that matches what they are looking for. A page could match exactly what a person is looking for, but visually it sends the wrong signals. Make sure to pick the right graphics and design elements for your pages that go well with your web copy.
Only about 20% of your visitors will actually read the body copy, make it compelling and short (less is more). Create a strong call to action! Try matching up the call to action with the 1st headline since this is most certainly the one element on your page that most people will read.
Step 6: Test & Tweak Schedule a regular time each week to examine how your site is peforming & converting. Use Google Analytics (fee analytics software) or hire an analytics consultant to measure the success of your campaigns and landing pages. Even after you successfully complete Steps 1-5, your work is not done. A good campaign needs revising (most campaigns). Maybe your call to action is not working, your bounce rate is too high, or the keywords you focused your campaign around are not generating any leads. Your testing and measurements should match your original goals (Lead Generation, Online Sales, Branding, Relationship Building, etc).
Sound like a lot of work? It is! But doing this the right way will squeeze more out of your marketing budgets than you can imagine.
Yes, its true that we do talk a lot about technology at WSI and how to leverage technology to run your business more effectively. But when it comes right down it, what's most important is understanding the psychology behind your custom landing pages and website architecture as a whole.
The old saying still holds true today "Advertising is the art of getting people to buy things they don't need with the money they don't have."
This statement has been around long before the internet (by a couple of decades), but most of the websites we analyze have put little thought into how to convince people to buy what you have. People rarely just stumble across a website in the sea of hundreds of millions of sites. They actively go out and search to find what they are looking for, spending their time and effort to eventually click and land on a potential match for their search. The problem is that most websites are poorly constructed and NOT designed for "conversion" or persuasion. Most people land on the page and leave within 3-4 seconds. What a waste of your time and effort getting someone to come to your landing page, through paid search or organically, and to have them leave so quickly.
The truth is you only have 3-4 seconds to make an impact! People aren't going to read long paragraphs, they are going to scan for what they are looking for.....location of the business (if someone is searching for a local business ie: "plumber chicago"), if the page offers the service or product that matches what they were searching for (bulleted lists, bolded text, bold headlines, short consise paragraphs), and well thought out images that grab their attention. I am still amazed at how many people are spending money on Pay Per Click marketing and driving this traffic to generic home pages or poorly designed landing pages. It doesn't make a lot of sense in this economy....makes more sense to take some of that paid search budget and invest it into a better landing page (a good custom landing page costs between $900 - $1,800 at WSI, less than a lot of our clients monthly PPC budgets).
Developing a high quality, conversion friendly custom landing page for your pay per click marketing and organic search marketing efforts, will pay for itself in a very short period of time, generate more leads, and allow you to eventually decrease your marketing costs.
(a modest 2% increase in conversions will result in 240 additional leads for most clients without increasing traffic, based on 12,000 annual visitors).
Social Chatter: Online Brand Reputation Monitoring & Management
WSI IMC Gary Levine
Monday, November 30, 2009 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Gary Levine, WSI Internet marketing consultant and expert on monitoring online branding will share his insights with business owners and marketing professionals on how companies should be listening to online chatter and conversation about their brand, product or service. In today's social media rich world how can companies leverage various tools and free services to moderate the online conversations? Find out at this webinar.
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