I always advise my clients beginning new businesses to be conservative and have reasonable expectations about the income potential their new venture. Traditionally, brick and mortar stores will not pull a profit for at least two years from opening. During difficult economic times, I recommend giving a business five years before expecting to pull a profit. Too many businesses cut marketing and promotional budgets to combat tough times, which is the worst possible cut back. During financial difficulties expect to work harder for less, but do not cut back on a company's most important expense, marketing and promotion. Putting more effort into promoting your business to new clients and remember to target clients left behind by failing businesses.
For more information read "Small Businesses and Hard Facts."
Find out how Internet Market Consulting can repair your website design to build Internet traffic, produce top search engine results and maximize website exposure.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Is Your Website Springing a Leak?
Today, I would like to share a fun and informative article written by Philippa Gamse.
Imagine that you own a beautifully designed yacht. It looks great on the surface of the water, with superb lines, gleaming decks, a well-appointed galley… but you’re having real trouble getting out of the harbor and you can’t figure out why!
You investigate, and you find that beneath the surface your beautiful boat has a number of slow, silent, leaks. None of them are big enough to sink you on their own, so there’s no obvious immediate crisis – just a constant drain on your efficiency and your speed.
I’ve been reviewing Web traffic reports for over 10 years, and I believe that this analogy applies very well to almost all business websites. Very few sites are so terrible or have something so wrong with them that they’re clearly a disaster. Yet just about every site has some area where it’s quietly losing traffic, losing potential business or the opportunity to create relationships – or failing to attract visitors in the first place.
If you’re not regularly reviewing your traffic analysis, you can’t know for sure if your site is leak proof. In this article, I’ll show you a few of the most common areas where you can look for – and fix – those silent leaks.
1. Leaks in your Brand & Positioning
The excellent folks at MarketingExperiments online research laboratories have shown that clearly articulated and differentiating value propositions have a critical effect on Website conversion rates. (The conversion rate is the measurement of visitors fulfilling your desired outcomes – which might include calling you, buying a product at your site, signing up for your newsletter or blog feed, etc.) Your value proposition should be front and center on your home page. It should answer the classic question: “Why should we do business with you instead of your competition?”
Although this question isn’t a Web strategy issue in itself, it is one that many people struggle to answer. But the lack of a compelling opening message can be a major impediment to your online success.
How to check for this leak: Even if they don’t enter your site at the home page, most visitors who don’t know you will go there as the second page they look at to find out more about you and your business. If visitors are taking a quick look at your home page and then immediately leaving, something is wrong. Your copy is failing to pique their curiosity or to answer their questions: “Can this company meet my needs?” and “Should I explore further?” You have a leak!
2. Leaks in Visitor Engagement
Popular theory says that you have 10 seconds to engage a visitor – i.e. convince them to stay on your site before they click away in search of something more interesting.
While I don’t believe that it’s quite that simple, there are some definite ways to get rid of visitors fast before they’ve had a chance to really check you out. The best of these is probably the infamous splash page – the entry page to your site that your Web designer persuaded you to have because it “does cool stuff”. Hopefully there’s a “Skip Intro” button somewhere on the page! In all my reviews of traffic reports I’ve seen a consistent leak of up to 30% of visitors leaving from this page alone – before they’ve ever seen who you are or what you offer.
How to check for this leak: Easy – look for the splash page in your traffic reports and see how many visitors exit at that point. If it’s more than a small percentage, you have a leak – take the page out today!
The other major area where you should watch for leaks in visitor engagement is in what are called “landing pages”. These are inside pages of your Website which turn out to be the first page that a visitor sees, usually because you have some well-indexed content that they’ve found in a search engine.
Here it’s absolutely critical to understand the visitor’s mindset. Each visitor is at your site looking for something specific, they may well have found you by accident, so they may have no idea who you are – and worse, no interest in you.
The first page that they see on your Website must engage them immediately in accordance with their needs, and it must have enough context to draw them into other areas, and to want to find out more about you. It’s not enough to give great information on this page – they’ll soak that up, and then leave.
How to check for this leak: Hopefully your traffic reports are sophisticated enough to show you which keywords bring visitors to each specific page of your site. This shows you each visitor’s “mindset”.
If visitors are leaving a page very quickly, then it probably isn’t satisfying their informational needs, so you should review the content.
If visitors are reading the page (your traffic reports should show the time spent at each page) and then leaving, you’ve given them what they wanted but failed to draw them into the rest of your site. This can be fixed with more compelling navigation and calls to action.
Either way, you have a leak!
3. Leaks in Directions & Outcomes
I’m constantly amazed by the number of Web pages that give great information and content – and then just end abruptly – perhaps with some navigation tabs if you’re lucky!
Steve Krug in his excellent book “Don’t Make Me Think!” describes how crucial it is to direct visitors to the next step that you want them to take. If you don’t do this, and rely on your visitors to figure this out for themselves, there’s a strong chance that they’ll make a different choice than the one you want – or they’ll leave your site altogether, creating leaks in your potential revenue stream.
Every page of your site needs strong calls to action that stand out visually and click directly to where the visitor can fulfill the outcome that you want (e.g. “buy now!”, “sign up for our newsletter / RSS feed”.) Pages can have more than one call to action, and there’s nothing wrong with repeating them on longer pages so that they’re always within eyeshot.
And by the way, “Back to top” is not a call to action!
How to check for this leak: If your traffic reports show this information, look at the paths that visitors take through your site – where do visitors go next from each page? If many of them are exiting the site and / or they fan out across many pages with no clear pattern or direction, you have a possible leak.
4. Leaks in your Credibility Building
MarketingExperiments research has also shown that powerful, specific, and authoritative testimonials can have a major impact on your site’s conversion rates.
Consider this statement: “Documented results show that just a few hours with [ expert ] can increase lead generation by 125%”. Imagine how much stronger that assertion would be if there were some examples of the “documented results” and some customer quotes to that effect.
However, including a page on your site called “What Customers Say” doesn’t do it – I can safely say that visitors don’t go to those pages. And it’s not just traffic reports that tell me this – whenever I ask a live audience “Would you click this link?” there’s always a resounding “No!”
How to check for this leak: This is a much more subtle leak to detect, but it’s an important one. The question here is whether you are potentially losing business because your site fails adequately to establish your value and credibility.
My recommended approach is to review your site for credibility-building content such as client lists, testimonials and case studies. You need to spread your testimonials through your site, using short one or two line excerpts that are relevant to the content of each page – whether it’s about a product or a service, or the value of subscribing to your newsletter or blog.
Make sure that all of this material is linked to from other pages so that it’s easily found by visitors. If you then experience an increase in calls, or in the quality of your leads, then you might have just fixed a leak!
© Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved. Publication rights granted so long as article and byline are reprinted intact, with all links made live.
Philippa Gamse is a Web strategy expert who spends much of her time fixing leaky Websites and other website problems. Would you like your own “Leaky Boat Website” Review? Visit http://websitesthatwin.com/leaky-boat-report.html for more information.
Philippa Gamse is a Web strategy expert who spends much of her time fixing leaky Websites. Would you like your own “Leaky Boat Website” Review? Visit http://websitesthat win.com/leaky-
boat-report.html for more information.
© Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved. Publication rights granted so long as article and byline are reprinted intact, with all links made live.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com
Imagine that you own a beautifully designed yacht. It looks great on the surface of the water, with superb lines, gleaming decks, a well-appointed galley… but you’re having real trouble getting out of the harbor and you can’t figure out why!You investigate, and you find that beneath the surface your beautiful boat has a number of slow, silent, leaks. None of them are big enough to sink you on their own, so there’s no obvious immediate crisis – just a constant drain on your efficiency and your speed.
I’ve been reviewing Web traffic reports for over 10 years, and I believe that this analogy applies very well to almost all business websites. Very few sites are so terrible or have something so wrong with them that they’re clearly a disaster. Yet just about every site has some area where it’s quietly losing traffic, losing potential business or the opportunity to create relationships – or failing to attract visitors in the first place.
If you’re not regularly reviewing your traffic analysis, you can’t know for sure if your site is leak proof. In this article, I’ll show you a few of the most common areas where you can look for – and fix – those silent leaks.
1. Leaks in your Brand & Positioning
The excellent folks at MarketingExperiments online research laboratories have shown that clearly articulated and differentiating value propositions have a critical effect on Website conversion rates. (The conversion rate is the measurement of visitors fulfilling your desired outcomes – which might include calling you, buying a product at your site, signing up for your newsletter or blog feed, etc.) Your value proposition should be front and center on your home page. It should answer the classic question: “Why should we do business with you instead of your competition?”
Although this question isn’t a Web strategy issue in itself, it is one that many people struggle to answer. But the lack of a compelling opening message can be a major impediment to your online success.
How to check for this leak: Even if they don’t enter your site at the home page, most visitors who don’t know you will go there as the second page they look at to find out more about you and your business. If visitors are taking a quick look at your home page and then immediately leaving, something is wrong. Your copy is failing to pique their curiosity or to answer their questions: “Can this company meet my needs?” and “Should I explore further?” You have a leak!
2. Leaks in Visitor Engagement
Popular theory says that you have 10 seconds to engage a visitor – i.e. convince them to stay on your site before they click away in search of something more interesting.
While I don’t believe that it’s quite that simple, there are some definite ways to get rid of visitors fast before they’ve had a chance to really check you out. The best of these is probably the infamous splash page – the entry page to your site that your Web designer persuaded you to have because it “does cool stuff”. Hopefully there’s a “Skip Intro” button somewhere on the page! In all my reviews of traffic reports I’ve seen a consistent leak of up to 30% of visitors leaving from this page alone – before they’ve ever seen who you are or what you offer.
How to check for this leak: Easy – look for the splash page in your traffic reports and see how many visitors exit at that point. If it’s more than a small percentage, you have a leak – take the page out today!
The other major area where you should watch for leaks in visitor engagement is in what are called “landing pages”. These are inside pages of your Website which turn out to be the first page that a visitor sees, usually because you have some well-indexed content that they’ve found in a search engine.
Here it’s absolutely critical to understand the visitor’s mindset. Each visitor is at your site looking for something specific, they may well have found you by accident, so they may have no idea who you are – and worse, no interest in you.
The first page that they see on your Website must engage them immediately in accordance with their needs, and it must have enough context to draw them into other areas, and to want to find out more about you. It’s not enough to give great information on this page – they’ll soak that up, and then leave.
How to check for this leak: Hopefully your traffic reports are sophisticated enough to show you which keywords bring visitors to each specific page of your site. This shows you each visitor’s “mindset”.
If visitors are leaving a page very quickly, then it probably isn’t satisfying their informational needs, so you should review the content.
If visitors are reading the page (your traffic reports should show the time spent at each page) and then leaving, you’ve given them what they wanted but failed to draw them into the rest of your site. This can be fixed with more compelling navigation and calls to action.
Either way, you have a leak!
3. Leaks in Directions & Outcomes
I’m constantly amazed by the number of Web pages that give great information and content – and then just end abruptly – perhaps with some navigation tabs if you’re lucky!
Steve Krug in his excellent book “Don’t Make Me Think!” describes how crucial it is to direct visitors to the next step that you want them to take. If you don’t do this, and rely on your visitors to figure this out for themselves, there’s a strong chance that they’ll make a different choice than the one you want – or they’ll leave your site altogether, creating leaks in your potential revenue stream.
Every page of your site needs strong calls to action that stand out visually and click directly to where the visitor can fulfill the outcome that you want (e.g. “buy now!”, “sign up for our newsletter / RSS feed”.) Pages can have more than one call to action, and there’s nothing wrong with repeating them on longer pages so that they’re always within eyeshot.
And by the way, “Back to top” is not a call to action!
How to check for this leak: If your traffic reports show this information, look at the paths that visitors take through your site – where do visitors go next from each page? If many of them are exiting the site and / or they fan out across many pages with no clear pattern or direction, you have a possible leak.
4. Leaks in your Credibility Building
MarketingExperiments research has also shown that powerful, specific, and authoritative testimonials can have a major impact on your site’s conversion rates.
Consider this statement: “Documented results show that just a few hours with [ expert ] can increase lead generation by 125%”. Imagine how much stronger that assertion would be if there were some examples of the “documented results” and some customer quotes to that effect.
However, including a page on your site called “What Customers Say” doesn’t do it – I can safely say that visitors don’t go to those pages. And it’s not just traffic reports that tell me this – whenever I ask a live audience “Would you click this link?” there’s always a resounding “No!”
How to check for this leak: This is a much more subtle leak to detect, but it’s an important one. The question here is whether you are potentially losing business because your site fails adequately to establish your value and credibility.
My recommended approach is to review your site for credibility-building content such as client lists, testimonials and case studies. You need to spread your testimonials through your site, using short one or two line excerpts that are relevant to the content of each page – whether it’s about a product or a service, or the value of subscribing to your newsletter or blog.
Make sure that all of this material is linked to from other pages so that it’s easily found by visitors. If you then experience an increase in calls, or in the quality of your leads, then you might have just fixed a leak!
© Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved. Publication rights granted so long as article and byline are reprinted intact, with all links made live.
Philippa Gamse is a Web strategy expert who spends much of her time fixing leaky Websites and other website problems. Would you like your own “Leaky Boat Website” Review? Visit http://websitesthatwin.com/leaky-boat-report.html for more information.
Philippa Gamse is a Web strategy expert who spends much of her time fixing leaky Websites. Would you like your own “Leaky Boat Website” Review? Visit http://websitesthat win.com/leaky-
boat-report.html for more information.
© Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved. Publication rights granted so long as article and byline are reprinted intact, with all links made live.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Proven Internet Marketing Strategies
Internet marketing as part of a company's overall marketing strategy is becoming an increasingly important part of nearly every company's promotional line of attack. To achieve noticeable exposure, professional and original search engine optimized content, written and propagated throughout the web about your company, products and services is necessary. This will provide the Internet exposure you need to be noticed. To deliver a sustainable long-term traffic solution, a company will need a thorough Internet marketing plan with a customized combination of Internet advertising methods. This article will cover many of the Internet marketing practices implemented today.
Essentially, Internet marketing is using the Internet to communicate a company's message about itself, its products, or its services online. Initially, Internet marketing consisted mostly of having a website and placing banner ads on other “affiliate” websites. A major problem with affiliate marketing is the tracking systems have issues ranging from revenue reporting errors to generating invalid code that causes code violations. While utilizing the affiliate marketing method, it is imperative to have access to multiple affiliate networks with reputable companies using proven methods of fraud prevention and revenue tracking that generates advertising code that is free of special characters and Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard compliant.
On the Internet, changes occur continuously and any Internet marketing professional must keep pace with the constantly changing promotional possibilities. Responsible Internet marketing using legitimate promotional practices, also known as “White Hat” techniques is a worthwhile yet gradual endeavor. Beware of companies that advertise an instantaneously successful website and try to sell some form of “Internet Marketing Program” or use techniques commonly referred as “Black Hat” that can get a website banned by search engines. In order to prosper on the web it is important to use evolving website promotion methods as well as proven techniques and online advertising services.
First, it is imperative that a website be free of errors with high quality well-optimized website design and content easily navigated by both search engines and users. Next, build Internet traffic using a combination of the following: Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which is marketing a website online using search engines, either by improving the site's natural (organic) ranking or position through search engine optimization (SEO), buying pay-per-click (PPC) ads or purchasing pay-for-inclusion (PFI) listings in website directories, similar to offline yellow page listings.
Another method of Internet marketing, article marketing, involves writing articles related to your business and publishing them online with syndicated article sites. Article marketing can result in a traffic boost for a website, and the distribution of syndicated articles can promote a brand to a wider audience.
In addition, social media marketing is quickly developing into a significant marketing medium. It connects businesses with an audience by driving online conversations in social media outlets to increase brand exposure. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, Facebook and MySpace, both social networking sites, are utilized to keep companies at the forefront of their respective industries.
Finally, the integration of web design, development, and Internet marketing with focused traffic-generation tactics is vital to the success of a site. With the right marketing strategy, designed specifically for a site, traffic will build now and continue in the future. Successful Internet marketing can transform a business from a struggling enterprise into a lucrative business. Find out how Internet Market Consulting can help you.
Copyright 2009 Internet Market Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
Website Repair, Design, Marketing
Essentially, Internet marketing is using the Internet to communicate a company's message about itself, its products, or its services online. Initially, Internet marketing consisted mostly of having a website and placing banner ads on other “affiliate” websites. A major problem with affiliate marketing is the tracking systems have issues ranging from revenue reporting errors to generating invalid code that causes code violations. While utilizing the affiliate marketing method, it is imperative to have access to multiple affiliate networks with reputable companies using proven methods of fraud prevention and revenue tracking that generates advertising code that is free of special characters and Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard compliant.
On the Internet, changes occur continuously and any Internet marketing professional must keep pace with the constantly changing promotional possibilities. Responsible Internet marketing using legitimate promotional practices, also known as “White Hat” techniques is a worthwhile yet gradual endeavor. Beware of companies that advertise an instantaneously successful website and try to sell some form of “Internet Marketing Program” or use techniques commonly referred as “Black Hat” that can get a website banned by search engines. In order to prosper on the web it is important to use evolving website promotion methods as well as proven techniques and online advertising services.
First, it is imperative that a website be free of errors with high quality well-optimized website design and content easily navigated by both search engines and users. Next, build Internet traffic using a combination of the following: Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which is marketing a website online using search engines, either by improving the site's natural (organic) ranking or position through search engine optimization (SEO), buying pay-per-click (PPC) ads or purchasing pay-for-inclusion (PFI) listings in website directories, similar to offline yellow page listings.
Another method of Internet marketing, article marketing, involves writing articles related to your business and publishing them online with syndicated article sites. Article marketing can result in a traffic boost for a website, and the distribution of syndicated articles can promote a brand to a wider audience.
In addition, social media marketing is quickly developing into a significant marketing medium. It connects businesses with an audience by driving online conversations in social media outlets to increase brand exposure. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, Facebook and MySpace, both social networking sites, are utilized to keep companies at the forefront of their respective industries.
Finally, the integration of web design, development, and Internet marketing with focused traffic-generation tactics is vital to the success of a site. With the right marketing strategy, designed specifically for a site, traffic will build now and continue in the future. Successful Internet marketing can transform a business from a struggling enterprise into a lucrative business. Find out how Internet Market Consulting can help you.
Copyright 2009 Internet Market Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
Website Repair, Design, Marketing
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Both Microsoft, Google seal deals with Twitter
Google and Bing indexing twitter updates. What does this mean to the Internet marketing?
Both Microsoft, Google seal deals with Twitter - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Donate Life California
104,000+ waiting for an organ in the U.S. alone, and with 10 million blind worldwide waiting for a corneal transplant, and so many burn victims, amputees and other injured people who would benefit from skin and/or tissue transplants. Sign up online to become a donor - each state has its own online state registry for you to quickly and easily sign up. Below is the link for CA.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Bloggers Forced to Disclose Payments
The Federal Trade Commission issued their first new updates to The Guidelines for Testaments and Endorsements in Advertising since 1980. The FTC recently determined that bloggers, both professional and amateur, must disclose to readers any money or "in-kind payment" received from organizations to review products. Companies referring to research group findings about a product must inform readers of their relationship to such group. Even if there is no requirement for a positive review, bloggers must still disclose their relationship to the organization promoting the product or service. Violators face fines of up to $11,000 per infraction.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
VOTE NOW! GQ Magazine "Better Man, Better World" Search
John has dedicated the last 6 years of his life to making the world a better place - to help increase lives saved and improved through organ, tissue and eye transplantation. But he’s not a surgeon or healthcare administrator or politician - instead, he’s a creative entrepreneur who has built modernized electronic medical records software for the transplant field.
John’s work fights against odds that are daunting: today, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. alone are waiting for an organ transplant. Nearly 20 of them will die every day due to the severe unavailability of organs. More than 10 million men, women and children worldwide suffer from corneal blindness that can be eliminated through ocular transplantation. Burn victims, amputees and many others can be helped through the transplantation of skin, bone and tissue that is in short supply as well.
Back in 2003, John made an enormous sacrifice and life decision – an Ivy League-educated, successful corporate attorney, media executive and Internet entrepreneur, John walked away from those successes, driven by his passion to contribute to society in a more meaningful way.
John created far-reaching partnerships with leading transplant surgeons and organ, tissue and eye transplant organizations spanning from California to New York and Washington, DC and many places in between. Working closely with these partners, he created a software organization – Transplant Connect - to step in and replace the inefficient paper and phone-based steps that slow down the donor-transplant process with modern, real-time, Web-based software.
Constantly traveling and often working for no salary, John’s dedication was so strong, he even mortgaged his Los Angeles beach house to fund his organization’s efforts in the early days. His perseverance and commitment to touching lives by improving transplantation has remained unyielding through those challenging and difficult times.
Transplant Connect has directly expedited, improved and modernized transplantation. Today, nearly 50% of all U.S. organ transplants are enabled by the software John’s organization created, and with his software, faster and better decisions are made, with the result that more lives are saved and improved.
John’s efforts have touched many thousands of lives across the U.S. in just a few short years. Through his resourcefulness, talents and dedication, John has already contributed greatly to creating a better world. John Piano
President & CEO, Transplant Connect
John works tirelessly to help increase lives saved and improved by organ, tissue and eye transplantation.
John’s work fights against odds that are daunting: today, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. alone are waiting for an organ transplant. Nearly 20 of them will die every day due to the severe unavailability of organs. More than 10 million men, women and children worldwide suffer from corneal blindness that can be eliminated through ocular transplantation. Burn victims, amputees and many others can be helped through the transplantation of skin, bone and tissue that is in short supply as well.
Back in 2003, John made an enormous sacrifice and life decision – an Ivy League-educated, successful corporate attorney, media executive and Internet entrepreneur, John walked away from those successes, driven by his passion to contribute to society in a more meaningful way.
John created far-reaching partnerships with leading transplant surgeons and organ, tissue and eye transplant organizations spanning from California to New York and Washington, DC and many places in between. Working closely with these partners, he created a software organization – Transplant Connect - to step in and replace the inefficient paper and phone-based steps that slow down the donor-transplant process with modern, real-time, Web-based software.
Constantly traveling and often working for no salary, John’s dedication was so strong, he even mortgaged his Los Angeles beach house to fund his organization’s efforts in the early days. His perseverance and commitment to touching lives by improving transplantation has remained unyielding through those challenging and difficult times.
Transplant Connect has directly expedited, improved and modernized transplantation. Today, nearly 50% of all U.S. organ transplants are enabled by the software John’s organization created, and with his software, faster and better decisions are made, with the result that more lives are saved and improved.
John’s efforts have touched many thousands of lives across the U.S. in just a few short years. Through his resourcefulness, talents and dedication, John has already contributed greatly to creating a better world. John Piano
President & CEO, Transplant Connect
John works tirelessly to help increase lives saved and improved by organ, tissue and eye transplantation.
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