Archive for January, 2010

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SEO vs PPC: Are AdWords too expensive? Is SEO best?… no & no or yes & yes

Friday, January 29th, 2010

The following message was entered in a previous blog post. “I’m very interested in finding opinions on 1) whether AdWords is becoming too expensive and 2) whether optimization is the only way to go.”

Short Answer: No and No. or… Yes and Yes.  The right answer depends upon your situation.

Long Answer: (First, review recent posts: Long Tail Keywords & SEO + Social plus there are many  PPC & SEO posts in the September / October / November time frame archives – see the archive links in the right column of this blog)

For most search marketing situations SEO and PPC are complimentary, not either/or choices. PPC might be the only choice (SEO for new websites can take months; PPC is immediate) and other times when PPC is impractical (if your ad cost to product price ratio is bad, your ROI will suck with PPC).

As to the economics: SEO and PPC cost factors include:

  1. SEO requires a budget for the initial optimization setup, landing page design, and for ongoing reports & maintenance. SEO is becoming more and more complex and competitive and thus more costly to accomplish.  PPC generally requires a lower budget for setup, reporting, and maintenance, but also needs landing page design plus an ongoing ad budget is required.
  2. Because of user behavior, about 80% of search traffic is generated by organic listings (via SEO) and 20% from paid listing ads (via PPC).  SEO only works if you can get a web page listed on page #1 for a keyword of value to you – not often easy to do. PPC can get your ad with a website link on page #1 for any number of keywords.  SEO difficulty and PPC keyword auction prices determine the economics.
  3. SEO and PPC can be locally or nationally targeted. National efforts are more costly because it involves more competition for organic listings and more bidders in the keyword PPC auction.  Local SEO marketing can be very cost effective using geo-targeted keywords and Google Maps. Local search is a great replacement for expensive Yellow Page ads.
  4. You can go after short tail or long tail keywords.  Generally, short tail keywords require a large budget for page #1 organic listings.  And short tail keywords can demand a very high price in the PPC auction, but PPC may be the only way to get to page #1 because of SEO competiton for a short tail keyword.

In summary, a mix of SEO and PPC is the right approach based on timing, product pricing, strategy considerations, and the ‘keyword economics’:

  • Lower cost keywords = niche market, low competition keywords / long tail keywords/ local marketing.
  • Higher cost keywords = mass market, highly competitive keywords / short tail keywords / national marketing.

BONUS INFO:  Google continually changes the SEO playing field.

  • About 300 small tweaks to search algorithms are made daily. Major search ranking method revisions are done periodically.
  • Last year Google made local search results automatic for everyone using your PCs IP address without the need for a geo-targeted keyword phrase entry.
  • In December 2009 Google released behavioral ‘personal search’ for people logged into their Google account to serve up individually tailored results.
  • This week Google released a cookie based personal search method for all users. Now two people in the same room using their individual computers are likely to get served up different search results.
  • Live search results plus social media results for keywords are changing the look of page #1 listings by crowding out web page listings.

So… No, AdWords are not becoming too expensive and no, optimization is not the only way to go. Or… Yes AdWords can be expensive and yes optimization can be the only way to go.

Still confused on which search marketing path to take?  Contact me, and let me be your search marketing guide.

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A Citius, Altius, Fortius approach for the economy is needed

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ is the Latin Slogan for the Olympic Games – ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger’.   To heal the economy, the government, businesses, and individuals would be well advised to adopt a strategy of swifter, higher, and stronger.

  1. Swifter implementation of better ideas and solutions
  2. Higher goals, standards, and expectations for the future
  3. Stronger leadership to do the right things for long term prosperity

We have gone through a decade of economic ‘disruptive’ events, changes, and crisis (one of the establishment’s favorite words).  To name a few:

  • Y2K
  • 911
  • War / Terrorism
  • Emerging Global Economy & China
  • Katrina
  • Housing Bubble / Greed / Corruption / Financial Meltdowns
  • Government runaway debt and sometimes dysfunctional behavior
  • US Auto Industry implosion
  • And… the Digital Revolution

I’m just a marketing guy and have no brilliant insights regarding how to deal with most of the above.  Some of the bad things were beyond anyone’s control. But some things were the direct result of a failure of our public & private institutions and some irresponsible individual behavior. I just know we’ve got to do better.

My small contribution for improving the economy is advice about the Digital Revolution – it’s here, deal with it.  The Digital Revolution has killed some industries, but has been the birthplace of new opportunities for those who seized the moment.   Digital Revolution Video #1 and Digital Revolution Video #2

Because of the Digital Revolution, some things will never be the same. For example: music distribution, print publications (newspapers, books, magazines – the iPad was released today to join eBook readers), postal mail volume, banking / bill payments, traditional media, communication systems, etc, etc.  Offsetting the destruction is the emergence of giants like sBay & Google, online commerce, and communication vehicles like VOIP, email, and Social Networks.

Some companies have successfully adapted to the Internet to their benefit.  Some companies are like deer in the headlights. Instead of swifter, higher, stronger – the laggards have embraced a slower, lower, weaker approach.  The Digital World is defeating everything in its path – adapt or become extinct.

At a recent Chamber event a manger from one of the big name telecoms revealed that their land line business is down 60% from peak years.  They have lost business to Cable / VOIP which was not offset by cell subscribers. Why didn’t you get into VOIP we asked? Too slow to react was the answer. 

In a LinkedIn discussion the author asked if SocNet networking was a waste of time for businesses. The first respondent said a waste of time. He shared that he mostly connects with associates, close friends, and with the occasional long-lost friend found via SocNets. Those connections generated no new business he said.  Wow, incredible misjudgment!  Mingling only with people you already know is not networking, it’s visiting. The power of networking is meeting new people as a first step and then earning their trust to get business done downstream. In SocNets, you build trust by adding value for as many old or new acquaintances as you can connect with.

My opinion why company leadership is sometimes slow to adapt to the Digital Revolutions is:

  • Inertia – they’re in motion in one direction and can’t figure out how or won’t turn their ship in another direction
  • Resistance to change from bad judgment, denial or laziness - elements from the dark side of human nature

So we need to close-out the lingering economy bad things and get on with doing more good things. For example, I think climate change is caused by the sun, that huge hot thing in the sky. But let’s get on with a green initiative (no cap-and-trade taxes please) for resource conservation, renewable energy, lower pollution, and job creation.

My advice regarding the Digital Revolution is adoption of a Citius, Altius, Fortius strategy. Contact me – we’re a Digital Marketing Adoption Agency!

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A day in the life of an Internet Marketer

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

What is Internet Marketing all about?  How and why does someone get into the Digital Marketing profession?

Eight years ago I went from corporate exec to Digital Marketing Franchise Owner.  What’s a day in my life look like?

For folks wondering about the ins and outs of Internet Marketing, or for those just curious about a career as a franchise owner in a knowledge based field like Internet Marketing; I am offering a free webinar this week to share my experiences. Register for the webinar below.

I believe that if you work for someone, job security is a myth. You need to invest in yourself and become independent if you want to control your future. For me, becoming a franchisee was all about becoming part of a growth opportunity, about being your own boss, being in control, improving your work lifestyle, and trading a paycheck for the risks & rewards that come with business ownership. 

If, like I was, you are seeking a new career or you have just always wanted to explore being your own boss in a growth industry, join me at his webinar by clicking on the below link to register.  The webinar is over, but the free multimedia offer is still available – order yours now (see below)

Thu, Jan 28, 2010 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM CST
Register here for the webinar: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/600574873

franchise_opportunity_multimedia_package

I hope you can attend the webinar, but if not, request a free DVD presentation about why a Franchise Business Opportunity might be right for you. 

Order your free multi-media info package today!  
http://www.wsinorth.com/multimedia-package

*Note that WSI franchise opportunities are not available in India or China.*

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The cost of SEO is influenced by long tail… what the heck is that?

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been, is now, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a very coveted Internet Marketing lead generation method. SEO is effective and has a relatively low long term cost per lead.  SEO’s high business value is undisputed by marketing professionals for SEO campaigns that produce page #1 listings in the major search engines.

If a business manager doesn’t understand many Internet Marketing methods, the one thing most do understand and say they want is to be #1 in Google.  After a client’s website is sorted out, the first thing most clients will ask is: how much does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) cost?  The answer is… it depends on the value of what you are competing for and how fierce is the competition?

SEO is of course about competing to have one or more of your web pages listed on page #1 in search engines for search results of what are called keywords.  For SEO, a keyword is defined as the exact word or phrase used by prospects to search for relevant web pages via search engines. High search listings for keywords relevant to your business are what you are competing for.

The competition for most keywords usually depends upon if they are ‘long tail’ or ‘short tail’ words or phrases. Short Tail Keyword = a short, general, generic, broad market oriented, and very competitive word or phase. Long Tail Keyword = a longer, specific, descriptive, niche market oriented, and relatively low competition phrase.  “Website” is an example of short tail and “website marketing company Orlando” is an example of long tail.

seo-long-tail

If you are trying to achieve Google page #1 listing for most short tail keywords, the task is monumental and the cost to achieve page #1 listings is very high.   But page #1 listings for niche long tail keywords can often be achieved relatively easily for a low investment.  Most companies are best served by concentrating on several long tail SEO keywords.

Below is a graphic representation of the tool box that a professional will utilize to accomplish Search Marketing including organic and paid advertising methods. The breadth, depth, and frequency of tools used from the toolbox, and thus the cost of SEO, is dictated by keyword competitiveness factors.

seo-keyword-ranking-toolbox

So what is the real world investment for professional SEO services? Realistically, setup charges will range from about $1000 up to the low five digits ($XX,XXX) depending on all of the above discussed factors. And SEO requires monitoring and continuous improvement on a monthly basis with fees running from $100 up to four digits ($Y,YYY) per month.  On average, professional SEO services for small and medium sized businesses typically costs around $5,000 (give or take) for initial SEO setup and up to about $1,000 per month to maintain. 

Compare the cost of SEO to other forms of advertising and lead generation.  Research the cost to reach mass markets via TV, Radio, multiple newspaper ads, multiple Yellow Page ads, telemarketing, direct mail, national print publications, or industry publications.  Where else can you effectively reach an international, national or geo-targeted mass marketplace for less than SEO? SEO is one of the best, lowest cost methods to promote a business and generate leads.

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Your Social Media ‘phone’ is ringing… are you answering it?

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Regardless of your political position, I am going to use the recent Massachusetts Senate election as a teachable moment opportunity regarding Social Media.

What would happen to your business if when your phone rang  you never answered it or recorded the messages? Disaster, right? Social Media channels are sending messages to or about your company each day, are you answering or recording the messages?  Are you respecting the value of listening and engaging with your customers? Hold that thought and keep reading…

Some political commentators on a Sunday Meet the Press type TV show, I think correctly, said that the politicians in power incorrectly interpreted the meaning of the 2008 US elections. And they disregarded public input about legislation that they received in considerable volume from many sources during 2009. These miscalculations are having an affect in recent special elections.

One commentator stated that there is a communication issue – the problem is that elected officials did not communicate their message effectively.  Another commentator disagreed and offered this opinion:  Communication is the issue, but communications involves talking and listening.  Politicians are used to telling an apathetic public what they are going to do but usually don’t have to seriously deal with the listening part of the communication equation.  

That is where communications broke down. It wasn’t that elected officials weren’t telling their story effectively or uttering enough ‘magic words’ to convince the public about legislation, it was at their peril that they weren’t listening to what the public was really saying. The majority of the public was saying we understand, but we don’t want your product in its current configuration.

You can’t make your products or policies more popular or better by just lecturing to your audiences while ignoring feedback or filtering feedback by listening only to positive comments from your inner circle of friends.  

So what does this have to do with Social Media? Just like politicians need to pay attention to their constituents, business managers need to pay attention to their customers. This is especially true now because the Internet makes unlimited information available and it has changed forever the way people mass communicate.

Control of information and communication has always been key to political and commercial power. Whoever controls the ‘microphone’ usually has the edge in a debate.  Traditionally commercial communication was mostly one way, not two way. Companies were in control of information and the conversation.

In the past companies talked at their customers, not with their customers other than via an occasional poll or focus group study. Ads and announcements were sent out to the marketplace through traditional media outlets, but little could come back from the marketplace inward because there were no easy pathways.  Company management, like politicians, did a lot of talking but not much listening even if they wanted to because before the Internet, there wasn’t a good source of feedback.   Via Social Media, customers now have a ‘microphone’ of their own.

Constituents of elected officials found their voice via email, town hall meetings, tea parties, online forums, etc.  And customers of companies now have a loudspeaker connected to the world via Social Media. Business managers need to listen or their companies could be voted out of existence by customers like politicians are being voted out of office.

Some random thoughts:

  1. There is an old saying that was never so true as in today’s realities… We have two ears and one mouth for a reason – we should listen twice as much as we talk.
  2. The customer is always right – you can’t fight that. It is crucial that you know what the customer wants; they are telling you in Social Media portals.
  3. You can ignore what people are saying to or about your business, but that doesn’t make the talk go away; ignoring the discussion frustrates your customers and lets the discussion go its own way without any influence from you.

Are you in the Social Media communication loop or are you letting Social Media ‘ring’ without pickup?  Like politicians, some companies ‘get it’, many do not.  You must be active in Social Media out of self defense at the minimum. Ignore it at your peril.  There are archived posts on this very subject.  Contact me if you need to begin listening to your customers and need help.

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Digital Marketing Tip – SEO + Social = Websuccess… for now

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Search Engine Optimization success factors for high search engine ranking have evolved from being mostly about on-website tactics to now being mostly about off-website tactics. SEO is as much art as science.  SEO takes considerable knowledge, time, and effort to accomplish consistently. Below is a simplified history and current status of SEO how to:

In the beginning high search engine ranking could be accomplished with just on-website tactics that addressed web page content relevancy to keywords you selected to describe your business. SEO was about Meta tag setup, keyword selection, and page content keyword density considerations in ‘the good old days’.

As competing websites grew to astronomical numbers and many webmasters learned on-website tactics, there wasn’t enough differentiating relevancy criteria for the search engines to accurately rank web pages.

More emphasis was placed on content update frequency as a ranking criteria. And the capability to do ‘local search’ was added. Local Search offers more relevant results for users looking for local goods & services.  It also shrinks the number of competing web pages by eliminating competition between local and national organizations for page ranking for a given search term. And in the works is so-called search behavioral profiling of users – search results could be different for the same keyword entered by two people located in the same geographic area.

A huge change came when search engines started focusing on web page popularity as a ranking criteria (the wisdom of the masses approach).   SEO got complicated. For instance, to calculate web page ranking Google started emphasizing data from within the Google Page Rank system (a 0 to 10 general ‘popularity’ measurement system).  For example the volume & quality of incoming links were added to the criteria list for high search ranking results. Search Engines counted organically generated incoming links like ‘independent votes’ for a web page’s worthiness to be ranked high.

So webmasters engaged in massive link building activities that over time could result in apparent popularity parity between competing web pages.  So then  search engines reacted by looking at other web page popularity data.

As Web 2.0 (user generated content) and SocNets came on the scene, those became endless sources for generating incoming links & new content and increasing website popularity.  Web page popularity obtained organically and especially via viral activity in the online social environment is richly rewarded by search engines with high search engine ranking.  And social media pages about your business can achieve high search engine ranking and provide links back to a website landing page. This method has nearly the same traffic benefits as if your website landing page had high ranking on its own.

Search optimization is now very much about participating in Social Media to drive page ranking and/or create additional pathways for traffic to your website. At this time, traditional SEO tactics and Social Media Optimization (SMO) are inseparable partners for achieving high search engine ranking.

seoandsocnets

What can you do with Social Media to help SEO:  Get involved in Social Networks via value added contirbutions  / Create content for sharing portals / Obtain extensive discussion of your social content by facilitating bookmarking of  your web assets in Social Bookmarking websites / Promote your brand via widgets and ads in the social world / Measure results for continuous improvement.

seo_socnets_things_to_do

And you need to engage in brand building via various online tactics to raise awareness which aids popularity and thus SEO results:

digital_online_branding1

As the Internet world evolves and matures, obtaining websuccess becomes more complicated, competitive, and time consuming, but very rewarding for businesses that do the right things. Need help? Contact me for your websuccess.

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Digital Marketing – how did I get there?

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

My background is from the corporate world. Eight years ago I was an exec at an international company within a division serving a shrinking marketplace and facing growing global competion. A merger lead to restructuring, a moved headquarters, and I was asked to change rolls.

I decided that if I had to adjust to so many changes in my life, why not consider alternatives?  If I had to change why not change on my terms? I looked for opportunities in growth industries, but I did not want to stay in the corporate rat race.
 
I could see that the Internet was destined to change the world of marketing. And then I found an Internet Marketing franchise based company that provided products and services spot on to what I wanted to get into.

Business ownership is about being your own boss, being in control, improving your work lifestyle, and trading a paycheck for the risks & rewards that come with entrepreneurship.  I am offering to share my experiences as a franchise owner via a free webinar – see the signup below.  (NOTE: the webinar is over, but the free franchise info DVD is available – see below)

I am not selling anything at the webinar; I am just giving back by sharing my experiences about franchise business ownership. I will be providing information about the business structure, case studies, and a day-in-the-life-of examples from my WSI franchise to add real life content to the discusssion.

If, like me 8 years ago, your career is in transition or your job security is problematic or you just want to own your own business; join me in his webinar to see if franchise ownership is right for you. Or below is a link to a free DVD about “is franchising right for you” offered by my franchisor.

Thu, Jan 21, 2010 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM CST (Note – the webinar is over)
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/459698401

Hope you can make it. If not, request your free franchising DVD!
http://www.freefranchisingdvd.com/9011  (The DVD is still available)

*WSI franchise opportunities are available in 87 countries but are not available in India or China.*

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Digital Marketing Tip – observations of a blogger addict

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

pr

I have been posting Digital Marketing Tips at the rate of about 5 per week since September 2009.  My motivation is to provide value in the form of actionable digital marketing tips for the readers via sharing my 8 years of WSI Internet Marketing training and my experiences from client projects.  Of course, I hope that sharing my knowledge earns the trust of the readers leading to recognition of expert status and perhaps some leads, but that is for the readers to decide.

I provided an earlier post about the why and how of blogging that is archived here.

So what have I experienced and learned about blogging over the last 5 months?

  • Deciding on subjects that will be of value 5 times a week is a challenge
  • High value blogging takes a lot of time – between one and two hours per day
  • Value blogging is personally enriching – I learn a lot while researching blog content
  • A high quality blog tool – the blog content management system (CMS) – makes the process easy. This blog is powered by WordPress CMS
  • A high volume of blog impressions (viewers) is gratifying
  • I have learned that careful attention to keyword research, proper keyword content integration, and frequent blog updates can get Google page one listings of a blog post literally within minutes – I’ve accomplished that many times
  • It is delightful to interact with blog reader message discussions from engaged readers, but…
  • Blogging message systems are subject to the same spam and scam problems that affect other Internet activities

On that last point – spam and scams:  All messages in this blog are moderated – that means messages must be approved by me before they show on the blog.  So far, about 20% of submitted messages have been spam or scam related.

dilbert_and_spam

If the content of the message doesn’t give away the self-serving motivations of the author, then there are other ways to find out. WordPress CMS captures some info about the message’s author like the IP address of their computer.  An IP address can be looked up online to find the general place of origin and that identifies many of the usual spam suspects. Or a simple Google search of the IP address will show if the IP address is on a spam or scam watch list kept by websites like http://www.stopforumspam.com among others. 

Really irritating to me is someone who enters a message with an advertisement for their business or a link to their business. Ya, right, I really want to spend 2 hours writing a blog post so that it can be used by a competitor to place a free ad.  My blog host, Yovia, does offer paid banner ad space if you want to become an advertiser.  I am not reimbursed for those ads by the way, I am a guest in the Yovia blog website.

Spam, scams and free loaders are all part of the game. You put up with the 20% of malicious viewers for the sake of the 80% legit viewers.  So I will continue with this blog and hope you find it valuable.  Non-spammers and non-scammers are welcome to reply!  I’m available if you have Internet Marketing questions.

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Digital Marketing Tip – content marketing… what website information is needed?

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

This is the 4th and last in a series of posts about website content strategies and online merchandising. This post explores content marketing. 

When your website is blessed with visitors, you need to respect the fact that they arrived at your site for a reason.  They are looking for something.  Make sure they find it easily via profiling, funneling, and marketing to their needs followed by calls to action and ongoing engagement for the undecided (see the last three posts: 1 / 2 / 3).  This post is about what type of content people are looking for to make a buying decision.

People go through phases as they travel down the buying funnel (see a prior post). They go from being part of the world wide web crowd, to your guests, to prospects, to shoppers, to customers.  They go through mental stages on the journey to becoming a customer including awareness, research, consideration, and decision making. People may decide to become online customers or use what they learned online to become customers at your place of business.

What are visitors looking to do when arriving at a website from search engines?  Research studies indicate the following:

people_search_for1

The readiness to buy of visitors arriving at a website differs widely. Common levels of buying readiness include: Bob ready to Buy; Lucy just Looking; and Roy still Researching. For the people ready to buy, calls-to-action are crucial. But the fact that not everyone is ready to buy immediately is why you need a content marketing strategy that includes offers & keep-in-touch tactics that engage prospects and nurture them into customers over time.

Research studies found the following about the buying decision timeframes of website visitors.

people_research_time

Some people require a lot of diverse information before they are ready to buy while others decide based on one or a few data points important to them.  But seldom do different people want the same information – what is important to one person may be insignificant to another.

While visitors are viewing your website you are not there to interact with them to answers individual questions. So your content must cover all the possible questions of interest to a broad audience. The following chart shows the most common types of information and presentation methods wanted by visitors for making buying decisions.  Thus you should include as many of these items as possible for the best chance to transition a broad range of shoppers into customers.

people_look_for_info

So there you have it – the content marketing and merchandising information you need to turn your website into a conversion engine for your business.  You have one more important piece of the Digital Marketing puzzle; because content is king in a website. Contact me if your need more information or services.

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Digital Marketing Tip – website conversion architecture #2

Monday, January 18th, 2010

This post is the third in a row about website content marketing / online merchandising strategies and continues the discussion about website conversion architecture. 

When a visitor arrives at your website, you must immediately ‘join the conversation already going on in their head’. You do that on the landing page by analyzing the likely core motivation of target customer groups (called profiling) and providing visual aid links to a web page with information specific to each profile (called funneling - see the prior post).

What’s next? Here is the rest of the story. The keys to conversion architecture are:

  1. Immediate Clarity of Your Message (Clarity trumps Persuasion)
  2. Visitor’s Sightpath
  3. Communicating Your Organization’s Unique Selling Points
  4. Transition to ‘Sales’ w/ Trust & Credibility
  5. Calls to Action – the Payoff, the ‘Sale’

Message Clarity – Your home page content is especially crucial. Along with profiling / funneling you must reassure a visitor that  they came to the right place for what they need.  Your ‘website purpose’ message must be easy to understand – clarity trumps persuasion.  You have a very few seconds to make a first impression. You are a few clicks away from a sale or one click away from them leaving your site and going to your competitors. 

Studies show that 1/3 of visitors will not scroll down a home page – if they don’t see what they want ‘above the fold’ they leave. So place engaging content at the top and be brief. The home page is not where you throw up all over a visitor everything  you know about your business. Nor is the home page the place to launch into an about me ramble. The home page should be about the visitor’s needs, not about you.

Visitor’s sight path -In the western world we read from left to right and top to bottom. That fact has implications about where you strategically place content on any web page. Studies of website visitors using eye tracking heatmap technology reveals clear patterns of eye movement online:

heatmap_3examples

This eye tracking behavior is very uniform among most users and suggests the following page layout strategy to maximize content effectiveness:

site_map1

Your Unique Selling Points (USP) - Your top (3 at most) USP’s should appear on the home page & other strategic locations in bullet format or in the form of a memorable tag line.  USP attributes:

  • Your unique selling points must be true and you must be able to deliver on what you promise
  • Your unique selling points must separate you from your competitors – either they do not offer this benefit, or do not do it as well as you do
  • Your unique selling points must be valued by your target customers as something they want or need

USP examples: McDonalds = fast, consistent everywhere, cheap food / Subway = healthy fast food / Culvers = quality fast food made fresh.

Transition to sales - After funneling target customers based upon their profiles, the inner website pages’ content becomes the important transition to sales. Use this content formula:

  • Show that you understand the user’s problems & pain
  • Present user benefits first
  • Present your products & services features last
  • Use ‘header tags’ for informative headlines
  • Important text should be readable  by scanning – use bullet points
  • If extensive details are needed, use links to down-loadable documents or to a sub-page dedicated to the details

Other important interior page tid-bits:

  • Average visitor time spent on an interior page = 45 seconds
  • Text should be written at 8th grade level for a general audience or to target audience level for specialized topics
  • Average number of scrolls on an interior page = 1.3 scrolls (total of 2.3 screen views at 1024X768)

Calls to Action (the payoff) -Sales are lost daily because the salesperson does not ask the customer for the sale. The same is true in websites – your text and calls-to-action are your online salesperson.

If you want a customer to take a type of action, then you must explicitly tell them to take that action and clearly show them how to take that action.  Otherwise you are leaving things to chance.  This must be done on every page of the website or you are wasting opportunities.

Calls to action are things like: sale items, incentives, subscriptions, call now, email me, limited time offers, etc, etc. And remember that not all visitors are ready to buy now. So offer engagement & nurturing actions like blogs, wikis, forums, social media links for networking, newsletters, etc, etc.

Summary -

  •  Understand who your customers are and what their motivation is about – profile into groups accordingly
  •  Funnel each profile group to an inner page specific to their motivation
  •  Market directly to the needs or problems of each profile group
  •  Give them an offer they can’t refuse
  •  Tell them & show them how to take action
  •  Engage the not yet ready to take action

This was a long post, but it only scratched the surface about the topic of website conversion architecture. Contact me to discuss a site evaluation to improve your website’s conversion rate. (Hint – that is a call to action)

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Digital Marketing Tip – what is website conversion architecture?

Friday, January 15th, 2010

The last post was about the superordinate importance of website content. A website is useless without traffic (from Internet Marketing) and traffic is useless without conversions.  Conversions are driven by website content – what you say, how you say it, and how you organize what you say. Improved conversion rates can be achieved with:

  1. Website conversion architecture (AKA persuasion architecture)
  2. Website content marketing

This post is about conversion architecture, a topic I will try to cover in summary that is a subject I normally cover in a one day seminar.

Website marketing tactics are catching up with how-to methods long ago established for traditional channels like retail stores, TV, radio, newspaper, etc. Marketers have long known how to market and advertise via traditonal channels, but only recently turned their attention to how best to use websites.

For example, take a grocery store.  Where is milk placed in a grocery store? As you know, all store layouts keep milk coolers at the farthest wall away from the store entrance.  The idea of course is to place regularly purchased items at a distance so you have to walk past things that you might buy on impulse. And items the store is pushing are placed on shelves between waist and eye level, never on the very bottom or top shelves. And high impulse purchase items are on shelves on either side of you as you check out – magazines, candy, gum, and junk of all descriptions. And stores have learned how to use coupons & discount cards to win your loyalty. This is all called merchandising – the store’s floor plan architecture and special offers generate more sales.

A website is your online store for merchandising your product, service or promoting your cause. Early websites were just online brochures. Modern websites pay attention to merchandising methods including controlling visitor flow through the website which is called conversion architecture – an important part of website merchandising. 

There are important differences between offline and online merchandising. Website visitors are impatient and easily frustrated by hard to use sites – it they don’t see what they want, they leave. For example, you shouldn’t put your primary product (your milk) at some far corner of your site that requires moving through a lot of clicks to find it. You need to direct each visitor to their individual area of interest with clarity and speed.

Website conversion architecture is about understanding who are your target customers and organizing content and navigation aids to funnel visitors easily to the content that is most likely to convert each prospects’ profile. So the first step is defining your prospects’ profiles – identifying significant attributes, traits, needs, wants, and the motivations of your prospects.

Visitors arriving on purpose at a website generally fall into one of a few profiles defined by a unique core interest. Each visitor needs to almost immediately see a pathway that aligns with thier core interest for visiting or they will leave the website.

All visitors are potential customers, BUT… they want different things, they have different problems and needs, they are at different stages in the buying cycle, and they make decisions in different ways. A good website will quickly segregate visitors based on all of the above and easily funnel them to content that efficiently converts them.

funneling-by-profile

Here are some usual profile types:
- The problem they are having
- The solution they desire
- The products/services you offer
- Geographically
- Demographically
- Who they are/how they see themselves
- Where they are in their buying cycle
Here are some examples of home pages with proper profiling and funneling (the profile text or buttons are links to content of interest to that profile)
Stage in Buying Cycle
sample-site1

Type of Problem

sample-site2

Type of Product or Service

sample-site3

The next post will continue on the subject of Website Conversion Architecture. Have an immediate need? Contact me.

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Digital Marketing Tip – why many websites don’t work… content is king

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

So you’ve done search marketing, gone social, done some display ads, used email marketing, and traffic is flowing to your website. So things are good, right? But what about your website conversion rate?

Website conversion = online sales, leads (visitor phone call, emails, contact form submissions, etc), subscriptions, referrals, or whatever you want a visitor to do. Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that are doing something useful for your business after arriving at your website. 

A website without traffic is useless and traffic without conversions is useless.  That’s why many websites don’t work – either they get insufficient traffic and/or the traffic doesn’t convert at a high rate.

Website traffic mostly comes from Internet marketing and conversion rate is determined by a website’s content organization & content marketing.

Technically, a website is a software driven content management system (CMS) wrapped in a graphics design that compliments your brand and satisfies your design tastes. But the business value of a website is your message – the website’s content. A website is your content and content is your website. 

Too often website developers and website owners spend a lot of time fretting over a website’s ‘design’ – it’s look - and pay little attention to a website’s substance – its content. Yet it is the content that ultimately determines if a website works or not for a business.

A website visitor is not interactive with you while the visitor is viewing your site. They can not ask for clarification or directions and website visitors are notoriously impatient; if they don’t find what they need fast and easy, they leave. The website’s text and audio/visual aids are all the visitor has to go by to accomplish their purpose for visiting and hopefully become a conversion for your business. 

As the Internet evolved, websites have become more sophisticated. Marketers always knew that content is king, but in the early years websites were mostly digitized paper brochures. Often offline marketing collateral was just digitized and moved onto a website.

But eventually marketers realized that a website could be used as more than an electronic brochure. Soon eCommerce was introduced and Web 2.0 (user generated content) emerged. And along the way marketers discover that in a website; what you say, how you say it, and how you organize what you say has a huge impact on your conversion rate.

Website content strategies are bases upon two concepts:

  1. Website Conversion Architecture (AKA Persuasion Architecture)
  2. Website Content Marketing

In the next blog posts I will summarize the essence of those two sophisticated website concepts.  If you need more information on this important subject, contact me.

create_share_engage

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