Entries Tagged 'internet marketing' ↓

The internet has revolutionised the way people shop and research.

Now practically any piece of information you need is at your fingertips. A quick Google search will find you local suppliers, research material and that obscure pram you have been searching for with an iPod dock.

However, as an online business are you making the most of those leads when they come to you?

Take a moment to imagine the person who has just completed your online form sitting at their computer. They have just hit the send button. Now what are they doing?

They are waiting – waiting for you to respond.

How quickly do you respond?

In a recent survey by Insidesales.com and Omniture the following, quite startling facts were unearthed:

• Average email response time: 19 hours, 31 minutes
  *Optimum response time should be within the first hour
• Average phone response time: 36 hours, 57 minutes
  *Optimum phone response time should be within the first five minutes
• How many companies even responded?
  *Only 47.3 percent responded via email, and just 7.5 percent responded via phone!

That doesn’t make good reading.

The internet offers almost instant search results therefore internet users expect fast reaction times from companies on the internet. Recently I sent an email enquiry to a local business – it took them 2 weeks to respond and that’s not acceptable in anyone’s book.

So how can you make sure you are making the most of the leads that come to you through your website?

Here are 5 tips you can use to make your business more effective at making the most of your web enquiries.

1. Analytics

Analytics are the closest thing you’ll get to a crystal ball. They will show you where your traffic is coming from, what keywords are providing the most leads etc. Use this data to determine which sources provide you with the highest amount of converting traffic and ensure you do everything in your power to boost that source.

2. Lead forms

If you use a web based lead generation form (i.e. a form for your customers to complete when enquiring about your services), how effective is it?

If you’re asking a large number of questions you may be diluting the effectiveness of it. After all, how many people are going to want to sit for hours completing an online form?

Make sure the questions you ask are relevant and valuable – if any aren’t, ditch them.

3. Offer

Your website is nothing without an offer. But is that offer relevant and tempting?

If you find your leads are dipping, take a look at your offer. Try something new and compare results. Only through this constant testing can you define what it is that your customers see as a valuable offer.

4. Lead distribution

The chances are that within your company different people will be dealing with different leads. So how do you facilitate that at the moment? Are they printed off when someone has time and placed on desks? Do they eventually get forwarded on via email when someone has a moment?

As I’ve already said internet users want instant results. Use a system that automatically distributes the leads to the relevant people. That way they will receive a response instantly.

5. Be faster

Although left until last, this one is the most obvious. All you have to do to make your web leads more effective is respond to them quicker.

Even if that means sending an instant holding email that tells the person you’ll be in touch within 24 hours. Of course, if you do send a message like that make sure contact is made within the specified time.

If someone out there has taken the time to find your website, read what you have to say and complete your online form the least you can do is respond to them quickly. Do that and you’ll gain a great reputation and quality leads.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

There is one formula that is ingrained in the minds of many internet marketers and internet businesses out there:

The regular addition of fresh content will undoubtedly help your search engine optimisation strategy, generate more traffic and therefore potential business.

But just adding content for the sake of it could do more harm than good.

If you write or commission a copywriter to create a vast number of SEO rich articles for your website are you really adding value?

“But I’m driving traffic!” I hear you cry.

You many well be but what’s in it for those people when they find your article?

• What value will it add?
• What’s your call to action?
• Is it really all that relevant?

If your content doesn’t offer the reader anything or ask anything of them, what’s the point?

Adding fresh content to your website is a good thing.

Making sure it’s search engine optimised is great.

But you also have to ensure it’s relevant, adds value and asks something of your reader. If you don’t they’ll skim read and head off to another website because you haven’t used that content to draw them into your website, get interested about your product or buy.

So the moral of this post is – add content, make it relevant and make sure there’s a call to action/lead into your main website.

In the world of marketing you’ll soon discover that very few people like being sold to.

We want to be sure our decisions are our own and not influenced by someone else.

That’s why very few people will land on a website, think “Wow! I must buy that now” and eagerly get out their credit card.

Before any of us buy (yes, you included) we have doubts – is it really what I need? Can I really justify the cost?

The art of a good copywriter is to overcome those objections within their copy which means getting out their crystal ball.

Why?

Because you have to counter their objections before your reader has had the opportunity to work out what they are.

Copywriting that convinces

Whenever you are faced with a buying decision all manner of objections are going to pop into your head. The copywriter has to pre-empt these because copy isn’t about getting the consumer to say ‘yes’, it’s about preventing them from saying ‘no’.

Here are some common objections:

1. I don’t need it

Let’s face it there aren’t that many things we buy that we actually need. Needing something is about not being able to function with out it. To get round this one you have to change that ‘need’ into a want.

I don’t need the small mountain of shoes I have in the bottom of my wardrobe, but I want to look coordinated, stylish and modern hence I want lots of different pairs to go with my different outfits.

2. I can’t afford it

With the current economic climate there’s not a lot left we can afford.

But again if you can convince them they want it they’ll find the money from somewhere. Give them a good enough offer and they’ll just have to buy.

3. Perhaps tomorrow?

If you let them browse and then walk away, they are very unlikely to come back again.

You have to force them into a decision there and then:

• Create a time limited offer
• Tell them there is a limited supply
• Tell them they only have until midnight to place their order or miss out on the offer of a lifetime.

4. Why should I buy from you?

You know you are honest and trustworthy but the consumer doesn’t.

They have just stumbled across your website and don’t know you from Adam. Through your copy you have to convince them of your trustworthiness through:

• Testimonials
• Background information on your company
• Details of your longevity

Your copy must entice, convince and sell if you are to draw in the punters. Remember you have to dispel their objections before they have the opportunity to raise them.

Keyword research (as opposed to keyword guessing) is vital if you want your search engine optimisation activities to bear fruit.

The words or phrases you decide to target will have a big effect on your website and its contents which is why it should be done before you begin the design process.

How can a few keywords affect your site?

Well quite easily. After all it’s not until you know what you’ll be targeting that you can:

• Create your on page text (SEO copywriting)
• Decide on your link building anchor text
• Work out your internet linking structure
• Decide on your site navigation
• Produce your page titles (title tags)
• Decide on your URLs
• Write your META tags

So as you can see it’s quite important that your keyword research comes first.

How to decide on your keywords

That’s all well and good but how do you begin the process of deciding on which words and phrases to target?

Here are 3 steps you can take to ensure you get the best possible match between your keywords and your target audience.

1. Be open to new ideas

Don’t go into the research blinkered to the ideas of others. You must remember that you are trying to find the words that other people search for to find your products and services, not necessarily the terms you would use.

The main thing is that the words you decide on must be relevant to your product or service. There’s no point in using a keyword that generates lots of traffic if it’s not pertinent to what you do. You’ll just end up with a lot of frustrated people.

2. Create word groups

Your starting point will be to generate a list of words that relate to your product/service.

Then, expand that list to incorporate names used in your industry for what you do. Expand this again with words used within the media for your product/service. Then, if you work in a specific locality, add in relevant geographical modifiers.

Then it’s time to use keyword research tools such as Google’s to further refine and expand your list.

3. Check competition and relevancy

The final step is to work out which are the best terms to go for.

Although you want to target terms that generate a lot of search traffic, you don’t want to pick something so competitive you won’t stand a chance of ranking for it.

This table below will help you determine which the best terms to try are:

That’s why keyword research is so important. Make sure it’s the first think you do before starting your web design process.

Congratulations, you’ve taken the bull by the horns, spent a shed load of cash on search engine optimisation, you’re website is finally in the top 10 for your chosen keywords so you’ve made it, right?

Wong.

Yes, you’re ranking well but there’s something missing…you’ve got no traffic.

Is that possible? Can you have a top ranking website that doesn’t get traffic?

The simple answer is yes and it’s probably caused by one of these three reasons:

1. You’re Not Really Ranking
2. Your Keywords Don’t Deliver
3. Your Results Don’t Get Clicked

Confused?

This post on seomoz.org explains all. Entitled I’m ranking, so where’s my traffic it explains why, despite your bank balance’s best efforts, you’re not getting traffic to your website.

It could be anything from distortion from Google’s personalised search results, badly chosen keywords or the fact that you’re not attracting those all important clicks when you do appear in the search results.

If you’re website isn’t performing as you think it should, it’s well worth taking a few minutes out of your day to read this article – it could help turn your under-performing website around.