Businesses need to think seriously about hiring a web firm that is not just concerned with building a website for your company. In this day and age just having a website is not enough for most businesses to stay with or ahead of their competition. A good web company will not only build a website for you that will build sales and/ or leads but will also put together a marketing plan to effectively increase the exposure of your brand throughout the web.

I have put together a list of ten things you or your web company can do to increase the effectiveness of your website.

1. Add a blog.
Blogs are an excellent way to communicate with your customers. Believe it or not many business owners struggle with what to blog about. It is one of those things were it is right in front of your face and that is why you don’t see it. Blog about your business. If you sell intrinsic products like wine, blogging about your products should be easy. Gary Vaynerchuk has “Crushed it”  with his vlog  WineLibrary TV by tasting and informing the public about wine. You can also blog about how customers are using your products. Sell cameras or video equipment? ask customers to send you their creations so you can post and discuss them on your blog. Notice I used the word discuss, blogs with there commenting features can foster communities that revolve around your brand.

Their are also a lot of  marketing and search engine optimization benefits to having a blog.  I could go on and on about how much a blog can assist you in building your companies web presence. Their are entire blogs devoted to the art of successful blogging. One that I like is Problogger. Use it as a resource as you grow your companies blog. Last note about blogging is that you must be committed to update it on a consistent basis, having a dormant blog is no better than no blog at all. It can even be detrimental to the growth of your business if you let it sit without new content for too long. Whatever community you had built up will leave and look for other sources “maybe your competitors” to get the information they were seeking.

2. Add an “effective” lead capture element.
The contact form buried on the last page of your site is not an effective lead capture system. Put your website to work. It could turn out to be your best salesman. The best way to capture leads from your website is to offer something of value to your visitors in exchange for as little information as possible,  getting a name and email  is usually all you need. The more information you ask for the less likely that you are going to convert leads. It is important that what you offer is something valuable to your visitors. If you are a fitness trainer offering them a free session would be an excellent offer, not only does it get you a lead, it gets you in front of your prospect to convince them of the value of your service. Brainstorm on your value proposition and place this offer prominently on your website or on a landing page.

3. Connect your website to where your target demographic lives on the web. (Social Media).
Social media is here to stay and growing at astronomical rates. Let your visitors know that you are connected and participating in social media. Depending on your demographic certain social media sites may make more since than others for your business. Facebook ( 355 million people + and the complete range of demographics) and Twitter  should be used by every business. Once again this is a subject that I could spend a lot of time on. Bottom Line: Integrate your website with social media.

4. Got Analytics?
You need to know where you are to plan where your going. Google Analytics is free and is very comprehensive in its traffic reports. You can use this information to develop a strategy to increase traffic to your website. It will also allow you to track sales and conversions.

5. Video, Video, Video.
Video can accomplish so much for your business. Types of videos you can release : typical TV type commercial (not my favorite for the web) , how tos, demos, creative skits, educational, and the list goes on..
The secret to video on the web is to give value even if it is just the value of entertainment, if you can combine high entertainment value with high content value. You have what I call the peanut butter cup formula. Your video will be just like putting chocolate and peanut butter together =Awesome!

6. Improve the design.
Do an honest evaluation of your website’s design. Is it ugly? You have 10 seconds or less to capture your visitors attention, and the aesthetics of your website are a huge factor on getting visitors to stay longer. Ask those around you that you trust to give you an honest critique of the design of your site. Friends don’t let friends have ugly websites. Make sure that the look of your site is cohesive with the rest of your branding. Many times the best idea is to keep it simple with a nice two color design.
It is also important to make sure the site looks good in all the major browsers (Internet Explore, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome). Unfortunately browsers do not all play by the same rules. Things can look “out of place” on one browser and not another. Also unless you are a musician , Do not have music play automatically on your site, it can distract the visitor away from your core message. I generally feel the same about video that auto plays. One of the exceptions for video would be landing pages, a lot of times the visitor is told specifically that they are going there to view a video.

7. Dumb it down.
The copy on your site should be understandable to the majority of the general public. Unless you are selling only to those within your industry, do not use “industry terms”. Your copy should not focus on  technical specs or even features. Instead it should let the visitor know the benefits of and problems that your product or service will solve.  The user should not need an instruction book to use your website. For some sites it makes sense to  outline the steps you  want your visitors to take while on the website. Navigating your site should not feel like running through a maze.

8. Search Engine Optimize.
Need a better ranking on Google? Search engine optimizing your site is one thing that can give you a huge boost against your competition. This especially true in local markets. In a lot of areas it is a level playing field, most businesses competing in a local market have poorly search engine optimized sites. You should hire a search engine optimization specialist to research where your industry stands as far as the competitiveness for search engine ranking. You may be surprised that there may be a huge opportunity to leapfrog your competition. As the level you want to compete on (local, regional, national) goes up so does the competition. Some industries are easier to compete in than others as well. The cost of Search engine optimization also goes up based on those dynamics. Many search engine optimization specialist will do work on a mix of  results based commission and a flat fee. If you are interested Arcimedia does offer this service and would love to help you get your business a better search engine rank.

9. Sell
Believe it or not I have been to numerous websites that “forgot” to sell me anything or had their pitch buried deep in their website. If I am searching for a new front door, I am inclined to buy a new front door. I will buy from the first site that effectively sells me that front door.  Yes, I want to know more about your business but I came looking first and foremost for a door.  Once again, think benefits and problems solved when creating the copy for your website. Your pitch should be in the main content of your home page. By the way, remember the blog I talked about at the beginning, that is a excellent place to do more “brand building” and share more non-sales information about your business. You can also sell from a blog but that is not its main purpose. Also do not bury your contact information – It should be above the fold and preferably in the very top portion of your site. Also include testimonials on your home page and let other happy customers assist you in creating more happy customers. Note: This list is not in order of importance, if it was selling would be 1 and lead generation 2.

10. Treat your website like a tool and not a billboard!
Your website should encompass most or all of the following things:

1. Capturing Leads
2. Making sales
3. Building your brand
4. Growing – In both traffic and functionality.
5. Using analytics information to test different copy and design ideas and to seek out new traffic and expand on existing traffic.
6. Connecting with your customers -Using  a blog, social media, and if appropriate video.
7. Educating your customers on the benefits  of your product or service (remember to sell first)

For fun check out Web pages that suck.
Looking for inspiration? The following sites are sites that do most or all of the things I described above.

aaronbrothers.com – could expand even further with videos and a blog.
Winelibrary.com – as mentioned earlier Gary V is Crushin It!
beachfitnow.com – a client of Arcimedia who is in the early stages of developing her web presence but already has a great foundation set up.

So now I have given you a “road map” to make your website perform at an optimal level. If you need an experienced team that is dedicated to the success of your business on the web call us 843-200-5034 or visit our website Arcimedia or our blog Superhero Marketing. We are offering a Free website analysis that will let you know what we would do specifically with your site so that it can operate at it’s full potential.( I didn’t forget to sell) If you need a superstar social media consultant and someone to help you get connected with all the right people contact Mary Kurek .

Resources:

Incentivizing Facebook Fans: Papa John’s Doubles Fans with Free Pizza

Case Study: Papa John’s Finds New Facebook Fans

JetBlue Launches Twitter Deals – SmarterTravel.com

Build a Social Media Game Plan

Set a Goal

The very first thing you need to determine is what your goal is. Set a clear goal. For example – set a goal like “I want to exceed 10K fans on my Facebook page.” “I want to generate a database of over 25K subscribers I can remarket later. Or “I want to directly sell my products or services to increase revenues by 10%.” Like I said, be specific in your goal, so you can measure results based on expectation.

Allocate Your Resources

Be aware that social media is not some silver bullet that will save your business. It is one element of a successful online marketing plan and realistically accounts for 8% of all online leads according to a recent Hubspot study. So, figure out how much time and money you want to spend on getting this result. Quantify it and know the metrics of existing sales, leads or subscribers generated each month on your website or Facebook Fan page. The next step is to find the mechanism that will generate that result for you. For example – recently Shakira debuted her latest music video exclusively on her Facebook fan page. The goal? To build fan base in a single place online that allowed for easy messaging of fans. To drive fans in volume and within a limited time to that page by providing debut access to content irresistible to her audience. The result? 1.7 million fans visited and fanned that page.

I am not suggesting you are a pop star in need of fans – but what I am saying is find the irresistible offer that your market is looking for. If you are a web services company to small businesses, offer a limited time discount on services or a free eBook on conversion page design and marketing or even a white paper on social media – each requiring registration. My point is, set a clear goal for yourself.

Resources:

Twucked Up Twit in Social Media

Drive Traffic to Conversion Points

OK, so you have a goal. Making that goal a success requires that you drive the traffic from your social media accounts back to places where people can take action and deliver your result. I am a huge fan of single purpose landing pages. These are pages that you direct visitors to that have only one purpose – to call them to action and create a NEED for them to immediate buy or register their information so you can generate a lead.

Measure Your Results

Know how you will measure that goal before you begin the campaign. In the instances I mentioned you can measure the results even without third party tools – simply based on the number of new Facebook Fans, the size of your database or the number of downloads. Clearly you can get more rich data on your campaign from Google Analytics, Mint, Crazy Egg, Omniture or Visistat, but it is possible to prove ROI without them.

Use The Right Tools

Google Analytics Social Media Tracking Plugin | This will display social media metric data in Google analytics. It can display your activity and mentions from a variety of social sites like Digg, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Mixx.

Bit.ly | When you use a URL shortener, it’s always a smart idea to use one that has analytics information, like Bit.ly This will track information like number of clicks, traffic sources, and even at what time clicks occur.

Xinureturns | xinureturns provides a great dashboard overview of your website’s standing in social media. Run a report and you will receive information on Technorati, Googe Pagerank, Diggs, and even backlinks to your website.

PostRank | PostRank provides detailed information on Tweets, stumbles, diggs, and FriendFeed all in one place. It’s best for blogs and websites with a lot of content.

SocialToo | SocialToo is a comprehensive tool for creating social surveys and tracking social stats. It also will send you a daily email describing follows and unfollows on Twitter.

SM2 | If you are really serious about your social analytics you will use a monitoring service like SM2. SM2 is a software solution designed specifically for PR and Marketing Agencies to monitor and measure social media. As businesses and consumers increasingly utilize and rely on social media, your agency needs the best tools and expertise to stay competitive.

TwitterAnalyzer is one of the most comprehensive Twitter analyzer tools out there. It tracks followers who are online when you are, number of readers that have been exposed to your message, your tweet habits, who is retweeting your updates, twitter follow statistics, growth rates, conversations being made about you, the size of your audience and your followers’ demographics.

Resources:

Top 5 Twitter Analytics Tools

Conclusion

As a small business, you need to hold your marketing campaigns to the same standards enterprise sized businesses do and expect full return on the investments you make into them. Do not fully dive into the waters of social media if you are not prepared with goals and strategy. Results are what matter and using social sites effectively is the key, so plan for your success and know how you will measure that success against your expectations.

Mary McKnight serves as the Director of Internet Marketing for Fuel Records, an EMI Music Group Label and an outspoken blogger on music, social media, SEO and piracy. You can read more of her work on www.sacriliciousmarketing.com.

To me, Search Engine Optimization encompasses a large piece of what is known as Internet Marketing & Promotions. Simply put, Internet Marketing brings more people to a website which places them directly in front of a great marketing message…Your Website.  It’s no secret that more and more companies like Proctor & Gamble and other Fortune 500 companies are shifting their advertising and marketing dollars away from traditional marketing outlets over to online mediums. To optimize your website and internet marketing check out all that’s available through SuperHero Marketing. Having a sound Search Engine Optimization & Internet Marketing strategy is essential to long term business growth when you consider…

How will you be investing your Marketing Budget in the Future??

This tweet was not published. This recurring tweet has been deactivated. Please see our blog post at http://www.socialoomphblog.com/recurring-tweets/ for more information.

My first reaction was WTF? Then I proceeded to Socialoomph’s blog and read all the comments left on the post. So many people were very upset, like their whole business just collapsed. Given the time of day that I read this (10:30pm) I decided to sleep on it before I posted my feelings to to the world. I am glad that I did. My post if done last night would have come from a selfish perspective. I was able to step back and look at the whole picture. Although I used the recurring tweet feature to make sure all of my followers were kept up to date with our latest blog posts at SuperHero Marketing and to post valuable marketing tips. There were far too many true spammers pushing porn, miracle drugs, and many other no-value products. For the record we have promoted a “product” ourselves recently in twitter. It is for someone selling those “talking models” that hover over your site and deliver a sales or information message. I still think they are really cool. That is the only “product” we have pushed directly with our twitter account and that was as a test.

If you look at this from the perspective of Twitter, they were in serious danger of being overrun by spammers. Too much spam and you lose the people the site was intended for. Plus, Twitter is still looking for a monetization strategy and has investors chomping at the bit for results. They had to do something and stopping recurring tweets certainly puts a damper on spammers. That being said this does put a hurt on true content creators to get there message out. Many of us have many followers around the world and in different time zones. It will be much harder for us to reach as many people as we would like to. One of the most heralded tweeters out @guykawasaki used recurring tweets. I will be interested in his reaction to this if he has one.

So what do I think happens next? Twitter will have less Spam (Yeah!) and the amount of people on twitter may drop. Most of those lost will be spammers but unfortunately many of them could be content creators who do not believe they have the resources (time or money) to get their message out effectively with Twitter without the help of automated recurring tweets.

Now let’s take yet another step back and not forget the world was still spinning before Twitter cut out recurring tweets. As business owners we need to adapt with technology. Twitter is just one of many tools at our disposal. The greatest tool we have is our minds, continue to use that to think of new and creative ways to grow your business. My message to twitter: You broke my heart a little but I still love you! Twitter can still be used effectively to build your brand. SuperHero Marketing’s Top Secret Twitter Traffic Guide is filled with  tips on how to use Twitter to grow your business!

It seems that there are still many people, those who are social networking engineers included, who still do not understand the big deal about Twitter.  Who cares?  Why do people enjoy it so much?  Where is the power?

To answer this, let us go back to around 2002/2003 when Nextel came out with their mobile-to-mobile instant walkie-talkie service.  At that time I used Nextel as my carrier, and if they didn’t screw me over with all kinds of extra fees and charges, I might still be with them today, but I digress.  Ask anybody who used the service and they will tell you that the Walkie-Talkie feature accelerated the rate of communication by getting rid of the bull-crap in conversations.

Fast-forward to today.  In the world of online communication, Twitter is the Walkie-Talkie of the internet, except it is more than that.  In the days of Nextel, my communication was limited to one person at a time.  Today, not only can I communicate with multiple people simultaneously, all of those posts are shared so that everyone else can weigh in and add to or benefit from the discussion.

To me, here’s where the problem is.  A lot of people think of the 140 character communication format as “Twitter,” just as people think to put a “Band-aid” on a cut, not an adhesive bandage.  Twitter is just a brand name of technology, and this exact same functionality can be found using an open-source platform like identi.ca, building it yourself in php (but why reinvent the wheel), or to somehow pioneer your own social media SMS technology.

“Twitter” isn’t really the big story here; it is the rapid-action, cut-the-crap style of communication that people need, use, and want as part of their daily discussion platform.

If you can understand the power of the walkie-talkie *beep beep*, then perhaps you can grasp the strange power and force of this entire social media trend.  Twitter is simply a glorified social networking walkie-talkie

• Lack of time
• Lack of understanding
• It will not work for my industry
• Social Media is just a fad
• Do not think it is an effective marketing medium

In response:

If you or your staff does not have time, there are marketing companies that already have a great understanding of brand building through social media that you can hire. Depending on the size of your business you may consider hiring an in-house social media director.

Social media in some extent is  able to be tracked. You can monitor traffic coming from social media sites to your website. That however does not give you the entire picture when it comes to  how well your social media campaign is working. Social media is not as “Instant” sales driven as other marketing channels. Social media is more about “connecting” with your market.  Done correctly the ROI is much better than most other media advertising. In addition it creates an “in-touch” feeling about your company. People will always buy from a company or person they feel more connected to, giving you a distinct advantage over your competition that is not using social media or doing it ineffectively.

I could right a book to explain social media to you. As this is just a blog post, I will explain what you need to know as a business owner

• Social media “marketing” is a skill and you will not receive the maximized effects unless you learn how to do it
  correctly, hire a professional, or receive training for you or one of your staff.
• Social Media is growing at an alarming rate
  • 355 million + on Facebook. Thats more than the population of the U.S.A (304 million+ as of April 2009)
  • Twitter is doubling every 90 days and by Christmas will be at 50 million users
  • 75 million videos are on Youtube
• Much of social media is free advertising. It costs nothing to set up a Facebook Page, Youtube channel or twitter account.
• There are some tools that you can purchase to increase your effectiveness and efficiency with social media. They range from $20 a month to upwards of $500 a month. If you consult with a social media consultant they should be able to walk you through the best tools.
• There is definitely a right and a wrong way to do social media.
• Your audience is on social media.
  • The highest targeted demographic 18-34 year olds spend 40% of their free time on social media sites. That even beats video games!
  • The highest growing segment of Facebook right now is 50+ ( At 355 million plus they have already captured all the other age groups)
  • Youtube is the second most used search engine after Google.
  • Users spend on average 19 minutes a day on Facebook
  • Youtube videos are watched more than the 4 largest TV networks combined.
• Even more so than your website your social media exposes you to people around the world, not just your local area.
• Most of your social media can be “connected”. Enabling you to expose your brand using different mediums (video, microblogging, blog,etc…) to your market.
• Even small businesses can compete with large corporations.
• Your message can be delivered to more eyeballs with  less of a cost than other forms of advertising.
• You need to be entertaining  and/or informative. This does not need to be expensive.

Watch this video for Red House Furniture

Over 1 million views for a small business in a small city!

Done with some creativity social media can work for any industry. Its all about appealing to your audience.

Stay tuned to the blog and The Super Show for more info on how to use social media to market your business.

For great twitter tips and tactics fill in your name and email below and I will send you a copy of
The Top Secret Twitter Traffic Guide.

A recent survey showed that 60% of businesses with web sites are not taking advantage of cost per click marketing. Cost per click marketing is very easy to implement and has a very low risk. If no one clicks on your advertisements you don’t pay for it. Compare the ROI of pay per click against other forms of advertising and pay per click wins hands down.

Benefits of using this channel are:

• Small initial investment. The search engines don’t charge a fee to place or run your ad. You only pay for the users that click through on the ad.
• Realistic for all businesses, regardless of size. Pay-per-Click campaigns can create a level playing field for small businesses, particularly if your campaign research results in the right keywords. With the right campaign management, your ad placement might be right above or below a larger competitor or national chain. This effectively puts you in a good competitive position without having to substantially out bid the larger advertiser.
• Immediate results. The research, set up and implementation cycle of pay-per-click campaigns can take place in just a few days, as opposed to natural search engine rankings which require weeks or months to gain desired rankings. Pay-per-click campaign results are immediate: the day your ad is placed – the clicks to your website begin!
• Real-time tracking. Metrics such as: effectiveness of keywords and phrases, per ad traffic generated, per ad conversions, and many more measurements provide campaign managers with the data to alter campaigns almost in real-time. This allows you to respond very quickly to either good or bad performing ads. And unlike a printed piece or mailer, the lag time to judging ad effectiveness is hours not days. And modifying an ad can be accomplished in minutes.
• Targeted traffic. Print and traditional media generally reach a mass audience; it is difficult to target your message. Pay-per-click campaigns utilizing geo-targeting, effective keyword research and demographic site selection allows you to target your viewing audience much more precisely. Thus, pre-qualifying your customers to a far greater degree before they ever land on your website.
• Branding. Top placement on Google, Yahoo or MSN has proven to be a very effective branding method.

Of course you want people to click and buy, but this type of advertising is much more cost effective for a small business than buying a print, TV or even radio advertisement. You instantly measure the effectiveness of your advertisement.

In the survey, sponsored by Microsoft AdCenter Surprisingly, seven in 10 small-business owners who participated revealed that they would rather try to do their own taxes than start a paid search marketing campaign.

Online advertising on one hand is easy to do – you simply go online, select your keywords, create the text of your advertisement (or now you can use video or images in some cases), select where your advertisement will run, enter your payment information and that’s about it.

The more complex part of the advertisement include:

• Measuring the results of your advertising campaign
• Optimizing your keywords
• Tweaking the text of your advertisement
• Creating and optimizing your landing page(s) – the resulting page that people see once they click on your advertisement.

Arcimedia can assist you in optimizing your ads and your website to increase your businesses sales and overall exposure.

Cost per click (CPC) advertising is not just for search engines but Facebook and other sites offer CPC advertising solutions as well.Also keep in mind LOCAL advertising. If you are a local florist, mechanic, plumber, accountant, designer – whatever – there are many local people who want your services but just need to know you are there. They are NOT using the Yellow Pages anymore. They are using their mice. Are you ready to increase your businesses sales and exposure ?

Hiring a professional who can achieve organic (non paid) search engine placement will continuously bring your website traffic without costing you money for every link click.  Paid search engine placement and advertising is expected to reach around 10billion dollars this year and is growing at very fast rate.  In Canada Proctor & Gamble is cutting their traditional marketing dollars by 25% and shifting that money over to online spending and advertising.  Should this change in marketing tactics perform a return on shifted investment you can expect the same to happen in the United States next year.  Knowing Proctor & Gamble spends top dollar on Market Research I would consider this a sure thing.

Larger corporations are jumping into the game and advertising spending and advertising competition are both on the rise.  This increase in competition for keywords is pushing the Cost Per Click and Cost Per Conversion amounts up for everyone.

Pkease do not mistake that advertising via the internet is still very cheap compared to traditional media/marketing outlets such as magazines, newspapers, tv and radio.  However the organic side of SEO Spending is being ignored by quite a few small and LARGE companies based on this study by Conductor.

Conductor has performed some great market research on Fortune 500 companies and their websites.  They assesed a letter grade A-F (60% rating and below = failure) on each companies Natural(organic) Search Engine Visibility and Rankings for various keywords.  The results were astounding and this is why I say hiring a skilled SEO professional knowledgeable in organic rankings puts you and your business on the cutting edge when it comes to online marketing spending.  The ROI for organic rankings and website traffic knocks a monthly Google Adwords spending account/bill out of the park.

Here are the Grades for the Fortune 500 companies and their websites

A-0%

B-2%

C-6%

D-20%

F-72%

In search results, natural listings comprise the majority of clicks, with some studies showing over 80% of all activity occurring in the natural space. Yet more and more money is being pumped into Google Adwords every day.  So when you are thinking about Internet Marketing and SEO think about that SEO professional who has strong organic skills before you go spending $400-$400,000 a month on Google Adwords on that other 20% of clicks.

Here are some other key takeaways from the report, I encourage all reading this post to view the data linked above as it is very rich.

The Fortune 500 as a whole had extremely limited natural search visibility for the terms in which they have the greatest investment in paid search.
• Only 28% of the Fortune 500 registered any legitimate presence in natural search.

• There is an enormous opportunity for improvement in the processes, measurement methodology, and prioritization of natural search.

• There were several brands that demonstrated a commitment to natural search, and displayed a significant head start in expanding beyond paid results, but even these companies had inconsistent execution across brands.

• Only 2.87% of the domains (not companies) surveyed showed significant number of their terms in the top results. All of these positive domain scores were offset by other owned domains with significant visibility issues.

• 8 % of Fortune 500 companies studied showed mid to strong presence for their most advertised keywords

• 20% of Fortune 500 companies have low to mid presence

• 72 % of Fortune 500 companies have very low or non-existent visibility for their most advertised keywords