Thursday, March 21, 2013

25 Elements That Make A High Quality Website.




Paytory.com





25 Elements That Make A High Quality Website.






Website SEO

Many aspects of web design are very subjective on the surface. Should we use a shadow on that text or a solid border? Should we use this image on our homepage slider or that one? However when it comes to making a truly high quality website, there is a method to all the madness. Whether it’s the color scheme, layout, use of specific images, or placement of calls to action, a truly high quality website built by a marketing focused company has everything in a certain place for a specific reason.


Now I won’t claim to have all the answers — I along with any marketing focused web designer am still learning through trial and error, A/B testing, and meticulous data scrubbing. However over the years, I have learned a thing or two about what truly makes a high quality website. Here are 25 website elements that I have learned are critical to truly having a quality, marketing focused website.



Element 1: Clear Navigation:



A website needs to have a clear navigation menu. That navigation menu the majority of the time falls on the top of the webpage in the form of a horizontal bar, not because web designers are lazy, but because this is where people expect it to be. It needs to be easy to navigate a website. Yes, cool designs are fun and unique, but at the end of the day if the user can’t figure out how to navigate your website they’re going to bounce.



Element 2: Multiple Navigation Menus:



Clients often struggle with determining what to highlight in their navigation menu, so we often revert to having multiple navigation menus in the form of vertical menus or horizontal sub-menus. We understand many businesses are extremely complex, so if you’re in a complex industry, a complex business, or have an extremely large website, multiple navigation menus depending on what part of the site you’re on will be critical in assisting visitors with finding what they’re looking for.



Element 3: Easy To Find Objectives, Clear Calls To Action:



The content that falls in the site’s main navigation menu should contain the core pages of the website. This doesn’t necessarily need to be the traditional “Home, About Us, Sign Up, & Contact Us” but rather is unique to your business and industry. We recommend having a clear contact button and clear service/product button in the navigation menu, and often times we’ve found that less is more when it comes to navigation. Sites that have easy to find objectives in the navigation menu tend to convert and perform better than those with cluttered navigation menus or navigation menus with endless drop downs.


Likewise, clear calls to action are extremely important. This isn’t just on certain pages, but rather throughout the entire website. The homepage, blog pages, category pages, sales pages, and every page on the website exists for a purpose and needs to have a clear call to action to properly funnel traffic to where it needs to be.



Element 4: Site Search:



Every single website needs an easy to use and accurate search feature. Many sites have a search feature, but they return terrible results or worse yet don’t work at all. Often times a content management system or e-commerce platform will come with a strong search feature, but if your business has an extremely large site or is an extremely large e-commerce store, the importance of a quality search feature becomes increasingly important. Custom search bars can be utilized, predictive search can be incorporated, or Google Site Search can be utilized to provide quality search results within a specific website.



Element 5: Core Content Highlighted (Cornerstone Content):



Often times businesses have fantastic pages outlining their business, their processes, and core information about why they’re the best, but its hidden. Every business should have a value proposition explaining why someone should pick them over another company, and that should be considered the business’ cornerstone piece of content. That piece of content should be well written, clear, concise, and highlighted properly in the overall web design.


This is more important in certain industries, especially service based industries or industries where the product/service is virtually a commodity, but no matter what the nature of the business it’s important to have a strong value proposition that is properly worked into the website’s structure.



Element 6: Thought Out Contact Process:



How many times do you find a website contact form that doesn’t ask for your phone/email? Or a contact form that is so long you feel like you’re applying for a second mortgage? Or the worst — you have to dig and dig and eventually Google search for the contact page for a company.


Every website needs to have a clear contact process with a simple contact form. That form should ask for Name, Email, and Message. Optional fields are phone number and a drop-down for Reason for Contacting. Anything beyond that needs to be collected on a secondary form or after you contact the new lead as the shorter and sweeter the contact forms the greater the chance they’ll be filled out. This is always a struggle with business owners as they want to ask 15 questions in a contact form, but in reality a marketing focused site will have a short contact form.



Element 7: Blog/News Area:



Every website needs a blog/news area. You don’t want a blog/news area, you say? Well, if you want a quality, marketing based website then you’re getting one. Let’s be realistic, anyone who knows anything about online marketing knows how critical a blog and news area is. Not having a blog/news section to a website is basically like not even having a website these days — seriously.


In addition to actually having the blog/news area is the importance of updating this critical section of the website, but we’ll touch more on that in another element.



Element 8: Information About Your Company:



If I’m searching the web, stumble upon a new company, and can’t find out anything about that company, I will likely leave. It’s important to post information about the business . This consists of information about the company’s history, the management team, employees, location, structure, and any other important or unique information about the company. Not only is this good information to have, but it also helps build trust in the company and helps show the company is established and not a fly-by-night operation.



Element 9: Testimonials & Reviews:



Every website needs testimonials and reviews. I don’t care if its a SEO company, a car dealer, a dental office, or a trash collection company. Every website needs testimonials and reviews to build trust. Let me throw out a little statistic I learned through another website I own — years ago we didn’t have any testimonials or reviews posted, and we had about an 11% contact rate on the site. After we added testimonials & reviews, that soared to 17% and our close rate on those that contacted us went up dramatically.


Ideally a video testimonial is the best, however a text testimonial with an image or on stationary from the individual is nearly as good. And if you can’t get those, then a simple text based review is still far, far better than having nothing at all.



Element 10: Case Studies & Data:



Much like testimonials and reviews, every website should also contain case studies and data. Many business owners say “I don’t have any case studies or data” and our response is “Because we haven’t put any together yet”. No matter what industry you’re in, you can put together some sort of case study or other business specific data. Doctors can publish success rates, an e-commerce site can publish customer satisfaction surveys, a law firm can publish their success rates or work on a specific case, and so on. No matter what industry you’re in, working with a good marketing focused individual can help you come up with case studies and data to publish on the website to establish yourself as an industry authority.



Element 11: Quality & Unique Content:



This is key. Your website is essentially two things: images and text. We’ll talk about the images later and the text now. Every website should have high quality, unique content that was either written in house or written by your web design/copywriting team. This content needs to be clear, concise, and focus on helping inform your website visitors while funneling them to your goal. This content is one of the most important elements of your website and is one of the things that will ultimately decide if a visitor becomes a “bounce” or a “conversion”.


And likewise, this content should be unique for three reasons: First off it needs to be unique for SEO purposes due to Panda, secondly it needs to be unique so you don’t look the same as your competitor who you stole it from, and third it needs to be unique because it’s just the right, ethical thing to do. Don’t copy content from someone else, rather take the time to formulate quality, unique content for your website that represents the quality you strive for at your business. It is an investment in the website that will pay off.



Element 12: Fresh & Updated Content:



Unique, quality content isn’t enough anymore, it needs to be fresh and updated. This comes in two forms: overall content as well as blog content.


Overall content should be updated and changed as needed. In some industries, copy can stay on the page for years. If a product/service is extremely static, the content may remain the same for years which is fine. But in the majority of businesses, things change constantly. New products/services are introduced, changes are made to existing products/services, and other elements may change from time to time. Make sure someone routinely goes through the website to make sure all the content is fresh and updated to reflect the current state of the business.


And secondly, blog content needs to be fresh and updated. Companies should blog an absolute minimum of once per month. We prefer if they blog at least once per week, and ideally companies would blog as often as humanly possible. Companies with a blog that hasn’t been updated for months are going to have a higher bounce rate and convert much poorer. And likewise blog content attracts links, social following, and long tail traffic, all of which will assist with the website’s ultimate goal: Driving new business to the company.



Element 13: Marketing Based Content:



And lastly, content needs to be marketing based. Many business owners and content writers know very little about marketing or selling a product/service. They’re great at what they do, but not so great at marketing what they do. The content on a website shouldn’t be dry, boring, and lifeless, but rather it should encourage the visitor to want to learn more or purchase the product/service.


Yes, this is easier in some industries than other, but when you have a passionate business owner, a good copywriter can extract information from them that can be lively and leave the visitor wanting to learn more.



Element 14: Clean Coding:



Many websites have terrible coding. When a web developer (or search engine) views the coding of a site, they can often tell extremely quickly how well a site is coded. Why is this important? For starters it’s important so the website displays properly, more importantly its important so the website is easy to change when needed, and perhaps most importantly its important so the site loads quickly. Having website coding that is messy is like that big tangled bunch of cords we all have hiding behind our desks, whereas a nice clean website is like having a glass desk with a laptop and just one little power cable leading to it.



Element 15: SEO Friendly Coding:



This is one of my biggest pet peeves, when a business hires a web designer who doesn’t have a clue about SEO. As a company that offers both SEO and web design, this is pretty high on our list of critical website elements. SEO friendly coding means many things, including but not limited to proper headings, proper titles, proper placement of coding in the HTML structure, clean and concise coding, ability to change SEO related elements, ALT/title tags, and much more. It takes an extra step sometimes to make a website SEO friendly, but the end result always pays off for the business.



Element 16: Great Graphics & Images:



We mentioned earlier that a website is essentially two things: images and text. We already went on and on and on about how important the text is, how about the images? If you think about it, the images on a website and color scheme of the site are really what ultimately grab your attention or not. A site that has fantastic content but terrible design/graphics isn’t going to do any better than a site with terrible content but great design/graphics. In my opinion they’re both needed, and having good, high quality graphics, images, and design help show that your business is credible, offers a high quality product/service, and enhances the usability of the site.



Element 17: A Unified Design:



Ever see a website with a great header/navigation bar but the rest of the site looks like an after thought? Often times web designers spend a great deal of time on things like the header and homepage, and put very little thought into the interior pages and footer. It’s important to have a unified design on the website, and this means that every page and every element of every page is unified (using the same style, fonts, color scheme, etc.). A site with a well thought out, unified design truly will do better, look better, and give visitors a better first impression of your business.



Element 18: Seamless Transitions:



It drives me insane when a website is coded in one platform, the blog is in another, and the e-commerce platform is in a third, and all of them have a different “theme” or design to them. It makes the business look “cheap” — it’s like going to a restaurant and part of the room being carpet, the other part tile, and the third part concrete. Websites can become very complex very quickly, which is all the more reason to work with a professional web designer to make sure you identify the best solution for your situation to ensure seamless transitions across all elements of the website.



Element 19: Cross Browser Compatibility:



This is extremely important these days. Gone are the days of having one web browser to design for, and in comes 2013 with dozens of different browsers by different companies that all render a little differently. Make sure your site is designed for cross browser compatibility and tested in multiple browsers before launch. This will help ensure that everyone sees what they should be seeing and can easily navigate and utilize the website without technical errors. This is also important if you have an old website as it likely isn’t displaying properly in a majority of web browsers today.


Element 20: Smart Phone Friendly:


I know very few people these days who don’t own a smart phone, and out of everyone who has a smart phone I can almost guarantee the majority of them use it to visit websites from time to time. A website doesn’t necessarily need to have a mobile version anymore (in my opinion dummied down mobile sites infuriate visitors more than anything since they can’t access your full content/site) but you should have either a responsive website (one that scales to the device size) or a website that renders properly in tables and mobile devices. This will continue to be more and more important as time goes on, and if you have an old website there’s a great chance it doesn’t work right in smart phones or tablets.



Element 21: Good User Interface/Content Management:



A website used to be a collection of HTML files that only your web developer could edit, however today the vast majority of websites are built in some sort of content management system. Make sure you pick a content management system that fits your needs and has a good user interface. What does that mean? Well, it depends on your business. If you regularly want to update your page content and blog content, WordPress is a great choice. If you need to be able to have a portfolio to display your images, then a customized gallery in WordPress is a good choice. There are numerous content management systems out there (WordPress being the most popular and our favorite) and it’s important to work with your web developer to identify what you need to change the most often so they can build and modify the user interface to facilitate your needs.



Element 22: Opt In Form:



Email marketing is critical in lead nurturing for both product and service based businesses, and every website should have an opt in form for email marketing. No, it shouldn’t be “thrown” onto the page somewhere just to be there, rather it should be designed to fit the look of the site and incorporated in a well thought out location. Some sites use the footer, others use the sidebar, and others use pop-ups, it all depends on how important email marketing is to your business (and in nearly every business it should be pretty darn important).



Element 23: Feature Rich Add-ons:



Make sure your website has all the elements you need! This sounds like a no brainer, but if you can benefit from having an e-commerce platform then opt to spend the few thousand more on having your developer set it up! You’ll make that money back after a few weeks or months of having the platform in place. If you’re spending the time to re-do your website, don’t cut corners on the functionality and add-on elements of the site, it will just leave you feeling like something is missing after the fact and will also leave you not earning as much as you potentially could through the site.



Element 24: Easy Traffic/Conversion Tracking:



Building all these great elements on a website will be useless if you can’t track the traffic. Whether a 3rd party software or Google Analytics, it’s important to have some sort of traffic reporting software in place to monitor critical website metrics. And likewise it’s also important to setup goals and events to track contact form submissions, e-commerce sales, and email opt ins through a website to understand what marketing channels are delivering the best ROI.



Element 25: Personalized For Your Business:



Sounds crazy, but a lot of businesses use template websites that aren’t customized for their business at all. These look cookie cutter, generic, and make the business look cheap. Have a website that your business can be proud of, that is customized for your niche, that is unique to your company, and that your competitors are envious of. Your website is the first impression the majority of your customers/clients will have, make sure your site represents your business well.


And there you have it — the 25 elements that truly make a high quality website stand apart from a mediocre website. These elements will not only help make the website look good, but more importantly well help the website fulfill it’s number one purpose — to help your business make more money.


Now, as a small business owner, you might be saying to yourself ”That’s all great, I would love to have those 25 elements, but we simply cannot afford it” and I would argue that you’re 50% right, you can’t afford something, but what you can’t afford is continuing without having these elements on your website. A true high quality website will pay for itself hundreds of times over and over again.


Author: Brendan Egan


Courtesy of www.simpleseogroup.com














Rethinking Email Marketing.






Rethinking Email as a Mobile Strategy « Direct Contact

With companies caught up in social media, it can be easy to forget about email marketing. Email marketing gives companies a unique channel to broadcast their company and content.


However, not all companies execute email marketing correctly. One of the biggest mistakes they make is they think of it as a sales channel. They charge right out of the gates with the intention of selling products, instead of providing value to customers and occasionally promoting.


Let’s take a second look at email marketing and dive into some tips and counter-intuitive thinking…


Asking Questions and Having Goals


Like any new venture, it is necessary for a business to ask questions and have goals. Questions like:


Why should we do this? Does it need to be done?


What do we hope to get out of this?


What would success look like?


What is the cost?


What milestones should we set?


Who will be in charge of it?


Once you have questions like this nailed down, you can then figure out if these approaches are right for your company, and if so, use some of the tips provided in this blog post to help guide you through the process.


How to get Subscribers


A newsletter is nothing without subscribers. To build your email list, you’ll need to put a signup form on your website. Many companies will leave this email signup form on a landing page or their blog.


It’s common for many websites to tell how many subscribers they have. Hubspot says to join over 54,000 subscribers.


Others will tell you how often the emails go out.


Notice how they also emphasize the “FREE” in the headline. Notice the wording and color of buttons companies are using. They emphasize the word “free”. Check out the wording and coloring for the buttons:


Subscribe (Navy Blue)


Join Us (Red)


Join (Green)


Yes, Sign Me Up (Blue)


Sign me up (Blue)


Sign Up (Light Green)


Details matter, so it’s important how you choose your words and colors that you use. Test combinations and see if one converts better than the other.


Some websites have multiple newsletters.


In my opinion, it would be beneficial for companies to tell how often emails go out. It’s helpful when the prospect knows what to expect. You can also show what previous newsletters look like.


Whatever message you choose and wherever you choose to place the newsletter signup (preferably homepage and/or blog), the key is to get the emails opened.


Email Open Rates


Many factors can influence email open rates, some of which are out of your control. One factor you can control are your titles.


Most people receive over 100 emails a day (including email from work). Needless to say, it can be difficult for people to open your newsletter if it has a boring title.


Here are a few tips to keep in mind when crafting your email titles:


Don’t make it about you: “It’s not all about you” may be frustrating to hear, but it’s important to keep in mind. Subscribers probably like your brand, but avoid sending out your latest press release. Product launche emails are a good idea as long as they’re not sent out too often. You should outline some kind of benefit for the reader in the email subject line.


Here is a bad title with no benefit for the reader:


“Our company, XYZ Widgets, just passed Widgetry Inc in Sales”


A title like this will likely garner a less than stellar open rate because it makes the email about the company, not about the reader.


Here’s a better one:


“How Widgets Inc increased sales by 5% with this simple greeting”


The reader will feel compelled to open the email because it’s about benefits for the reader.


Tell a story: People love to hear stories. Many of the best newsletters will lead with a story as the headline/title. For example, if you sell nutritional advice or supplements you wouldn’t want to write “How Jim lost 100lbs in 2 months” as that would wind up in the spam box and/or be totally ignored. Instead, go for “How Jim’s 2 week vacation lead him to lose 10lbs.” This sounds much more like a casual story and less like a spammy “magic pill” weight loss story.


Make it exciting: Part of having a helpful email means giving the reader actionable advice. It all starts with the topic. When writing the topic, ask yourself “Will the user know what they can do?” Maybe pass your title to a few colleagues and ask, “Without opening it, do you know what you can do in this email?” Give descriptive words when writing your title. For example:


Boring:


“How XYZ company increased their email open rates from .5-2.0%”


Improved:


“How XYZ company tripled their email open rates.”


“What XYZ company did to improve their email open rates by 300%”


1.5% is not an exciting number. In fact, it’s rather depressing to think of such a small open rate. By giving words like “tripled” or “300%”, you’re polishing the title up a little bit.


Here’s another example:


Boring:


“Why I like the new Ford Taurus”


Improved:


“How Ford just made Toyota’s job much tougher.”


“Why the Ford Taurus will become America’s best selling car.”


“Why the new Taurus will add $10 billion to Ford’s bottom line.”


“Why I like…” is not exciting. Unless you’re really important, no one is going to care what one person thinks about a car. These improved titles think bigger and beyond the writer. It makes you think there will be real analysis in the email instead of just an opinion.


Keep it short: Almost everywhere you have to keep your message short. Billboards shouldn’t be more than 7 words, slogans shouldn’t be long, Twitter has their 140 character limit and SMS limits you to 160 characters. So what about email? The rule of thumb for subject lines is 50 characters. Remember, people get a lot of emails everyday and long subject lines may not get read. Do your best to keep it as short as possible.


Avoid spammy words: “Free”, “Act now” & “Limited time” all should be avoided in your email subject. Not only do people see these words everyday, they also correlated with spam. If you’ve ever seen a late night infomercial, you’ve undoubtedly heard these words many times. Be more creative and thoughtful with your titles. Hubspot has a great list on spam trigger words.


Consistently have great content: A great title helps, but if your email has bad content then that reduces the chances that they’ll check out your newsletter next time. Or worse, they could unsubscribe. We’ll get into how to write great content later.


Rethinking the Welcome Email – A Case Study


MarketingShepra featured a company that increased their CTR by 450% by changing their welcome process. Instead of one long welcome email, Savvymom sent three welcome emails spread over ten days (one email every 10 days). They also did a few other tactics which increased engagement. Here’s a quick synopsis:


1) Savvymom gathered user feedback and found that moms (like most people) tend to experience email overload. So they decided to send three welcome emails. All three messages gradually introduce them to the Savvymom website. They had a list of the latest content that Savvymom spent the most time working on. From there, they narrowed it down to get the content that was most enjoyable to the Savvymom readers.


2) They personalized the content to fit with how the user signed up for the newsletter.


3) Savvymom made it pretty and emphasized important elements of the email.


4) Had a format fit for scanners and; kept the call-to-action above the fold. They also kept the design similar to their website, knew who their audience was, portrayed the correct images to them and made sure the email was viewable on all devices.


5) At the bottom of the newsletter, Savvymom had a few visual links that went back to their website. These links were not related to the email subject, but rather general advice and content in their niche. To give a separate example, if you sell outdoor equipment and your email subject is about water bottles, the bottom links would be links to content about surviving in (enter season) months, instructional videos, or any other content on your site. These links make one last attempt to get the reader to click on something in your newsletter.


In short, doing three welcome emails improved their CTR and on one of those three emails, improved their open rate versus the original welcome email. They also improved their long term engagement.


Segmenting Your Email List


Segmenting your email list is important because it works. By segmenting your marketing emails, you are sending out more relevant emails. You can segment by geography, interests, behavior, Klout score and more. Typically you should use segments based on your business goals. For example, if your company is holding an event or speaking in Chicago, you can segment your list to just let people in Chicago know, instead of emailing your entire list. Or if you see a trend that 5% of your readers click on a certain item or download a white paper, you can segment to those people and send them content similar to that.


Segmenting takes a lot of time and work, but it can pay off in the end.


Writing Great Content


You must be helpful in your email newsletters. Think about email newsletters as a book or a movie. Rarely does someone read or watch a movie to hear promotions or information about a company (unless it’s corrupt). Your newsletter is the same. Provide some kind of benefit for the reader. Helping them can go beyond their personal finances; think about the unique value that you as a brand can provide.


For example, if you’re a social media consultant, you’re newsletter should consist of tips for engaging with users, answering recent FAQ (i.e.: is Pinterest right for me?) and the latest stats and research on social media. You could also feature a company or two that are using social media in the right way.


The content must also be relevant. You must also know your audience. Markingsherpa reports that 4 out of 10 subscribers press the spam button on newsletters simply because the content is irrelevant. One survey showed that 63% of respondents unsubscribe from e-mails to avoid irrelevant messages that were sent too often.


Having a Call-to-Action


Your call-to-action should be above the fold and clear.


On top, Amazon shows recommendations. Then there is “Learn More” button featuring organic snacks. All of this is kept above the fold, so I don’t have to scroll down to see it.


Environmental group called 350: there are four links, with the middle one telling the user to “click here”. All four of these links direct to the same website. The author of the newsletter is hoping readers just click on a link, he gives multiple options, all of which send the reader to the same site.


When writing your call-to-action, you have to tell them what you want and give them a reason why. Don’t be vague. Political organizations are very good at this when emailing supporters. Here’s one from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign:


This well-formatted newsletter gives two bold sentences, both of them asking to donate money. It’s very clear what they want from the reader. A call-to-action near the top and a call-to-action near the bottom.


Romney’s campaign has to call-to-action, one button that asks to donate, clearly well above the fold. The other one, below the fold, asks for a donation.


Best Time To Send Out Emails


The best day(s) to send out emails appear to be Tuesday or Wednesday. The best times appear to be a little after noon. You’ll always hear conflicting info and advice, so it’s best to test it for yourself.


What To Do When People Unsubscribe


When people unsubscribe, this is a great opportunity to get feedback.


When a reader unsubscribes, ask why and get their feedback. If it’s because you email too often, that may be a hint that you should give readers an option to receive email a little less frequently. You should give readers this option at the bottom of every email you send (i.e. link that says, “Send me these emails less frequently”) and on the unsubscribe page. This could help save you from losing them as a subscriber. One survey showed that 41% of respondents are open to receiving less email rather than totally unsubscribing.


If it’s because the emails they were receiving were irrelevant, then you may want to start segmenting and ask them what kind of content they were looking for.


Should You Bother A/B Testing Email Headlines?


Since most email campaigns use a different headline each time a campaign is sent out, how beneficial is it to test headlines? The only thing you really get out of testing email headlines is you get an idea of what language leads to more opens and conversions. It’s not like testing a home page headline that will be used throughout the year. And you don’t really need to A/B test headlines to get a good idea of what language works with what email.


What’s probably more important, is to A/B test your email layout, call to action text and button colors. Chances are you will be using the same layout and button styles in each email you send out. So testing these elements will give you much more beneficial insights. This is obviously a more effective use of your “testing time”.


Don’t Just Test, but Compare


Here at KISSmetrics, we constantly urge you to test every marketing activity you engage in. But that can lead to very microscopic, laser focused analysis. At some point, you need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How are all your marketing campaigns doing? For instance, is email marketing as effective as Pay-Per-Click advertising or SEO? Do you have the budget, and perhaps even more importantly, the time to continue to run email marketing the way you are currently doing it? Is it even producing a return for your business?


We would never advise to completely shut down your email marketing activities, but sometimes it might be wise to scale it down or make adjustments as to how you are going about it to make sure it’s beneficial for your business.


When NOT To Do Email Marketing


For years marketing experts have been pitching the benefits of email marketing and how to get more out of your campaigns. But the real question is: Are you ready to commit to a regular email marketing routine? One of the worst things you can do is start an email marketing campaign and then stop it, returning to it at random intervals throughout the year. Your email marketing list will hit more spam boxes and become much less effective if you don’t keep a regular frequency.


One easy way to see if your business is ready for email marketing is to start blogging. If you can keep a regular blogging schedule, chances are you can keep a regular email marketing schedule. If you can’t keep a regular blogging schedule the effects are far less damaging than losing steam on an email marketing initiative. Another nifty thing about blog articles is that they can also be used as content for your email marketing campaigns (or as backup material). In essence you can kill two birds with one piece of content!


Email marketing is not something all businesses should do. As mentioned, you must start with what you want to get out of it. If you’re only goal is to push sales, you have the wrong intentions and won’t be successful. Focus on making great, relevant content first.


Author: Zach Bulygo


Courtesy of www.blog.kissmetrics.com











Top Internet Marketing Apps for Your Business.




Paytory.com





Top Internet Marketing Apps for Your Business.






Internet marketing tools

Thanks to technology, the world moves at lightning speed. Business done solely in an office is a thing of the past, and staying on top of your work in real time is essential to making your company a success. This rings especially true for those in internet marketing, and pushing your business forward on the go is as easy as having the right marketing apps, literally, at your fingertips.


Over five million iPhone 5?s sold in the first weekend of sales, and over 100 million iPads have been sold in the past two and a half years. Although many of these sales were for personal use, most successful companies are using the popular smartphones and tablets to do everyday business. In fact, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, stated that 94 percent of Fortune 500 companies were using the popular iPad “in an official capacity.” With growing demands for these tools come increasing sales of apps, with over 700,000 available apps causing 35 billion downloads. 9.3% of apps fall into the business category, and your business can’t afford to be left behind as technology pushes the business world forward.



The Social Connection



Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram – We all know how to use these by now, but managing your social outreach on the go is easier than ever. Staying on top of what’s trending, and consistently engaging with followers is as simple as downloading the apps.


Hootsuite – Posting socially has never been easier, whether it be to Facebook, Twitter, or Google+. Timed posts and tracked feedback allow for quickly tracked and easily managed social media outreach. Figure out the best way to increase your traffic and see what’s working (or not working) through your social networking.



Marketing Material Creation



YouTube and iMovie – Over 500 years of YouTube videos are watched every single day on Facebook alone, so using iMovie to create worthy content and YouTube as an uploading platform can give your marketing tactics a real boost. Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research found that one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, so if you’re not using video as a marketing tool for your business, you’re missing out.


WordPress – Having an engaging blog is a key element to boosting online presence and building your brand, but blogging requires consistent updating to be successful. The WordPress app allows for quick penning and posting, keeping your blog followers satisfied and loyal.


Piktochart – Humans are visual, and putting your information into an infographic has proven to be an excellent marketing tool. Easily shared and visually pleasing, creating an infographic on the go is simple with the piktochart app.



Business Connection



Skype – Many users find Skype to be a wonderful way to stay in touch in their personal lives, but Skype is also an excellent source for staying connected in your business life. Many interviews and meetings are held through Skype, and your busy life doesn’t have to slow down to have some face time with your employees, even if you’re out of the office.


Dropbox – One of the best ways to get your files and folders on the move. By storing your data in the cloud, you (and your team) can easily access your information remotely.


Podio – Working together from different locations is a breeze with Podio, allowing users to create workspaces and collaborate on specific projects. Being on the same page with your marketing team from afar is more than possible with platforms like Podio.


GoToMeeting – Gone are the days of conference calling. GoToMeeting allows you to hear and view presentations in real time, so your time out of the office can be more efficient. Meet quickly with your marketing team or with existing or potential clients. You can even offer webinars like we do at Vertical Measures, speaking on a different and relevant topic each month that your fans and followers will be interested in.


Eventbrite – Putting on an event, workshop or conference? Eventbrite is the most trusted and easy to use event management system out there. Plus, they have a free app where you can track your registrations, prices, etc., in addition to finding relevant events in your industry.



Financial Matters and Marketing Analytics



Paypal – The Paypal app is so simple, you’ll wonder why you ever dealt with cash or cards at all. Manage your online transactions quickly and receive instant receipts when there are payments or deposits in or out of your account.


Analytics Pro – This app provides quick, easy access to Google Analytics, allowing you to track your online endeavors and set up goals for your business. You can access multiple accounts and get clear visuals of your progress through logical graphs.


SEO Analysis Tool – This provides technical details about domains, and also offers tips on how to improve your own SEO ranking. And it’s a free app!


SEO Pro – An easy-to-use app that allows you to track your online ranking efforts, including your Page and Alexa rankings.



Marketing Tips and Tricks



Internet Marketing Speed – Staying in tune with the latest in internet marketing is made possible through several well-followed podcasts, such as Internet Marketing Speed by James Schramko. Learning from each other is valuable, and podcasts by the pros are a good way to stay in tune.


Marketing Online Live 2.0 – Another excellent podcast for internet marketers, by Alex Mandossian and Paul Colligan, podcasts are offered twice a month on hot topics in the internet marketing field.


Mashable – Another popular information site for those in social media, this app offers news and information for those who want to stay on top of trending internet news.


Keeping up with new technologies is half the battle in internet marketing, and apps are the best weapons in the fight. Many apps are available for free, while some can get pricey. Regardless of your budget, there is an app out there that can take your internet marketing endeavors to new levels…and all at the touch of a screen.


Author: Laura Holloway


Courtesy of www.verticalmeasures.com














RSS to Facebook Poster from RSS Ground






mainpage-rsstofacebookDear friends,


RSS Ground has recently added a new poster to its system of RSS tools.


RSS to Facebook Poster will now be available together with WordPress, Google Blogger and Twitter posters.


With the help of RSS to Facebook poster you will be able to automatically update your Facebook timeline or timeline of any fanpage you have administrator rights to.


Freshly generated targeted RSS feeds for any niche, affiliate RSS feeds, RSS from Datafeeds now can be sent to your Facebook right from the same interface.


There is no limit with a number of RSS feeds or a number of post in this Facebook tool. It is fully under your control. You may also update several Facebook pages simultaneously.


To learn more about this tool, please refer to RSS to Facebook manual or sign up to RSS Ground Professional membership.


Enjoy RSS to Facebook Poster from RSS Ground.











6 Strategies for Writing Effective Web Copy.




Paytory.com





6 Strategies for Writing Effective Web Copy.






Effective Web Writing

Writing effective web copy is both an art and a science. There’s a degree of artistry to a perfectly composed sentence that can’t be reduced to a set of simple instructions. However, when it comes to persuasive writing, certain strategies have a proven track record of success. If you want to write good copy that will resonate with your readers and drive traffic to your website, take note of the following tips.


1) Sell it in the title. You can write the greatest copy in the world, but if your headline is weak, no one’s going to read it. On average, 80% of people will read just the headline – only 20% will read the rest. This is why a solid headline is so important. There’s no one magic formula for writing a good headline, but some time-tested strategies include the direct approach (e.g. “Free Coupon”), the how-to approach (e.g. “How to Use Google Analytics”) and the list approach (e.g. the title of this post).


If you’re running an ad, be sure to come up with more than one headline and use A/B testing to see which one works the best.


2) Tell stories. Humans are suckers for a good story. Stories resonate with us – statistics don’t. Journalists have known this for ages. A newspaper headline about 50,000 people killed in an earthquake in a foreign country will barely give readers pause. It’s just a number; I can’t picture a number. A headline about a small child who’s been trapped under the rubble for three days, on the other hand – suddenly you have my interest. I can visualize the scene. I can empathize with the family. I can relate.


If you’re writing marketing copy, the same rule applies. You can bombard your readers with impressive statistics and technical details about your product or service, and they’ll smile and nod. If you really want to get their attention, however, give them a good story. Open with a compelling anecdote. Provide case studies. Highlight testimonials from your customers.


Tell me a story, and I’ll give you my attention.


3) Be specific. You may think that speaking in general terms covers more bases, and thus maximizes your potential readership. Not so. The visitors to your website who are the most likely to convert are the ones who are looking for something specific. Don’t speak in generalities about how your company sells “high-quality fishing gear,” or “software that will maximize your business’s conversion rate.” What kinds of fishing gear do you sell? How does your software maximize conversion rates? The more questions you can answer for your reader right off the bat, the better.


4) Avoid jargon. Every industry has its jargon. In my industry, for example, we talk about SEO, SEM, PPC, and ROI. Jargon serves a purpose as convenient shorthand for those in the know, but you can’t always expect your readers to be familiar with it. Even if you’re marketing to other businesses in your industry, a more colloquial approach often works better. Compare “This online course will optimize your ROI and mazimize your conversion rate” with “This online course will get you more leads for less money.”


5) Use persuasive language. Gregory Ciotti at Copyblogger has written a great article about the 5 most persuasive words in the English language. It’s even backed up – with science! The words are “you,” “free,” “because,” “instantly,” and “new.” Readers want to feel like they are being personally addressed (you) they want to know what’s in it for them (because), and they like things that are free, new, and instant (who doesn’t?). Some other words you might want to add to that list are “win,” “how”, and “save.” Just make sure that these words words are used in an appropriate context, and that they accurately describe what it is that you’re offering.


6) End with a call to action. This is Marketing 101. The conclusion of your copy should always answer the question “What next?” If you’ve done a good job with your copy, I’m going to be ready to pursue next steps. Tell me what those steps are. Maybe you want me to sign up for an email list. Maybe you want me add an item to my shopping cart. Maybe you want me to Tweet your article. In any case, the call to action should be clear and definite. If there’s no call to action, what was the point of the copy?


Adopt these simple strategies for your marketing copy and you’ll start seeing better results. Good copy takes a while to produce and even longer to master, but it’s well worth the investment. If you write persuasively and deliver on your promises, both you and your customer will end up happy. And everybody wins.


Author: Brett Langois


Courtesy of www.poweredbysearch.com














How To Spot Bad Links Pointing to Your Website.






bad links management

One of the very important metrics that counts in for a Google penalty, especially in the post penguin, panda era is bad links. Bad links comes in all shapes and sizes, no really.


Any link could be a bad link if you don’t understand it properly. Which is why its important to look into your backlink data once a while and make sure things are looking good there.



But, what are bad links?



Well, generally, low quality links are bad links.


Any link built for the sake of link building is a bad link.


Any link that comes from a bad neighborhood website too could be a bad link.


Any link that come from a website that has been selling links also could be a bad link.


Any link that follows a typical, unnatural pattern in its out bound links could be a bad link.


Any link from a website that was built entirely or partially for the sake or writing articles that carried paid links too could be a bad link.


Essentially, any unnatural and artificial effort put in to “generate” links pointing to a site could leave behind many trails that could classify them as bad links.


Here’s my recommendation.



what to look for in your back links that might identify them as a “bad link”



- Scan the website for the articles published on it.


Do you see articles with no traffic, no comments or unrelated content? Like insurance and Gold Mining together? It clearly was not written for benefiting someone looking for information. But possibly for selling links.


- Look for obsessive linking patterns.


Are there several lesser-known, untrusted websites being linked to from the articles, sidebar or footer? Typically, link builders purchase site-wide links or footer links as they are cheap. Having couple of them on the sidebar is a clear signal of unnatural linking.


- Thin content.


Look for thin content. Does the site have articles that looks like written for the engines? If there are not “meaty – content” it might be a signal that the site is built to sell links from within their articles.


- Anchor Text repetition.


Look for repeated anchor texts. Link builders typically buy links based on anchor texts, which are basically their primary or secondary targeted keywords. A genuine reviewer might not link to the website more than once with the same keyword. If you see an excessive use of the same anchor text from the same website, it could be manipulated.


- Linking to landing pages.


Link builders, in an effort to gather authority to their landing pages for their targeted keywords, try to buy links that point to the same landing page. This is a clean signal, unless the page is organically authoritative otherwise, that the links are bought to point to the page.


- Nature of the website.


Although there cannot be pattern predicted here, use your judgment. Is it a forum signature link, or a spam directory or a blogspot blog with stemmed and machine written articles? Is it one of those websites that you would trust for information? If not, try to avoid it.


Author: Mani Karthik


Courtesy of www.dailyseoblog.com