You’ve taken the time to define your purpose and to define your customer and you’ve designed your website so now your done, right? Wrong!
Now comes the most important part, monitoring the actual visitors to your website to see what they are doing while they are there. Since you went to all the trouble to define your purpose and your customer, the next logical step would be to see if you are attracting those customers and if they are helping your site to fulfill its purpose.
Do you get a ton of visitors but they all just leave immediately? Maybe your content is not clear or your search terms or tags are attracting people who are really not interested in your product or service. Are your visitors looking around a lot but then not buying anything? Maybe your “call to action” is not clear or you don’t have enough information to base a decision on.
The main thing is to make sure that somebody is keeping track of what’s going on so that corrections can be made if needed. This process also needs to be ongoing to keep up with changes in search engines and with changes in your market.
There are various different services and programs to purchase that will help you collect all of this information and figure it all out. At Concepts ‘n’ Creations we help you answer all of these important questions with our monthly site statistics report included FREE with your monthly maintenance service. We also offer additional assistance and more specific information upon request. We always work with you to help make sure that you’re getting the results you want. Contact Us today to see how we can make your website work for you.
Chris
Now that we’ve covered defining your purpose before designing your website, we will discuss another important aspect of your design, defining your customer. Who is your ideal target customer that is most likely to purchase your product or service? Once again, be specific.
Next, here is an important exercise for you to try, actually become the customer that you just defined. What are your needs? What words or phrases do you use to find your product or service? Now, actually type those words or phrases into a search engine and look at some of the top sites that show up. Take note of what design, colors and layout attract you. What about the content interests you? Just as you note all the positives, also note what turns you off. Also make a note of the websites that are showing up at the top for those search words and phrases. When you start your SEO, these will be your competitors you’ll be trying to beat. All of this is valuable information when helping to design your website to attract the customers that you want.
Remember to do this exercise NOT as the owner of your business but as your target customer you’ve defined and note what you as your target customer like and dislike. Make sure to check back next week for the 2nd and even more important part of defining your customer. Subscribe to this blog today so you don’t miss it.
Concepts ‘n’ Creations works closely with you to help you properly define your purpose and your customer. Contact Us to see how we can make your website work for you.
Until next week…
Hopefully, you’ve already read Part 1 and you have defined your purpose for your website. If not, go back and read part 1 first and then come back here.
So, what’s even more important than your purpose? Your visitor’s purpose, of course. Fortunately, your visitor’s purpose is quite a bit easier to define. First of all, accept the fact that 99.9% of your visitors really don’t care about you or your website and just get over it. Unless you are running an online game site, your visitors are at your website for one reason and for one reason only, to get information, period. Either you give them the information they are looking for or they go somewhere else. It’s really as simple as that. The easier that you make it for them to find what they are looking for, the happier they will be and the more often they’ll come back for more. Remember, your competitors are only a click away.
Now, the real trick is to combine your visitor’s purpose with your purpose that we discussed last week. Don’t worry, it can be done and it’s really not much of a trick. Contact Us at Concepts ‘n’ Creations to see how easy it can be.
So, to sum it all up, your purpose is probably the most important thing to have in virtually everything you do so take the time and define it before you start. Pause every so often to make sure that you’re on track or to re-examine your purpose (it’s okay to change if you need to). Your purpose keeps you focused but more importantly, it lets you know when you have succeeded. Remember, just as important is your customer’s purpose. So don’t forget them or they’ll soon forget you!.
Oh, and the meaning of life? It’s 42, of course.
Until next time…
No, this is NOT a blog about the meaning of life.
In order to build a successful business, virtually everything that you do must have a clear purpose and every task that follows must lead you to that purpose. This is especially true with your website.
Before you even begin to think about uploading all of those cute images and animations to the internet for all to see, STOP, take a moment and really define the purpose of your website. Why do you even have a website? If you answered, “because everyone else has one”, sorry, that didn’t work when we were kids and it doesn’t work now. Seriously define exactly what it is that you want your website to do for you and be specific (to make a lot of money is not specific). Then, make sure that every design element on every page follows your purpose.
For example, if your purpose is to collect email addresses then make sure your design leads your visitors into giving you their prized email address. If you want them to register or sign-up for a class then make sure it’s very easy to find all the information they need to make a decision and even easier to sign-up immediately while it’s fresh on their mind to do so. Give them incentives to sign-up now! Also, always give them multiple contact methods such as forms, emails, and phone numbers.
But don’t forget that each page is also its own website in the search engines so while all of your pages should follow your site wide purpose, each individual page should also have its own purpose with the content on the page following that purpose.
More about purpose to come next week… Subscribe to this blog so you won’t miss it or
Contact Us or visit Concepts ‘n’ Creations to see how we can help you today.
Chris
Well, I’ve been saying for a while now that when it comes to losing important files on your computer, it’s not if it will happen, it’s when. So, I suppose it was bound to happen to me eventually and it did just a week ago.
I was simply moving files and cleaning things up a bit when all of a sudden I noticed that all 3500 of my photos were gone, just gone. Now, before you say “you should have backed them up”, I do, which is better than most people. But, that still doesn’t save the one’s added since my last backup and with recent trips and vacation there were quite a few once in a lifetime pics that didn’t make the backup.
Luckily, Carbonite backs up every file as it’s added and continues to back them up automatically without me having to do anything or even think about it. Not only that, my files are all securely encrypted and saved on multiple drives in multiple locations so no matter what happens, my files are always there, safe and secure.
I just went to my Carbonite back up, found the photos and clicked restore. Within minutes my lost photos were safely returned to their place on my PC. That was the best $50 I’ve ever spent.
I have Carbonite installed on all of my computers and I highly recommend it to everyone I talk to. It is well worth the $54.95 annual fee to know that all of my files will always be safe without me having to even think about it at all.
Visit us at Concepts ‘n’ Creations to learn more about Carbonite and other ways we can help your business and your home.
Have a great day,
Chris
I was just thinking the other day that everything I needed to know about SEO, I really learned in Kindergarten. That’s right, you can have your site listed at the top of all the major search engines just by following the same rules you learned in Kindergarten. Here are just a few that I use and they work perfectly.
1. If the teacher likes what you do, you get a gold star. This is probably the most important thing to learn. If Google is considered to be the teacher, then follow the rules and give Google good, easy to find content that is directly related to the keywords being searched for and you will get the “Gold Star” of higher search engine rankings. It’s really that simple.
2. Play fair. If you try to cheat your way to the top, you WILL be caught and severely punished with lower rankings or by even being banned.
3. Don’t take things that are not yours. Stealing other people’s content is not only illegal, it’s just wrong and you will be punished for it. Duplicate content actually hurts your rankings.
4. It’s nice to share. It is nice to share and the more relevant information and links to relevant information that you share with the world, the higher your rankings will be. Notice I specified information that is relevant to your keywords.
5. When you plant a seed, and nurture it, it grows. Think of SEO as planting seeds all over the internet that will grow into site traffic and customers as long as you continue to nurture them and keep planting more. But, if you neglect them, they will die as will your traffic.
It’s amazing how many things in life can be broken down into the simple things you learned in Kindergarten. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help make your website work for you, contact Concepts ‘n’ Creations today.
Until next time…
Chris Miller
So, now that you have the Why to Blog, you’ll want to get started on your own blog for your business. Here are a few of the basic do’s and don’ts that you’ll want to watch for to help you be successful.
Do link to sources or points of interest to help your readers when needed. You especially want to provide links back to your own website when appropriate.
Don’t link to irrelevant sites or provide misleading text links to unexpected places. There is probably no quicker way to be “black listed” by your readers than to send them someplace that they’re not expecting.
Do “speak” in a personal voice just as you would talk to your friends and sign in your own name to help build a trusting relationship with your readers.
Don’t just sell without providing useful information that your visitors are interested in. Your visitors are looking for information, not a commercial.
Do tell stories about your personal experiences relating to your topic instead of just listing facts.
Don’t be negative or bash other products and services of competitors. Nobody comes to your blog to hear you just whining and complaining about everything.
Do build your visitor’s trust by either being the expert in your topic or by providing links to experts or supporting information.
Don’t copy content from other sources without giving proper credit. Not only is it wrong, it’s illegal and your readers will undoubtedly know, quickly destroying their trust in you.
Do update your blog regularly to help keep your readers coming back for more. Depending on your topic, once per week is generally a good rule of thumb for most blogs.
Don’t go on and on in never ending babble. Try to keep your articles between 100-300 words each.
Remember that while your purpose may be to sell your product or service, your readers’ purpose is to find useful information about your topic. Always make sure that you meet your readers’ needs first and you’ll find that they’ll be more interested in what your selling.
Happy Blogging,
Chris
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, blogging has become such a huge part of business marketing that some large companies now actually hire professional bloggers to write blogs and submit articles for them. So, why is blogging such a big deal?
Traditional methods of marketing such as print ads, direct mail, telemarketing and even email blasts interrupt your customer’s busy schedule to try and convince them that they need your product or service. These methods depend on sending your message to huge numbers of people in an attempt to find just a few (1% to 2%) people who may actually be interested enough to even contact you.
Blogging is inherently permission based which means that the people that you market to are already interested in your product or service and actually want to hear about it, sometimes even to the point where they may subscribe to your blog to hear more. Talk about supercharging your conversion rate! But, that’s only the beginning.
Blogging helps your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your main website by sending “non-bouncing” traffic to your site through the use of relevant “one-way” text links to the specific pages on your website that your visitors are interested in. Your blog also provides added exposure for your main site in the search engines.
Blogging also builds trusting relationships by allowing your customer’s to connect with you on a more personal level and by letting them identify you as an expert in your field. People are more likely to spend their hard earned money with those they trust, especially on the internet.
Check back here next week for some do’s and don’ts when it comes to blogging for your business or contact us at Concepts ‘n’ Creations to see how we can help you get started blogging now.
July 7th, 2011 in
Articles,
blogs,
Business,
Customers,
Internet Marketing,
marketing,
SEO,
Website Design | tags:
blog marketing,
blogs,
Business Blogs,
Business Marketing |
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When you’re cutting costs but you need to continue your direct marketing, what do you do? That’s easy. Direct E-mail Marketing has the answer. Let’s say you’d like to market an upcoming event once a week for the next 5 weeks to a target of say 1000 leads and clients.
The old fashioned direct mail way would require you to have 5000 post cards designed and printed for at least $500 for printing with a do it your self design for 1000 cards each of 5 different designs. Then there is the postage cost at $1,350. That’s a total of at least $1,850! Not to mention your hours involved putting it all together and getting the cards in the mail every week. What’s even worse is that you don’t even know for sure if any of your 5000 post cards even got received by your target contacts, let alone actually read.
Now, with Direct E-mail Marketing, let’s do the same marketing campaign. You spend just $30 for Constant Contact, select from hundreds of pre-made design templates, add your content, select your email contacts and schedule the day and time for each mailing. In just a few hours you are completely done and each of your mailings will automatically go out to your 1000 contacts each week for the next 5 weeks. Your total cost is just $30! You just saved over $1,800 in just one marketing campaign!
Plus, you will immediately know exactly who opened your email and which links they were interested in and clicked on through Constant Contact’s easy to use statistic reports to help you tailor your next campaign to be even more effective. Each contact can even just click on a link to instantly forward your email to all of their family and friends. Then, of course, they can forward it to their friends and to their friends…with each one being tracked so you can easily and immediately see how effective your campaign is.
Start your next campaign today absolutely FREE! That’s right, try the full power of Constant Contact completely free for 60-Days with no obligation and no credit card required! You even get full online training and support included with your trial.
Just Click Here to learn more and to start your most successful and most cost effective Direct Marketing campaign today at no cost or obligation!
We use Constant Contact as part of our marketing strategy and we absolutely love it. I know you will too. Feel free to contact me personally or visit our website if you have any questions about Constant Contact or any other way we can help make the internet work for you.
Until next time,
Chris
June 30th, 2011 in
Business,
Constant Contact,
Customers,
Direct Marketing,
economy,
Email Marketing,
Internet Marketing | tags:
Constant Contact,
Customers,
Direct Marketing,
Email Marketing,
mailing lists |
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Your “bounce rate” is an important statistic in tracking how your website is performing. Bounce rate, simply defined, is the percentage of people who come to your site and then immediately leave without viewing any of the inside content pages. If you’re using Google Analytics, the bounce rate is the percentage of single page visits or visitors who enter and leave from the same page.
Your visitors may “bounce” for several reasons. Your SEO strategy may be misleading or too broad so you are attracting the wrong people for your product or service and they are simply not interested. Your landing page may take too long to load so they click off to the next site before they even see it. Your landing page may not let them know, in the first few seconds, that your site is exactly what they’re looking for. Your landing page may be so annoying that they can’t bear to look at it for more than a few seconds. Maybe your navigation is so confusing they can’t figure out where to go or how to get there.
Also, keep in mind that while most people enter your “home page” every single page on your website has the potential of being a “landing page” and every page has its own bounce rate. Therefore, each page has to clearly let your visitors know where they are, why they’re there and where to go next.
Obviously, a lower bounce rate is better but there is much debate over exactly what bounce rate constitutes good or bad. Plus, depending on the page, a high bounce rate may be expected such as a blog where the visitors generally get all they need to know on the first page. The general consensus agrees that you should be looking for something less than 50%. But, you need to track the rate over time to see if changes that you make improve it or make it worse.
To figure out what’s making your visitors bounce, you’ll need to look at other metrics such as the amount of time your visitors stay before they click away and also where are they are coming from. At Concepts ‘n’ Creations we monitor all of your important website statistics and report them to you every month in a free report. We also make adjustments as needed to help increase the performance of your website. Contact Us today to see how We Make Your Website Work For You.
Until next time,
Chris
