1. Keep the images brand consistent

Having brand consistency makes you much more recognisable when your post shows up in the news feed, it will build a familiarity with your audience each time they see it. A good way to implement this is with a strong colour theme that overlay or borders your images, or a shape that you use around your logo.
Utilise a consistent font for overlaying type onto an image, if you use a font for your logo you may want to use that to help it flow together. Always include a call to action so that you make it as easy as possible for a viewer to engage.

2. Have a clear message

Make sure that the image directly relates to the topic of the post as you don’t want to confuse the audience. Employing a distinct takeaway to the post and sticking to the point will make it easier for the viewer to understand.
Messages that evoke emotion are shared much more. A good way to do this is by having a strong social message to make people think, or to celebrate an achievement or milestone to spread positivity.

If you are putting text over the image; make sure it stands out and contrasts from the background, and position text in open spaces to avoid obstructing the image which will look messy and unprofessional.

3. Don’t look too much like an advert

People are often consuming large amounts of posts in a short amount of time, If the image looks like a blatant ad, it will turn people away and make them scroll right past it. The goal is to produce an engaging post that people want to look at. Once they have stopped to look at the post, they are much more likely to share or engage further.

If you are using your own image is it a good idea to add your logo and branding in a distinct way to make it clear without being too over the top.

4. Get the perfect picture

Finding a stock photo can be difficult, you will need to find a picture relevant to your post, then make sure to check the licencing to make sure if it is ok to use.

Know who your primary audience is and try to use images of that age group to make it more directly relatable to them. A safe choice is to use pictures of animals and children as these are the most commonly shared. A good site for free images is Pixabay.com.

It can be a good idea to buy the licence for a higher quality image, which will look more professional and helps you avoid using the same images as everyone else. A good site to licence images is Shutterstock.com. You could also produce your own images, which can be more time consuming but ultimately allows you to tailor make them for the message you want to convey and makes you stand out a lot more.

5. Know the platform

Some social media platforms embrace the use of images more than others and in different ways, it is important to know what works well and what doesn’t. Listen to the specifications given by the platform, if they give a specific size or shape that is preferred.

You may want to post the same or similar post across all your social media, it is best to adapt them a little to suit each platform accordingly.

Facebook – Keep the image simple and avoid small text, images allowed on Facebook are quite small file sizes, which makes images less crisp and difficult to read with smaller text.

LinkedIn – Is visual and having a clean and professional profile picture make you immediately more trustworthy, as well as having a profile banner that compliments your profile picture as they will often been seen together. LinkedIn is a good place for more in-depth images like info-graphics as it also favours content production.

Instagram – specifically made for sharing images, images with a plain white background are shared more often, also body parts i.e. hands and eyes get around 29% more engagement than full body pictures. Instagram allows you to use Hashtags which gives you a chance to categorise the content and make it easier for people to search for and find.

Twitter – is full of creative content so it can be difficult to stand out. It is best to use vibrant colours, and clean open images like landscapes. Twitter also uses hashtags, but it is best to only use two or three as to not bloat up your post.

Ultimately incorporating high quality images in your social media posts will drive up your engagement and increase visibility; it also helps you stand out from the crowd, and gives your brand some personality.

To find out how Website Design & Marketing can help you get more for your business, contact us online or call us on 01536 461 597.

The post 5 Great Ways to use Images to Enhance Your Social Media first appeared on WD&M.

Very often these days you will come across individuals, such as a graphic designer or a web developer, who will offer to design, build and maybe even populate and optimise you a website.

However it is highly unlikely that one person alone has the full skill set required to create the right website for your business – the reality is that each person is best at their primary skill or discipline.

Whilst someone will need to lead the project and programme (it should be an ongoing process) you will usually need to create a team of people with key skills.

To create a highly profitable website your team needs to be made up of professionals with the following skills and expertise…

• Marketing Strategy – this could be you, or someone who understands the ‘big picture’ in terms of your objectives, strategy and integration with your offline marketing. This person is usually the ideal person to lead and direct the website development team.
  
  

• Search Engine Marketing – this person will be a key player on your team. If generating high levels of traffic is important to the success of your strategy then they should be involved early on in your planning process. They should influence the strategy, structure, contact and copy of your site and will also want to oversee the work of the website developer (to ensure that coding is search engine friendly) and the graphic designer (to ensure that all relevant content is searchable).
  
  

• Copy Writer – words are critical to persuading your website visitors to stay, read and take action on your website. A skilled copywriter is essential to creating high quality content, which is the key to a great website. They will also play an important role in implementing the Search Engine Marketing SEO plan and strategy. Their work will have profound implications for the success of your website.
  
  

• Graphic Designer – your graphic designer’s job is to ensure that the look of your website is appropriate and fit for purpose. They will need to understand your objectives, your target market, and your strategy, and then with you decide how best to present your content and copy to your target market.
  
  

• Website Developer – your website developer has the technical skills to take the structure, content and graphic designs, and turn them into a fully functioning website that provides visitors, search engines and the website owner with a great experience.

We strongly recommend working with a team of genuinely skilled people, under the firm leadership of someone who understands marketing, including online marketing.

The post Your Website Development Team first appeared on WD&M.

If you are creating a new website from scratch, then you will want to ‘build in’ traffic generating techniques from day one.

If you currently have a website and are not looking at developing a new one, it’s worth evaluating your current traffic generating activity.

It’s important to remember that you do not just want any traffic; you want to focus on attracting high quality traffic that leads to conversions and ultimately new customers.

The key ways to attract traffic to your website are:

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Usually most traffic for a website is generated by search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This traffic is free and is the ultimate goal for anyone serious about developing a hugely successful website and online marketing strategy.

If you want to generate as much relevant traffic as possible, then your website strategy must involve building a website that is search engine friendly.

This is a big topic which cannot be covered in a single article, but in essence your website must have highly relevant content and copy which builds the relevancy and strength of each page so that they rank well for searches.

A search engine can only read text. When the search engines visit your website to view what is on each page, the text they see must be written in such a way that the search engine can understand exactly what each page is about, so it can offer your page as a relevant match to a searcher.

Tightly written ‘clean code’ is another essential element to good search engine optimisation.

In short, you will want to work with a search engine marketing expert, and a website developer who understands how to create a search engine friendly website.

Pay Per Click Advertising

While search engine optimisation is the ideal way to generate large volumes of traffic for your website, it can take months and even years to get anywhere near to a first page listing in a search engine.

And although clicks from ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ listings on Google are free, anyone who has seriously implemented an SEO strategy can tell you that it is often anything but free.

They have either paid many tens of thousands to an SEO professional to target a list of keywords, or have paid the indirect costs of members of staff who have devoted huge amounts of time and effort in pursuit of high search engine rankings for important keywords.

Pay Per Click Advertising, using programmes such as Google AdWords, can rapidly get your website landing pages onto the first page of search engine results.

If your goal is to quickly increase traffic, then Pay Per Click advertising will play an important role in your online marketing strategy, and the development of your website.

In addition, not only will this increase traffic, the statistics generated will give you immensely valuable information about search engine marketing, which can be applied to your search engine optimisation, so in time your ‘paid for’ traffic can become free traffic.

Online Directories

There are two good reasons for using online directories.

The first is that by submitting to directories you will build the number of links directed at your website. This improves search engine rankings for your website. This is hugely valuable and a key to any search engine optimisation strategy.

The second is that by subscribing to (and sometimes paying for) listings and links in high-traffic, relevant and industry specific directories, you can drive quality traffic to your website.

For example, if you are a franchisor, you can list your franchise with a range of franchise directories, including your basic details and a description of your franchise offering. This listing will usually include a link to your website, or at least your website address, and can result in good volumes of high quality leads.

Recent Google algorithm changes have penalised website owners who have ‘over optimised’ their website by aggressively developing a huge number of links from directories (especially poor quality directories) so this should be balanced with links from other kinds of websites and sources to avoid being penalised.

Email Campaigns/Newsletters

Email broadcasting is not only be a very profitable marketing strategy in its own right, it can, with the right effort put into creating compelling and relevant emails or newsletters, become a strong source of traffic for your website.

Usually this involves emailing opt-in lists of customers or prospects that have freely given you their email address and other details.

Articles

Writing and publishing authoritative articles on your area of expertise can produce significant volumes of traffic to your website. In the past this was a strategy that got a bit (a lot actually) out of control with some websites creating and distributing articles on an industrial scale to generate inbound links and traffic.

Predictably the search engines have wised up and now take into account the quality of the website where articles are published, and they also look at the overall link profile.

Offline Marketing

Integrating your ‘offline’ marketing with your online marketing and website can be a hugely profitable exercise. After all, even Google uses direct mail and magazine advertising to promote their services.

A good example of this is when you write to prospects or clients offering a Packaged Information piece in the form of a White Paper, Report or Guide, sending responders to your website to complete a request form.

The post Creating Website Traffic first appeared on WD&M.

All this happens in under 10 seconds?

One thing that amazed me about this summer’s Olympics (remember that?) was the expert commentary on the 100m sprint.

For me, the fascinating thing was reading and hearing of experts breaking down an event that seems to happen in a flash (9.63 seconds for Usain Bolt’s 100m final winning run) into distinct component parts.

Now I’m no expert, but from what I have read and heard it seems that what appears to the casual spectator to be a seamless burst of sheer speed and grace has at least four distinct parts.

From what I can tell they are …

The Start – reacting to the start gun and sweeping the trailing leg through to get the maximum thrust off the starting blocks.

Acceleration – accelerating up to the athletes top speed.

Mid-race – maintaining that top speed as long as possible and minimising the deceleration that occurs during this part of the race.

The Finish -getting the leading edge of your torso over the line first (limbs, head and neck don’t count) – the lunge.

Of course, the experts will know that there is a whole lot more – the stride, having a good muscle base, the need for “a high concentration of fast twitch muscle fibres” – now I am way out of my depth.

And that’s before we even consider diet, sports science and medicine, and things like sports psychology.

OK, so what’s the marketing point to all this?

The point is that in any high performing endeavour – what to the outsider or casual spectator appears seamless, effortless and even graceful is often the superb execution of a number of seamlessly linked and integrated but distinct parts.

And it is the same with your online marketing.

It’s no good just having a lovely website, throwing money at SEO or sending the occasional email broadcast – unless each element is the right one, for your target market, for your business and your products and services – and unless each work together seamlessly – then it’s like the sprinter who has a great start but poor acceleration or finish.

They won’t be a winner.

No matter how much you spend, how much more you do, or how hard you try you’ll never get the best from it. The elements you lack will kill your performance dead.

To be a big winner your online marketing has to be…

1. Targeted – it has to be designed to work with and for your target market.

So many online marketing campaigns violate this basic rule that it is heartbreaking.

We see B2B companies running Social Media strategies trying to sell to target markets who don’t and won’t ever engage with Social Media in their professional life. Crazy.

We see businesses who need leads to generate sales opportunities and to create sales revenue who have a website that is like those that big brands would create. All image – no selling. An expensive mistake.

We see businesses selling premium products and services who are bidding on keywords in their Google AdWords campaigns with “cheap” in the them. Stupid.

It’s all Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

Starting with your target market firmly defined gives you the best chance of getting out of the blocks without “false starting”.

2. Focussed – what are you trying to achieve? What outcomes are the most important to you? How will success be defined?

So many fall at this hurdle (sorry to mix the metaphors).

We review websites where although the business owner says the purpose is to generate leads they have no or little “call to action”.

Sometimes not even a phone number on each page. They don’t stand a chance of generating leads. They are “anti-sales”! They don’t ask for the order.

We see websites that have thousands of visitors each year but generate tiny numbers of leads and prospects because they are not focussed on conversion (from visitor to lead).

We see websites that are not focussed on the needs of the visitor, they don’t make compelling offers of valuable information and they don’t offer free tools or resources. They blow thousands of valuable visits.

We see the nice corporate video that the company spent a fortune making occupying that most important part of the web page – valuable space that should have been devoted to converting a web visitor to a valuable prospect rather than trying to get them to watch a boring 5-minute video.

A lack of clear focus on outcomes leads to poor decision-making.

Time, money, resources are not limitless – it’s easy to make stupid decisions on things that look nice, sound good and are the flavour of the moment.

A focus on outcomes is your decision making reference, your guiding light.

3. Strategic – What are the steps that your prospects and buyers in your market needs to be able to go through to maximise your chances of getting a new client, and of optimising your sales and ROI?

One of the big mistakes we see is businesses who are spending money, time and valuable resources on generating web traffic with Google AdWords and SEO, have a highly developed website which creates leads – but who have no clear pathway, roadmap, journey (call it what you will) mapped out for the leads that are generated.

Sure, the sales team pounce on the hot leads.

But what happens to the leads that they drop, what happens to those who are interested but not yet (sales people may stay in touch – maybe), what happens to those who bought this time around from someone else but will be buying again or renewing in 6 months, 12 months and beyond?

No strategy means disjointed, inefficient and wasteful marketing (picture me trying to sprint 100 metres and you will be able to imagine what this looks like – lots of flapping and puffing for little progress).

It’s a far cry from that apparently seamless, graceful and fluid medal winning performance that top athletes like Usain Bolt execute time after time on the track.

4. Tactically Sound – you can have great strategy, but if you can’t execute you will fail.

If you don’t have game-winning technique you won’t get the results you need.

Sadly, we see this all too often. For example…

We see businesses with a great database (a huge asset) who contact their list barely once or twice a year (if at all).

Having a balanced communications plan with a mixture of great email articles and some powerful sales letters can have a massive impact on revenue.

One of our clients has almost doubled his annual revenue in the last month or so by starting to email his list (his Christmas and outlook for 2013 now looks a lot brighter!).

We see businesses who say they are doing or have tried Google AdWords – but when we audit their campaigns they are playing with it. If you play or “dabble” with Google AdWords it will suck money out of your account faster than you will believe.

Poor tactics or techniques is like a glider pilot trying to fly a 747 – scary.

They understand the concepts, but don’t have the tactical skills to keep it aloft.

Bringing it all together.

Just like a top sprinter has to string together the start, acceleration, mid-race and finish – to work properly your online marketing has to be targeted, focussed, strategic and tactically sound, and that means blending each element to work together to get the best results.

This includes blending…

• Your Google AdWords
• With your Search Engine Optimisation
• With your Website – your landing pages, credibility pages, conversion pages
• With your Email Marketing
• With your offline Nurturing & Conversion Strategy (most real business is done when the communication transitions from online to offline).

How about making this the focus of your marketing efforts for the rest of 2013?

Email Broadcasting, Websites and Search Engine Marketing can be a game changer for most businesses, yet surprisingly few take it as seriously as they should.

Don’t let that be you.

Wishing you every success and better … results!

Haydn Rowe
Managing Director
Results Corporation

The post All in under 10 seconds . . . first appeared on WD&M.

Whether you are selling face to face, writing a direct mail letter, an email or a web page the same basic rules apply.

And one of the most basic rules is to “ask for the order”.

In fact, if you’ve ever employed sales people who could not, or did not ask for the order, the chances are they had a very short career with your business.

Website Mistake #1

For some reason most web pages, on most websites, make exactly that mistake. They conclude with… er, that’s right, you guessed it… nothing at all.

Many websites and web pages fail to effectively ask for the order, and subsequently fail to generate the enquires and leads that they should.

In most cases, this can be quickly and easily resolved by adding a simple sentence to each page.

What they should at least conclude with is a simple sentence with a strong call to action.

After all, if you can persuade someone to read your page, you owe it to them to suggest the next step and you owe it to yourself, and your business, to ask for “the order”, whether that is an enquiry, a newsletter signup, special report request or other appropriate action.

Almost every page on your website should end with a sentence like this one…

“To get started, to request a proposal or to find out more -please call us now on 01234 567890, enquire through the website or request our special buyers guide.”

Do yourself and your business a big favour and check your website now.

One client who took this to heart after having this pointed out to him was Cameron Brookes of Niche Blinds.

When Cameron started working with us he already had a good website – but it lacked strong call to action.

To make the most of web traffic, we suggested the website should have stronger call to action points throughout the copy and suggested the addition of a response form to facilitate enquiries.

The result?

Within two weeks of adding the new copy and implementing the new form, Cameron sent us this email:

“Can you please help me mock up a letter of introduction for all the enquiry requests for brochures that are coming through for me!”

And just 2 weeks after that we received this email…

“The new template has “nailed it” as far as I’m concerned. My latest 3 brochures requested look to help me turn over £6000 in 3 sales, with a possible add-on of £4000 – not bad, eh!”

Simply suggesting the “next step” to website visitors has had a huge impact on the conversion rate of website visitors to enquiries because the site now asks for the order (enquiry).

Website Mistake #2

You may look at your website and say…

“But we have our phone number at the top of the page in the banner, we have a contact page accessible by the main navigation bar, and we even have some graphic banners down the side of each page offering our newsletter and special reports – surely our site has strong call to action”.

That may be true.

It may also be true the visitors are using these call to action tools on your site (by the way, I’m not saying don’t have these on your website, they are very effective and every site should have them).

But…

Many website visitors suffer from “banner blindness”.

They come to your site, and specifically the web page in question looking for information.

Their eye falls immediately to the beginning of the information and starts scanning at that point – this is normally the beginning of the copy on your page.

If (and only if) the copy is relevant, and compelling, they will then read on and many people will blank out the surrounding graphics and banners – after all that is just the marketing “bumpf” and they want information.

If you don’t have a call to action sentence in your information (the copy) then you have effectively failed to ask for the order and “banner blindness” reduces the effect of your other call to action methods.

Your call to action sentence needs to be presented to vistors and readers where they have focussed their attention – within the copy.

The beauty of the web is that you can test this.

Add a call to action sentence to selected pages, and use your Google Analytics and Google Conversion Tracking tools to measure the difference over a few weeks.

The chances are, that like Cameron from Niche Blinds, you too will get more enquiries, sign ups and conversions from your website.

The post Website Essentials first appeared on WD&M.

EXPOSED: The Truth About Social Media and Your Business?

When Google AdWords and Pay Per Click advertising came along 7 or 8 years ago, direct response, results based marketers like ourselves took to it like a duck to water. It has everything we love about marketing and more. It’s like direct marketing on steroids!

It’s measurable. It’s fast. You can exploit success easily – for months and years to come. You can identify and cut failure fast, so your mistakes are cheap. You even learn a lot from your failures. It suddenly made websites relevant, profitable and essential even for traditional bricks and mortar businesses.

It made history.

Today, because of Google AdWords, everyone is a direct marketer.

It kicked traditional brand lead, image focussed, “get your name out there” advertising and marketing into the long grass.

It busted the myth that you can’t measure ROI with advertising and marketing.

It demystified marketing, made it relevant, and shattered the carefully crafted illusion (decades of work by the advertising industry) that there is some kind of alchemy, art or “magical” skill required to create great advertising and marketing.

Direct marketers the world over cheered as the mainstream, above the line, advertisers got a whipping and scrambled to re-position themselves.

Of course, they have always been ROI focussed. Yeah right!

And then came Social Media.

Suddenly the mystique, the old magic, the “must have” aura was back.

For the last 2 or 3 years it’s been the darling of the advertising and marketing chattering classes.

It’s the future. Everyone is on Facebook. Twitter is the must engage with medium of the attention deficit age. Look – people spend more time on Facebook now than on watching TV. Today, we live in the two-screen world.

And the business community listened, tried to figure out what to do. Wondered what the strategy was – and got stuck in anyway.

Facebook Fan Pages, a Blog, Tweeting – suddenly we’re all doing it. If you’re not doing it, if you don’t have a strategy, if you don’t get it – prepared to be rolled.

And the direct marketing community, us included, went silent.

Suddenly the brand lead, awareness, “get your name out there” gang were back in business.

It has everything they’ve always loved about the advertising business.

It’s new, exciting, a buzz, mysterious, the future – in short it became a must have for every self respecting marketing budget holder.

Direct marketers like us watched, we listened, we read up, we tested, we listened some more.

And we’re still listening.

We’re listening for the shout of “Eureka” – waiting for someone to strike gold, and show us how you reliably and consistently turn the time and money invested in Social Media into real sales and profits.

And there have been some solid finds.
Facebook Pay-Per-Click is working brilliantly for some businesses. But as good as it is, it is a Social Media parasite, feeding on the beast itself, it is not the actual act of Social Media delivering the goods.
We acknowledge and appreciate the link building advantages that a Social Media strategy can bring to your Search Engine Optimisation efforts – but once again, it’s a parasite, it’s a good supporter of another strategy, not Social Media itself delivering the goods.
We hear about how big corporates like Dell “engage” with their customers online and through Social Media, with excellent results – but we don’t learn anything at all relevant for our SME businesses and clients.

We even have some clients with thousands, and tens of thousands of followers, and “likes” – who still can’t show a penny of revenue from Social Media.

And to be brutally honest, we start to feel a bit silly.

After all, we’re the self-proclaimed ‘gurus’, we’re the ‘go-to’ guys on marketing – why aren’t we shouting from the rooftops about Social Media and how it’s the next big thing.

But, in our saner moments we take comfort from the fact that we’re evidence based, results driven marketers. We base our decisions and recommendations on solid, proven, reliable evidence of success.

And as time goes by we develop a growing sense of awareness that it is not just us who have failed to see any breakthrough value in Social Media. There’s a quiet but growing sense of Social Media scepticism developing.

Maybe we’re seeing a “Social Media Spring”?

But, we stay open minded. We remain open to testing new and interesting innovations. We believe that it is highly likely that one of us will figure out a way to make Social Media really deliver.

Summing it all up, we believe that today there are a handful of Social Media strategies that make sense.

Here is our summary…

Social Media Strategy #1 – do nothing yet. Put your mind at ease, you are not missing the gold rush, you are not losing early mover advantage. Keep working on the things that work – your Google AdWords, your Website, your Direct Mail campaigns, Email Broadcasting…

Social Media Strategy #2 – start to test the medium. Listen to the gurus, start to run some tests. But keep it real. Only devote a small percentage of your marketing resources – I’d say at most 5%, and make sure it is time and money that you don’t HAVE to see a return from. It is education and testing, not a substitute for marketing that must work.

Social Media Strategy #3 – set up a Facebook Fan Page to support your Facebook pay per click advertising. There is good evidence showing that it improves your conversion rates.

Social Media Strategy #4 – use Social Media to support your link building efforts for Search Engine Optimisation.

Social Media Strategy #5 – become a Social Media expert and start selling your training courses. It’s the best way we’ve seen yet to make money from Social Media.

Social Media Strategy #6 – you tell us! We know from experience that the views expressed here are controversial. Not everyone agrees with our reticence. Not everyone agrees that just looking for ROI is the only, or best metric. And maybe you have figured out how to make real, reliable and significant returns from Social Media for mainstream businesses. If so, we’d love to hear your story – get in touch.

I hope I haven’t shocked you. I hope you don’t think we’re total Social Media sceptics (we’re not – we enthusiastically use the bits that work).

But above all, I hope you now have some clarity. You can stop worrying about what you’re not doing with Social Media and safely concentrate on the things that work – at least until it changes.

And when it does, we’ll be the first to let you know.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you to get more from your business, please call on 01536 461 597, or contact us online.

You can also sign up to our free newsletter to get regular information on strategies that will help you get more from your business

The post Social Media And Your Business first appeared on WD&M.

The 7 Most Common Mistakes Most Businesses Make with their Online Marketing – Ignore Them at Your Peril…

For me, getting this part of your business right is vital to your future survival and prosperity.

I really do believe that if you fail to become excellent at online marketing, you are increasing your chances of failure.

With more and more buyers turning to the internet to source products, services and new suppliers, not having an effective website and online marketing strategy is like having a shop with no signs, the windows painted out and the lights switched off … crazy!

The 7 Biggest Mistakes Most Businesses Make with Online Marketing

Mistake #1 – They have a website with healthy traffic levels but fail to take simple but effective steps to convert website visitors into sales leads and database prospects.

Many websites make little or no use of call to action devices, beyond having a Contact Us page on their site.

To do that you will almost certainly have to include traffic conversion elements in your website such as…

Call to Action Copy & Banners – in most cases, this can be quickly and easily resolved by adding a simple sentence to each page with a strong call to action like this one…

“To get started, to request a proposal or to find out more -please call us now on 01234 567890, enquire through our website or request our special buyers guide.”

Packaged Information Offers – creating valuable reports, buyers guides and White Papers has long been one of the most successful ways of generating enquires in any type of marketing.

Newsletter Signup – for some businesses, an offer to send a prospect your newsletter with latest product developments, hints and tips, case studies, articles and special offers can generate significant ‘conversion’ with many website visitors.

Mistake #2 – They have not tested, or optimised Google AdWords – probably the fastest, most cost effective and measurable way of generating new business that has ever been available to businesses.

Mistake #3 – They do not have an on going communications strategy for converting the leads generated from their website into new clients (some online leads convert quickly – however the majority are slower buyers and require a more thoughtful conversion process).

Mistake #4 – They fail to create compelling landing pages for each product or service category that they wish to generate leads for. Web users are looking for information – period. The site that rewards searchers with relevant and compelling information gets the most leads and sales.

Mistake #5 – They fail to build a site that is search engine friendly. This means that their site has little chance of being rewarded by search engines such as Google indexing and ranking their web pages highly in response to relevant searches.

Mistake #6 – They fail to integrate their online and offline marketing – today prospects use a combination of online and offline interactions in their “buying process”. For example, in many cases whilst buyers search online, they still transact or buy offline. Making an appropriate and seamless transition from online to offline is essential to winning new business.

Mistake #7 – They fail to track and measure (using powerful free tools such as Google Analytics and Google AdWords) what is happening to their business online; and therefore fail to make simple changes that can yield many times more quality sales leads and database prospects, and dramatically cut costs.

In other words they fail to “measure and manage”!

Right now, investing in a new website or revamping your existing website may seem like another expense that you don’t need, but is this good thinking?

A really effective website with a smart online marketing strategy can be a formidable weapon in your marketing arsenal and can produce instant and permanent results.

To discover how we can help to make your website more successful, call us today on 01536 461 597, or contact via this website.

You can also sign up to our free newsletter to get regular information on strategies that will help you get more from your business.

The post Online Marketing Mistakes first appeared on WD&M.

Five Advanced Google AdWords Techniques…

Google AdWords is getting more competitive, costs are rising and it is getting harder to generate low cost or profitable leads.

But despite that, when it comes to online marketing it is still THE big one.

Despite the emergence and rise and rise of Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, you just can’t ignore Google and expect to maximise your market opportunities.

Today, most buyers are still opening a browser and going to Google to search for new products and services.

So – it’s getting tougher, it’s getting more expensive and harder to compete – what to do? Walk away? Cut the Google budget? Try social media?

No. Emphatically not.

At least not until you have exhausted every opportunity to get your business into the top 5% of Google advertisers.

The answer in most cases is that you simply need to get better.

You need to be great at the basics…

• keyword research
• broad, phrase and exact match testing
• use of negative keywords
• spilt testing ads
• improving keyword quality scores
• testing and refining your landing pages
• testing networks
• …and so on.

That will get you a long way. But to be better than average, you need to do what average advertisers don’t do and you need to be testing advanced Google AdWords techniques as well.

Some of these techniques are relatively new, some have been around for a little while now, but the vast majority of advertisers are not using these techniques, which gives you the opportunity to fight your way to the top of the pile.

Here are 5 techniques you can use to fight your way back into the top 5% of Google AdWords advertisers…

1. Remarketing

What is remarketing? To quote Google…

“Remarketing allows you to communicate with people who’ve previously visited key pages on your website.”

“When you use remarketing, you’ll tag pages of your site that correspond to certain categories you want to promote. For example, you could add a “TV” tag on all of the pages where you sell televisions.

You can then create an AdWords campaign to show highly relevant messages (such as ads displaying a special offer on TVs) to people who’ve visited these pages as they browse sites across the Google Display Network.”

From initial testing and case studies that I have reviewed, remarketing is showing some very promising results and in my view is a ‘must test’ advanced Google AdWords technique.

2. Image Ads

It is estimated that 60% to 70% of all AdWords clicks come from the Content Network, and that around 30% of AdSense Advertisers carry image ads – yet only 2% to 5% of all advertisers use image ads!

We are seeing some really good results with Google image ads, with decent levels of traffic and cost per conversion figures of 1/3rd to 1/2 the cost of text ads.

This means you either save 33% to 50% for the same number of leads, or you get 50% to 100% more leads for the same budget!

If your AdWords results are flagging, and you already get reasonable results from the Google Display Network, image ads like the examples below (from the Google website) could put you right back in the game!

3. Site Links

Site link are interesting. What are Site Links – well to quote Google again…

“Ad Sitelinks is a feature for search-based ads that lets you include up to 4 additional links to deeper content on your site beyond the main landing page. Sitelinks extend the value of your AdWords ads by showcasing additional targeted and relevant links for users whose search queries have triggered your ad.”

“The following best practices will help maximize your chances of showing Sitelinks:

• Your ad should have one of the top positions above the search results.
• Your ad should have a very high Quality Score.
• Your Sitelinks URLs must direct users to pages that are part of your main website.

If your ad qualifies to show Sitelinks, up to four of the additional links you associate with your ad on the Ad Extensions tab may appear on your ad.”

There is good evidence coming through that Site Links are working very well in some cases.

However, I’d be very cautious about adding Site Links to an ad that is directing traffic to a very high performing landing page or opt in page. Why send traffic to a less successful page?

On the other hand, listing various product or service options at a deeper level could really help you drive more traffic to the most relevant pages on your site.

As with all techniques, the proof is in the eating (or testing in this case).

4. Google Display Network (GDN) Optimised Campaigns

This is where you break up an existing campaign running on both the search and display networks, and run separate campaigns tailored to each network.

This allows you to take a more strategic approach to theming the AdGroups, leading to more relevant placements of ads and hopefully a higher CTR.

Tip: When you copy the campaign so it can be split, I prefer to leave the existing campaign running as the GDN campaign, as the ‘learned’ history of websites that are performing, and any grooming you have done of this list of websites (such as exclusions) remains intact.

5. Mobile Optimised Campaigns

If you have mobile devices activated in your campaigns settings module, and if mobile is performing well, there could be a good case for splitting out and setting up a Mobile specific campaign.

For example, with mobile ads being shown on a typical smart phone screen, you may need to be much more aggressive in your bidding to achieve rank 1 or 2 as ads below rank this will simply not show on the screen.

You may be aiming for rank 3 with search, so having the two separate campaigns gives you the flexibility of setting higher bids for mobile where you aim for rank 1, and lower for search to achieve rank 3.

And you may get better results with more specific ad text, tailored to smart phone users.

You can still win big with Google AdWords.

Very few Google advertisers get all of the basics right, let alone test advanced techniques such as these.

That works to your advantage.

It is still possible to get your business into the top 5% on Google – you just have to work a bit harder and a lot smarter than you did in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Google AdWords Campaign Management

By the way – our team set up and manage Google AdWords accounts for many companies of all types and sizes, and are successfully managing many tens of thousands of Google AdWords spend each month.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help to develop and manage your Google AdWords account, please call on 01536 461 597, or contact us online.

You can also sign up to our free newsletter to get regular information on strategies that will help you get more from your business.

The post Advanced Google Adwords Techniques first appeared on WD&M.

Banner Ads are Back – But This Time Google Have Figured Out How to Make Them Work…

Banner Ads were all the rage in the dotcom boom.

And they got a bad name. Really bad.

Back then, advertisers purchased large bundles of ads, for seemingly small amounts per impression – which usually added up to large invoice with nothing to show for it.

Then Google came along…

It took Google to come along and to invent the Pay Per Click model (supported with Conversion Tracking) to rehabilitate the reputation of online marketing.

But this was based on Text Ads (see examples below) like the small classified ads that used to fill page after page in newspapers.

Now Google have combined the Banner Ad format with their Pay Per Click model, Conversion Tracking and the Content Network (Ads displayed on other people’s website’s) to give you a really effective new online marketing tool.

Google call the new generation of Banner style ads Image Ads.

While AdWords success is getting harder…

The good news is, while Google AdWords based on the traditional Google Text Ad, like this one…

…is becoming more and more competitive and harder to crack, with Google Image advertising the field is wide open.

With Image Ads the Field is Wide Open…

It is estimated that 60% to 70% of all AdWords clicks come from the Content Network, and that around 30% of AdSense Advertisers carry Image Ads – yet only 2% to 5% of all advertisers use Image Ads!

Google Image Ads are graphic based ads, similar to the Banner Ads of old, like these examples from Google’s website…

These Image Ads appear on selected websites within the Google Content Network.

Google say that “Image ads combine two powerful features: graphics and proven AdWords targeting technology”.

And they go on to explain that “Unlike traditional online graphical ads, image ads can be matched to a page’s content. This targeting makes image ads more attractive and relevant to anyone browsing the site. Therefore, image ads offer you yet another effective way to increase your business exposure and reach new prospects”.

And our testing results, conducted over the last 6 months, back this up.

50% to 100% More Leads…

In fact, results show that when applied, Image Ads are generating conversions at around 1/2 to 2/3rds the cost of a text ad conversion, which gives the advertiser a significant advantage.

This means you either save 33% to 50% for the same number of leads, or you get 50% to 100% more leads for the same budget!

Perry Marshall, Google AdWords guru and author of The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords has this to say about Google Image Ads on the Google Content Network…

“The other revolution that’s happening is Image Ads. I’m going to guess that only 3% of Google advertisers are even using them at all. It’s an elite group and they get a hugely disproportionate share of the traffic”.

“Really great text ads get 0.25% CTR’s but the best image ads are getting CTR’s of 2-3%. That’s 10X!”.

That is indeed a revolution.

So if you feel that you have pushed your Google AdWords campaigns as far as you can with Text Ads, or want to lower your cost per conversion, start testing Google Image Ads on the Content Network.

And if you want to get really adventurous, you can even test Video versions of your Image Ads as well.

For more information on Image Ads visit Google’s website.

And for examples of Image Ads and placement options from Google follow this link.

To find out how we can help you design and test Google Image Ads, or to maximise the performance of your Google AdWords account, call us on 01536 461 597 or contact us online.

You can also sign up to our free newsletter to get regular information on strategies that will help you get more from your business.

The post Google Image Ads first appeared on WD&M.

11 Ways To Grow Your Business Now

An effective online marketing strategy is pivotal. It can send your enquiry rate through the roof, dramatically slash your cost per enquiry and bring you a flood of new customers.

And if you’re not getting to grips with online marketing, your competitors will walk all over you.

This is not about building an “online only” business. This applies if you are a manufacturer, wholesaler, professional firm, IT or software company, in hospitality or distibution.

Here is a brief overview of the eleven key areas which your online marketing strategy will require to optimise your chances of success:

1. Do you have effective Landing Pages? Many websites fail to ‘grab’ and convert visitors because either they haven’t created specific landing pages, or fail to direct traffic to the most appropriate landing page. This results in a ‘bounce’ – the visitor quickly scans the page, doesn’t find information relevant to their search and ‘bounces’ back to Google or Yahoo to select another indexed website.Creating landing pages – one product or service per page – that are highly relevant to certain searches is the key to getting your search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising to work, and to converting a website visitor into a lead or sale.
2. Your Call to Action Copy. Websites often make little or no use of call to action devices. If your objective is to generate sales leads, build your prospect database or get a sale online, then as you lay out your compelling reasons for choosing your product or service on each landing page, you must ‘ask for the order’. Test results show that asking for the action throughout the copy maximises conversion.
3. Call to Action Banners. Some visitors will not read all of your sales copy. While good copy will turn ‘scanners’ into readers (and readers usually become buyers), some people come to your website ‘pre-sold’ or with such an urgent need that they are ready to take action right now. The use of small Graphic Banner Ads (similar to a Google Adwords ad) can be used with good effect to generate response. These can be as simple as Call Us Now on 1234 567890 – Lines Open 24 Hours … or a link to download a White Paper or ‘packaged information’.
4. Packaged Information. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo, have created a vast pool of prospects who expect to find information. If you offer the information that prospects are looking for, you will get the conversion. Interestingly, we’ve had web developers who’ve fought us ‘tooth and nail’ to keep the site ‘simple’ and with not too many words … yet when we’ve got them to agree to a small test panel offering detailed information such as a buyers guide, white paper or special report, it has produced the vast majority of the clicks on the site! Don’t be swayed. Information is vital.
5. Newsletter Signup. An offer of a newsletter with latest product developments, hints and tips, case studies, articles and special offers can generate significant ‘conversion’ of website visitors. Website visitors who are not yet ready to buy from you are often willing to give you their email address and contact details.
6. Autoresponders. It often takes between 5 and 8 contacts before a prospect is willing to say yes to your offer. This can be as significant as placing an order or as subtle as moving to the next step in your sales funnel such as agreeing to request your ‘more information’ package, phoning you or requesting an appointment. An autoresponder is an automatic email sent in response to an action taken on your website – usually involving the prospect ‘opting in’ to an offer such as a mini-course, email newsletter or packaged information. An autoresponse ‘constant contact’ campaign of (well written) and appropriately spaced email communications increases top of mind awareness, educates the prospect, creates a level of trust and relationship and significantly increases your chances of ‘getting the order’.
7. Search Engine Optimisation. Most traffic for a website is generated by search engines such as Google and Yahoo. It is therefore critical your website is search engine friendly. When the search engines visit your website to view what is on each page, the text they see must be written in such a way that the search engine can understand exactly what each page is about, so it can offer your page as a relevant match to a searcher.This means tightly written ‘clean code’ (the HTML code which sits behind your website and is responsible for everything you see on a computer screen). It also means having relevant, authoritative websites linking to your website to increase your search engine ranking. Your search engine marketing ‘expert’ should be very familiar with this.
8. Pay Per Click Advertising. If your goal is to quickly increase traffic, then Pay Per Click advertising using programs such as Google Adwords and Yahoo Sponsored Search will play an important role in your online marketing strategy and the development of your website. Not only will this increase traffic, the statistics generated will give you immensely valuable information about search engine marketing which can be applied to your search engine optimisation so in time your ‘paid for’ traffic can become free traffic.
9. Online Directories. There are two good reasons for using online directories. The first is that by submitting to directories you will build the number of links directed at your website, improving your search rankings. The second is that by subscribing to (and sometimes paying for) listings and links in high-traffic, relevant and industry specific directories, you can drive quality traffic to your website. For example, if you are a franchisor, you can list your franchise with a range of franchise directories, including your basic details and a description of your franchise offering.
10. Articles. Writing and publishing authoritative articles on your area of expertise on article websites, and then linking to the website, can produce significant volumes of traffic to your website.
11. Offline Marketing Integration. Integrating your ‘offline’ marketing with your online marketing and website can be a hugely profitable exercise. After all, even Google uses direct mail and magazine advertising to promote their services. A good example of this is when you write to prospects or clients offering ‘Packaged Information’ in the form of a White Paper, Report or Guide, sending responders to your website to complete a request form.
    Again, this is just skimming the surface of an online marketing strategy. The purpose is to highlight the sort of strategies you will need to not only pay lip service to, but to seriously pursue to make sure that your business takes advantage of the online revolution and stops your competitors from having this space to themselves.

When you consider that many of our clients now generate more than 50% of their sales revenue from an online marketing strategy – you need to ask if you can afford not to optimise your business in today’s online world?

You can also sign up to our free newsletter to get regular information on strategies that will help you get more from your business.

The post Effective Online Marketing first appeared on WD&M.