RSS (Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication)

RSS is the new benchmark of the modern website. RSS tagged content reaches people in your business’s existing sphere of influence. These are the people and businesses that you’ve already inspired to subscribe to your feed. They are your fans and they want to keep tabs on you. A great RSS feed gives additional value to subscribers:

- access to whitepapers

- members only content

- discounts

- free videos

- free webinar access

- free consulting

These are all great ways to nurture enduring relationships with your existing fans. But what about the millions of people outside of your sphere of influence who haven’t discovered you yet?

That’s where a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign comes into play.

PPC broadens your sphere of influence on the web. PPC ushers in more “would-be” clients from outside your sphere of influence. This is why PPC is still necessary in an RSS crazed world. PPC campaigns are the modern Conquistadors of Internet marketing. They broaden your Internet marketing empire by drawing in new people (visitors) and places (online communities).

Once these publics are drawn into your realm it is RSS that acts as spokesperson for your brand and culture. An addictive RSS feed keeps you in front of your fans who might have otherwise jumped off your company bandwagon due to neglect.

A balance of inbound (RSS) and outbound (PPC) marketing is a most fruitful way to harvest prospects for the top of your conversion funnel.

 

-

-

The grand bazaars of the Near East, the Venetian exchange houses of the Rialto, even the swanky boutiques of Sunset Boulevard have become afterthoughts in the mind of the modern American and European consumer in the wake of the new online marketplace. Many of the large multinationals, and many smaller regional merchants, have shifted a considerable amount of their marketing efforts online. However, something has been lost in the process.

The beauty of the local merchant was that he had an intimate understanding of not only the product he was selling, but also the local people he was selling to. The same should apply to ecommerce. The savvy online marketer needs to have a dialogue with the customer. And to do this you need to communicate in the customer’s native language. Since the lion’s share of online content is in English, Americans enjoy the luxury of an Internet that is accessible and engaging. The same does not apply to our friends across the pond though. Europeans tend to surf sites in their own language, which are usually national versions of international brands like Google and Lycos.

It is more effective to have separate sites for different languages (english-mysite.com, german-keyword.com, french-keyword.com); the most effective method of reaching a European browser is having a local top-level domain name like .fr for France. According to Jupiter research, when comparing two sites having similar content, similar number of pages and targeting similar keywords, the separate language sites get four times more traffic than sites with the structure mysite.com/targeted_language. If you are attracting an international audience and/or pursuing one, keep this important element in mind. Get to know your target audience and communicate with them on THEIR level in their native language.

Do as the old street merchants did, get to know your customer, be invested in learning what makes them tick. Survey your web visitors, call them, email them. Be the friendly neighborhood mega-corporation next door.

Companies are pulling back the reins on their marketing efforts at a time when they should be exploring new channels to reach their target market. In the past few months overall ad spending in the US has plummeted. In the wake of general economic decline and a staggered GDP, the captains of industry and the burgeoning upstart are both looking for a new and effective way to reach their consumer base. This is why many in-house and agency shops are allocating a larger piece of their shrinking marketing budgets to cost effective online marketing efforts.

US Internet advertising will prove itself as a resilient channel for advertising in the coming years. In fact, it will grow despite the recession minded economy. The Yankee Group and International Advertising Bureau predict that in 2009, 10% of all US ad dollars will go online. The internet accounts for approximately 20% of overall media consumption in the US, but advertisers now invest only 7.5% of their budget online - and as a result there is tremendous potential for marketplace growth as interested advertisers bridge the gap. The Internet will eventually surpass all other major media in both scale and overall ad revenues. This Internet focused advertising structure is not as far off as one might think.

Online marketing practices and technology have changed just as the market forces that guide their development and necessity have.

- The traditional static banner ad is being replaced by multi panel rich media and video ads. These are the new 30 second ad films that, once upon a time, were at home in the world of broadcast television. They now inhabit both realms.

- The online marketing option can be the perfect fit for the behemoth corporation who desires a focused dialogue with its consumers, or the neighborhood artisan who desires a globally accessible gallery to display their work.

- Internet marketing is scalable like never before. Traditional media dictated when and where a company could advertise within a predetermined timetable. Now custom programs can be crafted by Internet marketing professionals to meet the needs of any client.

- Traditional media channels were hit or miss when it came to reaching a desired demographic. The Internet has evolved the traditional broadcast into the narrowcast. Companies can target ever more niche groups and determine their campaign’s effectiveness through the use of web analytics.

The advertising world is, without a doubt, going through a paradigm shift. The Old Guard of the advertising world is being forced to adapt to a new way of doing business. Those who adapt and stay ahead of the curve stand to make a name for themselves as the new Carnegies and Rockefellers of the online marketing age. The assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that once held sway are now being challenged by the new kid on the block, online marketing.

IN THIS ISSUE:

 

This month’s edition is about using analytics and tracking
your online

conversion rate. Measuring the success of your marketing
efforts is one of

the smartest things you can do as a small business owner.

 

1. An Analytics Consulting Model for Small Business

 

2. Uncovering Both Top- and Bottom-Line Growth for Your
Online Business

 

___________________________

 

Email in your questions and have your business challenges or
questions

answered in the next gWave blog!

__________________________

 

For a FREE 30 minute
Internet marketing

review contact us today.

www.gwaveconsulting.com

___________________________

 

gWave Consulting 

350 11th Ave

Suite 330

San Diego, CA 92101

p: 619-224-2455

 

f: 619-330-1977

 www.gWaveConsulting.com

 

June 2007

 

An Analytics Consulting Model for Small Businesses

Dr. Ralph
F. Wilson,

Editor-in-Chief Web Marketing Today

 

I came back from the <a  href="http://www.emetrics.org">Emetrics Summit</a> in San Francisco, May 7-9, 2007, hopeful that small businesses can
find a way to get in on the tremendous benefits of web analytics and
testing. I am convinced from my five years in the Total Quality Management
(TQM) Movement in the early 90s of the following: "What you
don’t measure, you can’t improve."

 
How Things Stand for Small Business Web Analytics

 
Here’s how I see it in a nutshell:

 - Nearly all small businesses have a measurement system in
place for their

website (though too many aren’t aware of the analytics data
available from

their web hosting service for no additional cost).

- Good to excellent web analytics tools are now available
for small

businesses for free or at low cost, so no one can say these
days, "I can’t

afford the software." In particular, <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/">Google Analytics</a> (www.google.com/analytics/) and <a  href="http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/clicktracks.htm">ClickTracks</a>

(www.clicktracks.com) are within reach of nearly all small
businesses.

- But small businesses just aren’t able to do much with the
data at their

fingertips.

- Because larger businesses use analytics and testing and
small businesses seldom do, the performance gap between large and small
business profitability becomes greater every year.

 

Why Consultants Are Needed

 

The gap, in my opinion, is because small businesses don’t
have a person on staff who has the training, the time, and the focus to
gather, analyze, and fact on the data, resulting in improved efficiency of the
website and higher conversion rates. 

Here’s my conclusion. Small businesses that "get
it" and really are

willing to pay the price to improve must find and engage
competent and

creative web analytics consultants for several hours per
month.

 

Reports. Frankly, you don’t merely need expensive analyst reports
on

what’s happening on the site or in sales. They’re important,
but that’s

merely maintenance. Google Analytics and most other
professional analytics

packages can be set up to e-mail you regular reports.
Reports, properly

configured, may alert you to problems, but reports alone
will not move you

forward.

 

Analysis. Consultants need to be engaged to:

 

- Study your data regularly over a period of many months,

- Make recommendations for how to improve your site and
online sales,

- Design and implement tests that can determine whether
these hypotheses

are accurate, and then perhaps

- Help you implement the changes on your website, if you
don’t already

have a web designer or webmaster who can do that for you.

 

A Consultant Model

 

Here’s a possible shape that a web analytics consultant
contract might

take:

 

Hourly rate: $75 to $200 per hour. This may sound like a lot
of money, but

we don’t flinch when we take our cars for repair. Well, we
may flinch, but

we do it because we must. A consultant’s hourly rate will
depend upon

experience, the number of hours contracted for each month –
and, frankly,

exposure to large companies that expect to pay higher hourly
rates. If it

makes you feel better, compare consultant costs to the lost
opportunities

and the potential gain. Getting a good consultant should
make you many,

many times more than you pay, so long as your business has
potential.

 

Set-up Phase. When you first engage a consultant, he or she
will want to

set up your analytics package so that provides the data that
will be most

helpful to your kind of business. This might include
determining

appropriate KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for your
company and setting

up reports that can be generated automatically. This phase
might take 4 to

6 hours, more or less, depending on your business and the
current state of

your analytics.

 

Monthly Analysis. I recommend that you engage an analyst for
4 to 10 hours

per month to study your data and make recommendations. This
is time

consuming, hard work. Unless you have the training, you
won’t be able to

dig deep because you won’t know from experience where it is
most

productive to dig.

 

Testing Cycles. Two to four times per year you’ll want your
analyst to run

tests that you and your analyst agree upon. These tests will
typically help

you optimize your landing pages, navigation system, user
interface, etc.

Setting up tests is time intensive, and typically includes
test design,

graphics design, page layout, and then analysis of the data
once you have

collected statistically significant data. The results might
then suggests

a couple of other tests to optimize a page. Such tests might
take 20 to 40

hours per cycle.

 

Here’s how this might look in terms of dollars.

$75 per hour	$125 per hour	$200 per hour
Set-up Phase (one-time only), 4 to 6 hours.	$300 to $450	$500 to $750	$800 to $1,200
Monthly Analysis, 4 to 10 hours per month	$300 to $750/month	$500 to $1,250	$800 to $2,000
Testing Cycles, 20 to 40 hours per cycle	$1,500 to $3,000 two or three times per year	$2,500 to $5,000 two or three times per year	$4,000 to $8,000 two or three times per year.
Annual Costs	$6,900 to $18,450	$11,500 to $30,750	$18,400 to $49,200

This model, at least, provides you a way to look at the task
and discuss

it with an analyst, though you and your analyst may want to
change the

approach to suit your needs better.

 

I believe that a small business owner who hires a analyst on
this sort of

basis will look back a year from now with profound
appreciation for how

far they’ve come. Yes, it’s expensive. But the payback for
most small

businesses will be 10-fold to 50-fold or more on their
investment. That

encourages me. What discourages me is that way to many small
businesses

are so short-sighted and cheap that they choose not invest
in web

analytics consulting and are thus doomed to maintain the
status quo — and

fall behind their competitors.

 

The final piece of this solution is finding an analyst who
is both

competent and open to working with small businesses. The

[http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/] Web Analytics
Association

(www.webanalyticsassociation.org) might be a potential
source of small

business consultants, though their current job board deals
only with full

time employment positions. Google has certified a number of

[http://www.google.com/analytics/support_partner_provided.html]
Google

Analytics Authorized Consultants in various countries

(www.google.com/analytics/support_partner_provided.html). I
can also try

to
[http://www.wilsonweb.com/contact/analytics_referral_form.htm] refer

analysts I trust to qualified small businesses

([http://www.wilsonweb.com/contact/analytics_referral_form.htm]

www.wilsonweb.com/contact/analytics_referral_form.htm).

 

Uncovering Both Top- and Bottom-Line Growth for Your Online
Business

 

Kevin Gold, Enhanced Concepts

 

About.Com:Small Business:

Canada

 

Traffic Generation versus Website Conversion Strategies

 

On Wall Street, financial investors speak of CEOs improving
their

companies’ "top line" by increasing sales volume
or their "bottom line" by

reducing their expenses to expand the margins from their
current sales

volume.

 

For online businesses a similar "top line - bottom
line" approach should

be taken by business owners determining where to direct
their improvement

efforts.

 

Defining Top-Line versus Bottom-Line

 

An online business improves its "top line" by
increasing the number of

unique visitors to its website or its "bottom
line" by increasing its

"visitor-to-sale" or "visitor-to-lead"
conversion rates.

 

Let me illustrate.

 

After an online business establishes its performance
metrics, it is able

to predict with confidence the expected results from its
visitor traffic.

 

For example, an online business’s performance metrics may
show that for

every 1,000 visitors received, 15 sales are completed - a
sales conversion

rate of 1.5 percent.

 

With this understanding, the business can increase its
"top line" growth

by driving more visitors to its website. For example, if the
business

invests money in traffic generation efforts to increase
visitor traffic

from 1,000 to 10,000, 150 sales will be achieved from the
1.5 percent

sales conversion rate - a ten times growth rate.

 

Top-Line Improvements Focuses on Traffic Generation

 

What are "traffic generation efforts"?

 

In brief, traffic generation efforts are ways an online
business attracts

visitors to its website. They may include online efforts
such as search

engine optimization, pay-per-click search engines, affiliate
marketing,

email campaigns, and media or offline ones such as direct
mail,

television, radio, and public relations.

 

On the other hand, the business may decide to spend its
money on improving

its "bottom line" by concentrating efforts on
website conversion

strategies.

 

For example, if the above online business invests money in
website

conversion strategies to increase its sales conversion rate
from 1.5

percent to 2 percent, then for the same 1,000 visitors,
sales will

increase from 15 to 20 - a 25 percent increase.

 

Bottom-Line Increases Focus on Website Conversion Strategies

 

So what are website conversion strategies?

 

Web site conversion strategies are website design changes
that connect

with your visitor’s wants and persuade them to take action
to achieve your

goals as well as theirs. There are endless strategies to
increase your

bottom line, although some have greater significance than
others.

 

Depending on your type of online business, different
strategies may

achieve greater results for your website and offer greater
relevancy for

your visitors.

 

If you manage a consumer or business product website, then
website

conversion strategies that focus on reducing shopping cart
abandonment may

provide the greatest website conversion improvement. While a
service

business’s lead generation website will find improvement
from website

conversion strategies focused on "contact us" form
completion.

 

Implement These Website Conversion Strategies

 

There are website conversion strategies that will improve
conversion rates

for all online businesses regardless of their individual
objectives. These

strategies include improvements to…

 

- Website’s sales copy, including writing headlines and
sub-heads with

stronger visitor appeal, defining stronger calls-to-action,
using more

visitor-relevant and benefit-oriented words and positioning
popular

visitor keywords in prominent areas to connect with visitors
and persuade

them to action.

 

- Graphics and layout design to generate visual relevancy
and message

consistency for your visitors.

 

- Guarantees, returns, shipping, privacy, customer support
and security

policies you present to gain confidence and trust from your
visitors.

 

- Navigational structures to make it easier and more
convenient for your

visitors to locate the products and services they desire to
purchase.

 

- Buying or contact options to increase the ways in which a
visitor can

purchase or receive contact from you including alternatives
to a shopping

cart or online form like phone, mail, fax, online chat, and
email.

 

How to Decide Between Top-Line or Bottom-Line Improvements

 

Your decision to pursue "top-line" or "bottom-line"
improvements to your

online business should be evaluated by (1) the objectives
you plan to

achieve, (2) the amount of money you have to spend, (3) the
time-line

established to meet your goals, (4) the amount of visitor
traffic your

website currently receives and (5) the conversion rate your
website

currently achieves for your calls-to-action.

 

Establishing a plan before you make any decisions is
critical.

 

As the old joke goes, "I’m making progress climbing the
ladder of

success - I just don’t know if it’s leaning against the
right wall." The

plan for your online business should include measurable
goals based on

your current performance metrics.

 

Knowing your budget is essential in the selection process.
Certain

conversion enhancement strategies can be implemented for a
small

investment of your time and effort, while traffic generation
efforts may

require greater investments of time, effort or both.
Figuring out your

budget enables you to also forecast the potential return you
may receive

from improving your top-line versus your bottom-line.
Obviously the areas

that provide the biggest bang for your buck are the ones to
start one

first.

 

Understanding your time-line is also essential since many
website

conversion enhancement strategies will offer quick improvement
to your

conversion rates while traffic generation efforts like
search engine

optimization have long lag times before delivering ample
visitor traffic.

 

Identifying your current visitor traffic volume and
conversion rates,

especially for new online businesses, is also very important
when

determining top-line or bottom-line improvement. If you
currently have low

visitor traffic then you will have difficulty in determining
if a website

conversion enhancement strategy had a real effect on
improving your

conversion rates.

 

For example, if your website receives 100 visitors a month,
it will take

you at least a month or two before any real measurable
changes occur to

your conversion rates. In this case, you would be better off
focusing on

top-line (traffic generation efforts) first and then
returning to

bottom-line improvements for increasing your conversion
rates.

 

Likewise, if your website currently has strong visitor
traffic, say 15,000

visitors per month, yet your current conversion rate
produces only 5 sales,

then obviously you need to improve your bottom-line and
focus on conversion

enhancement strategies.

 

Take time to review your "top line" versus
"bottom line" opportunities and

to decide which one offers you the best return for your
dollars spent. If

you concentrate on improving one of the two areas over the
next month, you

can be confident that measurable sales growth is achievable
for your online

business.