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.

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Myth #1 – It all starts with a great web site.

A flashy splash page with gigantic lifestyle photos will not draw consumers into your site by itself. Your Company needs to have a strong brand identity with well defined services. Even the most attractive of websites won’t convert visitors into customers if you can’t describe your professional specialty and specify the core benefits your work provides for your clients.

Myth #2 – Do whatever it takes to build your email list.

There’s no question that a substantial opt-in mailing list is a valuable marketing asset, but the quality of names on your list is much more important than the quantity. Acquiring names through giveaways of other people’s material, trading lists with joint venture partners, or purchasing them from a vendor rarely provides qualified buyers truly interested in your services. You have worked hard to build a credible name for your company, why tarnish your reputation?

Myth #3 – More traffic translates to increased profits.

The only result that more traffic to your website guarantees you is increased bandwidth use by your web host. Before breaking the bank on excessive amounts of PPC and banner ads for an unproven site you should mercilessly critique it and invite existing customers to do the same. Consider it constructive criticism and take the time to fine tune your site before diving into a massive campaign.

Myth #4 – Killer copywriting is the secret to sales.

Your Internet marketing persona should reflect the same professionalism as the work you do with your clients. You should avoid gimmicky “limited time only” and “buy one get one free” catch phrases. Those appeals are best left to the late night infomercial salesmen. You are a professional who’s copy should inspire trust and brand loyalty.

Myth #5 – Just follow the magic formula and you will get rich.

There is no magical panacea to cure your internet marketing woes. The secret to landing clients is what it always has been. You need to build relationships and get people to know, like, and trust you. Building long-term, trusting relationships with prospective clients and referral sources will win you business on the web.

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.

Keyword Meta Tag

The keyword Meta tag is probably the most important.  This is where you would formulate a list of words that are directly related to your website.  When someone types in a search term that fits your keywords your website could be one of the ones in the search engines listings.  Typing in a group of words in the keyword Meta tag isn’t as simple as that.  There is a methodology to generating appropriate and good keywords that are suitable for your website.  Let’s take a look at a few things to keep in mind.

1. Don’t use keywords that are not relevant to your website.  Your keywords should consist of words that specifically describe what your website is all about. So if your website is geared towards web design, you should not use keywords relative to cookbooks.  Sounds like common sense.  However, you’d be surprised at how many websites use keywords that have nothing to do with their website.

2. You want to use keywords that are found in the body of your website.  This increases the relevancy of your keywords.  This does not mean that you should have lines of keywords imbedded into your website.  Rather you should choose the words that are a part of the natural flow of your content.  With that being said, it might serve you better to write the content of your website prior to identifying the appropriate keywords.

3. Generally, there are four areas to consider when incorporating your keywords in the Meta tag and the body of your website.  These are density, frequency, prominence, and proximity. 

a. Density refers to the number of times keywords appear versus all the words within the website.  For example, if you have 500 words on a webpage and 250 are a particular keyword or keyword phase you would have a density of 50% which is way too high.  Keyword density for each keyword or phrase should typically be between 2% - 6%. 

b. Frequency refers to how often a keyword appears in the webpage.  It is believed that the more a keyword appears the more relevant search engines see your webpage for that keyword.  However, keep in mind that you do not want too high of a density.  So if you want to use the same keyword over and over again make sure to have plenty of content surrounding the keyword. 

c. Prominence refers to where the keyword(s) are found in the webpage.  To achieve this remember to use your keywords in your title, description, at the beginning of the webpage, and the beginning of sentences. 

d. Proximity refers to how close keywords are to each other.  For example, consider the following two sentences:

  “We design web sites”
  “We specialize in web design”
    If the keyword used in the search engines were “web design”, the second sentence would be a better choice as it has the keywords web and design right next to each other.

There are many free tools on the internet that you can use to determine if your Meta tags past the test.  Simply go to your favorite search engine and type in “free keyword analyzer” and see how you measure up.

Do your Website’s Meta Tags Stand the Test Part 1
 
Every well designed website should have Meta tags.  You might be asking yourself, “What are meta tags”? The short answer is Meta tags are a set of tags placed in the HTML header of your website to provide information to search engines about your website.  You got it; the keyword here is search engines.  As stated in a previous article, it is vital that you ensure your website is listed in the major search engines.  Let’s take this one step further and dissect the two major types of Meta tags.

Description Meta Tag

The description Meta tag is where you want to tell the search engines what your website is all about.  You can think of the description Meta tag as the first impression of your website.  When someone types in a search term in the search engines and your website is listed as matching that search term, the first thing they will see is the title and description of your website.  If your description is not compelling enough your website may be overlooked time and time again.  The end result would mean less traffic for you.  So, let’s take a look at what makes a good description:

1. First and foremost, your description must be relevant to your website.  It should convey in a few words what your targeted audience should expect to get out of using your website.  Your description should directly relate to both the title and the body content of your website.  With that being said, every page on your website may not necessarily have the same description.

2. Although you want to make sure to use your main keywords in the description Meta tag, you do not want the description to be a complete reiteration of your keywords.  The description should be full complete sentences making sure to be careful of any grammatical errors.  Remember, the goal is to communicate to real people the essence of your website.  To do so you must speak (“write”) plain ole English.

3. Your description does not have to be really long to get your point across.  The typical description is approximately 15 – 25 words long.  This is equivalent to about 2 – 3 short sentences.  Although there hasn’t been an official word on what the description length needs to be, keep in mind there is only so much space available for your description in the search engine listings.

This list may not be all inclusive.  However, it’s a great start.  To get a better fill of does and don’ts, search the internet using keywords relevant to your website and take a look at what the descriptions look like.

Read more on Keyword Meta Tags

This goes right along with customer service. You would need to use a CRM tool to implement such an important part of your marketing plan. Zoho is a great CRM tool we recommend to our clients.  You should keep track of all the orders placed by your customers as well as abandoned shopping carts by your prospects. You can then use this information to send targeted marketing pieces, via e-mail or snail mail, that directly relate to the interests of your customers. This is a very intricate part of running your online business. Your best customers are the ones you satisfied in the past.

It’s a good idea to make sure your website can be found in the major search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN. Competition is stiff so it’s very important that you have the appropriate meta tags in the heading of your website to ensure the search engines index your website properly. In addition to submitting your website to search engines, you should also consider Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. This type of marketing will greatly increase your chances of being found in the search engines. If you don’t know much about PPC campaigns, don’t worry, we can help you out with that.

You can have all the traffic in the world to your website.  However, if your customer service is poor you will not convert very many visitors into customers.  It’s a good idea to have an excellent customer relationship management tool (CRM) to manage your customers and prospects.  It is also very important to stay in touch with your customers.  The worst thing you can do is make a sale from someone and they never hear from you again.  This is a part of good customer service. Developing a monthly newsletter would be an excellent way of keeping in contact with your customers and prospects. iContact is a great email marketing tool.
      
      

In middle school I read “The Bridges of Madison County” in Spanish.  At the time, I probably understood (hopefully) at least half of what I read.  If I attempted to read it again, it would be as if I was reading the instruction manual on how to rebuild a car engine.  No matter how hard I try, I just wouldn’t understand it without a lot of research, practice, and patience. 

Small businesses approaching web marketing may also be faced, like a deer in headlights, without knowing and understanding what to do.  With over 150 million people surfing the net each day, it is vital that any business (small or large) confront the headlights coming at them directly and aggressively.

Making your website noticeable is like finding the needle in the haystack.  There are so many ways to get started and keep it going, it is often overwhelming.

Let’s break it down into some simple steps for you:

- Why do you need a website?  Are you looking to drive sales, drive leads, or recruit team members?

- Who is your target market?  Figure out who you are trying to reach and make sure your copy and message are appropriate.  If you’re targeting prospects, have information to support the buying process.  If it is to serve current clients have a FAQ page that can be used as a resource. If you are trying to reach new clients, the information should sell them on the benefits of why they need to buy or work with you.

- How much do you have budgeted for Internet Marketing?  With a conversion rate of 1 – 2 %, research online with Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing to determine how many clicks your site might get.  Then use basic ROI calculations and you have yourself a figure.

- Build your website.  Hire an expert to help you. There are plenty of options to meet your needs. Check with your current email or web hosting provider. Companies like gWave can also provide you with a website proposal.

- Promote.  Engage in online promotions through pay per click advertising, search engine placement, email marketing or even Facebook!

- Measure.  Do you know how many website visitors you get a month? If not, now’s the time to sign up for a free web traffic account with Google Analytics.

- Follow up and make sure you haves someone assigned to stay on top of your online marketing strategy..

  With that being said, here are 7 ways to drive traffic to your site:

• Build a strong business foundation. Design a business plan, marketing plan, and Internet marketing strategy that reinforce your business goals.
• Brand your company.  Be consistent and make sure you use the same logo, colors, and motto throughout the website and marketing materials.
• Your business and website need to convey trust.  Build trust through servicing your customers online or through your newsletter.
• Add  “recommend this site” or “add to my favorites/bookmark.”
• Search engines look for certain things - titles, headings, Meta tags - so it is crucial to make sure your site is "search engine friendly.”
• Title Tags - should be 60 characters and include some keywords
• Header Tags – are numbered from 1 – 7. They should be used for each title
• Meta Tags – add no more than 15 – 21 keywords. Submit your site to industry specific directories.
• Submit your site to industry specific directories.
• Start permission based marketing. Build a relationship with your clients. Make it easy for them to contact you and to subscribe to updates or a newsletter.  If you are updating articles, make sure you submit them to article banks.

  So now, sit back, re-read the article, and know that it is not as scary as it seems.  With proper research and help, your website can easily be the needle found in the haystack.

Online social  networks are vital to the growth of any business in today’s rapidly changing  online marketplace. They are designed to  foster human interaction, which in turn can build trust for you and your  business. You can coordinate social  media, Search Engine Optimization, and paid search marketing through one single  marketing platform. With a little time  invested, some of the benefits you will see are increased revenue, powerful  customer relationships, increased traffic to your website, and brand presence.

The newest way to tap into the online social network is by the use  of Facebook. Like a college fraternity, socializing is the key to success. Originally created for college students, it  is now open to anyone. Recent statistics  show Facebook grows by about 3% each week with 25 and older being the fastest  growing segment of its users.

Your Top Facebook Strategies:

- Create  a fantastic profile. Enter as much  professional information as possible, and make sure your profile relates you to  the same group as your target audience.

- Join a  network and a group. Facebook puts  people into social networks based on workplace, region, or school. Your regional network should be based on the  area you want to target.

- Post  relevant content. Build credibility by  adding content to your page and links to articles you have written or link to  your blog.

- Create  your own group. By starting your own  group you have complete control over the content as well as who it reaches.

- Interact  with others online. I said it before and  now again, socializing is the key to Facebook. Start a new topic in the discussion board, comment on profiles, play games,  etc. This will increase your exposure to  other members.

- Continue  relationships beyond Facebook. Facebook  is a great beginning, but your focus should be on extending past that. Try  www.linkedin.com

  Marketing on Facebook is very similar to marketing through other  online networks. You can build your  brand, drive website traffic, or sell  products. Facebook is an open-source  application, which allows any programmer to create an add-on. You have the  ability to add onto the site and customize your applications.  Some have created drop-down menus or added music  capability. Having the ability to create  add-ons will allow you to reinforce your branding. You will have the  opportunity to market yourself by creating tools others might find useful. Another  way you can market is to create a flyer or banner. You can post your ad for a small fee on  different networks. Your ad will be  served 2500 times a day per $5 investment. You also have control over the  target it reaches. It even allows you to target based on keywords or utilize performance  based pay per click programs.

With some careful planning, you can become involved in many social  groups. Thankfully, you avoid the hazing that some encountered in college, and  you can still be part of the popular crowd.