Raxa Design - Small Business Branding & Marketing

Video Marketing - Now's the Time to Dip Your Toes in the Water

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 21 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Internet users are no longer limited to static pages that require them to read. Because an endless supply of distractions are just a click away, if you want to keep visitors on your site, you have to provide them with what they want.

Does Video Actually Work?

In many cases, video may be the only way to keep a visitor’s attention. Even if someone’s not in the mood to read, chances are they’ll be happy to spend five minutes watching a video. The best approach to using video is to upload options that aren’t too overwhelming or sales heavy. You want to give potential customers information and ideas that are useful to them. This establishes trust, which can ultimately help you close a sale.

Make sure it’s easy for visitors to find the videos you add to your site. You also want to make it easy for visitors to share your videos. There’s nothing better than having your customers do marketing for you. Keep in mind that it’s informative and memorable videos that can stimulate buzz and potentially bring lots of traffic.

What's in It for You?

Videos are a way to establish a more personal connection with customers and spread awareness of your products, services or brand. Additionally, video sites like YouTube can drive visitors to your site. Since YouTube videos generally rank quite well in the SERPs, they are a small investment that can pay off in a big way.

How Can You Get Started?

There are plenty of tools that make it easy to start shooting and uploading videos. Because there are lots of affordable HD cameras and most computers are already equipped with editing software, the main thing you have to do is come up with ideas that are going to interest your potential customers. You may have to do a little research to find out what your customers want.

For example, if it’s a product video, make sure customers can see your product in action. For informational videos, customers want to learn something they didn’t previously know. Other wishes people have are to be entertained or become inspired to use what you sell to explore their own ideas.

Some of the excuses companies make for not utilizing video is it’s going to be too complicated or too expensive. While this may have been true a decade ago, these are no longer good reasons to stay away from video. Thanks to easy to use technology that can fit a wide range of budgets, shooting, editing and uploading videos is now easier than ever.

The icing on the cake is not only are videos an effective marketing tool, but you can use analytics to track just how well they perform. By evaluating the performance of each video you upload, it won’t be long before you get the hang of putting together really great ones!

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Brian Waraksa, founder of Raxa Design in Houston, Texas has been in marketing and small business branding since 2002. He writes the Raxa Design blog on issues affecting small business marketing and corporate brands.

Is Your Website Discouraging Sales?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 14 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Your website is often a potential customer's first point of contact with your company. As a result, it’s crucial that your site be well designed, easy to use and informative. Unfortunately, many sites suffer from problems that actually drive customers away.

To ensure your site helps your business instead of hurting it, you should pull it up on one side of your screen. Then put this post on the other side of your screen and use it as a checklist to see if your site:

Is Too Hard to Use

Your site's navigation should flow logically from one area to another. All navigational links should be clear and obvious. Most importantly, your homepage and key landing pages should offer a strong call to action that links directly to your order or contact form. Customers who cannot figure out how to order from or contact you will very likely move along to a competitor.

Seems Vague or Confusing

Customers need precise information regarding the service they are ordering and the price they will be paying before they place an order. Unclear pricing structures or vague descriptions of services can leave your customers too confused to place an order. Your best bet is to explain each service concisely but thoroughly. You should also include detailed pricing in a table or list that is easy to read and comprehend.

Provides Too Many Options

Presenting customers with too many choices can actually be a bad thing. If your business model allows for infinite service or product customization, you don’t need to include every possibility on your website or in your price list. Instead, select the most commonly ordered options and list those. Then make your contact information visible and clear so that customers who want a specialized order will be able to reach you. This is the best way to avoid discouraging potential customers who have simple needs without losing those with more specialized interests.

Looks Insecure or Unprofessional

Appearance does matter. Customers can make snap judgments about businesses based on little more than the appearance of their website. If your site looks cheap, has spelling errors or outdated design features, a customer may conclude that your business is less than reputable. They may also think your site has been abandoned. Keeping your website up-to-date and well written will prevent customers from hitting the back button.

If you collect orders online, customers want to know that their information is safe and secure. Your website should use secure processing for all personal information, including addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers. Making it clear to your customers that their information is secure and will only be used for the fulfillment of their orders will go a long way towards winning their trust.

By taking the time to review your site and then fixing any issues you identify, you should be able to improve your sales in a very short amount of time.

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

How to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Ecommerce Site

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Selling goods and services on the Internet is a big business. Although many consumers buy products from major players like Amazon, smaller sites are also flourishing. If you have an ecommerce site, you can still do very well. The key is making your site as effective as possible.

The good news about making your site more effective is it’s not as difficult as it may initially seem. There are two keys to getting the results you want. The first is to commit to making changes on an ongoing basis. One of the main reasons many ecommerce sites don’t perform as well as their owners would like is because they don’t look for ways to make improvements. Instead, they simply keep waiting and hope something will magically improve their site’s performance.

The second key is not to get caught up trying to achieve “the perfect conversion rate.” The reason this pursuit is a waste of time and energy is because no metric actually exists. Because there are so many factors involved in ecommerce, conversion rates can greatly vary from one site to another. Instead of worrying about how other sites are performing, only focus on your own. Once you know how well you site is converting, use that as the base for measuring your improvements.

Now that you know what your mindset should be for making these changes, here are some of the areas you can improve, along with specific ideas for doing so:

SEO: You want to use targeted keywords to drive as many customers as possible to your site. However, make sure that they are the best keywords for your business. There is no point in getting lots of hits on your site if those people will not be interested in your product. What this means is you’ll probably be better off going after long-tail keywords than shorter but less targeted ones.

Web Design: Multiple high quality pictures are a great way to help customers connect with products. The same is true for video. Not only can video be a very good way to encourage people to buy, but what’s really great is you can easily shoot your own video with an affordable HD camera.

Content: Don’t limit customers to a few technical details about products. Instead, write great descriptions that will get them excited. You should also encourage your customers to post product reviews. This builds up customer loyalty and is a great advertisement to new customers. And if you have any incentives such as free shipping, make sure that these are clearly displayed on your site.

Regardless of how many sales your ecommerce site is currently doing, you can improve. Instead of worrying that there’s no room for smaller players or that you will need to start from scratch, you just need to start with one improvement and build from there.

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Analytics and Data - What Actually Matters?

Brian Waraksa — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

When you pull up the analytics data for your website, you see graphs that look nice and a whole lot of numbers. Inundated with what appears to be positive information, you smile to yourself and close your browser, making a mental note to check the data again later. The only problem is you didn’t actually do anything with the data you just saw!

What many business owners forget is simply collecting a lot of data isn’t a productive activity. In order to use this data, you need to be able to analyze the key parts of it. To help you out, here’s the what and why of the three types of data that matter most:

Keyword

Your analytics data is a goldmine for keyword research. The advantage of using your own data instead of a third-party tool is that instead of simply seeing volume, you get to see what keywords are being used by people who actually take action on your site.

When you’re looking through your data, you should spend time analyzing the content area. This will allow you to see the performance of your landing pages. One interesting use of your analytics data is to beef up your best landing pages with your best keywords. This will allow you to drive visitors to the pages that you already know are proven winners.

Traffic

Your website analytics can dissect your traffic into specific categories. As a result, this information is quite valuable for targeting your marketing efforts. Depending on your specific marketing needs, you will want to dig into the details of your traffic sources and related data so that you can use what you learn to tweak or create new advertising campaigns.

For example, if you have a local retail store, you can check just how much of your traffic actually comes from the area you’re targeting. If you want to expand your advertising efforts into mobile devices, you can use this data to check what devices and browsers your visitors use.

Conversion

When it comes to your website, what matters most is the number of people who are actually taking action. Having hundreds or even thousands of visitors isn’t helping your business if those people aren’t filling out your contact form or making a purchase.

There are plenty of website owners who aren’t even aware that they can set up their analytics program to track conversions. If you fall into this category, the good news is it’s likely easier than you expect. In many cases, you’ll just need to copy and paste a snippet of code. Once you start collecting this specific data, you can use it as a starting point for all of the changes you make.

Now that you have a better understanding of how to actually harness your analytics data, it’s time for you to stop staring at it and start using it to take action!

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Does Your Website Need to Be Mobile?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:00:00 GMT

It's no secret that people spend a lot of time browsing the web on their cellphones. As a result of this shift in usage, many businesses have jumped on the mobile website bandwagon. However, while cellphones couldn't handle full websites several years ago, the iPhone and all of the other devices that have sprung up to compete with it have eliminated that issue.

Mobile Websites Can Do More Harm than Good

When someone uses a modern smartphone to visit a website, it can be frustrating when they are presented with a mobile website that only offers a fraction of the functionality provided by the standard version of the website. The reason this creates a bad experience for those users is they may be unable to do or find what they actually wanted. Because of this issue, if you decide that a mobile version of your website is still the right fit for your business, be sure that you make it easy for all visitors to access the standard version as well.

There are Some Valid Mobile Elements

While your website may not actually need a mobile version, there are a few elements that you may want to adjust for those visitors who come from a mobile device:

Flash: Popular cellphones like the iPhone don't work well with Flash. And even if a phone is able to play a Flash file, it may take forever to stream. There are several options for dealing with this issue. If you have a video that's in a form like MP4 or hosted on YouTube, iPhone users will be able to watch it. And if you're worried that it's going to take too long for the video to stream, you can supplement it with an explanation or even a full transcript.

PDFs: Some documents are best shared as a PDF. However, this filetype is misused on a regular basis. For example, there's no reason that a restaurant should have their menu as a PDF file. Not only is it a hassle to pull up on a desktop computer, but on a cellphone, it can take forever to download. If you've got important information on your website that is currently in the form of a PDF, you should convert it to HTML. Mobile and desktop visitors will both appreciate this change.

Popups: Because they are so effective, many websites use a popup light box to highlight a special offer or email opt-in form. While that's fine for desktop visitors, this type of window can be difficult to close on a mobile device. As a result, if you're using one of the windows, it's best to set it so it isn't displayed to mobile visitors. This will ensure that you don't cause them to go away as a result of being frustrated.

Does your website have a mobile version?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

How Can You Convert More Visitors Into Actual Leads?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 05:00:00 GMT

When businesses want more customers, they often think that they need to drive more traffic to their website. While that may be the case, it's not always what's preventing them from getting the results they want. Often, business websites receive plenty of traffic. However, the reason that traffic isn't turning into customers is because the website itself isn't properly optimized to generate leads.

In order for someone to give you their name, email address and any other personal information you may request, your website needs to accomplish several things. First, it needs to make them trust you. This can be accomplished by having a professional design and including elements like testimonials that show you're a legitimate business. Second, your website needs to provide a simple experience. If it takes too long to load or people have a hard time finding what they want, they're going to leave before taking any type of action. This factor is why it's so important to have clear navigation and prominently feature important elements on your homepage.

Finally, you have to pique their interest to the point where they want to take action. Since most people are tackling multiple things at once when they are on their computer, it should come as no surprise that grabbing their attention in this manner can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are several options that can help you accomplish this crucial goal. All of the options take the form of an offer. For some businesses, one of these offers will be the perfect fit. For others, they will actually get the best results from using two or three of the options in combination with each other. Let's take a look at each one:

Eliminate Risk: There are a lot of situations where you simply need an offer that can bring people into your sales cycle. The key to properly making this type of offer is to eliminate all obstacles. That's why something useful and completely free is the best way to go. Whether it's a whitepaper or free report, make it clear that anyone who gets it will benefit without taking on any type of risk.

The Extra Push: Chances are, there are plenty of people who visit your website and are almost ready to do business with you. However, before they actually become a paying customer, they just need one final push. The type of offer that can persuade something in this position is something like a free webinar. While it's more involved than the previous offer, its effectiveness will make it worth your time.

Provide an Upgrade: It's important to remember that people who have never done business with your company aren't the only potential source of leads. Your business can also benefit from existing customers who choose to upgrade to another product. It's also possible for potential customers to have one option in mind, but then be persuaded to go with another. The one thing you need to keep in mind about making this type of offer is while you want it to be attractive, you don't want to make your basic offering look like junk.

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

5 Additions That Can Make Your Homepage Even More Effective

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 05:00:00 GMT

The fact that you're taking time out of your busy schedule to read blog posts about ways to improve your business means you're already ahead of many other business owners. What you realize is regardless of how much you may already know, there is always room for improvement. This concept is especially important for web design. Many people think that web design is a one-time task. While that can be true, the most effective web designs are the result of ongoing changes and improvements.

Since there's only so much time that you can spend on improvements, you want to make sure that you choose areas that are going to have the biggest impact. Because it's the first page most visitors see when they come to your website, your homepage is an excellent candidate for where you should focus your attention. If you want to know what you can do to make your homepage even more effective, here are five additions that can help you turn even more visitors into customers:

A Clear Headline: Even though your homepage probably isn't just a single article, that doesn't mean you should neglect having a strong headline. In fact, because it may only be a second before a visitor decides to stay or leave, you want to ensure that there's a powerful headline to make them choose the former. When it comes to crafting your headline, you want to be clear and relevant. Keep in mind that the goal of this element is to get visitors to continue looking at your homepage and the rest of your site. While a bold headline can work very well, just be sure that the rest of your site can back it up.

Focus on Your Visitors: Visitors to your website obviously want to learn about your business. However, the reason they care is because they want to know if your business has something that can help them. Because their interest actually has to do with themselves, you want to make sure that the elements on your homepage reflect their true intentions. If your current homepage is all about your business and not about what it can do for visitors, a few adjustments can go a long way.

A Relevant Photo: Multiple studies have confirmed the usefulness of having a relevant photo on your homepage. While there are cases where a stock photo can work well, a real photo of anything from your store to a customer can be even more effective.

Clear Directions: Whether you're collecting leads or actually making a sale, there is a path you want visitors to follow from the homepage. Instead of leaving their choices up to chance, be sure to make it clear to them exactly where you want them to click next.

Contact Information: Although it sounds like common-sense, many businesses still overlook this important element. In addition to having a prominent link to your contact page, it's a good idea to actually display the phone number and email address of your business directly on the homepage.

Have you recently made any changes to your homepage?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Are You Looking for Some Social Media Inspiration?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Consistency is one of the keys to getting the best results from social media. Since social media is all about building relationships, you don't want to leave people hanging for days or even weeks at a time. Instead, you want to keep them engaged with your brand. While the fun nature of social media means that being consistent won't create the type of burden that comes with an activity like dieting, that doesn't mean you'll always be bursting with ideas about what to share.

If you've gotten into a regular social media routine but have suddenly hit a sticking point, the good news is there are quite a few ways to come up with interesting new ideas. To help get your creativity flowing again, here are some ideas that you can use as inspiration for your own social media activities:

Talk About Customers: Obviously, how much you can share will depend on your specific industry. However, even if you're in an industry where privacy is important, that doesn't mean you can't say a single thing about any of your customers. While it's great if your industry is one where openness is an option, if that's not the case, you can still discuss recent positive experiences you've had with customers without revealing any specific details about their identity. You can also take this specific strategy and substitute partners as another option for coming up with social media content.

Make It a Team Effort: It's good if your social media activities have a clear and consistent voice. But just because you want your brand to be consistent doesn't mean that you have to exclude members of your team from engaging through social media. The 37Signals blog is a great example of how to properly execute this strategy. They regularly publish posts from all different members of their team. Because each post is clearly labeled with the author's name, it allows multiple team members to contribute without creating any confusion among readers. In addition to blogging, this strategy can be used everywhere from Facebook to Google Plus.

Ask for Feedback: One of the simplest ways to create engagement is to ask questions. What's great about this option is you don't have to feel pressure to come up with extremely creative questions. While those types of questions can be interesting, there's nothing wrong with asking for something as simple as feedback. The reason this works so well is because everyone likes to give their opinion. For example, if you make changes to a page on your website or its entire design, ask people what they think about it. While it's true that you may receive some criticism, keep in mind that can be a good thing. Since you may discover something you overlooked, this form of social media engagement can be just as beneficial to you as it is to your customers and followers.

What other sources do you turn to for social media inspiration?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Social Media Can Help Take Leads Through Your Sales Process

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:00:00 GMT

People who have never owned a business commonly think that customers simply make a purchase as soon as they come into contact with a business. However, as a business owner with years or even decades of experience under your belt, you know that's quite far from the truth. Although it would be nice if it was that easy to close sales, the reality is it normally takes multiple interactions for a promising lead to become an actual customer.

Although the Internet has not eliminated the standard buying habits that people follow, the good news is it has made it easier to guide them from an interested lead into a customer who actually pays for something. If you are wondering how you can make your sales process more efficient, social media is the answer. By properly utilizing social media, you will be able to guide leads through your sales process and end up with customers who are very happy.

Here are the details of exactly how it works:

Start with Free

Today's consumers have more options than ever. In addition to their increased options, chances are they have been disappointed or completely ripped off by multiple companies. As a result, they are generally hesitant to jump right into making a purchase.

Although that may seem like a major obstacle for your business, there is an easy way to accommodate it. The solution is to begin your sales process with something free. What you give away will depend on your specific business and industry. In addition to being free, the key to getting the most out of this step is to provide something of value. Once you figure out what you should give away, you can use outlets like Twitter to share it with potential customers.

Move Towards Commitment

Some businesses try to skip directly from a free giveaway to paid customers. However, studies have found that adding an intermediary step to your sales process is a more effective option. If you sell a physical product, this will generally be a free sample. And if what you offer falls into a different category, a free trial is usually the best option.

The way that social media can complement this step of your sales process is by allowing warm leads to directly communicate with you. Additionally, when they discuss your free sample or trial through an outlet like Facebook, it creates opportunities for other potential customers to discover your business.

Close the Sale

The last step in a successful sales process is to actually close and gain a new customer. This is arguably the step where social media has the biggest impact. The reason social media can be so beneficial for closing a sale is because people realize they have a public venue for discussing your business. As a result, they understand that you stand behind what you offer. This combination creates a level of trust that would be difficult to achieve without the support of social media.

How big of a role does social media play in your sales process?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Is Guest Blogging an Effective Marketing Tool?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:00:00 GMT

If you want to be able to reach more potential customers and create more opportunities for your business, guest blogging is definitely an effective marketing tool. However, some business owners who have dabbled with guest blogging weren't impressed by the results that they saw.

In most cases, the reason for less than stellar results is because people miss out on one or more crucial elements of effective guest blogging. If you want to avoid these mistakes and make the most of your guest blogging, here's what you need to remember:

Quality > Quantity: Because it takes time and effort to write a quality guest post, you don't want to take the approach of trying to crank them out and then throw them up on any blog that will accept your posts. Instead, you want to choose blogs that are going to provide you with the best mileage. Initially, you may think that means choosing blogs with the most traffic. While it doesn't hurt to have your content on an "A-List" blog, don't discount blogs with smaller but very targeted and loyal readers. In many cases, you will get the best results from utilizing that kind of blog.

Since you want to choose your guest posting opportunities wisely, be sure to take some time to research in advance. Not only will this help you find the best options for publishing blog posts, but because you will actually learn about the blogs you're interested in, you will be able to contact their owners without sounding spammy.

Target the Audience: One of the benefits of guest blogging is it allows you to put your business in front of readers who may have otherwise never known about it. Since you're probably going to be writing for a very focused audience, make sure you hone your post to match their interests. That means you're probably going to change things up from how you write for the blog on your business website. If this sounds complicated, you'll be relieved to know that just about all bloggers are happy to provide guest authors with some ideas and tips. In addition to reading multiple posts to get a feel for a blog's style, don't be afraid to ask its owner questions.

Don't Abandon Your Post: Just because you finish writing a post doesn't mean that you're done with it. Once it's published, you want to make sure that you give it the attention it deserves. Not only will the blogger who published it for you appreciate the effort you put into promoting it, but it will also maximize the results you see from it.

One of the best things you can do is interact with commenters on your post. In addition to taking the time to respond to readers who leave a comment, you can also promote the post through your own social channels.

Have you published many guest posts over the last six months?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

3 Tips for Making the Most of Social Media

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Because so many people use social media, there are tons of guides and ebooks about how businesses can benefit from this trend. While there's no denying the fact that social media presents an amazing opportunity for businesses, the problem with many of these guides and ebooks is they treat social media like it's some kind of "get rich fast" solution.

Anyone who thinks that they can bring in a flood of new customers by spending a few hours on Facebook or Twitter is going to be very disappointed. As with any channel that can actually help a business, social media is not an overnight solution. However, if you're willing to invest your resources into it, the payoff can be quite substantial.

Since a strong social media presence for your business is something you have to cultivate, here are three tips for making the most of the time and resources you invest;

Listen First: Many business owners think they should sign up for a Twitter account and then start blasting out updates about their business. In reality, one of the most compelling features of Twitter is being able to "listen" to potential customers in real-time. Not only can you find out what they think, but you can also engage with them. The best way to keep up with this type of activity is to use a free tool like Monitter or Social Mention.

Be a Giver: Just because you're keeping up with relevant conversations on Twitter does not mean that you want to bombard the people who are having them with a canned promotional response. If you are going to use Twitter and other social media platforms to reach out to potential customers, make sure you actually help them solve a problem.

The reason this distinction is so important is because no one likes to be the recipient of a cookie-cutter marketing message. However, what people do like is having their lives made easier by successfully eliminating a problem that has been plaguing them. By making this one of your primary social media goals, you will be very happy with the response that you get from potential customers.

Be Responsive: When you first start building a social media presence for your business, it will primarily be you initiating conversations with current and potential customers. However, as your presence increases, both of these groups of customers will begin coming directly to you through these channels.

When that occurs, the worst thing you can do is take forever to respond or completely forget to get back to someone. While this is the ideal opportunity for you to win a customer over, neglecting it can have the opposite effect.

Even though this may sound like a lot to manage, it's really not that difficult once you commit to it. Since customers aren't going to expect an immediate response from a small business at 3 in the morning, the main thing is to keep up with any questions or messages you receive during the day. Since any social network you use will allow you to have notifications sent to your inbox, you'll find that you are able to provide prompt responses without any issues.

What social media platforms are currently the most important for your business?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

What's Pinterest All About?

Brian Waraksa — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

You've undoubtedly heard of the site that is being hailed as "the next big thing." However, you may still be unclear as to what exactly it's all about. Additionally, you're probably wondering if it's something that can actually help your business.

Pinterest 101

Pinterest is an image sharing site. Its name comes from the fact that users can pin images to boards. Because users can create multiple boards, it is common for people to build boards around specific topics. For example, a Pinterest user may have one board for shoes, one for pictures of Ryan Gosling and one for wedding ideas. And whenever someone pins an item to one of their boards, they can also add a written description to it.

In addition to pinning and writing descriptions, Pinterest has several features that we've all come to expect from social websites. Members can follow other users or simply follow individual boards. Members can also tag other users when they pin something. And if someone comes across an image that appeals to them but they don't want to actually pin it, they can simply Like it.

So, What's the Big Deal?

Now that you have a better understanding of how the site works, you may be asking yourself "so what?" While this is a common reaction of people who aren't users of the site, it's important to remember that social websites don't have to be life-changing to be extremely popular. What Pinterest has done is create an environment and experience that is especially appealing to multiple female demographics.

Even if you aren't convinced that Pinterest is the greatest thing since sliced bread, keep in mind that in just two years since being launched, it has become a Top 100 Alexa site. And just as importantly, Shareaholic reports that "Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined."

Can Your Business Benefit from Pinterest?

Since that referral statistic is downright stunning, the big question is if you can harness any of that traffic for your own site. The good news is the answer to that question is definitely yes. There are two main keys to establishing an effective presence on Pinterest. The first is to remember that this site is all about images. As a result, you want to focus on images that are going to grab people's attention.

Keep in mind that images aren't limited to photos. Options like infographics or striking charts can be just as effective. The second key to effectively utilizing Pinterest is to focus on creating and providing value. As with any social website, you can't expect to slap up a few images and attract a flood of traffic. Instead, you should focus on creating boards that are so good that people seek them out. Additionally, you should invest some time in becoming part of the community. That includes following others and commenting on their pins that you find interesting.

Have you spent any time exploring Pinterest?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

3 Common Design Elements That You Can Easily Improve

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Improving the design of your site or blog doesn’t mean that you have to start from scratch. While a complete redesign may be the best option in some cases, many designs simply need some tweaks. This is especially true for some of the most common design elements. Examples of what you can easily improve include:

Social Sharing Buttons

People like to share content through social networks. As a result, many sites incorporate buttons that make it easy to share. Unfortunately, the most common trend for these buttons has become to cram in as many as possible.

If you currently have these buttons on your site, you may want to rethink their usage. First, look at your analytics to find out which social networks your visitors are actually using. There’s no reason to provide shortcuts to a dozen different sites when your visitors are actually only using 2 or 3.

Next, instead of simply slapping up the buttons on your posts, think about adding a call to action at the end of your posts. Experiments by multiple bloggers have confirmed that adding something along the lines of “If you liked this post, click here to share it on Twitter” is more effective than simply having an icon.

Additionally, if you have a signup or opt-in process, consider adding a sharing link to the end of it. Since your visitors are likely to be excited about what they just joined, many will be interested in telling their friends on Facebook about it as long as you remind them to do so.

Testimonials

Testimonials are a great way to improve your site’s conversion rate. However, not all testimonials are created equal. If you have a handful of paragraph long testimonials on your site, the first thing you can do to improve them is take the best snippet from each one and make it stand out. This is commonly done by featuring it above each testimonial block.

While you probably already have a name next to each testimonial, you can make them even more credible by adding a picture of the person who provided them. In addition to text testimonials with a picture, you may want to experiment with video testimonials. Many sites have reported that video testimonials significantly increased their conversion rate.

Contact Forms

The key to making sure contact forms are as useful as possible is making them dead simple for visitors to fill out. That means the first step is to eliminate as many fields as possible. If you have a contact form with ten different fields, try to slim it down to two or three.

Next, instead of a boring gray button that says Submit, add a more noticeable button with a clearer call to action. You should also add a call to action above your contact forms. Finally, make sure visitors receive some type of confirmation once they successfully submit one of your forms.

Have you ever made a small design tweak that ended up having a big impact?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Use Magazines to Improve Your Copywriting Skills

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Copywriting isn’t a skill that’s only useful to professional writers. In fact, you don’t even need a blog to benefit from copywriting. Every business owner can benefit from sharpening their copywriting skills and then applying those skills to their business website. While many of the changes you will eventually make to your website may not seem like that big of a deal, they can actually have a significant impact on your overall conversion rate.

Because there are so many different ways to approach copywriting, figuring out how to get started can be one of the hardest parts. If you’re not sure where to focus your attention, an easy way to simplify this process and dive right in is to use magazines as a guide of what to do. Although they’re obviously a print medium, the techniques they use are just as effective when applied online. Let’s take a look at the key copywriting lessons you can learn from magazines:

Write One or More Strong Headlines

The goal of a magazine cover is to grab your attention and pique your interest so that you will pick up the magazine and open it. When someone first visits your website, your goal is to give them a reason to stick around and continue exploring what you have to offer. You can accomplish this goal by writing one or more strong headlines for your site’s main page(s).

Depending on your site, there are several ways to write a strong headline. One option is to ask a question. Another is to make an interesting statement that compels visitors to continue reading. If you’re writing a headline for a product page, you can center your headline around a benefit the product offers instead of one of its features.

Use Short Chunks to Break Up Longer Pieces of Content

Magazines almost always use quotes, lists or other additions to break up longer stories and make it easier for readers to digest them. You should use this technique on your own landing pages. Instead of hitting visitors with huge blocks of text, interject and emphasis key pieces of information throughout your pages. This will allow visitors who are only skimming your pages to still pick up important pieces of information about what you’re offering.

Tell Visitors Where to Go

When you open a magazine, one of the first things you’ll see is a table of contents. This section of the magazine tells readers exactly where to go to find the story they want to check out. Making it as easy as possible for readers to quickly find exactly what they want ensures they don’t throw down the magazine in frustration and move on to something else.

You should take this same approach in guiding visitors around your site. Instead of simply adding a link, explicitly tell visitors to click it so they can go to wherever it leads.

Have you tested any popular copywriting techniques on your site?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Don’t Forget About Your Past Clients or Customers

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Most businesses invest a lot of resources into acquiring new customers. While avenues like search engine marketing can be cost effective ways to bring in new customers, many customer acquisition methods are quite expensive. Because of their focus on this task, a lot of businesses forget that they already have a great source of customers.

This source is the clients or customers they’ve already served in the past. One of the hardest parts of getting prospects to actually pull out their wallet and do business with you is reassuring them that they’re going to get great value for the money the spend. But with past customers, they already know that they can count on you to do a good job. Since this hurdle is eliminated, all you have to do is give them a compelling reason to place another order from you.

If you like the idea of focusing more on your past customers but don’t know how to pique their interest, there are a couple of methods that are quite effective:

Offer a Discount

Although it’s a simple strategy, offering a discount can work very well. Given the recent bad press that daily deal sites like Groupon have received, some business owners are hesitant to offer any discounts. However, it’s important to remember that this strategy doesn’t involve offering discounts to bring in new customers. Instead, you’re offering a discount as a loyalty reward. Since huge companies like Starbucks are known for their great loyalty discounts, there’s no question that this strategy can yield favorable results.

Customize a Pitch

This works really well if your clients are other businesses. For example, if you provide conversion rate optimization, take time to look through their site. If you see a page that you know you can improve, take a few notes and then send them a pitch. Or if there’s something you know they’d benefit from adding to their site, shoot them an email with that information. In many cases, the only reason business owners aren’t sending you ongoing orders is because they’re simply too busy to figure out what they need done next. By taking care of that work for them, you can do them a big favor and receive an order from them in return for it.

Provide a Referral Bonus

Making the most of your past clients or customers doesn’t even have to directly involve securing another order from them. Instead, one way to benefit from your existing relationship is to have them bring new prospects to you.

What’s great about this arrangement is the prospects a past client delivers will already have a personal recommendation about your business. As a result, you will find that it’s much easier to close an order with them than it is with a prospect that you bring in on your own.

Since this is a valuable service that past customers can provide, it’s worth motivating them by providing some type of bonus. Whether it’s a monetary or discount bonus, as long as you make it appealing, you’ll find that your happy past customers are more than willing to send prospects your way.

Did you focus on your past clients or customers very much during 2011?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

What Can Fashion Teach You About Marketing?

Brian Waraksa — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

To the average person, the world of fashion can seem quite strange. However, despite the eccentric nature of this industry, it’s huge. The fashion industry in the UK alone is worth over £20 billion a year. Because of its size and influence, there are some valuable tips that marketers in any space can learn from fashion:

Trends Come and Go

Trends are one of the first things most people associate with fashion. Every year, it seems like there’s something new that makes its way from the runways and catches on with mainstream consumers. While it may seem like the biggest trend ever at the time, chances are by the same time next year, something else will have already replaced it.

The lesson for marketers is while there’s nothing wrong with trying out the latest social networking sites that pop up or other distribution platforms, it’s important to be cautious about how much time and effort you invest into something that’s brand new. While there can be advantages to being an early adopter, it’s just as likely that the hype around something new will fizzle out just as quickly as it started.

Sometimes You Have to Push the Envelope

Although most trends are nothing more than a flash in the pan, every once and awhile a designer comes up with something new that ends up having a lasting impact on the world of fashion. In many cases, the designers who make these changes may be initially written off for whatever they do. However, because they’re not afraid to push the envelope, they’re able to have a real impact.

When it comes to developing a new strategy, sticking to the status quo may not cut it. Instead, you may find yourself in a position where you have to step up to the plate and do something that’s truly bold. Even though this type of decision does have risk, the end result can be well worth it.

Real Relationships Matter

One of the main obstacles that new designers face is getting exposure for their lines. Because there are so many designers and companies producing new clothes, fashion magazines and other publicity avenues are only able to cover so much. As a result, the relationships designers build with their colleagues and customers can make or break their line.

Whether you’re a marketing professional or a business owner who’s handling this role on your own, it’s important to remember that all of your efforts are built on a foundation of real people. As a result, don’t treat them like they’re simply a number on a spreadsheet. Instead, go the extra mile to build relationships that are going to last. While marketing is always going to be a challenge, it becomes much easier when you have customers who are so passionate about your business that they do much of it for you!

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Conversion: The Real Key to Increasing Your Bottom Line in 2012

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Developing a content strategy, building an email list and engaging in social media marketing are all ways that you can bring more visitors to your website during 2012. While all of these options are very effective when done correctly, there's one more step that you have to focus on if you want these visitors to become actual customers. Conversion is the key to actually increasing your bottom line. Although it may not be a topic that the tech press hypes on a regular basis, optimizing your conversion rate can have a major impact on your overall business.

While you will probably have prior steps in your sales funnel, once you're ready to actually make a sale, a landing page is generally the most effective way to maximize your conversion rate. The reason a good landing page works so well is because it gives a visitor all the information and reassurance they need to become a customer by actually pulling out their credit card and making a purchase.

Since your landing page can make or break your ability to close sales online, here are some tips for ensuring every landing page you create in 2012 yields the best results possible:

Compelling Headline

The headline for your landing page should be highly visible. You want to make sure that your landing page's headline is positioned and sized so it immediately grabs visitors’ attention. Because there's no doubt that visitors will look at your headline, you need to ensure that it's compelling. According to legendary copywriter Joseph Sugarman, the sole goal of the headline is to get people to continue reading.

Add Testimonials

Most people are naturally adverse to risk. One risk that we all try to avoid is losing money. No one wants to spend their hard-earned money on a product or service that turns out to be worthless. As a result, your landing page needs to reassure visitors that they're not going to be disappointed by their purchase.

While persuasive copywriting can be very effective, nothing is better than honest feedback from other people. The reason visitors respond to this type of feedback is because it functions as a form of social proof. Once visitors know that other people have been happy with their purchase, their fear of wasting their money will subside. By adding real testimonials from existing customers, you can show new visitors that they're going to be very happy with their purchase.

Include Multiple Call to Actions

Although your landing page doesn't have to go on forever, a good one will have quite a bit of information. As a result, it's important to remember that different visitors will read different amounts of information. To avoid missing any opportunities, make sure that you include multiple call to actions throughout the course of your page. This includes placing a highly visible call to action, like a button, above the fold of your landing page.

Have you used any tools to increase the conversion rate of your landing page(s)?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Social Media in 2012: Maximize Results, Minimize Wasted Time

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 06:00:00 GMT

It's safe to say that social media is past the phase of being a fad. Although new social sites will be launched and some existing sites may decline in popularity, using the Internet for this type of communication is here to stay. Since people aren't going to suddenly stop communicating through social media platforms, it's worth investing some of your marketing efforts into these channels during 2012.

The biggest issue with social media marketing is it can be hard to directly measure results. A big reason why this can be so difficult is while multiple studies have confirmed the benefits that social media can offer to businesses, many of them are a "bigger picture" result. This means that it's hard to directly correlate the impact of using social media.

This uncertainty leads to many businesses hesitating to embrace social media. While that's a natural reaction to this issue, it's not the route that businesses have to take. Instead of simply turning your back on social media, a better option is to focus on maximizing results and minimizing wasted time.

No one is going to argue that social media can’t turn into a significant waste of time. This is just as true for individuals as it is for businesses. The key to avoiding this problem is clearly defining what you're trying to accomplish with your social media marketing. For many businesses, their main goal is to communicate with existing and potential customers. If this is your 2012 social media goal, here a couple of tips for being as efficient as possible:

Don't Do It All

One of the reasons social media marketing can seem so overwhelming is because there are so many different networks where people spend time talking to each other. However, it's important to understand that just because these networks exist doesn't mean that you have to be active on all of them.

Instead of driving yourself crazy by trying to maintain a presence on every social network that springs up, a better option is to focus on the primary one(s) where your existing and potential customers spend time. If you're wondering how to find out this information, all you have to do is ask. By asking a handful of your existing customers what social network(s) they use, you can safely assume that the same is generally true for your potential customers as well.

Learn the Ins and Outs

Another common mistake is businesses simply start bombarding social networks with promotional messages. While this may seem like the most efficient way to communicate, the reason it's not is because this type of marketing is going to be ignored.

An added benefit of narrowing your focus to the primary social network(s) of your target audience is you can take the time to learn their ins and outs. Once you actually understand how a social community functions, you will be in a much better position to get the results you want in the right way.

If you're already engaged in social media marketing, what tools are you using to be as efficient as possible?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Use Email to Get More Out of Your Online Marketing in 2012

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:00:00 GMT

More business owners are realizing just how much they can gain by creating a strong online presence for their business. However, email is one area that many business owners in both the new and experienced with online marketing categories still overlook. One of the reasons that many don't emphasize this aspect of online marketing is because they think it's a dated practice. While email marketing may not be a topic that the tech press is buzzing about, it's still extremely effective. In fact, since spam filters have eliminated a significant amount of unwanted commercial email, targeted emails may be even more effective than they were a few years ago.

Why You Need to Care About Email Marketing

One of the reasons you need to focus on email marketing in 2012 is because it allows you to develop a direct relationship with potential and current customers. For potential customers, the relationship you develop may give them enough trust so that they feel comfortable placing an order with you online.

Another reason you should care about this topic is because it will allow you to do more with the traffic you receive. Instead of losing every visitor who doesn't make a purchase when they land on your website, you can convert them into a lead by collecting an email address from them.

How to Start Building an Email List

If you've decided to make email marketing a priority for 2012, the first step is to start building your email list. In order to do this, you want visitors to submit their email address through your website.

One of the most common mistakes people make when they add a signup form to their website is including too many fields in it. In many cases, all you need is one field for a visitor to enter their email address. In some cases, you may also want another field for them to enter their name. However, two fields is generally going to be the most you're going to need.

Another mistake that's quite common is not placing forms in a visible enough location. If your signup form is buried in the bottom corner of your site, it's not going to be nearly as effective as if it was prominently featured near the top. In addition to putting it in a location where visitors are actually going to see it, make sure that you add a compelling call to action.

The reason you give visitors for signing up will depend on your business. Some websites literally give away a report or other freebie in exchange for signups. While this can work very well, it's not always required. Other websites do quite well by simply informing visitors that signing up for the site's email list will give them access to exclusive deals and special offers. You may want to experiment with several different options to see which one works best for your specific signup form.

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

What's Your Content Strategy for 2012?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Since the New Year is less than a month away, the next few posts are going to focus on ramping up for a successful 2012. Today, we're going to discuss how to get your content strategy in line.

What Does Google Want?

During 2011, Google made several changes that had a significant impact on the way they view content. While many Internet marketers were left scratching their heads throughout the year, two things were made very clear by these changes. The first is that quality is of utmost importance to Google. Although quality can be a somewhat subjective issue, the important thing to remember is Google uses general signals and guidelines to determine the quality of content.

The other thing they made clear is that for topics that change, they want information that is relevant and fresh. While this doesn't impact every business, it does have an effect on many of them. As a result of these two key takeaways, a big focus of your 2012 content strategy should be quality over quantity. This means that instead of cranking out three articles on closely related topics, put the same amount of time into creating one article that can be viewed as an authority resource on the topic.

The same can be said for blogging. Instead of feeling the pressure to blast out multiple posts a week, invest your time into a single post each week that people are going to truly like and want to share with others.

Should You Do Article Submissions?

Although backlinks from article directories may still pass some link juice, it's safe to say that the heyday of article submissions is over. Not only have the bulk of the articles in these directories turned into web pollution, but it's important to remember that even though they're not great, it still takes time to write these articles. As a result, you're much better off investing the time it would take you to write a couple of low quality articles into a single guest post for another blog. Unlike most article directory submissions, publishing a real post on another blog means people will actually read it. This can result in potential customers finding out about your business who otherwise may have never been exposed to it.

Do Press Releases Still Matter?

Press releases can still be an effective form of content. The problem is most people seem to forget their purpose. Although they're commonly used to build links, this isn't their primary function. Instead, the main goal of a press release is to get the attention of members of the media who have an interest in what your business is doing or announcing. While potential customers may see your actual press release, it's generally a tool that can be used to persuade reporters and bloggers to write about you. Since you want people to write about you, make sure you only use a press release when you actually have something to announce.

How is your 2012 content strategy going to be different from your strategy over the last year?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

When It Comes to Stats, Quality Trumps Quantity

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Although it's been over a decade since website "hits" had their heyday, you can still find plenty of website owners who obsess over how many daily visits their site receives. While it's easy to get caught up in refreshing your stats, this isn't an activity that's going to help your bottom line.

If a website relies solely on banner ads for revenue, then the sheer number of visitors it receives may determine its success. However, since you're running a website for your business, it's not quantity that matters. What matters most is the quality of the visitors that are coming to your website. You are much better off receiving 15 highly targeted visitors a day than you are having 50-100 random visitors stumble onto your website.

The quality vs. quantity issue doesn't only apply to the number of visitors your website receives. There are several other stats that people commonly get caught up looking at with the wrong focus:

Pageviews: Not every website needs visitors to go through dozens of pages. As a business owner, your main goal is to get visitors to take an action on your website. If they email you or call you after viewing just a couple of pages on your website, then there's no reason for you to stress over your site's average number of pageviews.

Rankings: Some people think that the more terms they rank for, the better. In reality, what actually matters is ranking for terms that send targeted visitors. If you're ranking for a bunch of terms that sends visitors who aren't interested in what your business has to offer, those rankings are meaningless.

Although it can be a little more tricky now that Google isn't passing keyword data for every search, your main focus should be the keywords that send converting visitors. If you don't know which keywords convert, you should set up that form of tracking instead of worrying about checking to see if you've had any ranking fluctuations.

Bounce Rate: This metric can be very misleading. Because most website owners have heard that the lower their bounce rate, the better, they get stressed out when they're unable to get it as low as they'd like. While bounce rate can be useful, there are also some common issues with this metric.

One issue is different analytics programs define bounce rate in different ways. As a result, while you may think that people are coming to your website and instantly leaving, that may not be the case at all. Before you get stressed out about this metric, make sure you understand how the specific analytics program you're using calculates this metric.

Another common issue is forgetting that bounces aren't bad for every website. For example, if you have one site that serves as a landing page to bring visitors to your main website, a high bounce rate isn't necessarily a problem if most the visitors are coming to your primary site.

Do you find yourself checking your website's stats more often than you should?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

5 Reasons Your Business Needs an Email Newsletter

Brian Waraksa — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Many businesses want to attract visitors to their website and convert them directly into customers. While it’s great if you can convince visitors to pull out their credit card within a few minutes of visiting your website, this isn’t always a realistic option. It can be especially difficult for businesses who sell higher priced items to convert visitors directly into customers.

If you’re frustrated that your conversion rate is much lower than you’d like, the good news is there’s a simple way to convert more of the people who visit your website into potential customers. An email newsletter may be exactly what you need to get better results from your online marketing efforts. Although a newsletter may seem like an old school marketing tool, there are several reasons why it can be extremely effective:

Build a Relationship: Although there are impulsive buyers, a significant percentage of consumers are very thorough about the decisions they make. This type of consumer doesn’t dive right into a purchase. Instead, they spend time doing research and analyzing this decision. One of the factors they take into consideration is how they feel about your company. They are much more likely to purchase from you if they view your business in a positive light than if they don’t have any feelings about it. And one of the best ways to create this type of goodwill among potential customers is to use an email newsletter to build a relationship with them.

Avoid Wasting Website Traffic: If making a purchase is the only option you give to your website visitors, you’re going to lose all the ones who decide not to buy. However, if you have an email newsletter and provide a sign up form on your website, you can capture these visitors and work towards making a sale at a later date.

Stay on Potential Customers’ Minds: Your business may sell a product or service that people only need at a certain time. By sending them a monthly newsletter, you can ensure that you stay on potential customers’ minds. Because you’ll eliminate the possibility of them forgetting about your business, they’ll immediately get in touch with you if a situation arises when they need what you offer.

Have Others Help with Your Marketing: The best newsletters are those that provide real value to recipients. The value can be anything from useful information to a coupon. When people receive something of value, they want to share it with others. Because they’ll be able to forward your newsletters to their friends and family, they will actually help you with your marketing.

Sell When the Time is Right: The most successful email newsletters don’t constantly pressure recipients to buy. Instead, they build interest in the benefits a a product or service can provide someone. After delivering this type of interesting content, a good newsletter will provide a special opportunity to make a purchase that people won’t want to miss.

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

What’s the most effective newsletter you’ve received from another business?

Do Visitors Trust Your Website?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Whether you want your website visitors to submit their email address or pull out their credit card and make a purchase, before a visitor will take any action, they need to trust your website. If visitors are concerned that your website isn't legitimate, they're unlikely to submit their email address to you, and they're definitely not going to make a purchase through your website.

If a lack of trust is hurting your conversion rate, the good news is there are some simple steps you can take to ensure visitors know that there is a legitimate business behind your website:

Add Testimonials with Pictures: Even the best copywriters will admit that nothing they write is as compelling as testimonials from customers. When a visitor is about to take action on your website, there is a little part of their brain that asks "are you about to do something you're going to regret?" Because no one wants to answer yes to this question, adding testimonials to your website will reassure visitors that other real people have taken the same action and were very happy with the outcome.

While it's great to have a page of testimonials, it's also good to put a testimonial near your call to action button. This will provide visitors with reassurance as they are actually taking action. Also, try to include a picture next your testimonials. This ensures visitors can see that they're legitimate testimonials.

Add Trust Seals: Because you spend a significant amount of time online, it's easy to forget that most Internet users are not nearly as computer savvy as you. As a result, there may be things that matter to them that you don't even notice. Trust seals are a perfect example. Since you probably see BBB and McAfee Secure (previously Hacker Safe) logos on websites throughout the day, you probably don't pay much attention to them.

However, for regular Internet users, these seals can be very important. How important? According to the Conversion Doctor, these signs of trusts have a noticeable impact on conversion rates:

Conversion Rate With NO Seals or Logos: 2.06%
Conversion Rate With ONLY BBB Online Logo: 2.15%
Conversion Rate With ONLY Hacker Safe Logo: 2.27%
Conversion Rate With BOTH BBB Online AND Hacker Safe Logos: 2.33%

Take the Time to Answer Visitor Questions: There are plenty of long landing pages that are very ugly. As a result, many business owners assume they need to keep their landing pages short in order for them to be aesthetically pleasing. In reality, long copy is actually effective. The main reason is it gives you an opportunity to answer as many questions as possible that visitors may have. When visitors are able to read an answer to a question that pops into their head, they're going to feel much more confident about taking action. Additionally, there's no reason that longer landing pages can't still be attractive.

What makes you trust a website enough to place an order through it?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Can You Use Social Media to Help Grow Your Small Business?

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Everyone and their mom has a Facebook account these days. And Twitter isn’t far behind. Then you have YouTube videos popping up left and right that go viral and get seen by millions of people. And here you are, a small to mid-sized business owner, wondering how you can harness the potential you see. Is it possible that such Social Media outlets can be used to expand your business.

You bet. But you have to know how.

Understand What Social Media is Good For

So what’s the point of social media? Do you just go create a bunch of profiles and use them to talk to people? Well, not exactly. If you do that, what you’ll probably find is you have a Facebook Fan Page with no fans and a Twitter page with no followers.

The idea behind social media is sharing. And what are you sharing? Content. Ah, it always seems to come back to this, doesn’t it?

You need to have quality content that other people will want to see. If you are putting this content out there, people are going to take notice. And not only will they take notice, but they will share with other people. The next thing you know, there’s a snowball effect and more and more people will come to you for the content they’re longing for. See where I’m going with this?

What Kind of Content Are We Talking About?

Well, first of all there are the original blog articles that you should be producing. Make sure they aren’t a bunch of rehashed drivel. Each article needs to be fresh and unique—you know, attack an existing issue from a new angle.

There are also videos. These can be webinars, short commercials—anything people will watch and want to see more of. Webinars, like articles, should provide useful information. Commercials should be original and not scream “BUY BUY BUY!”

And of course, you can also share other people’s content. This is a good way to make friends that are noteworthy in your industry. It also keeps you from having to produce all the shared content yourself.

Social Media—Get with the Times

If you aren’t yet taking advantage of social media, don’t fret. There’s always time. Form a plan and slowly begin to implement it. Just remember, social media is only one piece to the overall marketing puzzle!

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Common Mistakes That Kill Business Blogs

Brian Waraksa — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Whether you've just started a blog to help promote your business or your employer has been speaking with you about launching a company blog, it’s absolutely true that a blog can help a business grow. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this post right now!

While blogs have long since passed their stage of being nothing more than personal journals, there's still a lot of confusion about how to blog the right way. This is especially true for businesses who want to get on board with blogging. To get the most out of the time you spend blogging, make sure you avoid these common business blogging mistakes:

Making It All About Themselves: This is not only the most common mistake, but it's also the mistake that will kill your blog before it ever has a chance to grow. You can add as many pages to your website as you want about what makes your business great and why customers should choose you. However, when it comes to your blog, your focus needs to change.

The reason so many businesses make this mistake is they're used to their marketing efforts being all about them. But unless you're a company like Apple, your blogging needs to have a broader focus. The key to figuring out what you should blog about is thinking what your audience wants to read, not what you think they should read.

By putting yourself in the shoes of the type of people you want reading your blog, you will be able to build an audience who's eager to read every post you publish.

Not Posting Often Enough: While blogging will help your website attract more search engine traffic, this is only one of its benefits. If all you want to do is publish a few posts to pull in extra search engine visitors, you're better off publishing them under an articles section of your website.

Although you don't have to post on a daily basis, the biggest benefit of blogging comes from building an audience. And like a TV show, building an audience requires you to deliver quality content on a consistent basis.

If you're just getting started, commit to publishing one great post a week. After a month or two of keeping this schedule, you'll be able to decide if that schedule is the right fit for you and your blogging goals.

Not Interacting with the Audience: A blog isn't a one-way street. Businesses who simply publish posts and never take time to look at the comments that are left are missing a huge opportunity.

If someone takes the time to leave a comment, it means they're interested in what you're saying. And if they're interested in what you have to say, chances are they'll make an ideal customer now or in the future.

Given the amount of money businesses spend trying to bring in new potential customers, don't make the mistake of overlooking leads that are right in front of you!

Writing Like a Robot: Your blog doesn't need to read like a corporate memo. In fact, a lot more people will read it if you write with your own voice and personality. Whether you're writing a blog for your own business or you're an employee blogging for your company, you'll get much better results by letting readers get to know you through your writing.

What mistake(s) have you recently seen a business blog make?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Need-to-Know Info on Press Releases

Brian Waraksa — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:00:00 GMT

You know what press releases are, but if you’re like most small business owners—you don’t know how to use them. Sure everyone would love getting press for their business, but is it really possible? And can you create a press release that will do it for you? In this week’s post, I aim to open your eyes to the world of press releases.

The Purpose of Press Releases

First of all, you need to know what exactly they’re used for. And really it can be broken into two categories:

Garnering attention to what your company is doing.
Building links to boost search rankings.

So whether you are looking for one or both of the above, press releases are an avenue to achieve them.

How Do You Write a Good Press Release?

Truthfully, it isn’t rocket science. As long as you are a decent writer with a bit of time on your hands, all you need to know is the following:

Make sure your title and introduction offer something newsworthy. In other words, when someone reads your press release, they should immediately be able to tell what is new and relevant about your company.
Lay off the advertising. A press release is not your chance to explain why your company is awesome. It should be purely factual, as it is an informational article.
Use your keywords. Whichever keywords you are focusing on should appear in your title and one sentence summary. I also like to include them in the first and last paragraphs. Don’t go crazy with them though.
Include relevant quotes. Whether from you or someone else related to the newsworthy event, use quotes that add to your message.

What Do You Do with Your Press Release?

A finely crafted press release won’t do anything for you if you don’t know where to send it. First, post it to your website. This will get it indexed in Google and set you up as the authority. Afterwards, you want to send it out to press release distribution sites. Some of these are free and some will cost you a bit. The free ones can be a decent place to get links, but finding the right paid site will likely do more to get you in the public eye. A few reputable ones are:

PRWeb
PR Newswire
Business Wire

When properly used, press releases can prove a useful facet of your marketing campaign. Have any questions? I’m here with the answers!

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

The Landing Page—Your Secret Weapon

Brian Waraksa — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:00:00 GMT

So now you’re bringing in good leads. Great! But what’s happening with them? You can have a million people a day look at your site, but are you converting them into paying customers?

Enter the landing page, your secret weapon for conversion.

What is a Landing Page?

The landing page is the specific page of your website that people find themselves on when they click from:

Search engines
PPC ads
Links in email new letters

These landing pages are tailored specifically to search terms and products or services. In other words, say you ran an air conditioning business that:

Sells new HVAC systems
Repairs existing systems
Provides customers with various maintenance plans

In this case you would have at least 3 separate landing pages—one for each keyword and service. Many people starting out think that their homepage link is the most important, but that’s not always the case. You need the specific landing pages narrowed down. Your homepage will just be a broader overview of what you do.

How Do You Write a Solid Landing Page?

Well, your best bet is to use a professional copywriter. The right guy can do this kind of work with his eyes closed. However, if you’re intent on doing it yourself, make sure you follow these tips:

Your headline needs to be direct and to the point. And make sure it clearly spells out a solid benefit. Something that will make the customer want to keep reading.
The most important information should come in headlines, at the beginning of bullet points, etc. People tend to scan websites and are more likely to read in these places, so it’s crucial you catch their attention and get them to read the remainder of the body.
Write a solid call to action. I can’t say this enough. You have to tell your customer what to do and why they should do it. If you want them to email you about you’re a/c maintenance package, provide a contact form and tell them to fill it out for a free consultation.

That should get you started. What other landing page tips would you include?

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Customers Don’t Care About You

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:00:00 GMT

After reading the title of this post, you probably clicked wondering “how’s he going to spin this to make it right?” But the truth is I’m not going to spin anything. I mean what I said—customers do not care about you. Let me explain.

When you visit almost any small business website, you’re met with the same old content. “Welcome to our site. We’ve been in business blah blah. We are known for blah blah blah. We are committed to excellence blah blah.”

See those blah blahs? That’s how we read such content. In one ear, out the other. And that usually results in Xing out the page and moving on.

What’s the problem? Is the content just boring? Well, that might be part of it. But people certainly aren’t visiting your small business website for entertainment purposes.

What it comes down to is what I said earlier—people don’t care about you. They don’t want to sit and listen to you tell your company history and your qualifications.

It’s Time to Shift Your Focus

So what do your customers care about? Sounds like a hard questions—but it isn’t . See, when you get down to the root of the matter, pretty much everyone is concerned about one thing: themselves. Or more specifically in this case, what your company can do for them. Knowing this basic human truth, your content should be geared toward what benefits the customer will reap from your product or service as opposed to why you are awesome.

You might be awesome, but they don’t care.

An Example for You to Chew On (Copywriting 101)

Let’s practice a bit. Say you’re a law firm dealing with medical malpractice suits. When I go to your existing site, I read, “We have been in the business for over 20 years.” Company-centered copy.

How do we change it? Let’s try this: “You need a law firm experienced in handling malpractice cases just like yours. With over 20 years in the business, you can depend on our lawyers to know exactly how to take your case all the way to victory.”

See the difference? One gives a fact about the company. The other explains why you should care by telling you how you can benefit from that fact.

Get Your Focus Right

Maybe you have good traffic to your site, but you just aren’t getting those visitors to buy. If so, maybe you need to get the focus right. Drop the “we” and talk about your customers!

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

The 4 Stages of Online Marketing

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Looking to develop an online marketing strategy? Good—let me help you out by breaking things down for you. The following post breaks online marketing down into 4 stages, each more narrow than the one before. Remember, before you get started, you need a complete plan that hits every stage of the process in order to set yourself up for success. Failure to adequately plan (leaving unfilled holes in one or more stages of the process) will cause you to hemorrhage potential clients.

Stage 1: Target market

First and foremost you need to identify your target market. Are you going after new homeowners? Twenty-something cell phone users? Retirees looking to downsize? Personal injury victims? Whoever that target market might entail, you need to make sure all your marketing materials speak directly to them. That means mail outs, brochures, e-newsletters, Tweets, Facebook status updates—all types of marketing efforts. And they should all have one goal in mind—direct your target market to your website.

Stage 2: Website visitors

Once you get people to your site, they enter stage two. Here is where you had better hope you have put the work in to provide a web experience that is not only user friendly, but drives visitors to action. How can you do that?

A professional, useful design
Compelling content
A strong call to action

What’s the purpose of your website? I’ve said it over and over—to bring in good leads. Now website visitors in and of themselves aren’t really leads. They only become leads once they have taken the action you want them to take, which is usually contacting you via contact form, email, or phone.

Stage 3: Leads

Once a customer has shown enough interest to contact you, they become a lead. Notice that this stage is not the final stage. That’s because they aren’t yet sold. No money has exchanged hands. No contract has been signed. No promises have been made. The fact is this lead could also be a lead for 5 of your competitors they have also contacted. Now it’s time for you to make the conversion.

How? First of all, respond promptly. If you wait around, count on the competition to swoop them up and away. When you contact the customers, make sure to focus on your unique sales proposition and bend over backwards to move them into stage 4. If they don’t bite, don’t give up. Put them aside and try again in a week.

Stage 4: Paying customers

Obviously, you want as many people as possible to end up in this group. The more paying customers, the fatter your profit. But don’t forget, it’s not just about getting them here: it’s about keeping them at this stage. Repeat customers are the best kind. Because you aren’t spending time and money trying to find them. They’re already there and all you need to do is keep them happy and coming back for more.

Are there holes in your online marketing plan?

If you are missing a piece of your plan, give me a call. I can help you identify problems and come up with solutions!

About The Author

Brian Waraksa

Quality Content Brings Quality Business. Period.

Brian Waraksa — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Recently someone asked me a question I’ve heard a thousand times before. And it’s likely I’ll here it a thousand more:

“What’s the key to attracting visitors to my website and turning them into loyal, paying customers?”

I usually pause, look at the ground for a moment, and chuckle. As if there were some secret ingredient that would suddenly make their website a “winner.” Now, obviously there are a million things you can do to attract visitors. You can hire an SEO professional to work some website magic. You can put together a PPC campaign. You can engage potential and past clients on various social media platforms…

But when I sat down to write this post and was pondering the question that is posed so often, I remembered the article I wrote last week. And I realized—it answered the question for me. Not directly of course, but after rereading my own words, there it was, sticking out at me like a sore thumb.

The answer is simple. Quality content is the primary ingredient to a successful website.

Now here’s where you say, “but I have quality content and my website is still sucking!”

But do you? What makes you think you have quality content? Well, I’d have to write a book to adequately answer the question, but here are a few key tips:

Quality content speaks to the right people. For instance, if you’re a lawyer, your content shouldn’t speak to other lawyers. After all, they aren’t the ones paying for your services, are they? Let’s face it—if you’re a DWI lawyer, you’re talking to people who might be drunk driving. If you’re a bankruptcy lawyer, you’re talking to people in up to their ears in debt. And so on. So in this case, quality content doesn’t mean scholarly content. See the difference?
Quality content is fresh content. Content considered quality 3 years ago is no longer quality content. Why? It’s outdated. The thing is, everyone wants to see something new and fresh. Your website visitors want new information—different information. The search engines want to see fresh content to rank you higher. And the more fresh content you generate, the more chances you have for Google to pick you up and carry you up that search ranking ladder.
Quality content attacks old issues in different manners. Anyone can look at someone else’s blog post and spin their words enough to reuse it on their own site. It doesn’t take a genius. In fact, it doesn’t even take a good writer. But who wants to read the same old stuff on 10 different sites with a few words changed here and there? On the other hand, there are only a certain number of issues out there for you to talk about. So how do you produce quality content if there is nothing left to talk about? You get creative and try and hit the issue from a new angle.

Of course, not everyone is skilled enough to produce quality content on a regular basis. That’s why you hire a professional to do it for you!

Now remember, I said quality content is the key ingredient. But it’s not the only ingredient. There’s more to it than all that, but if I had to break it down to one thing—content would be it. What do you think?