Archive for June, 2010
By Janette Leon-Speyer, Web Success Team
Objective: Getting the message to your audience
Online marketing is very inexpensive and has widespread reach. Due to the aforementioned reasons most companies and individuals have jumped on the Online Marketing platform to advertise and share their products and services. However it is fast becoming highly saturated. As it stands we have banner blindness when it comes to online ads. Many of the “old and new” tactics are not as effective. The culprits are sensory overload, skepticism, and exhaustion.
Hard to monetize, difficult to get noticed and tough to achieve visitor engagement.
The lack of market segmentation in the online space is making it very difficult to get your message across. You find yourself competing with similar companies all fighting for a “viral moment” For example, if you have a Facebook Fan Page, getting people to “like” and to “engage” on your page is becoming a monumental task. This takes time and resources for very slim returns.
Big search firms and social media platforms like Facebook, Google and Yelp are trying to address this issue with Community Pages, Google Places and Yelp Business Pages. It still is not enough to get your message across to your audience. There are many businesses out there vying for visitor eyes.
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By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
The attraction of playing poker is the risk-reward paradigm. What separates a good poker player from a successful one is the skill employed in playing the hands. Effective content, whether it is for your social media activities or for your website, is based on how well you craft and communicate your message. In online marketing, you want to stack the deck in your favor. That’s why you need a coherent content strategy to amass more chips, or in web terminology — more desirable actions, conversations and conversions.
Poker Hand
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By Bob Speyer and Kristin Tomlinson, Web Success Team
Unlike most conferences that operate around numerous distractions such as an exhibit floor or vendors ready to make there next sales pitch, the Online Marketing Summit in Long Beach on June 21st allowed attendees to collaborate and network with one another to learn the best practices in Online Marketing.
The conference focused on providing educational content on various subjects such as: Social Media Strategies, Website Usability, Email Marketing, Behavioral Targeting & Testing, and Content Management. Throughout the day, the Web Success Team had the opportunity to attend events that included hands-on training workshops, one-on-one personalized labs with experts, as well as thought-leadership presentations and peer-to-peer collaboration.
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By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Businesses are always looking for that magic bullet to penetrate the clutter and help your business stand out from the competition. What if I told you that you could sit back and have others do your promotions for you. If done correctly, you can accomplish this through Viral Marketing. It is the single most effective way to market your business online or offline. Some call it marketing by referral. I call it smart marketing. But there is a catch (isn’t there always!).
Viral marketing depends on how well you plan out your promotions and where you seed the information. Pushing out your message for others to embrace requires sound ideas, good value, enticing content and social networking skills. Here are a few tips to help in your viral marketing efforts: Read the rest of this entry »
June 15, 2010 at 12:58 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Fact: Google is everywhere — in your business, in your home and your psyche and in your everyday conversations with friends. It is even a new verb, like “just Google it.” What did we do without the Internet and search engines to find our way in life. We are dependent upon Google for everything. It’s our new best friend.
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By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Squeezing the most out of your online marketing can translate into increased revenue for your products or services. There are four main ingredients you need in the marketing mix to produce income online. My web success recipe is: Traffic + Experience + Interest + Referral = Revenue. First you have to reach your target markets and drive them to your site. Second, upon arrival visitors need to be intrigued with what you are offering or they will leave after about 20 seconds and two clicks. Third, you need to retain their interest by getting them to come back a second or third time. And fourth, you want the golden rule of selling, recommendation by referral.
Traffic: The Lifeblood of a Website
You don’t just want traffic to your website, you want the “right” type of traffic, namely from your target markets. So how do you find them and funnel them to your site? It starts with using keywords that drill down to your customers and site optimization (SEO). Then it is about search engine marketing (SEM) — getting your message out to the Internet world through social networks, blogs, apps and widgets, PR, email, campaigns, contests, and affiliate outreach.
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By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Every website owner is competing for the hearts and minds of their visitors. Keeping their eyeballs transfixed to your site can lead to more business and increased revenue. Making that important good first impression is the result of great direct response copywriting. Your content must engage the visitor within the first 15 seconds, giving them reason to stay, read and navigate through the site.
Here are five copywriting take-a-ways that can make your website more effective: Read the rest of this entry »
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
There is the old adage that two things are certain in life, “Death and Taxes.” With business you can also add Scope Creep. Every business has experienced it, some more dramatically than others. It is one of those gremlins that attaches to projects and wreaks havoc with proposals and client relationships.
The Definition
Scope Creep refers to any unanticipated or uncontrolled change in a project’s scope of work. It can occur at any stage of a project from proposal to the entire workflow. Creep occurs when the scope of a project is not adequately defined, documented or controlled. The client or vendor can be at fault. It can interfere with the smooth running of a project, damage relationships, create unnecessary stress and loss of income.
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By Bob Speyer and Kristin Tomlinson
Everyone has sent out an email with either a mistake or omitted important information. We’re only human and that’s part of our nature. So what happens next? A second email is immediately sent out following the first blast that corrects the previous mistakes.
There is one BIG difference, however. The “Oops” email is opened at 3 times the rate of the original one. Why? Because we don’t mind the mistakes, but we’re curious creatures and want to see where the “slip up” was made. This tiny error can turn into one major marketing advantage.
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