Developing or Re-designing a new web site? How are you going to promote it?

What’s the plan?

Every day developing and promoting a web site gets more complicated due to new technologies and Social Media tactics your web site must support, not to mention business support. The only way a web site can be developed and promoted effectively is with effective Project Management and Planning.

What must your web site do?

Determining what your web site must do to support your business’s online activities is the first step in the development process.

Defining clear objectives is necessary, these objectives will be used to build the program, bring the team together and business objectives are used to evaluate the projects performance. Without goals and objectives businesses are constantly chasing a moving target.

What is the budget for the project?

Determine a realistic budget, carefully consider the various professionals you require and build the development/promotion teams. Once a team has been defined and pricing begins, discussions with the various professionals will uncover both additional skills required, and new opportunities. When this process has been completed you now have some solid estimates for consideration. Don’t hesitate to make revisions and prioritize tasks by perceived business benefits.

What’s the project’s time frame?

On time and on budget, there’s good reason for that saying. Defining a Project Schedule is an absolute must do task. Scheduling ensures you are not wasting financial and human resources. The handover of development material on time to the next professional in-line is accomplished by all team members being aware of their assigned tasks and due dates. When scheduling begins to break down the project goes "off the rails" and is only brought back through additional human and financial resources.

Meeting deadlines and accomplishing identified tasks requires a defined project schedule. This is applicable to not only the web development/redesign but also for ongoing promotional activities such as Organic Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Paid Search Marketing. In the planning process set a realistic time frame for measuring and achieving the identified business goals.

There many more considerations

Before you even begin your budgeting there are some other issues which need to considered prior to finalizing budgeting, team development and scheduling. One thing to keep in mind is it’s not necessarily a linear process, many tasks can be active within the same time frame.

Business objectives and market competitiveness evaluation must be evaluated at the outset. How competitive the niche is,and what you hope to achieve will influence web strategies. You have to know the lay of the land.

Decisions regarding the Development Platform / Content Management System need to obtain the balance between functionality, and the impact the CMS has on the web site’s Search Engine Optimization.

A Content Development Plan needs to be developed. Content provides the foundation of your web site development and promotion. Where is the content coming from? Staff and management Bloggers? RSS feeds? Investigate the content options you’re able to manage on a regular basis, in addition to this consider other content resources you can draw upon such as Article Submission or News sites.

Web Site Benchmarking must be completed to determine progress. In the case of a redesign some basic performance data should be recorded. Page views, site referrals and bounce rates are some of the metrics used to compare past and current web site performance. It ia also a good idea the Benchmark a number of your competitors or keywords so you can begin to see trends from your own perspective.

And there is more

There are even more tasks which must be completed in the early stages of any web site design or promotion project. There are Developers, Graphic Artists, Social Media and Search Professionals. All will have their priorities and needs. To make it happen takes investigation and planning from the outset of the project.

The Last Word

The last word today is Project Management.

Project Management is a must have in all development and promotion projects. There are too many tasks and specialists required on-time and on-budget, to leave team development, budgeting and scheduling to chance.

What issues caused the most difficulty in your development/ promotion project?

Online marketing is becoming increasingly competitive. Organic Search listings, Social Media Marketing and Pay per Click advertising are all competitive environments. In such a competitive environment, advantages can be created by monitoring the on-line activities of competitors. Competitors web sites, the social web and Press Releases are among some of the many ways competitors provide insight into their business strategies.

Keep a close eye on the stats

There are many services which can be used to gather competitor’s information. However, much of the data collected will be an estimate. Estimates enable you to complete a comparative performance analysis of your competitor’s to that of your own web site. When reviewing performance indicators be sure to compare information from the same source.

Identifying on-line competitors

Most businesses know who their competitors are however, on-line you may face competition from some unexpected sources. Finding your online competitors is easily accomplished by completing relevant keyword search using Search Engines, Social Media web sites and PPC Analytic services. Time spent researching on-line resources is time well spent.

Now you know who, investigate

When the competition has been identified you can then evaluate the competition to identify strategies and develop tactics to out perform the competition..

Get a feel for the competition

A visual inspection of web sites of interest is necessary to determine what business activities competitors are completing online. A few things to look for include:

1. Professionalism of web design
2. What business information and processes are available?
3. About and other company information provided.
4. Is the web site using a Blog? If so, how often is it updated?
5. Are Social book marking icons provided? If so which Social book marking sites. How many times do they appear?
6. Are Social Networking icons provided? If so which networking sites? review activity
7. Is the web site offering new or trial services you were not aware of?

The tools of the trade

Google Alerts: Using Google Alerts lets you keep a close eye on competitors by receiving mention notification emails for keywords, brands, company names and named executives you’ve specified. The benefits of Google Alerts is you obtain information from various sources such as Blog Posts, a /Press Release or a Tweet.

Web Site Traffic Estimation: Determining actual traffic volumes of your competitor’s web sites is not possible without access to web logs and Google Analytic /accounts. Since you’re unlikely to be provided access to this data you must make do with estimates from service providers such as Alexa and Compete. It must be stressed that these are estimates only, but this data does provide useful information for comparison purposes.

Find Keywords and Phrases:

Identifying the keywords and phrases competitors are targeting assist to determine their product and service priorities and also may provide forewarning of new products or services about to be launched.

There are plenty of tools used to identify keywords. Google’s Keyword tool provides an indication of competitors keywords by URL. Another tool is a Browser plug-in SeoQuake which also provides you with an inside look at competitors keywords plus other web development elements such as Page Titles and description tags.

There are a number of keyword investigation tools which target Pay per Click advertising campaigns. There are some very effective tools such as Keyword Spy and SpyFu. These tools provides in-depth analysis of keywords used, ad copy, cost per click paid, plus other reports to drill down and learn more about your competitors.

Social Media Marketing Activity

Social Media provides many opportunities to learn more about your competitors. Social Networking profiles, comments and discussions, Facebook and Twitter all provide information which can be used to gain competitive advantage.

Social Networking activity provides excellent insight into your competitors. Very active to little or no activity provides an insight into how competitors have embraced Social Media. A great deal can be learned about the company by reading Blogs, discussions and Tweets. There are many tools for monitoring Social Media and I use Ubervu. I can watch conversations by keywords, business names or management names. Ubervu is my preferred tool for Social Media monitoring.

And they are watching you

Of course the openness of the Internet provides the opportunity to get a closer look at your business. Being forewarned is being forearmed is an apt saying for this situation. Knowing the techniques available to you for monitoring competitors provides you with the information you need to develop strategies for the strategic release of information.

Does your business actively obtain competitive intelligence using competitor’s online activity?

Blogs and business what a great mix. A tool that benefits both Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing programs by making content development, publishing and visitor engagement a task which many business’ are able to complete in-house..

Blog Search Engine Optimization

Regardless of the Blogging Platform, basic Organic Search Optimization principles apply::

• Keyword research is required to target the Search Engine traffic you’ve identified as your audience.
• Integration of Keywords into Titles, Headings and other HTML elements.
• Back-links to the Blog, preferably including keyword rich Anchor Text from authoritative web sites.

The basics have to be covered before moving ahead with with your Blog’s Search Optimization. A few things you can do to improve your Blog’s Search Viability include:

The WordPress Text Editor

Some good basic SEO can be accomplished through WordPress’s simple text editor such as Bold and Italics which often get overlooked. When adding media, be sure to integrate your keywords into Img Alt tags and descriptions, also use keywords in the actual media file name.

Ideally I prefer to see content developed using an HTML Editor such as Dreamweaver and pasting HTML code into the HTML version of the WordPress text editor.

Install SEO Plug-in

There is no shortage of plug-ins to assist Bloggers’ with their SEO. I have tried a few and have been using HeadSpace 2 which lets you customize Title tags, descriptions and other usefull SEO tasks.

Another useful WordPress plug-in Add Meta Tags lets you modify Blog Tags, descriptions on a per post/page basis.

Customize the Permalinks

By default WordPress rewrites the Post URL to the post number. Using the Permalinks custom field using /%postname%/ rewrites the Posts URL to a Search Engine friendly URL using the Title of the page. To leverage this function keywords must be included in the Post Title.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content’s causes confusion for both Search Engines and Visitors making it difficult to determine, which page to index or view. A couple quick fixes for duplicate content issues are:

• 301 Redirects duplicate content pages to the primary web page.
• Use the canonical tag and refer to the primary URL
• Use Robots.txt no-index function so Search Engines don’t index the duplicate pages.

Check the Privacy Settings

From your WordPress Dashboard go to Settings > Privacy and you will see the visibility options. Don’t select "I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors". It seems basic however, you would be surprised how often I see Search Engines blocked from Blogs.

Internal Linking

Your Blog’s internal linking structure can assist to direct page rank to primary pages. Be sure to use contextual keyword rich terms in your Anchor text. In addition to the value of the links, using Anchor text encourages visitors to view additional pages and spend more time on site. A couple of other tactics are:

• Provide links to other relevant Blog Posts readers may be interested in. Arkayne is an excellent plug-in to automatically provide relevant posts. Arakyne is also developing into an excellent Social Community of Bloggers.
• Rewrite some of you older Blog Posts and update links to relevant content that may not have been available at the time of writing

XML Site Maps

XML Site Maps enables you to provide additional information about your Blog’s Posts and Pages. The Google XML Site Maps plug-in for WordPress generates a XML Site map and pings the Search Engines when new content is published. This plug in is a good start to developing a Site Map. However, to really make site maps work for you it is necessary to open the Site Map file and edit it manually.

The Last Word

I always recommend Blogging, the benefits your business gains by committing to a Blog are many. The Search Optimization tips above are all relatively easy to complete using the tools mentioned. Bloggers’ must keep all these SEO tactics in the back off their mind as they develop content.

I am a WordPress fan and keeping on top of all the latest plug-ins isn’t always easy. If you’ve discovered the latest can’t do without WordPress Plug-in please share in the comments section..

The end of the sales funnel is the final click to accomplish business goals and objectives. To do this, web sites must first assist visitors to navigate through the sales funnel. Have you had a close look at your sales funnels? It is easy to define the end, but where does the funnel begin and what lays between entering and leaving the funnel.

First Contact

The web page where your visitor enters your site is not necessarily first contact. The number of touch points where your company comes into contact with potential customers and clients is endless. Name any of the hundreds of ways to market your business, it is likely any one of these initiatives could have encouraged someone to visit your web site.

the first touch point may be an email, a Search Marketing Ad, a Social Media discussion, a link from the Search Engine Results Pages, a web site address on the back of a truck. These are all likely to be the first step into your companies Sales Funnel.

What lays in between entering and exiting the sales funnel must encourage successful conversions. To do this, a review from beginning to end is necessary.

Develop some conversion scenarios to determine required processes, investigate the competitive environment to review other opportunities available to your audience. As you are well aware, we are all inundated with an endless array of information on a daily basis. And when it comes down to it, all these have the potential to distract your web site visitor from accomplishing your business objectives.

The Competition

The competition is everywhere you can see it in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), dDiscussions on Social Networks and the subway advertisement all leading your customers astray. Analyzing your competitors efforts is always a good place to start. Review their first contact messages and follow your way down their funnels. Now take a trip down your own Sales funnel?

Once you begin to see advantages through observation, determine where your first contact messages can be improved.

Optimizing the funnel

The sales funnel often consists of a series of web pages which lead web site visitors through the sales and checkout process. It is very easy to place road blocks into the conversion funnel. Common road blocks include:

• Each additional click provides opportunities for web site visitor to exit the funnel
• Asking for too much personal information
• Failing to provide the required information or process when required
• Failing to encourage action
• Attempting to up-sell interrupts the current purchase process

Identifying the road blocks enables you to discover the tripping points in the sales funnel and begin improvements. Review your funnel and for each page determine:

• What information and process is required? What personal information is required?
• Reduce the mental load, ensure the purpose of the page is immediately apparent
• Clearly identify where you are in the conversion process.
• Ask "Is this page necessary?"
• Is the call to action visible above the fold? Does the call to action encourage urgency

Making the funnel changes

Once you have analyzed your sales funnel you will have discovered various elements you want to improve. If you discovered your sales funnel needed to be overhauled, the new sales funnel will require development. Once the funnel has been developed or where an existing funnel only needs minor revisions, testing becomes necessary to truly drill down and maximize the sales funnel performance.

Sales Funnel testing needs to be done on one page element at a time, measure the results and repeat. The results of various revisions are measured to select the right funnel for the required conversion. Although not always possible good web site traffic volumes provide more accurate testing results. If you’re not achieving reasonable traffic volumes to test your funnels, develop a Pay per Click program initiating traffic to the desired pages.

The last Word

The objectives of most web sites involves a web site visitor conversion of one type or another, and the efficiency of the Sales Funnel is at the heart of achieving business web site objectives.

There are many types of funnels, you’re unlikely to develop a one funnel fits all. The first contact points, the products and services offered, even new and returning web site visitors need to be catered for. Review your web site, discover where revisions are needed, revise and test, revise and test.

So, are your Sales Funnels working? Review your site, what were you doing to place roadblocks in front of your web site visitors?

Online marketing, Just hearing the phrase can be daunting for some businesses. We are all inundated with information and at first glance Online Marketing information contains options beyond imagination.

Without stretching too far you have the big four – SEO, Social Media Marketing, PPC and Email marketing. And each of them with potential learning curves and investment in human and financial resources, this is a lot to take in and implement. Just knowing where to start can often lead to the first steps being taken.

Each business has unique needs and circumstances, but all share having access to similar strategies, tactics, tools and professionals, so in many ways it’s a level playing field.

Only problem about a level playing field is, it isn’t level. Right out of the gate some web site’s have a substantial head start with on-line visibility. A 12 year old site with 28,000 back-links has the advantage of a strong domain which it benefits from in both, Organic and Paid Search.

And here comes 57th Place

Now a new player in the game or one that has not had much interest in the company web site. The web site is 4 or 5 years old, 1800 back-links and minimal traffic. Now that’s a fair bit of ground to have to make up to be competitive for similar keywords on Domain Trust/Authority. The hard truth of the matter i,s the competition appears to be out of reach on the web. What are you going to do?

Go on the offensive

Time to start fighting back and do some long term planning. You hope your business is going to be around in 5 or 10 years and be stronger and more profitable than ever before, so set in place a long term plan to develop a strong web presence. The short term is just as important, you want to see business benefits in the near future and therefore, short term plans need to be developed and implemented.

Long Term: Establishing a long term link building strategy to bridge the gap in back-links must be prioritized. Link building on it’s own involves numerous sub tasks such as keyword research to leverage keywords in your Anchor text links, and the integration into content used as link bait. The good news is the results of these tasks can be utilized in different elements of the program.

Not a lot can be done about the Domain Age issue. However, depending on your circumstances, investigate purchasing an older keyword rich domain name as an option.

The difference in link numbers was an issue requiring commitment for a long term project. The web site is behind now, but if nothing is done the situation will only worsen. With the biggest long term issue under control the short term attack needs to be developed.

Short Term:

A web site audit would be the first on the list to see how well the current web site supports identified business goals and to determine the web site revisions necessary to support the new marketing initiatives. The necessary revisions will be prioritized and dealt with over a specified period of time.

By this stage things are starting to happen, Link building has started and you have determined what needs to be delivered by the web site. Options are evaluated, decisions are made, budgeting and scheduling begins.

Web site traffic and increased web visibility needs improvement. A 3 pronged Pay Per Click approach is considered and implemented. 3 different Pay Per Click objectives, each requiring a different approach.

• Brand Visibility and awareness is necessary, High level generic keywords will be researched and used to generate general web site traffic to build brand awareness.
• Increase revenue from the web site. The web site needs to fund its own programs. Keyword selection targeting Internet users who are ready to purchase new sales and services.
• Keyword Research for future organic optimization. Pay per Click provides a good testing ground for determining the best keywords to use in Organic Search Optimization. Content development will be the foundations of the program therefore, a good understanding of relevant keywords is a must.

By this stage the beginnings of a Pay per Click program are on the horizon, again there will be options, prioritization and decisions. And the traffic begins to flow.

Each additional area of promotion is an additional load on human and financial resources. Plan ahead.

Mid Term

As we slowly work our way through all the new processes and meeting new people, we start to consider how Social Media fits into the mix.

Before getting too deep into Social Media, review how well managed the current programs are. Social Media is heavy on human resources. Social Media takes time and commitment and reasonable short term benefits are realistic. However, like link building Social Media has to be considered an ongoing project.

A Social Media Marketing program is approved. A couple of potential bloggers have been selected as company representatives. First task is to join the main Social Networks and get used to the environment, and listen to the conversations. As time progresses Twitter Accounts are added and a Facebook Fan Page for customers. A gradual introduction to Social Media is required for a company possibly already overloaded by current web site promotion activities.

Client databases must be leveraged to grow the value of current customers. Email Marketing and Facebook can be utilized to keep in touch offering the latest industry news and trends, E-coupons and special offers only for Fans and Email Subscribers.

The Last World

Well, that’s a fair bit to accomplish isn’t it. All those powerful opportunities to improve online visibility and you can be assured there are plenty more, and some of those may be even more relevant to your industry. Gets you thinking doesn’t it.

It’s all do able, maybe not all at once regardless of the resources available. A much better approach is one step at a time with a philosophy of constant improvement.

What’s your take on how we should prioritize and select the best solution for each unique business situation?

Higher Quality Score = Higher ROI

High quality score Pay per Click ads drive advertisements higher in search results achieving first page results at lower Cost per Click.

Applying some Organic SEO strategies to Quality Score, is a step towards improving Quality Scores and Campaign ROI.

Quality Score and Organic SEO

There are similarities in the Search Engine’s Quality Score and Organic Search algorithms. Many of the elements used to evaluate Organic Search rankings are also relevant to PPC Ad Quality Score rankings.

Relevancy Web Sites with very specific topics assist Search Engines to categorize the web site. When the web site is categorized, comparisons are made between the search phrases used, the keywords, the ad copy and the landing page. A good relevancy chain leads to higher Quality Scores..

Keyword Use: Keyword integrated in PPC Campaigns and Organic SEO is a significant factor in determining Search result rankings. The techniques applied to Organic SEO can also be applied to PPC campaigns. Using keywords and phrases in HTML elements such as Header, Img Alt tags and overall keyword density, potentially improves Quality Scores

Domain Age: The age of a web site’s Domain contributes to a higher Quality Score assisting web sites with Domain maturity to achieve higher Quality Scores and lower minimum bids. There is little that can be done to improve the age of a Domain apart from purchasing a Domain name with maturity and history.

Web Site Linking Environment: The overall linking environment is taken into consideration when calculating Quality Scores. Anchor text links from relevant authoritative web sites are the most valued links in both SEO and for improving Quality Scores. Not only are inbound links reviewed, but also how the web page links out is taken into consideration when ranking Search results. Linking out to high quality web sites can also benefit your scores.

Page Load Times: How quickly a page loads is another element which is shared by both Organic SEO and Quality Scores. Google considers waiting for pages to load is detrimental to a quality Internet experience.

Quality Score and Pay per Click

In addition to the Quality Score improvements above, there are specific Pay per Click campaign statistics which are also taken into consideration when calculating scores.

Account history: The historical performance of your Adword account is evaluated as part of the Quality Score calculations. Therefore, improving all ad groups Click Through Rate (CTR) should be prioritized. Also, review accounts and remove poorly performing ads from the campaign.

Relevance: The keywords and ads used within Ad Groups should be relevant to other ads and keywords within the group. It is best to keep Ad Groups targeted to niche topics. If the topics become too broad or generic it is time to review and include additional groupings.

The relevancy between keyword > Ad > Search Query is the final link, without the relevancy between these key elements, the cost of visibility in Search is likely to be significantly higher.

The Last Word

Think of the benefits of applying your Organic SEO techniques to improve your Adword’s Quality Scores. By utilizing these Organic processes the flow on affect improves the relevancy throughout your web site and filters down stream into web site landing pages, ad and ad groups to develop high performance Pay Per Click campaigns.

I have been known to be selective in my use of PPC as part of a Web Site Promotion Program. I consider Organic and Social Media Marketing to be my favored techniques. Where do you think PPC fits into the overall promotion program?

There is no shortage of link building tips and tricks. Links are one of the most important SEO tasks due to Search Engines using the number and quality of inbound links as part of the Search Results ranking process. If your web site fails to build significant numbers of quality inbound links it is likely to continue to get unremarkable Search visibility.

Link Building is a long term, time consuming task. To get the most from your Link Building Programs it’s beneficial to look into how the links are viewed from a Search Engines perspective.

The Page Rank Micro Review

Much has been written about the Google Page Rank Algorithm, A basic understanding of Page Rank is necessary to understand how trust and authority are measured, and passed on to the next web site via a link. :

Page Rank is rated: 1 (low) to 10 (high)

Every published web page has an initial Page Rank value. The original PR value can is increased by obtaining back-links.

When linking out from a web page the out bound web page’s Page Rank is distributed more or less evenly between the receiving web sites. To increase the value of an out bound link, decrease the number of outbound links on the web page.

Not all links are equal. Inbound links from web pages with high link numbers have more value (trust and authority) than from a web page with minimal inbound links.

Need to do:

• Develop links from high quality web site’s
• Check there are not to many links exiting the source web page.
• Manage our internal and external link environment so Page Rank is directed to the desired web pages.

Building Link Value

Search Engines go much further than just counting inbound and outbound links. Value can be added to links in numerous ways including:

Anchor Text is the text in click-able links. To improve the value of an inbound link, the keywords you are targeting on the receiving web page should be included in the Anchor text. This assists to build authority and trust of the receiving page for the specific topics.

Contextual Links = Relevance and Authority. Having links from web sites and pages from within your niche increases the value of the link due to topical relevance which contributes to the authority of the outbound link. Search Engines evaluate web page elements such as Headings and other links to determine the authoritative and relevant value of the link..

Diversify your links. The Search Engines look for a natural balance of inbound links. Think of all the various places your can obtain links and use them. Social Media, Directories, Blogs, Press Releases to name a few. Obtaining too many links of one type will appear unnatural and could identify your site as using unethical link building practices.

What to look for in a link partner

The value of the link is highly dependent on its source. Selecting the right link partners goes a long way to optimizing the use of your time. Why waste time chasing low value links?

Home Page Page Rank is quick and easy to determine, using Google’s Browser add-ons or a multitude of other Browser tools. High value PR = more authority (PR) can be passed to your web page.

Linking Page Page Rank: You will find many of your links will be from pages with minimal or no Page Rank. When this occurs, review the web page’s home page to determine the strength of the primary domain.

Outbound Links: Check the number of links leading from the web page you hope to obtain a link from. Select web pages with fewer links to maximize the potential flow of Link value.

Topical Relevancy: View the web page to ensure the topic is relevant to that of the receiving web page.

Evaluate Authority: A quick look at the web sites linking to the link provider will give an indication of the web site’s authority. Using a tool like Yahoo’s Linkdomain with the SeoQuake plug in makes it easy to review inbound links and their current Page Rank.

The Last Word

When entering into a Link Building Program be prepared to commit to the project long term. Link Building should be an ongoing program for the life of your web site. Every site wants links, and it is evident web sites with high numbers of back links are obtaining Search Visibility.

Build a link building program into your long term business plans.

Share your thoughts:

What elements do you see as critical to the success of your Link Building Program?

Are you committed to link building?.

Pay per Click adverting requires a basic understanding of how humans behave when searching the Internet. What is going through the minds of Internet users as they enter keywords to find what they seek, and their reactions to the results they are served by the Search Engines. Developing a better understanding of user behavior is an important step in improving the performance of not only paid search marketing programs but also Organic Search Optimization initiatives.

What are the user types

Search Engine users fall into 3 basic categories with the hints to identify each category provided by the keywords they select for searching.

Information Seekers: Information Seekers can be identified through the use of one and two word high level generic keywords. Terms such as "Montana" for someone considering a holiday, "Golf" for someone obviously interested in Golf, All these terms have the potential to deliver a wide variety of results and sub-sets of the primary term.

Information Seekers are in an investigative and inquisitive frame of mind. attempting to find up to date news, how to tutorials, white papers and sports scores to name a few of the many information types. Information Seekers are unlikely to quickly evolve into a Buyer. Content developers must provide the information the web site visitors expect if they hope to make a good first impression, to evolve the Information Seeker into a Buyer when the need arises.

Pitching the sell to Information Seekers is not the recommended strategy. Determine the broad keywords used to target this user type and provide them with the triggers to make them click a Paid or Organic Search Result. The landing page must meet the visitors informational needs. Targeting the right keywords assists to provide the right results to Search users in both Paid and Organic Search.

Shoppers: Shoppers are identified through their use of less ambiguous search phrases using more targeted keywords which provide better targeted search results. A Shopper investigating Montana might expand this to something like, "Best fishing in Montana" or our Golfer might start their search with "Golf club reviews" or Affordable Golfing Resorts"

Shoppers have identified how to fulfill a need or desire. In some ways Shoppers and Information Seekers share similarities. Both are seeking information however, the buyer is seeking information which will assist them to decided on future purchasing options. The Shopper has taken the first step into the sales funnel.

Pitching to the Shopper is best done by providing the product and services information required to make an informed purchasing decision. In addition to meeting the information needs the web site owner must now provide the prompts and calls to action to evolve the Shopper into the Buyer.

Buyers: Buyers are identified by specific search terms providing information on a specific product type, brand or model. From our previous example our Traveler may use a term such as "Madison River Fishing Lodges" or "Kalispell Montana Hotels". Our Golfer on the other hand search "Ping Golf Clubs.

The Buyer has completed the research and now wants to purchase. The decision of what product or service to purchase has been made, now they want to buy. The gap between Buyer and Seller converge. It is now time to make your web site visitors life simple. The proper landing page with the right information and positive calls to action all assist to improving the conversion rates of those Internet users who are in the mood to buy.

Create User Profiles and Use Cases

Now that some user types have been identified spend some time to build a character or two around each user type, There are all sorts of travelers and golfers and each will behave differently to the stimulus you provide within your web site content. The next step is to develop a scenario or two which your new characters must complete on your web site. Act out your characters task on your web site and observe and make notes of such things as, keywords typed in and how easy it was to complete each task.

These tasks can range from an email registration, find some information pertinent to the buyers decision process and of course complete a sale to observe how easy it is to use to task completion.

Keyword Research and Selection

Identifying the keywords used for each user type is at the foundation of leveraging what you know about your visitor’s behavior. Keep in mind the targeted audience and what they are trying to achieve while developing your keyword lists and selection of the final keywords for PPC Ads or Organic Optimization.

The Last Word

Understanding your web site visitor’s intent enables you to bridge the gap between buyer and seller. Providing the right information to the right user at the right time will have a positive impact, not only on conversion rates but will also have a flow on effect to benefit your overall web presence. A web site / web page which meets a user’s expectations is much more likely to be shared by visitors with flow on effects to both Social Media and Organic SEO initiatives.

Have you considered profiling your web site visitors to enable you to better target keyword phrases and landing pages?

Are you frequently discovering new customers or clients have pre-knowledge about you and your company by the time you review the first email or phone call regardless of whether or not your business actively participates in Social Networks?

Do you know where the information was found? Is the sentiment of the information positive or negative?

Was it an offline marketing promotion or was it due to an Online Social Networking?

The sheer volume of social networking site memberships is clearly enough of a reason to either implement or review the effectiveness of your company’s Social Media Marketing Program. Reviewing some of the basics is the first step forward.

From the beginning

Where are your potential clients and customers congregating online? Finding out where your future customers are visiting online is simple, after all regardless of where people congregate on and off line for common reasons such as: family, special interests, work associations to name a few. Getting to know your online environment is time well spent.

Joining a few relevant groups, following people of interest on Twitter and Facebook and then standing back and observing is a great way to determine what the network discusses and also what is deemed as acceptable behavior, What is considered normal in online networking and what is considered the norm in-person can vary considerably.

For example consider your reactions to a total stranger approaching you on the street and saying "Hi. Would you like to be my friend?" The first reaction to this might be to wonder about the person’s sanity. But check your in box in Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter you probably have a number of requests from total strangers and this is considered acceptable by the community.

Clearly businesses must understand the nuances of the various Social Interactions. Often the similarities and differences between on-line and in-person is subtle, emphasizing the advantages of listening and observation to be the first part of your Social Media Marketing Program. One step wrong can leave a lasting impression in the Social Realm.

Engagement Begins with Listening

Listening provides an abundance of information. Social Media enables you to listen to your consumer, your competitors and lets you keep up to date with the latest industry trends. The information available to you online can be used to gain competitive advantage in your niche. Time spent listening is time well spent. Before you can begin to contribute content to the social mix, you must have a clear understanding of the state of current conversations.

A tool like Uberview enables you to track down the thought leaders and others talking about issues important to your business through keywords search. For business, Linkedin offers and immense range of tools also supported by keyword search enabling you to monitor the latest trends and opinions within your industry.

Time to join the community

By now you should have a good understanding of your audience, what they are saying and where they are saying it. Now comes the time to engage your community. Ideally you want to create an environment where you’re sharing knowledge and experience for the betterment of the community. This can be done many ways, answering questions and joining in on discussions on Linkedin or sharing an informative Blog by Tweet or re-tweet. It’s the beginning of a two way engagement and bridging the gap between buyer and seller.

Time to be friends

As previously mentioned engaging with participants online is much more casual. Just ask, in most cases many of those networking with you will remain at most an acquaintance. At times the engagement progresses to an email, text or a phone call, all the time building the relationship over a period of time. Just like off-line.

Friend and Network Requests

Asking for people to network with you online is an everyday occurrence, no one these days is surprised by networking and friend requests. Think about some of the friend requests you have had. On Linkedin it is so easy to click a networking request with a canned request. What’s your response to a canned networking request compared to a quick personal invitation?

A personal invitation is so much more appealing and likely to get noticed. So take the time to write a brief note to make your networking request personal. Also, don’t forget to respond to the network requests with a small personal note. All potential networking opportunities have the potential to be the starting point for an important contact.

Become a content publisher

Up to this point participation has been a gradual process and you are now becoming a member of the community. It is now time to think like a publisher to further engage and attract contacts who are potentially valuable clients and partners to your business.

Start taking a proactive role, begin discussions, created a group, become a thought provoking Blogger (not easy), get your message out there, share your experience, knowledge and opinions with your community. Become the go to person who can assist with business and informational needs.

Once you are a publisher the engagement increases, much of the activity is now moving from the Social Network site to your company’s web site. Becoming a publisher also creates a greater need for commitment, not only for content creation, but for ensuring the conversations continue to grow.

The Last Word

It takes time to build your online visibility and associations. A progressive approach for both implementing or reviewing Social Media Programs provides a positive ROI in ways which are not always tangible.

Setting goals, listening to reactions with tools like Uberview, monitoring connection requests and monitoring your web site traffic are simple effective methods to provide an indication of how your Social Media Programs are performing.

Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation are relatively new fields representing a new way to market. Some people call the whole approach Marketing 2.0; we call it Inbound Marketing Automation or IMA.

As opposed to the old techniques of Outbound Marketing, Inbound relies on having your website get found on the web. Today, more than 90% of B2B buyers begin their search for a solution to their need online. To make this statistic even more significant, consider that 85% of people don’t progress beyond the 1st page of Google’s results to their search query. Essentially, if you’re not on page one, you’re not there!

If you’re thinking that this kind of thing is a little too much like the next silver bullet, and perhaps as ineffective as the last one, allow me to set your mind at rest: Inbound Marketing Automation really does work:

1. Most people more than double their website traffic using it
2. Conversion rate increases of more than 250% are frequent
3. The average cost to acquire a lead is 60% less compared to Outbound Approaches.

With that as your incentive, then, lets start by clarifying an important point: Inbound Marketing Automation is best thought of as a process. Yes, it consists of a set of tools, and yes, you do use them via specific techniques. But to gain maximum benefit its best to consider the Process as a way to tie them all together and thus ensure that the whole system is greater than the sum of its parts.

Formal Process Descriptions should be based on the Continuous Process Improvements mantra of Think, Plan, Do, Measure and Repeat. This link provides a good example of such a process description, this one dealing with How to run a B2B Twitter Campaign.

Three points to consider while you design the Process:

1. Holistic Websites are the only way to fly…

As a regular reader of Pete’s blog, you will know that he promotes the concept of a Holistic Website – a website which is carefully designed upfront to accommodate the results of your SEO effort, is easily extended to include a Blog and the other forms of Social Media marketing, has its copy and content properly designed around its keyword phrases, and, of course, is ready for your IMA system to plug into when you switch it on.

2. Design your Marketing Strategy

But before you start designing this Holistic Website (or renovating your existing one), the very first thing to think about is your Marketing Strategy. If you have already articulated a comprehensive strategy including its online components, you will obviously omit this step. But if your strategy is out of date (or – gasp – doesn’t exist!), or doesn’t cover the online aspects of the new marketing approach, then proceeding on without it is a bad idea. You are, after all, going to base your whole website (all the copy, graphics, structure and content) on the keywords and core competencies you define in the strategy. If you get the strategy wrong, your entire effort which follows this step is a waste of precious resources.

3. Key performance indicators and metrics
Armed with your strategy, you can now turn your attention to defining some key goals for adding Inbound Marketing to your website. As the famous slogan so succinctly puts it, the goals are usually, More Sales Leads of higher quality at lower cost. Once you have your objectives stated clearly, think of the metrics you will use to both measure the current values now and decide how best to portray these metrics as a trend thereby making it easy to monitor your progress towards your goal.

Okay, now for the overview.

The major thrust behind Inbound Marketing’s success, is that done right, your ideal prospects come knocking on your door and give you permission to sell them something. It’s a lot like the Field of Dreams: If you build a great website, the buyers will come.

And because the buyers may number in their thousands (perhaps even hundreds of thousands), you will need the aforementioned process involving software tools and techniques to manage it all. But please note: This is an all or nothing approach. Automating a part of the whole process is akin to speeding up the flow of water in the middle of a river. It makes that part rush for sure, but the overall throughput doesn’t change.

With that in mind, a good example system is shown below.

Components of Inbound Marketing Automation

1) Your Content. A subject unto itself, but the whole process depends on having content that makes your site the destination of choice for people interested in your field. Tools here help create it, display it, disseminate, promote and catalogue it. Our blog offers some ideas on how to create such content (website details at the end).

2) SEO and PPC Tools. Search Engine Marketing includes tools for Organic Search (SEO) and those for Pay-Per-Click (PPC). There are tools to help you devise the right Keyword strategy; others to assist in developing your advertising campaigns; yet more tools score your website, analyze its traffic share, determine your SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking, assess incoming and outgoing links, and on and on.

3) Social Media Marketing tools help you run your SMM Campaigns. Reputation Analytics monitor the social networks to determine the “buzz” around your products/services and company. These tools also help you to find the most authoritative or influential blogs and websites for your area. There are tools to help with Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn and all of the may social media platforms and because this is a hot topic, there are many articles on how and what and when – again our blog covers the subject well.

4) Demand Generator packages capture, score and grade visitors on their profiles and digital footprints, and then nurture them from cold leads to hot prospects via drip-email campaigns run via Automation Rules.

5) The hot prospects (those who achieve a sufficiently high score) are fed into your CRM system enabling your sales people to place very effective sales calls.

Prospecting Heaven would look like this…

Imagine visitors arrive on your site, attracted by your excellent keyword and SEO strategy, and all that amazing Social Media Marketing you’re doing daily. They find, when they get there, that your site is a perfect match to the keyword phrase they keyed in (because you created your marketing strategy and keyword phrases well, and then used the holistic approach to build the website and write its copy). So they don’t bounce off and they do begin exploring…

They find your thought-provoking content and register to get it. They read it and hustle back for more. Because they are now an official Prospect (i.e. they have given you their name and email address), they are inserted into the first of your drip-email nurturing campaigns and from here on, they are managed automatically. Nurtured and cared for, according to your best sales and marketing practices which are encoded in your Inbound Marketing system’s Business or Automation Rules. Your prospects are cared for flawlessly, repeatably and 24/7. And with each automated drip-email element of every campaign, provided with just the right response to nudge them to the next step in their buying cycle.

Your marketing people are freed from the drudgery of managing leads and responding to routine inquiries allowing them to create brilliant new campaigns, and your sales people no longer spend time on people who are “just looking”, but instead concentrate their efforts on the hot prospects who are ready to buy now. This is how Inbound Marketing Automation increases your revenues while lowering your costs and thus boosts profit significantly.

Our website introduces Inbound Marketing Automation, and through its glossary of terms, white papers and tools, details the way it works, its advantages and cost benefits.