Salesforce.com is an outstanding CRM platform and gives you the ability to send both mass emails as well as automated emails to individuals. If your organization uses Salesforce, you have the opportunity to create ongoing, automated drip marketing campaigns as well as distributing mass emails to your leads or prospects.

That sounds great, right? And it is. But once you get into the details you may notice a few potential issues with mass email and Salesforce marketing campaigns. Common issues that might impact your organization’s mass email strategy include:

1. Salesforce.com limits the amount of mass emails I send in a day.  Why can’t I send more than 1,000 emails per day?
2. We already use a mass email program such as Constant Contact, iContact, Vertical Response.  Will that work with Salesforce?
3. Can I connect my mass email solution to Salesforce?

Using Salesforce for Mass Email

One option is sending mass emails directly through Salesforce.  However, this may not always work with your mass email marketing strategy – here are some advantages and points to consider:

Salesforce  Mass Email Advantages

• You are paying for Salesforce and mass email is part of the package – so no additional cost.
• The mass email solution Salesforce supplies is native (within the application and fully compatible).
• You can easily target and segment list based on campaigns you create within Salesforce.
• Templates and Customization. Salesforce offers html, text and template options. You can also customize your email templates and personalize messages by inserting Salesforce fields.

Salesforce  Mass Email Considerations

• The daily email limitation – your organization will be limited to 1,000 mass emails through Salesforce per day.  That includes one off emails that might be coming from your drip marketing campaigns or sales team communications.
•  The email list limitation. Salesforce is not trying to enter the mass email market. Any mass email sent from your organization will be limited to 250 emails per send. Individual mass email limits are dependent on your Salesforce version – Professional and below are limited to 250 per mass email. Enterprise edition can send 500. Unlimited edition subscribers can send a batch of 1,000 mass emails.
• Email Sender.  This is a concern when companies send mass emails from a generic email such as info@, sales@ etc.  Salesforce requires the email is sent from the address from the user name’s email.

Salesforce Mass Email Options

If your organization is currently using and/or engaged with a third party bulk email marketing solution or you are seeking a mass email application that offers more flexibility than the native Salesforce mass email marketing option, you have several choices.

Your best resources can be found through the Salesforce AppExchange.  But to make it easier here are some of the most popular third party mass email services that integrate with Salesforce:

• ConstantContact
• VerticalResponse
• iContact
• Boomerang

In a future post I’ll write a review about each option. All have their advantages and disadvantages. The key is identifying the best Salesforce mass email marketing option for your organization’s needs – that typically involves pricing and functionality. Then you’ll want to customize Salesforce on the back end to best suit the needs of your company and employees.

Salesforce Mass Email Integration

Integration of your mass email solution with Salesforce will provide your Sales team to quickly see which email a lead or contact received as well as more detailed data.

You will want to consider if your mass email solution operates outside of Salesforce or if the mass email application is native to Salesforce.

The primary difference here is one mass email option will require your sales team to create and send mass emails through the 3rd party application, such as Constant Contact. Mass email applications that operate native can be created and sent within Salesforce.  Easy to use application typically result in higher adoption rates.

Salesforce mass email integration will be easily accomplished by your Salesforce administrator or a qualified Salesforce marketing consultant.

Drip marketing is a relatively recent term to describe a marketing approach that has been employed for years by effective marketing companies.

You may ask, what are the benefits of drip marketing? Consider:

1. Increased sales conversions
2. Improved lead nurturing and qualifying
3. Better long term customer retention
4. Increased reselling and cross selling opportunities
5. More opportunity for customer / prospect feedback

And the rapid evolution of technology has made sophisticated drip marketing campaigns more accessible to the smallest of companies. Not to mention the introduction of new communication methods – now we have an array of social media and other channels to communicate with our prospects.  So how do we take advantage of this to better communicate our message / product / service and generate more revenue?

Drip Marketing Defined

First, let’s define drip marketing. I consider drip marketing to be a defined set of marketing and sales actions that are triggered by a series of target-based and time-based events.  Essentially you are defining, integrating and to a degree, automating your sales and marketing processes.

If that’s not so clear, here’s how Wikipedia defines drip marketing.

The Drip Marketing Toolbox

SalesForce.com can Automate Drip Marketing Campaigns

So let’s presume you wouldn’t read this far if you didn’t believe in the value of a drip marketing program. You want to know what tools are required to launch your own drip marketing campaign.

Here’s what should be in your toolbox:

• A CRM system capable of marketing automation – I have had good success with SalesForce.com
• A mass email service if you have sufficient leads in your database
• A diligent person who understands the value in effective sales and marketing process
• The ability to mail information if appropriate for your business
• Social media if appropriate for your business

Connecting the Marketing Campaign Pieces

If you use or are considering SalesForce as your CRM, consider a version, such as Enterprise, that permits workflow automation – it will take your drip marketing efforts to a new level. Here is a related article on SalesForce marketing.

By using workflow automation you can automatically: schedule tasks for sales people to execute, send out email communications, trigger direct mail events, initiate social media updates and more.

Consider the following marketing process:

1. New lead comes in through your company’s website – an auto-response email goes out immediately
2. Collateral (hard copy) marketing material is scheduled to mail to the new prospect (or emailed in electronic format)
3. The new lead is automatically assigned to a regional (or product/interest based) sales representative
4. A follow up call is assigned to that sales person
5. Management has access to dashboard reports showing how many leads are followed up by each salesperson
6. Another email / phone call / mailing is scheduled based on the customer actions of the above steps.
7. This process continues in more sophisticated methods and your marketing and sales operations become more efficient
8. And it’s all tracked to determine ROI if done correctly

Closing the Loop – Drip Marketing and Drip Customer Service

These principles can be applied after the sale as well as before (and during). Consider sending out a customer satisfaction survey as part of your drip marketing efforts.  Simply schedule an online survey email a certain time period after the sale has completed. With the recent developments in technology, you are practically only limited by your imagination when it comes to effective drip marketing.

Drip Marketing Campaigns Work

That’s why effective marketing companies have been using them for years.

Drip marketing techniques can be applied to almost any business model but if your business model involves online lead generation and a relatively long sales process, drip marketing may be a very effective solution to improve sales conversions and your bottom line.

Send me a message about your drip marketing campaign success stories!  I’ll use it in a future drip marketing and SalessForce post.

According to Google, quality score is a measure of relevance.  I’ll cover Google’s definition of quality score and a specific tactic to improve quality score.

Here is Google’s exact definition of quality score.

According to Google, quality score is influenced by:

• Historical Click through Rate (CTR)
• Historical CTR of the display urls in the ad group
• Click through Rate of your account
• Quality of your landing page
• Keyword relevance to the Ad Group ads
• Relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query
• Ad Words account performance
• Other AdWords relevance factors

So to improve your keyword quality score, those are the levers to pull.

There are several articles out there on ways to improve your AdWords quality score.  One of the simplest methods I know is to create highly targeted, focused Ad Groups. But in the end, you need to improve your click through rate – quality score is, in my opinion, a way for Google to optimize the ROI of their Ad Words revenue stream, but that is a separate topic.

How Ad Groups Can Improve Quality Score

If your AdWords keywords are experiencing low quality scores you are paying more money for the same placement. Here is an easy way to give your quality score a boost.

1. Identify your AdWords keywords suffering from low quality scores
2. Group those keywords into relevant clusters, for example
   1. Widget Keywords separate into clusters: Blue Widgets, Red Widgets and Yellow Widgets
3. Create highly targeted Ad Groups for each cluster – 3 to 5 keywords per Ad Group
   1. Title the Ad Group with the targeted keyword
   2. Use relevant, focused keywords for your Ad Group
4. Use the various keyword match types for each keyword
5. Create ad versions using the targeted keyword theme for each Ad Group “cluster”
6. Direct each ad version to a landing page
7. Optimize the landing page for the targeted keyword for the Ad Group

More Ways to Improve Quality Score

There are many resources out there on improving your Google AdWords quality score.  Remember, your click through rate (CTR) is going to have a large impact on improving your Ad Words quality score so fundamental marketing principles come into play. Here are some other resources to help you improve the quality score of your AdWords keywords:

Improve Quality Score

And for the basics, here is a

Google AdWords Tutorial from Marketing Practicality

Finally, a great video explanation of the Google AdWords Quality Score directly from Google – as you watch it, consider ways to improve your AdWords quality score.

Most small businesses have dabbled in email marketing – whether it’s a newsletter, e-blast or other email marketing strategy.  Let’s cover some of the most effective email marketing strategies and some practical email marketing tips that will help your small business.

Email Marketing Strategy #1: The Email List

Your list is the single most important factor in your email campaign.  Your house list (you are developing a prospect database, right?) is your best email marketing list.

If you have integrated your email marketing platform and your customer database (typically requiring a CRM system) – that’s the best option.

Email Marketing Strategy #2: The Email Communication

Email communication comes in many forms – informational, newsletters, promotional, etc. For purposes of this article, let’s cover promotional (revenue generating) email marketing communicating.

Email Marketing Strategy #3: The Offer

This goes without saying but developing a compelling offer is critical to the success of your email marketing strategy.

Email Marketing Strategy #4: Segmentation

Once you’ve selected your offer and your email list – it’s time to segment the email marketing file. There are unlimited ways to segment your email marketing file – age of leads, geography, purchase history, recent activity, marketing acquisition channel – be creative and think about what is most relevant to your offer and list.

Email Marketing Strategy #5: Email Delivery

Depending on your business model the day of the week and time of the email delivery can impact open rates. Personally – for most B-to-B or B-to-C email marketing communications, I recommend Tuesdays (Wednesdays are second best) around 11am – eastern time.  That hits your email prospects before lunch on the east coast of the US as well as around the start of the day on the west coast.

Effective Email Marketing Tips

Let’s cover small of the most important design elements of your email marketing campaign. Follow these email marketing tips and you will develop optimal email marketing communications.

Email Marketing Tip #1 – Value Propostion

You have (at most!) 5 seconds to communicate your value proposition through email. Think about how you go through your own email. Your value proposition must be clearly communicated and the first ways the recipient discerns that is through:

1. The From line
2. The Subject line
3. The Email Preview Pane (if applicable) – Images and Content

Email Marketing Tip #2 – The From Line

The is the most important line for establishing trust. If you are using your house email marketing file, the recipient should know you. If you segmented recent or previous buyers, you have a greater chance establishing trust. Send your email from an email address that builds trust and contains your brand.

Email Marketing Tip #3 – The Subject Line

Get to the point – early. And make it compelling to the email recipient. Most email recipients open their inbox, read the From Line first and then the read the Subject Line, and decide to open, delete or save.  Subject Lines and From Lines work together – don’t emphasize brand in the subject line – communicate value to the recipient, in 40 characters or less.

Email Marketing Tip #4 – Images and Content

Your content should clearly reinforce the value proposition and benefit to the prospect. Your images and layout should be attractive. If you choose to send HTML based emails with images – check the layout of the email in multiple email clients.  Odds are your email will arrive with the images turned off, so make sure your value proposition is clearly communicated with and without images.

Email Marketing Tip #5 – Personalization

Personalization, using the email recipients’ information in the email (i.e. name, etc.) is information you should leverage. Consider how you can capture and use prospect data to improve conversion rates. At a minimum, it is generally better to use Dear [first name] instead of a generic salutation.

Email Marketing Tips and Strategies that Work

Effective email marketing requires testing. Once you have the basics in place, it’s important you test and track your results.  Implementing effective email marketing strategies is very important. But out of all these email marketing tips the most important one is to track your results. Email marketing is iterative and specific to your business’ niche.

Contact Marketing Practicality directly to optimize your email marketing efforts.

All small business owners I know want or need more (qualified) traffic on their websites.  And they have varying degrees of understanding about search engine optimization.  The problem is how to find the best seo service – and don’t forget we’re talking small business, so the best seo service on a limited budget.

Since I do this for a living I thought I would provide some tips on choosing the best seo service provider for your budget.  Of course I would like you to choose my firm, Marketing Practicality, as your SEO Marketing Consultant. But this post is not a sales pitch, rather some practical tips for small business owners to select a quality seo service provider.

Searching the Web for SEO Service Providers

When one doesn’t know where to start, this seems like a logical place, right? Is it the best place to find an SEO service provider? Maybe yes, maybe no.  The problem is it’s incredibly competitive, so the first page of Google maybe not actually list the firm that might give you the best seo service for your business.  You have a few options:

1. Select a big SEO firm
2. Outsource your SEO overseas
3. Learn SEO and do it yourself
4. Do some digging and find a smaller SEO firm

The Big SEO Firm

Large SEO firms typical provide service packages. So for a set price, you’ll receive a defined service (updating content, submitting your website to a number of directories, changing title tags and meta tags, etc.).

• Expect to have the seo work performed for the price you paid.
• Expect to be up-sold on other products or seo services
• Don’t expect much help outside of the scope of your agreement

This level of service may be fine for your small business if this is what you are looking for,

Outsourcing SEO service overseas

I’ll admit, I haven’t run across too many companies or clients that have chosen this route when looking for the best seo service for their own company.  Most small business owners want a resource that is at least US based. My firm uses a programming resource in Europe from time-to-time with positive experiences.  But I would be wary of using an unknown resource for one of the many link building services that frequent my junk mail box.

Learn and Do Your Own SEO

Generally, I have two types of clients (which one are you? Be honest)

Client A

Developed a great website (it cost a fortune)

Cash flow is tight

Unfortunately, the website isn’t generating traffic like he hoped it would

After some research, he learned about search engine optimization, SEO

SEO has something to do with meta tags

So maybe he will try this SEO himself and then the expensive website will generate traffic and his internet fortune is made.

Client B

She has a great website (it cost a fortune)

Cash flow is tight

Checks her Google Analytics frequently

Has relevant title tags

Has her local business listing on Google and Yelp

Keeps trying to update her blog but doesn’t have time

Knows she should be doing more with social media – no time

Business is good, growing, even in this economy

She can even code a little HTML

But with all the business pressures, family obligations, etc. she can’t give the website her full attention. And cash flow is still a constraint – so hiring an full time seo is out of the question.

Client A can become Client B with the right aptitude and time.  Client B can do SEO herself, if she feels it is the best use of her time.  Understand, SEO never ends (if you want to do it the right way) and it is dynamic, so it is a considerable time investment.

If you want to do it yourself, here are some good starting points:

The Beginner’s Guide to SEO – by Rand Fishkin

High Rankings Advisor – by Jill Whalen

Hire a Smaller SEO Service Provider

If you want the best seo service, this may be your best option. Smaller firms often provide a more customized and detailed approach the your website’s search engine optimization strategy. But, like anything else, there are good apples and bad apples.  Here are some tips in selecting your “best seo service provider”:

1. Ask your network for recommendations
2. Ask your potential SEO partner for references – current and previous clients
3. Get data from the SEO service provider (before and after ranking reports) from clients
4. Define what the SEO firm will do for you – get it in writing
5. Trust your gut – do you feel like you are entering a partnership or being sold?

Hear are things (at a minimum) to expect from an quality SEO service provider:

• SEO strategy development commensurate with your business goals and objectives
• Competitive market analysis
• Detailed keyword research to develop the SEO marketing strategy
• CLIENT EDUCATION – so you learn about SEO
• Analytics interpretation and analysis
• Effective link building strategies (off page SEO)
• Professional, responsive and consultative interactment
• SEO and practical use of Blogs and Social Media
• On page SEO – optimization (code editing) of all elements
• Qualitative and quantitative feedback of your website
• Knowledge sharing

If your SEO service provider regularly gives you these things, within your budget and sales and traffic are improving – congratulations! You’ve found a quality seo service provider.

The Best SEO Service – Where to Find it?

Like most questions, this has many answers. But I would recommend you start within your network and expand your research from there. Once you’ve made the decision to hire an seo service provider – and I believe this is usually the most cost effective and productive route – make sure you are getting results.

Best of luck in your search for the best seo service – there are many qualified firms out there which will help grow your business.

Of course you can always contact Marketing Practicality!

But here are some other resources:

Google - with a link to their SEO starter guide

World Wide Web Consortium

Webmaster World

Google AdWords has allowed image ads (display ads) on its content network for some time now.  But you may have noticed image ads ocassionally showing on Google AdWords search network.

So what is this all about and more importantly, how can you start showing images ads within your own search network campaign?

Example of Image Ads on AdWords’ Search Network

Recently I did a search on Walker Trays in Google and these results were shown:

I know it’s a little tough to read but trust me, the word in those red circles is Target.  They are showing in the #2 position for the Google AdWords text ad.  And Target has the first and third position on the right hand bar – typically reserved for AdWords text ads but currently displaying Image ads on the search network (i.e. PlusBox ads).  Not bad if you are Target, but if you are trying to sell walker trays is not a good sign if Target owns 3 of the top spots – and two ads are images!

Also note the Google Shopping results for Walker Trays – the five small boxes below the shaded sponsored links box.  Guess who has three of those five images – you got it, Target.

The Google AdWords PlusBox Ad

Image ads on the search network are called PlusBox ads.  And they are appearing more frequently in searches. So how is this done?

According to Google, PlusBox ads are part of a small Beta test offered to select advertisers. So outside of asking your AdWords account manager to try and get you in, it’s on an invitation only basis.

But here’s basically how it works:

The images that are displayed are fed from your Google Merchant Center Account.  So you need that first.

Then, by selecting Ad Extensions in your Google AdWords account, you allow the product information in your Merchant Center Account to by shared with your AdWords account.

Google summarizes how to run a PlusBox ad here: Plusbox Ads. Search Engine Land also covered this topic a while back, that article can be found here: Google Continues AdWords Product PlusBox

Images Ads for the AdWords Search Network

In my opinion, it’s a huge differentiation to  show an image ad among a sea of text ads – so hopefully this will be expanded beyond the Beta testing stage.  Or the testing will stop so the select advertisers who can run images don’t continue to benefit from an uneven playing field.  It depends on the product (or service) but I know several clients that would love to serve image ads on the AdWords Search Network.

Here are some 5 email marketing tips to better interpret, test and analyze your email marketing campaigns.

Email Marketing Tip #1: Interpreting the Open Rate

After reviewing your email marketing metrics, you notice one person opened your email 30 times. You think, “Wow! What a hot prospect!”. Not so fast. If you sent HTML email and your recipient uses Outlook with the reading pane, your results can be skewed. If someone uses a reading pane and scrolls over your email using the up or down arrow keys, the email is opened in the reading pane. That counts as an open, even though the intent was nothing more than quickly scrolling past your email to get to a different email. So interpret this metric carefully.

Email Marketing Tip #2: Test, test, test!

If your email marketing list is large enough, you should segment and test your list every time you start an email marketing campaign. Common and useful things to test in your email marketing efforts include:

• Subject line – this is critical
• Email Offer or Call to Action
• List Segmentation – including: geography, age of leads, previous buyers vs. prospects, etc.
• Landing Page
• Creative

Email Marketing Tip #3: Use Website Analytics

If an email generates a click to your website, then what? Use your Web Analytics program to understand what happens next. Depending on your call to action, your Analytics program can tie in the performance of your email marketing campaign to the actual result.

Email Marketing Tip #4: Send HTML and Text Versions

Most email marketing service providers allow you to send an HTML version as well as a text only version of your email. Nowadays, most people use HTML as their default – but many people intentionally or not, only accept text based emails. Make sure you use both.

Email Marketing Tip #5: Follow Up with Qualified Leads

Prospects that opened up your email message multiple times or clicked through to your website, identified themselves as interested. Your next step should be to follow up directly with that prospect.

Email Marketing Service Providers

There are many email marketing service providers out there. Two of the most commonly used are iContact and Constant Contact. My personal preference is iContact but I use both depending on the client. If you have a small business and are looking for a quality email marketing service provider, you be satisfied with either of those two.

Email Marketing Tips Wrap Up

These are some basic email marketing tips. Email marketing can be as sophisticated as you want. But most importantly, your email marketing efforts should continually improve and yield a better marketing ROI. Contact Marketing Practicality for expert email marketing help with your small business.

If you are a small business and looking for an affordable way to reach out to your prospects, email marketing is a great channel. Most email marketing service providers have built in analysis and reporting so you can view your email marketing metrics in an almost real-time environment. But do you fully understand what the reports are telling you? Here are some email marketing tips to help you better understand email marketing metrics.

Overview of Email Marketing Metrics

Most email marketing services provide the following common metrics:

• Bounces – A bounced is mail didn’t get delivered to the intended recipient. This could be for a host of reasons – the email address was spelled incorrectly, the address no longer exists, the email was blocked by a firewall, etc.
• Released (sent) – Released emails were sent and delivered to the recipient.
• Unsubscribes – The email was delivered and the recipient unsubscribed from your email service – basically they have removed themselves from your email list.
• Opens – The email was opened (more on this later)
• Clicks – If there are links in your HTML email, any clicks are tracked.
• Forwards – The recipient used your email marketing service provider’s forwarding feature to send your email on to another person.
• Complaints or Spam – Complaints are registered when an email recipient reports your email as spam to their ISP (Internet Service Provider). It is usually done by clicking a Report Spam button in their email client.

The Most Important Email Marketing Metrics

The three most important email marketing metrics. When analyzing a campaign I initially focus on three key email marketing metrics:

Bounce Rate: the bounce rate is an indicator of the quality of your list. If you are emailing an in-house prospect list and you experience a high bounce rate, it’s time to perform some database hygiene and get your email addresses updated

Open Rate: The higher the better. If your email isn’t opened, your message is not conveyed. A good open rate is influenced by crafting a great subject line and how familiar the recipient is with your email address and company. It also indicates the relative level quality of your list; better prospects will yield a higher open rate. Interpreting the open rate can be tricky though, see my email marketing tips post.

Click Rate: These recipients are even more engaged than those who just opened your email and deserve special handling.

Email Marketing Metrics Wrap Up

Once you have a good grasp on email marketing metrics, you’ll be much better prepared to interpret the results of your email marketing campaign. Next step is to understand the basic nuances of email marketing which can be found under my 5 email marketing tips. Contact Marketing Practicality for expert email marketing help with your small business.

This is the third article of a three part series on Successful Web Marketing – this article provides web marketing ideas on how to increase website visibility. Because, at the end of the day, no matter how good your content is, what does it matter if no one can find your website (and your content)?

How to Increase Website Visibility

In order to successfully increase your website’s visibility you will need to learn certain tools. Like most things – you will be able to pick up a basic knowledge of these skills with a moderate time investment. If you want to develop expert-level skills, count on 1,000’s of hours for each of these web marketing tactics – or hire a qualified professional. The following 5 tactics can be employed to increase visibility to your website – generating more web traffic – and exposure to that valuable content you have already created.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #1 – Search Engine Optimization – SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the practice of developing and managing your website so it ranks well for targeted search terms in the major search engines. An effective SEO marketing strategy will significantly increase traffic to your website. Search engine optimization consists of both on-page SEO and off-page SEO. I strongly recommend you perform search engine optimization within the search engines guidelines if you intend to build a website for the long haul. When done effectively, search engine optimization is the best tactic in your toolbox to increase website visibility – and a critical component of successful web marketing. Don’t overlook this web marketing idea. And use a proven, qualified SEO marketing consultant if you’re not sure how to do it internally.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #2 – Pay per Click Marketing – PPC

But like most things, you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket, so if you completely rely on SEO for website visibility, you may be very disappointed if a search engine that sends you a large amount of organic traffic changes an algorithm or otherwise stops sending you the website traffic you were accustomed to. Pay per Click Marketing (also called paid search or PPC) involves targeting certain keywords and paying for search engine listings. This is a great tactic to increase visibility to your website, but of course costs money. So carefully evaluate your marketing metrics and monitor your PPC campaign performance. It only makes sense to carry out a PPC marketing campaign if it produces a positive ROI.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #3 – Social Media

Social media continues to gain momentum as a tool for increasing website visibility as well as developing online relationships with your customers or prospects interested in your products and services. Social media also ties in with search engine optimization as it provides a medium where your website can garner inbound links, thus increasing your website visibility.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #4 – Referring Websites

When I say referring websites, I mean websites that link to your website and direct traffic to your website by means of an inbound link. This also ties in with SEO, but if you build up a network of quality, referring websites that are synergistic with your website, you can increase visibility to your website and quite likely, improve your conversion rates. Generating a network of referring websites takes work; it’s best to reach out to other webmasters and establish a level of trust before simply asking someone for a link.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #5 – Networking

Old fashioned networking and personal relationships can go a long way for small businesses trying to increase website visibility. Think about who could link to your website – starting with your personal network. Vendors, customers, suppliers, business contacts, friends, consultants – there are likely a host of people you already know that have a business website. If you already have an established level of trust, and it makes sense, why not ask that person for a link in to your website?

Successful Web Marketing – A Blend of Old and New Marketing

In today’s competitive landscape, successful web marketing really requires a blend of old and new marketing tactics. Staying on top of rapidly changing technology and how it impacts your business market efforts is critical to successful web marketing.
Ask yourself:

1. Are you getting the most out of your search engine optimization?
2. Have you fully tested pay per click marketing?
3. Are you effectively using social media marketing?
4. Do you know the top ten websites referring traffic to your website?
5. Do you routinely discuss web marketing with your network?

If you take these 5 web marketing ideas and deploy them effectively. you will see positive results. In order to increase website visibility, you need to work at it, or hire someone who will. Successful web marketing depends on knowing what to do, how to do it and then putting in the hard work to ensure success. So get going!

View the first article in the “Successful Web Marketing Ideas” series:

Web Marketing Ideas

View the second article in the “Successful Web Marketing Ideas” series:

Creating Valuable Content

By Marketing Practicality

This is the second article of a three part series on Successful Web Marketing and focuses on creating valuable content for your website visitors. Here are some web marketing ideas for creating valuable content.

Creating Valuable Content – Target Your Audience

Are you in touch with what your website visitors are looking for? There are ways to monitor this within your Analytics program, i.e. your website bounce rate, time spent on website, number of web pages visited, etc. But Google Analytics also provides a way to identify all the organic keywords your visitors used to visit your website. When you review these terms, are the keywords in line with how you view your website content?

If so that’s great – but even still, you can analyze these terms to find hidden gems for creating valuable content – especially the terms that carry a high bounce rate.
To target your audience – simply identify what your website visitors are already looking for when they come to your website, but appear to exit the website quickly. Then develop valuable content around the topics your website visitors are really looking for.

Additionally, creating valuable content that is related to your website and is routinely read by your visitors is great way to reinforce the strong areas of your website content.

Successful Web Marketing – Content that Gets Seen

So now you have some general ideas about why visitors come to your website and the search terms they use to find content on your website. So what specifically should you write about? When creating valuable content, the targets your audience and gets read, I recommend the following web marketing ideas:

1. Target content based on search volume
2. Be honest and open
3. Provide real value

Web Marketing Idea #1 – Target Content for Search Terms

Before you sit down to write an article, use some of the readily available tools out there to refine your targeted search terms. The keyword selection strategy is an important part of creating valuable content. Identify specific keywords by typing your general terms into a tool like Google’s Keyword Tool. While not precise, it will help you narrow down terms that have search volume your website can effectively rank for. If your site is brand new or isn’t an authority in its niche – attempting to rank for a term with 500,000 searches per month is going to lead to disappointment.

Web Marketing Idea #2 – Develop Content Openly and Honestly

Your website visitors are taking valuable time to read your content. And most times, they can tell if your content is genuine or simply fluff.

So I recommend you communicate your message clearly, openly and honestly. My preference is only to develop original content based on my experience, content that I can stand behind and have personally witnessed in practice. I don’t scrape or steal content from other websites but if I see great website content that I can stand behind, I’ll cite it and provide a link to that website.

Simply put, be honest and transparent with your website content.

Web Marketing Idea #3 – Provide Real Value

Creating valuable content needs to add value. Once you draft website content – reread it and ask yourself if your website visitors make take away a few nuggets that will actually help them. For example, my tips to use Google Analytics and Google’s Keyword Tool to target your content will result in web pages that get read. Make sure you add value to your readers if you want to develop a website for the long term.

Successful Web Marketing – Creating Valuable Content

So that’s part 2 in the series of successful web marketing, which focuses on creating valuable content for your website visitors. The next article on web marketing ideas will focus on gaining visibility to your website and how the new online marketing is really a blend of the old and the new.

Read the first article here:

Successful Web Marketing Ideas and Advice – Part 1

Or the next article:

Increase Website Visibility

From Marketing Practicality