Improving your website visitor’s experience through effective website design that works cross-platform and on a wide range of Internet devices, smartphones, iPhones and iPads.
Businesses today need to think about how their customers will use their website and respond to their customer’s needs.
Get your site converted for mobile devices and smartphonesNo one would argue that their prospects are checking them out online before doing business with them. The problem (and opportunity) is they are viewing your website through multiple devices and formats.
You would think that by now there would be more universal standards for website design, but actually it’s grown tougher each year.
For example, have you looked at your website using an iPhone, iPad or smartphone? What about through different website browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Explorer? And then there are different versions of the web browsers, plug-ins, add-ons, and widgets. Let’s explore smartphone website designs and why it’s important for your business…
To read the rest of the article click here.
To learn more about how the Media Zoo can convert your site to a smartphone site, visit The Media Zoo.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
How awful landing pages can kill email campaigns
SilverPop did a study recently called, “Eight Seconds to Capture Attention: Silverpop’s Landing Page Report” that analyzed the email campaigns of 150 top online companies. What they found were excellently executed email campaigns that promised results, only to have poor conversion because of an ill-planned landing page. Uninterested prospects quickly took their business elsewhere.
Even the large companies need to concentrate on their landing page and consider it part of the whole project. Take some of the work used on making the email part look fabulous and transfer it to make the landing page equally as brilliant.
So what exactly was examined in this study?
• Use of readable URLs
PRIMARY FINDING: B2B companies were less likely to use readable URLs than B2C firms. A clear, unforgettable URL makes good sense, though probably not as important in a PPC campaign.
• Repetition of email promotional copy
PRIMARY FINDING: Almost half of the landing pages neglected to replicate the email’s call-to-action.
• Primary conversion goals
PRIMARY FINDING: 60% of companies utilize landing pages in order to sell their products or services. Other goals include branding, education and lead generation.
• Location of the landing page
PRIMARY FINDING: 17% of email marketing campaigns, mostly B2C, dropped receivers at the firm’s home page instead of their own exclusive campaign landing page.
• Whether the design of the page matched the email and/or website
PRIMARY FINDING: Over 1 in 3 landing pages neglected to copy the look, feel, and tone of the original email.
• Landing page design
PRIMARY FINDING: 25% of the landing pages used a 2-column format, while only 36% used the suggested one-column format.
• Placement of the key call-to-action
PRIMARY FINDING: 90% of landing pages had their main call-to-action above the fold. However, only 11% had further calls-to-action adjoining to the below-the-fold copy, in those cases where the copy continued past the normal fold.
Even the large companies need to concentrate on their landing page and consider it part of the whole project. Take some of the work used on making the email part look fabulous and transfer it to make the landing page equally as brilliant.
So what exactly was examined in this study?
• Use of readable URLs
PRIMARY FINDING: B2B companies were less likely to use readable URLs than B2C firms. A clear, unforgettable URL makes good sense, though probably not as important in a PPC campaign.
• Repetition of email promotional copy
PRIMARY FINDING: Almost half of the landing pages neglected to replicate the email’s call-to-action.
• Primary conversion goals
PRIMARY FINDING: 60% of companies utilize landing pages in order to sell their products or services. Other goals include branding, education and lead generation.
• Location of the landing page
PRIMARY FINDING: 17% of email marketing campaigns, mostly B2C, dropped receivers at the firm’s home page instead of their own exclusive campaign landing page.
• Whether the design of the page matched the email and/or website
PRIMARY FINDING: Over 1 in 3 landing pages neglected to copy the look, feel, and tone of the original email.
• Landing page design
PRIMARY FINDING: 25% of the landing pages used a 2-column format, while only 36% used the suggested one-column format.
• Placement of the key call-to-action
PRIMARY FINDING: 90% of landing pages had their main call-to-action above the fold. However, only 11% had further calls-to-action adjoining to the below-the-fold copy, in those cases where the copy continued past the normal fold.
Friday, December 31, 2010
How your client's brain becomes your ally
How would you like to have a hidden friend at work behind the scenes persuading your perfect client that you are the right person to choose for the job? It is possible. If you want to capture, hold, and influence the attention of your prospect’s brain, you need to learn the power of consistency.
It is easy to purposefully mess yourself up without meaning to. Many bloggers feel the need to liven things up, to constantly reinvent themselves because they get bored of their message so they conclude that prospective clients must be also. But it is not necessary to shake things up.
Right about the time that you are getting bored with your content, your prospects are just getting used to it. They’re starting to hear what you say and understand it. If you change it, especially if the message is a good fit for you and them, you are risking losing the attention that you’ve gained so far. You want their brain on your side, and by changing, you risk confusing it.
The brain remembers persistently repeated messages.
The brain simply cannot let everything in or pay attention to everything. But it figured that anything repeated constantly must be important, so it will hold on to that information.
For the same reason, consistent and emotionally-driven messages are also remembered.
This is not new information to advertisers. With the power of repitition and consistency, a commercial from our childhood will stick in our heads while we forget the name of our third grade teacher.
Experts say that it takes at least 7 to 9 impressions for direct mail to make an impact on you. For an ad to even make it to your conscious awareness, it would take up to 56 repititions. So then it’s obvious that ads have to be incessantly repeated, no matter how brilliant and likable, and it would seem that the ad would get boring after so much repitition. But it’s not. It’s just starting to make an impact.
The brain likes to organize things.
It believes that things that have something in common should be grouped together. It tries to organize the information and group things together. This is why it is important to be consistent. You want your client’s brains to recognize the messages that you are releasing and group them together. They will then have a specific “container” in their brain for your messages that is steadily growing. These consistent messages will convey that you have something important to say. Simply because there is so many of them, they will automatically become more influential.
The brain also likes to link things.
Your brain stores existing knowledge in the subconscious, but whenever new information is processed, it links this new knowledge with the exsisting, moving it from the conscious mind so that it will pay attention faster to any information it is accustomed to.
For example, think of a company with an easily recognized logo. As soon as your brain sees the familiar image of the logo, it thinks: This is something I’ve seen before. I’ll take it into account and store it with my already large collection on this company.
That is why branding is so important and why companies work so hard on it. If the branding is inconsistent, your brain will not link the information together. Since these messages will end up in different compartments in your brain, they will become less influential.
It is important to know your brand and be sure that your messages stick with it to hold the attention of your potential client’s mind.
The brain values reliability.
Familiar things are comforting to us. It is the reason that you will frequent a restaurant, even though it’s not your favorite food. You know what they serve, there’s no suprises in what you’ll receive. Since it’s familiar, your brain interprets it as safe, and that’s what it wants.
Reliability develops a trust with your audience, and it takes time to build. But there is one thing you can do to help move it along. When you start to get bored with your message and want to liven things up a bit, don’t. To your clients, it’s just starting to work.
Being reliable and consistent is one of the best tools for growing your business- achieved simply by making a friend out of the human mind.
It is easy to purposefully mess yourself up without meaning to. Many bloggers feel the need to liven things up, to constantly reinvent themselves because they get bored of their message so they conclude that prospective clients must be also. But it is not necessary to shake things up.
Right about the time that you are getting bored with your content, your prospects are just getting used to it. They’re starting to hear what you say and understand it. If you change it, especially if the message is a good fit for you and them, you are risking losing the attention that you’ve gained so far. You want their brain on your side, and by changing, you risk confusing it.
The brain remembers persistently repeated messages.
The brain simply cannot let everything in or pay attention to everything. But it figured that anything repeated constantly must be important, so it will hold on to that information.
For the same reason, consistent and emotionally-driven messages are also remembered.
This is not new information to advertisers. With the power of repitition and consistency, a commercial from our childhood will stick in our heads while we forget the name of our third grade teacher.
Experts say that it takes at least 7 to 9 impressions for direct mail to make an impact on you. For an ad to even make it to your conscious awareness, it would take up to 56 repititions. So then it’s obvious that ads have to be incessantly repeated, no matter how brilliant and likable, and it would seem that the ad would get boring after so much repitition. But it’s not. It’s just starting to make an impact.
The brain likes to organize things.
It believes that things that have something in common should be grouped together. It tries to organize the information and group things together. This is why it is important to be consistent. You want your client’s brains to recognize the messages that you are releasing and group them together. They will then have a specific “container” in their brain for your messages that is steadily growing. These consistent messages will convey that you have something important to say. Simply because there is so many of them, they will automatically become more influential.
The brain also likes to link things.
Your brain stores existing knowledge in the subconscious, but whenever new information is processed, it links this new knowledge with the exsisting, moving it from the conscious mind so that it will pay attention faster to any information it is accustomed to.
For example, think of a company with an easily recognized logo. As soon as your brain sees the familiar image of the logo, it thinks: This is something I’ve seen before. I’ll take it into account and store it with my already large collection on this company.
That is why branding is so important and why companies work so hard on it. If the branding is inconsistent, your brain will not link the information together. Since these messages will end up in different compartments in your brain, they will become less influential.
It is important to know your brand and be sure that your messages stick with it to hold the attention of your potential client’s mind.
The brain values reliability.
Familiar things are comforting to us. It is the reason that you will frequent a restaurant, even though it’s not your favorite food. You know what they serve, there’s no suprises in what you’ll receive. Since it’s familiar, your brain interprets it as safe, and that’s what it wants.
Reliability develops a trust with your audience, and it takes time to build. But there is one thing you can do to help move it along. When you start to get bored with your message and want to liven things up a bit, don’t. To your clients, it’s just starting to work.
Being reliable and consistent is one of the best tools for growing your business- achieved simply by making a friend out of the human mind.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Secrets for Successful YouTube Marketing, Tips 8-15
8. For making your YouTube video
stand out from the crowd and demand attention, your video must be very catchy, humorous or controversial.
9. In every video you create, add a message and then your advertisement. So that when people watch it, they get impressed through the message and likely to share with everyone. So, your video gets viral.
10. Don’t promote your product simply by words, that won’t be effective. Promote your product with live demonstration so that when they finish watching the video, they also remind of your product and not an empty mind.
11. Add friends – Adding friends is a powerful way to gain exposure on YouTube.
12. For a successful YouTube marketing, you need to have a proper channel with some customizations. So that it can get you more subscribers and also enough YouTube following.
13. When choosing the account type on YouTube, remember your target audience, niche you’re in and then choose a account to signup YouTube.
14. Categorize your videos by assigning suitable tags, titles etc. So that when people search for particular tags or titles, your video will come up in the search results
15. You should use YouTube like your blog, use the comments system in a effective way and build relationship.
stand out from the crowd and demand attention, your video must be very catchy, humorous or controversial.
9. In every video you create, add a message and then your advertisement. So that when people watch it, they get impressed through the message and likely to share with everyone. So, your video gets viral.
10. Don’t promote your product simply by words, that won’t be effective. Promote your product with live demonstration so that when they finish watching the video, they also remind of your product and not an empty mind.
11. Add friends – Adding friends is a powerful way to gain exposure on YouTube.
12. For a successful YouTube marketing, you need to have a proper channel with some customizations. So that it can get you more subscribers and also enough YouTube following.
13. When choosing the account type on YouTube, remember your target audience, niche you’re in and then choose a account to signup YouTube.
14. Categorize your videos by assigning suitable tags, titles etc. So that when people search for particular tags or titles, your video will come up in the search results
15. You should use YouTube like your blog, use the comments system in a effective way and build relationship.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Secrets for Successful YouTube Marketing, Tips 1-7
1. The amount of videos which you upload – The problem that many companies face is, they upload the videos and wait for the customer to come to them. Use facebook and twitter to promote your videos, once your video gets some reach, then don’t leave it idle. Leaving it idle will make your customers think you’re dead. Upload new energetic live videos on a regular basis. This will make your potential customer know you are still around and not just another company that went bust.
2. Put yourself into the shoes of the customer – You need to make the videos live and energetic so that customer should come back again to watch it. So think if you were in their shoes for making the videos more viral.
3. Make sure you upload quality content and keep your channel fresh, so that visitors don’t get disappointed and will come back again. Therefore following the above 3 steps will create a huge YouTube followers.
4. Now you have uploaded quality content by placing yourself into the shoes of the customer, now the questions is how will the customer know that you have launched the new video, more important is how to drive traffic to your YouTube video?
5. Sharing is important. Whenever you upload a new video on YouTube, share it with friends and all the contacts from your address book. The more clicks, you get more attention and thereby you can reach more customers.
6. A quicker way is to create a company profile and add friends on Facebook, interact with them. Make them forget it is company’s profile and be friendly.
7. Promoting the video on social networking sites, make sure you’re on all the social networking sites, forums etc. Make sure you build community which you’re interested in.
Tips 8-15 to follow tomorrow.
2. Put yourself into the shoes of the customer – You need to make the videos live and energetic so that customer should come back again to watch it. So think if you were in their shoes for making the videos more viral.
3. Make sure you upload quality content and keep your channel fresh, so that visitors don’t get disappointed and will come back again. Therefore following the above 3 steps will create a huge YouTube followers.
4. Now you have uploaded quality content by placing yourself into the shoes of the customer, now the questions is how will the customer know that you have launched the new video, more important is how to drive traffic to your YouTube video?
5. Sharing is important. Whenever you upload a new video on YouTube, share it with friends and all the contacts from your address book. The more clicks, you get more attention and thereby you can reach more customers.
6. A quicker way is to create a company profile and add friends on Facebook, interact with them. Make them forget it is company’s profile and be friendly.
7. Promoting the video on social networking sites, make sure you’re on all the social networking sites, forums etc. Make sure you build community which you’re interested in.
Tips 8-15 to follow tomorrow.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Google Maps has replaced the Yellow Pages
Google Local Maps is where prospects will find your business. The Yellow Pages used to be the standard in local business advertising. This is not the case anymore.
People often find themselves traveling in a new city or in a part of town that they don't know well. With Smart Phones, GPS, and iPads, today's consumer wants to know where you are, NOW. This means that they have access to and are probably using Google local maps on a daily basis. When is the last time you traveled, pulled over to a phone booth and read their local Yellow Pages to find the Thai food you're craving? That is where the local feature of Google Maps comes into play.
Google Maps is a game changer. The ability to instantly see your current location on the map is only the beginning. The search feature is an amazingly powerful tool for whatever your target market is seeking. Today's consumer wants precision and they want to know right away where they are going. There is no more guessing as to where something is or hoping you stumble across it as you walk or drive along.
It's essential to be "findable" on Google and Google Maps. If you're not there, you run the serious risk of not surviving. Today's information superhighway is akin to the Interstate systems that replaced small two lane highways years ago. When the larger road bypassed a small town, many of the businesses in the small town did not survive. The Yellow Pages has become the two lane highway.
Not appearing on Google Maps will mean that you don't exist to many customers. Their sole source of information may very well be Google Maps and you need to be there if you expect to attract their hard-earned dollars.
If you want more sales and to grow your business locally, be sure to visit our Miami SEO site. We offer Miami Search Engine Optimization services that will keep you competitive and earn you new customers.
People often find themselves traveling in a new city or in a part of town that they don't know well. With Smart Phones, GPS, and iPads, today's consumer wants to know where you are, NOW. This means that they have access to and are probably using Google local maps on a daily basis. When is the last time you traveled, pulled over to a phone booth and read their local Yellow Pages to find the Thai food you're craving? That is where the local feature of Google Maps comes into play.
Google Maps is a game changer. The ability to instantly see your current location on the map is only the beginning. The search feature is an amazingly powerful tool for whatever your target market is seeking. Today's consumer wants precision and they want to know right away where they are going. There is no more guessing as to where something is or hoping you stumble across it as you walk or drive along.
It's essential to be "findable" on Google and Google Maps. If you're not there, you run the serious risk of not surviving. Today's information superhighway is akin to the Interstate systems that replaced small two lane highways years ago. When the larger road bypassed a small town, many of the businesses in the small town did not survive. The Yellow Pages has become the two lane highway.
Not appearing on Google Maps will mean that you don't exist to many customers. Their sole source of information may very well be Google Maps and you need to be there if you expect to attract their hard-earned dollars.
If you want more sales and to grow your business locally, be sure to visit our Miami SEO site. We offer Miami Search Engine Optimization services that will keep you competitive and earn you new customers.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Mistakes that will kill your business
It is important to be aware of issues that will kill off your business. It could be factors such as when you’re taking things to seriously when you just want it as a hobby, or when you’re simply tired of it, or even when you are terrified of success or failure. There are also plain errors which luckily can be fixed. Watch out for, and repair, these warning signs to build a healthy business.
1. A bad attitude
If you have a bad attitude about your business, everyone else will too, and vice-versa. Every contact you have whether they are a visitor to your website, in person, or on Twitter and Facebook will know how you view your company. How do you know if you have a bad attitude?
• If there are long lapses between your posting.
• If you haven’t released a new product or service in the last six months.
• If you blame poor business on difficult customers.
• If you complain about how complicated business is and how all the successful people must’ve had contacts in the correct places.
• If you’re astonished that after six months you are not both rich and famous because you anticipated being an overnight success.
2. Marketing not to a niche, but to a demographic.
A fantastic definition of a niche is “a group of people with a common problem who assemble together”. So what is not a niche? Small business owners, copywriters, freelancers, work at home parents, women over 40, or men after retirement are not niches but demographics that people commonly market to. If they share a common problem, then they are considered a niche. The solution is to examine the problem in you niche so that you can solve it and figure out where your niche assembles so that you can market specifically to them. It is ironic to learn that your marketing will be more successful the narrower your niche is. Scrutinize your current marketing plan, figure out if you’re are in fact targeting a niche or a demographic and then narrow down your message to a common interior problem that you can solve exclusively.
3. Appearing to be a tightwad.
It is simple to set up business online these days. Start off with a Wordpress.com or Blogger site, pick up some clip art graphics, outsource a logo and website header to the lowest bidder, get free business cards from site like Vistaprint, and compose a quick newsletter list from your Outlook. This may sound like a good idea, but instead you just come off looking shameful. The impression you are then giving to visitors and potential clients is that you have no money, are unprofessional, and cheap. If you must pinch pennies, there are some things that you can do for free or low-cost that will not grab notice, but you’re website is not one of them. Of course you do not need to bankrupt yourself creating a website, just be sure that it has an organized, professional look, is simply to navigate and creates a web presence that makes you appear worth your cost.
4. Neglecting to secure visitor details.
You have a customer visit your site, who then looks around, reads a few articles, then leaves. They like the site and would definitely come back, but never do because they lose the url or simply get too busy. Then they’re lost forever. By not securing visitor details, such as a name and email address, they’re losing customers. Set up a way for them to keep in touch, offering an incentive, such as an ebook or valuable free report, in exchange for details. MailChimp is free up to 500 subscribers if money is tight in the beginning and you can build your newsletter up from there. By losing one visitor you aren’t losing just one potential customer, you are also losing all the referrals that they could have given to you, and once they leave, they’re gone forever.
5. Neglecting to plan long term.
It’s easy to think that business plans are for large business, and for when your need to visit the bank for capital, but this is incorrect. By not planning you’ll impulsively buy the next great marketing technique and jump from one idea to the next and then question why nothing works out for you. How will you know when you’re reached what you’ve been aiming for without a solid plan? It is not necessary to have pages upon pages of incomprehensible financial projections, budgets and legal jargon, but at the very least you need to know what the goals for your business are, who you are marketing to, and what makes you unique from every other business out there. If you do not have a plan, you will not have a business.
6. All learning, no action.
Information is great; ebooks, courses, videos and many other teaching methods can help you get started, but only if you make use of what you have learned. Don’t procrastinate, saying that you’ll take action once you’ve finished this online marketing course, or finished the 128 books that you bought, or listened to the 76 teleseminars. You’ll learn more in your first year of business from just doing, putting yourself out there and running your business is the best teacher. Information is wonderful, but it is nothing without action.
1. A bad attitude
If you have a bad attitude about your business, everyone else will too, and vice-versa. Every contact you have whether they are a visitor to your website, in person, or on Twitter and Facebook will know how you view your company. How do you know if you have a bad attitude?
• If there are long lapses between your posting.
• If you haven’t released a new product or service in the last six months.
• If you blame poor business on difficult customers.
• If you complain about how complicated business is and how all the successful people must’ve had contacts in the correct places.
• If you’re astonished that after six months you are not both rich and famous because you anticipated being an overnight success.
2. Marketing not to a niche, but to a demographic.
A fantastic definition of a niche is “a group of people with a common problem who assemble together”. So what is not a niche? Small business owners, copywriters, freelancers, work at home parents, women over 40, or men after retirement are not niches but demographics that people commonly market to. If they share a common problem, then they are considered a niche. The solution is to examine the problem in you niche so that you can solve it and figure out where your niche assembles so that you can market specifically to them. It is ironic to learn that your marketing will be more successful the narrower your niche is. Scrutinize your current marketing plan, figure out if you’re are in fact targeting a niche or a demographic and then narrow down your message to a common interior problem that you can solve exclusively.
3. Appearing to be a tightwad.
It is simple to set up business online these days. Start off with a Wordpress.com or Blogger site, pick up some clip art graphics, outsource a logo and website header to the lowest bidder, get free business cards from site like Vistaprint, and compose a quick newsletter list from your Outlook. This may sound like a good idea, but instead you just come off looking shameful. The impression you are then giving to visitors and potential clients is that you have no money, are unprofessional, and cheap. If you must pinch pennies, there are some things that you can do for free or low-cost that will not grab notice, but you’re website is not one of them. Of course you do not need to bankrupt yourself creating a website, just be sure that it has an organized, professional look, is simply to navigate and creates a web presence that makes you appear worth your cost.
4. Neglecting to secure visitor details.
You have a customer visit your site, who then looks around, reads a few articles, then leaves. They like the site and would definitely come back, but never do because they lose the url or simply get too busy. Then they’re lost forever. By not securing visitor details, such as a name and email address, they’re losing customers. Set up a way for them to keep in touch, offering an incentive, such as an ebook or valuable free report, in exchange for details. MailChimp is free up to 500 subscribers if money is tight in the beginning and you can build your newsletter up from there. By losing one visitor you aren’t losing just one potential customer, you are also losing all the referrals that they could have given to you, and once they leave, they’re gone forever.
5. Neglecting to plan long term.
It’s easy to think that business plans are for large business, and for when your need to visit the bank for capital, but this is incorrect. By not planning you’ll impulsively buy the next great marketing technique and jump from one idea to the next and then question why nothing works out for you. How will you know when you’re reached what you’ve been aiming for without a solid plan? It is not necessary to have pages upon pages of incomprehensible financial projections, budgets and legal jargon, but at the very least you need to know what the goals for your business are, who you are marketing to, and what makes you unique from every other business out there. If you do not have a plan, you will not have a business.
6. All learning, no action.
Information is great; ebooks, courses, videos and many other teaching methods can help you get started, but only if you make use of what you have learned. Don’t procrastinate, saying that you’ll take action once you’ve finished this online marketing course, or finished the 128 books that you bought, or listened to the 76 teleseminars. You’ll learn more in your first year of business from just doing, putting yourself out there and running your business is the best teacher. Information is wonderful, but it is nothing without action.
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