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Ask most people running a business whether they focus on activity or results, and most will be results-orientated. They measure things like profit.
So it was interesting and disturbing to read a recent survey published in eMarketer of senior marketing executives in the US. They were asked which web site measurements or metrics were of most interest to them.
59% said ‘return on investment’, ‘conversion rate’ and similar results-focused measures were least important, but ranked ‘time on site’ and ‘unique page views’ as most important. They thought ‘ website engagement’ of more interest that ‘website results’!
Perhaps its lack of knowledge, but those Execs are missing the biggest benefit of internet marketing over traditional marketing of being able to directly measure and drive business results.
If you would like to avoid the mistakes of these Executives and get your website focused on delivering business results, please contact WSI. We aim to provide the best internet marketing and SEO services in Cheshire.
All marketing activities are usually aimed at one of four groups of people, according to a recent post from Seth Godin:
- Strangers – customers to be, but not yet
- Critics – those that would speak ill of you, or need to be converted
- Friends – those that might have given permission, or even buy now and then
- Fans – members of your tribe, supporters and insiders
As Seth pointed out, you can’t please all the groups at the same time. Also most marketers lean towards a default style of working – many focus on ’strangers’ looking for new prospects and neglect their ‘friends’.
Yet it is often easier to get more business from an existing client, than find a new client.
Traditional internet marketing techniques such as SEO, Adwords, email marketing, are very effective for reaching and communicating with both friends and strangers. Now social media gives businesses the capability to engage in dialogue with both fans and critics.
To get internet marketing and the social media working hard for your business, give WSI a call on 01928 787026.
Do you want to start using the Social Media to help your business, but don’t know what, where or how to start? Confused by Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Digging and blogging?
Then this is the workshop for you!
WSI are hosting a half day Social Media workshop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Chester on February 23rd.
It is aimed at local business owners and directors, entrepreneuers, sales and marketing managers. In fact, anyone who needs to understand more about getting results from the Social Media.
For full details and to register, visit bit.ly/Socialmedia23rdFeb
The workshop fee is £75+vat, and includes your copy of WSI’s Social Media Strategy kit.
No technical skills needed, just an interest in getting business results!
While you are proud of your company and think its products and services are great, most customers only care about how well you can help them with their wants and needs.
Your website therefore needs to engage with them, and be focused upon their needs. And the words you use on your website will make all the difference.
Are you talking mostly about them and their needs or are you talking mostly about yourself?
I came across a great free tool which analyses the words on a web page and determines whether they are focused on the customer…….or you!
Give it a try at http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm . You may be surprised by the results.
For help and advice on refocusing the content and structure of your website to improve the results you receive, call (01928 787026) or contact WSI today.
One of the often heard concerns about the use of social media by business is “How do I know its working?”.
A very valid concern as the traditional web analytics methods can only really measure activity on your own website.
However there are now a wide variety of new tools and services available to allow companies and their marketing consultants to monitor the social media and to measure the “buzz” surrounding a brand name, product and keyphrases.
Now, the effectiveness of social media campaigns can be tracked and measured.
Some tools are free, such as -
Google Alerts – emails updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Social Mention – for one-off keyword searches, it provides results from blogs, twitter (microblogs), video, comments, bookmarks, news, events etc. and includes information such as Sentiment, Top Keywords, Top users and Sources. A lot of useful information at a glance.
However the bulk of the social media monitoring tools are chargeable based on access and usage. These offer much more sophisticated data collection and analysis across a wide variety of keywords, with comprehensive dashboard and reporting facilities.
If effective use of the social media is part of your marketing plans for 2010, we can advise you on the tools available and provide a regular social media monitoring and reporting service for your business. Call us today on 01928 787026
Are you planning to implement a social media strategy for your business?
To help your company get started in 2010 with Social Media, WSI has created a Social Media Strategy Kit, that contains best practices, checklists, templates, tools and resources.
Using the Social Media Strategy Kit will enable you to:
- Educate yourself and your staff on social media
- Ensure social media policies and guidelines are established
- Ensure your brand is protected and consistent
- Create a social presence and community
- Utilise social media in your PR endeavours
- Measure your social activities
- Monitor your online brand reputation
- Establish a digital crisis management strategy for social damage control
To operate in today’s highly competitive economy, successful companies benefit from using the latest digital media and technologies. Using the social media, you can monitor what customers are saying about your brand online, but more importantly, use these tools to create and develop positive conversations around your brand.
If making use of the social media is part of your company’s plans for 2010, contact WSI today for advice and guidance on implementing an effective social media strategy, and secure your personal copy of the WSI Social Media Strategy Kit.
Early in December, Google quietly announced that ‘Personalized Search’ results will now be the default for all users.
Previously this was only available to logged-in Google users based on their web history.
According to Google :
“This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser. It’s completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users). You’ll know when we customize results because a “View customizations” link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how we’ve customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization.”
The impact of this is that the Google search results seen be an individual browser will now be influenced by that user’s previous searching habits and history.
Search results will no longer be ‘largely’ universal as different searchers will see different results. One person’s #1 search result could be another’s #21, depending upon their searching history!
Does this mean SEO is dead? No!
Personalized Search is designed to deliver the most relevant search results to each individual user. So traditional SEO techniques are still important:
- Make pages accessible and easy to use
- Target with keywords that your target searchers will use
- Build unique content that users will find useful and valuable
- Build in-bound links from good sources
In addition, as Google is now specifically looking at site visitors and traffic, then increased focus on building brand and site loyalty and generating return visits will be very beneficial.
The potential is that Personalized Search will deliver higher quality searchers to your site, i.e. those more likely to be interested in your content and so more likely to convert to clients. Time will tell.
The one certainty is that search ranking reports will become a less useful tool for measuring site effectiveness and reach, and that a much broader range of visitor analytic data will be needed to monitor the impact of a site.
If you would like to discuss the optimisation of your website for the new world of Personalized Search, call WSI on 01928 787026.
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