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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.
There is often talk about “brand values” and “protecting/building a brand”, but what is a “brand” in today’s digital economy. And is it just the result of good design work?
Seth Godin’s definition from a recent blog post is :
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer. “
He argues that a brand’s value is merely the sum total of how much extra people will pay, or how often they choose, the expectations, memories, stories and relationships of one brand over the alternatives.
No mention of design. A brand used to be a logo or design or packaging. But in today’s world, these often just mark a brand’s existence.
A company’s online presence and reputation can help to build and support a brand’s value.
To understand more about how effective use of the internet can help your brand, call WSI today on 01928 787026.
Email marketing has traditionally been one of the cost-effective and powerful ways to communicate with a network of contacts and nurture the relationship.
With the growing adoption by businesses of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, many companies have shifted focus away from email marketing.
But the two channels can and should be working together.
Email marketing can encourage social media membership, while the social media can be used to promote email sign-ups.
It is important to establish and promote different roles for the two channels. Typically email marketing can be more targeted and exclusive, as you can gather demographic data as part of the sign-up process. So valuable content can be shared with a selected audience e.g. seasonal sales vouchers.
Social media membership is typically a lot broader and probably less well qualified. Involvement and shared content can encourage interaction with the company website, email sign-ups etc.
If you would like to understand more about how email marketing and social media can benefit your business, call WSI on 01928 787026
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