The Importance of Good Web Design

Designing a website that will attract and appeal to your ideal customer requires the successful execution of several factors. You not only have to get the attention of your target audience, but you also have to grab the attention of the major search engines – or you will be missing out on a rich source of traffic.

As you prepare to design – or redesign – your website, keep the following questions in mind.

• How will I attract people to my website?
• How can I best appeal to my prospective customers?
• How will I convert these prospects into clients once they reach my website?

To accomplish this you will need to build a site that looks good, is easy to use, has well written copy, and also has search engine friendly design features. Sounds like a tall order?

Achieving the Right Look for Your Website
If your website looks poorly designed, you might get people to visit but they'll turn away in droves once they are unable to navigate your content with ease. Resources allocated to achieving an aesthetically pleasing and professional looking web presence is money well spent.

An experienced, competent web designer will not only keep the look and feel right, but will also design a site that will capture viewers, help you to convert them, and be search engine friendly.

Learn About What Your Customers Like
Before your designer puts ‘pen to paper', do some market research. Who are your customers? What do they like? What age group are they? What is their geographical location, sex, and hobbies? Each background demographic will have an influence on how successful your design will be in attracting and converting people.

Get to know your audience and give them what they want. If you need help, look for inspiration on successful sites in your field. What do they do that works well? How might you improve on it?

Key Design Features
One of the best ways to make your website more successful is by making it distinct, appealing, relevant, and accessible. Consider the following vital design elements:

• Branding – Your website should reflect your company's image.
• Colours – Select a colour scheme that will appeal to your target audience.
• Images – Choosing the right pictures can be a great way to tell a story without words.
• Content Layout – Prioritise your messages and layout your content accordingly.
• Considerate Navigation – Make your content easy to access, from anywhere on your site.
• Animations – Moving images can really help, but remember, less is sometimes more.

In conclusion, keep in mind that first impressions count, and that setting up a sleek, well-designed, website will help ensure your company is taken seriously. Ultimately, your website should not only look impressive, it should also help you attract, appeal to and convert new customers. If you would like to review the effectiveness of your website design, call us on 01488 72281.

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10 Techniques to Power Up PPC Ads

Pay per click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used by search engines and websites where advertisers pay only when a consumer clicks through on their ad to visit their website. Typically a PPC ad is based on keywords designed specifically to reach a designated target market.

Done right, PPC marketing provides an instant source of targeted traffic and can boost sales in a cost-effective way, helping you to improve your Internet return on investment (ROI).

Why Pay Per Click Marketing?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is great for free traffic, but sometimes it can take time to rank well for the keywords that are most relevant to your business. Even if you are ranked well for your keywords, your PPC ads can reinforce your branding and drive even more traffic to your site.

A well devised PPC marketing campaign will enable you to target potential customers who are looking specifically for your service – and can pay for itself many times over.

Best Practice PPC Ad Techniques
There are several ways to maximize your PPC marketing efforts, including the right keyword selection, organising the campaign in to ad groups, landing page preparations and the all important ad copy. Here are ten best practice ad copy techniques sure to boost your PPC campaign.

1. Use power words such as "exposed," "secret," "guaranteed," "shocking," or "incredible" in your ads to capture the attention of the viewer.
2. For ongoing improvement to your copy, test two ads simultaneously in order to evaluate and improve on each ad's effectiveness.
3. Focus on the benefits of the product rather than the features.
4. Use a strong call to action like "act now" or "contact us for a free report."
5. Use the keyword in the ad's headline.
6. Capitalise The First Letter of Each Word.
7. Include a question in the ad.
8. Use abbreviations (and keep a thesaurus handy) in order to make the most of the limited characters.
9. Consider using time sensitive offers to convey urgency in your call to action.
10. Try to stand out from your competition by offering something they cannot or by using a more exciting approach to attract click-throughs.

Remember that the goal is to get a viewer to click on your ad, not to sell the product with the ad. Let your landing page sell the product once they click on your website link.

Most importantly, keep a careful eye on your PPC marketing campaign and regularly look at the reports to evaluate how your ads are performing. Track the conversion rate and cost per conversion of each advertisement to make sure you're getting your money's worth.

It will take some time, along with some careful tracking and study to determine what works best, so most of all be patient. If you would like help with your PPC marketing campaign, call us on 01488 72281.

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Email Campaigns that Really Click

Engaging with customers via social media platforms has become the shiny new star in the online marketing world. This doesn't mean that tried and tested marketing methods such as email is dead. In fact, email content still leads to more purchases, subscriptions, and other types of conversions than social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

While social media is changing the internet landscape, email is still the preferred and most effective method of reaching consumers with online promotions and branding messages. It is also one of the most popular ways consumers like to share information with friends or family, with share activity rates for people using email of over 46%.

Making Over Your Email Marketing
The lagging economy has boosted rather than hindered the success of email marketing. Marketers are continuing to increase their investment in building email lists and honing their email marketing efforts, and still find it to be a cost effective tool for reaching existing and potential customers, and in getting the best return on investment for their marketing budget.

So how can you cash in on the power of email marketing? Here are some tips:

Segment Your List
When you first start email marketing, you'll most likely send the same messages and offers to everyone on the list. This is fine when your list is small but as it grows, you'll want to begin tailoring your message to the specific tastes and needs of each individual person on your list.

Segmenting, or separating and categorising the members on your list according to factors such as age, hobbies, sex, or click history will help you to maximise the efficiency of your messages and the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Design an Effective Email
Design your email using a combination of plain text and graphics. A well crafted design will not only effectively convey your brand, it will also help direct readers to the main promotional offers and demonstrate their appeal.

When preparing your design, keep in mind the increasing number of people checking their emails from mobile devices. Ideally, your message should be just as easily read – and actioned – on the go.

Take Time Over the Copy
Your email copy should be an extension of your company's ‘online persona'. Use a tone that your customers will relate to and try to build trust with your readers.

As well as achieving the right tone of voice, use action words that describe how your product or website can solve a unique problem or provide a useful service.

Use a Strong Call to Action
A call to action is simply an eye catching offer or selling phrase that will draw people to your website after they read your email. You can use price as a call to action and offer a huge discount, great rate or time sensitive promotions.

The call to action needs to be short and concise, leaving the reader in no doubt what to do to take the next step. Keep in mind that your call to action will have a lot of competition. Identify your strengths in order to make your offers stand out from your competitors.

Bringing it All Together
Once you have created an effective email list, segmented it, and designed email messages that work, you should make sure that the landing page on your website is also attractive and will convert visitors into customers – but that's a whole new article.

Finally, track conversions carefully to determine which call to action links are creating the most conversions. Tracking the effectiveness of your campaigns will enable you to adjust your efforts accordingly. If you would like help improving your email marketing activities, call us on 01488 72281.

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Can You Ignore Social Media Marketing?

If you follow the news it's no secret that social media is big right now and it's growing fast. Facebook, for example, boasts 350 million users worldwide and grew 145% in 2009, according to their own reports. Because of this tremendous growth and potential, businesses are speeding to gain a social media presence in droves.

Large corporations, all the way down to small and medium businesses are finding that social media provides a great medium for marketing, brand identity, and for interacting with customers and prospects. If your business already uses the Internet or email for marketing, then you should be using social media as well.

Why You Should Bother With Social Media Marketing
Social media isn't going anywhere in 2010, it will continue to have a major impact on the way we use the web. There are several good reasons for your business to add social media to the marketing mix:

It's Inexpensive and Easy
It doesn't cost anything to get started. Sure, you can spend money for advertising on social media if you like, but you aren't required to spend a penny in order to reap the benefits that social media marketing can bring to your business. These benefits include:

• Targeted marketing
• Increased brand awareness and brand building
• Improved public relations
• Connecting with customers on a more social level
• Customer service
• Polling and surveying
• Customer feedback functions.

To get started, all you need to do is set up your profile on a social networking platform such as Facebook or Twitter. Then tell the public about your sites through your existing marketing efforts such as your website, print, direct mail, or email to get people to follow you or become your fan.

A word of caution, however, ease of use shouldn't equate to diving in with little preparation. A measured approach is recommended, including establishing your objectives, observing how are your customers are already using social media and then adopting the right personality for your business.

Your Customers are Probably Already Using It
Social media is growing quickly, proving itself as a major means of communications for all age groups. Chances are, the people you want to reach are right there. Purchasing decisions are being influenced more and more these days by public opinion, including blogs, websites, and you guessed it – social media.

Whether it's via video, forums, blogs, dedicated review sites or social networking, consumers are using the internet to research products, look for the best deals, the greatest bargains, and the highest level of customer service. Getting involved in ‘the conversation' can be an invaluable opportunity to be an influence.

Keep Your Finger on the Pulse
Social media offers opportunities for businesses and individuals never before dreamed of. Consumer information that once took the form of costly surveys, focus groups, or scientific studies can now be done via free polls on social networks.

Feedback that once took days or weeks to receive can now be viewed instantly. And responses to customer feedback can in turn be given to the public in real time. Companies can now find out what the public is saying about them and respond immediately to repair or maintain their brand identity.

Websites Alone Are No Longer Enough
If you currently rely on your website to create sales or get leads for your business, you're going to have to branch out into social media.

Social media marketing can help to drive more people to your site and is a great addition to a marketing mix that already includes other internet marketing such as search engine optimisation, email marketing, blogging or paid search ads. Successful web marketing lies with a good balance of all of these methods.

If you would like help creating a workable social media marketing plan for your business, call us today on 01488 72281.

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