Internet Marketing Toronto - Ignite!

Do You Have an Online Marketing Strategy?

“Do you have an Online Marketing Strategy? I ask this question every time I talk to potential customers or current customers who are asking about our new products.  Many times the answers I receive are centered around an attempt to appear there was some thought put towards this subject, but after a couple more questions, it is quite evident they clearly do not have one and eventually admit what I already know.  They do not have one and haven’t thought about it.  It is one thing to throw around buzz words like SEO, PPC and Social Media, but with no plan on how these great tools can be utilized companies will continue to foolishly exhaust resources on aimless campaigns.

Creating a strategy with set goals that are in-line with current demographics and target markets is very important to establishing credibility online.  As we all know the importance of bringing your business online is paramount as you establish a new customer base, or expand on a current one.  The advantage of online marketing vs. traditional methods, is that online can be fixed very quickly and as a result, the campaign can go in a different direction quickly and very economically.  However, without a plan in place from the beginning to accommodate the potential change in direction, and by the time you react, you may have lost that segment of the market that is primed for it.

Next week, I will talk about putting together an effective strategy. For now ask yourself what is your online marketing strategy, and if you don’t have one, when will you take your note pad out and start jotting some ideas down.  I think you will be surprised once you start thinking about a strategy how important it will be.  Good Luck!”

YAY…a lead came through on my website!

{{stephanie}} We all get a little ping of excitement when a lead comes in through our website via a contact form or email. How do these leads get handled? Let’s break down what SHOULD happen!

So a visitor comes to your site and they decide that they are going to fill out the contact form. Exciting, right? It should be. A lot of people see that lead in their inbox and leave it until they finish their work for the day. Until the end of the day!!!?

That is the BIGGEST mistake you can make. With our competitor’s being as accessible online as we are; nothing can be left to chance. As soon as those leads come in…RESPOND! Below I have included a short top 5 list that breaks down the absolute do’s and don’t’s when receiving an online lead.

#1: Respond right away. It is extremely important that you respond to that lead immediately. If the lead came in after hours than it should be the first thing you address when you get back in the office the next morning.

#2: Call. If the person that filled out the form entered a phone number…call it first. Do not email and hope to get a reply, call immediately! A phone call is not only more personal but more likely to receive a favourable response form the prospective customer.

#3: Try again. If the person’s voice mail came up; leave a message letting them know you will be calling back and call back. Many times people give up on the first try and lose the opportunity.

#4: Be prepared. Make sure that you read the information that the contact left in the form they filled out. Sometimes you can gather their problem, concerns and even company. If a company name is left, don’t be afraid to Google them and learn a bit more. Make this a very brief background check lasting no more than 5-10 minutes as you will learn more in the discovery process on the phone.

#5: Don’t be afraid to qualify. Leads that come through the contact form are great but not all will be perfectly suited to your ideal clientele. Make it a priority in the first minute of your call to identify whether this person could be a potential client. Ask criteria based questions; such as: budget, target market, goals, etc. Don’t be afraid to be honest upfront…you don’t want to waste your time or the time of the person inquiring about your services.

The internet is a fast growing, inexpensive and effective place to generate leads but if they aren’t properly followed up with, opportunity losses are great. Track how many leads are contacted and the progress of the lead; see if they result in a sale, missed opportunity, possible new business, etc. Not only will you be able to keep track of the lead but you will also identify the actions that you took at different stages of the process.

~S

Don’t Waste Your Search Engine Marketing Efforts - Apply These 17 Conversion Principles And Generate Leads and Sales

Over the years we’ve had a chance to systematically test and prove many different conversion principles. Today we’re sharing them all with you so that you can benefit from all of this research!

Search engine optimization is a means to an end. That being the delivery of qualified traffic to your site. All that new traffic is wasted if you can’t convert it into leads or sales. Since our clients tend to judge us on how much we help grow their business vs. how many keywords we get them ranked for we’ve spent a lot of time working out strong conversion techniques for sites. Here is the list that we use when producing or maintaining our clients sites from a search engine optimization perspective.

1. Include the phone number in the top right corner of the banner on every page. If possible, use a call tracking service such as Who Called?
2. Use a �Click To Call� feature on the phone number. Let’s face it, web visitors are motivated by convenience and nifty things, and click to call fills both of those needs.
3. In the top banner and on every page include the value proposition for the visitor
4. Create strong calls to action in key scanning points on the home page. For example, give away something for free to get their contact information. Once you have their contact info you’re much more likely to sell them something over the phone!
5. Provide a short privacy statement on each form. This should be linked to a PIPEDA compliant privacy statement for us Canadians, or the equivalent in the US, or abroad. At the very least provide a “privacy” link to your privacy statement immediately next to the submit button of any form.
6. Also, provide point of action assurances as necessary. This includes the privacy statement on forms � but could also include a re assurance as to why a visitor should call, or complete a form and that you�ll respect their privacy, and meet their objectives.
7. Use Email Marketing to re assure users after they�ve converted. Send them a confirmation email (HTML) that confirms their submission was made, and that your team will follow up accordingly. Include any �next step� information which may be required by the user. Make them feel special.
8. Provide a contact form on the contact us page which has the following properties
   • Client and server side validation (server side if possible)
   • Mentions the privacy statement
   • Asks customer comments first, then collects personal contact information
   • Limits the number of fields to only those absolutely necessary. Additional information can be collected after contact with the prospect has been made
9. Include a site map for visitors
10. Include a �home� button in the main navigation bar (make current pages in active on the nav bar)
11. Ensure that copy is just the right length to explain the products, services and value propositions for the reader, and not any longer.
12. Use inline text navigation (anchor text) to allow the reader to follow the desired path through the website while reading the copy, and then take the ultimate step of converting to a lead by submitting a contact form, or calling from whichever page they decide to convert on! Don’t make them hunt for your contact information.
13. Use pictures of people - it humanizes your business and warms people up to your services.
14. Use an H1 tag on every page and break up copy using H2 tags. This improves the �scanability� of each page allowing the user to determine if they want to bother reading the page. It’s also good SEO practice.
15. Include all certifications, accreditations, association logos, etc. on the site and repeat them on every page perhaps in the footer, or header.
16. Remove the “Reset” button from all of your forms. Why give the user one more convenient way not to convert!
17. Always construct each page with the four types of traffic in mind. Note: we did not define the visitor types but cam across them in our research. If anyone knows who did, please comment and let us know. We’ll add the credits (with a link) to this post.
    • Visitors who know exactly what they want are looking for facts.
    • Those with a need but not all of the answers and are looking for facts but also reassurance.
    • Window Shoppers � those visitors who are simply looking for information which they may or may not act on in the future
    • The lost � visitors who would up on the site by mistake. Let them know they are in the wrong place as soon as possible � this happens naturally if you�ve done the above correctly.

Don’t waste search engine marketing efforts by not maximizing your opportunity to convert all of that traffic! If you take the time to implement these conversion principles we are convinced you’ll see an increase in conversions. Good luck and we hope this information helps you grow your business!

Harness The Sales Power of LinkedIn and Jigsaw

The Savvy Selling Podcast just released an episode on how sales people can make the most out of LinkedIn and JiggSaw. In the episode Michelle Nichols interviews Jigsaw CEO and co-founder Jim Fowler and Scott Allen, co-author of “The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online,”. Both guests provide some fantastic information about these two web platforms, and how as sales people you can get the most out of them.

If you want to find out more, I suggest you listen to this episode of the Savvy Selling podcast.

“When Deals Go Bad” - Michelle Nichols Speaks with Dan Seidman on the Savvy Selling Podcast

One of my favorite podcasts to listen to is the Savvy Selling podcast from Business Week. I was catching up on some back episodes and caught this one about Deals Gone Bad. The host Michelle Nichols speaks with Dan Seidman who has a collected over 600 examples of when sales deals have gone bad. They don’t review them all of course, but the few gems that Dan gives in the episode are worth listening to.

Not only are these situations funny - and we all like to laugh at ourselves, of course, but they are also spectacular examples to learn from. Believe me - you’ll learn from them! Have a listen to this episode and see if you can put this valuable advice to work with your sales team.

When Deals Go Bad - A Savvy Selling Podcast from Business Week

Sales 101 - Return a Prospects Call!

So this posting does not really have anything to do with search engine optimization or internet marketing. However, it is all about basic sales skills and these are necessary after you get the lead from your on line marketing. Recently, we have had a few calls from prospects looking for internet marketing services who were so thrilled that we called them back after they completed our contact forms. Did you get that - they were thrilled that we called them back! Apparently other SEO firms out there are collecting leads, but not returning calls. What a disasterous thing to be doing. So there you have it. A basic sales skill. When some one wants to purchase your services - you have to call them back.

Why is this important beyond the basic reason of collecting their business? If you start off by treating them properly and service them well - they will likely be a good source of referals for you!

Please, the next time you get a lead, be sure to follow up on it completely and in a timely fashion.