What Is The Purpose Of Your Website?
Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
More specifically, where do you see your website in a year from now? What do you need it to achieve this year?
If you can’t answer these questions then please take down your website.
In the last month, I have had too many conversations with companies that own a series of all Flash mini sites that attract zero visitors. Not only do they have no visitors, but they have no goal. They were created by marketing teams with ‘great ideas’ but no follow through.
Please stop and think about your website. What is the purpose? What is the purpose of your blog? Who is your target market? What are your goals?
The Golden Rule Of Marketing: Make It Easy
Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
We live in an environment with a ridiculous amount of calls to action. The internet is full of websites asking users to buy, download, subscribe, or donate and it leaves the us with decision paralysis and ultimately causes us to leave without doing anything.
For example, in the last couple of weeks the Red Cross has had a campaign that allows people to text Haiti to 90999 if they want to donate $10 to the Red Cross. They do all of the heavy lifting for you. If I want to donate $10, I no longer have to drive to a Red Cross branch or log into their website and enter all of my critical information. I just have to text them, so easy.
On websites, each page should have a single call to action. When users finish reading an article, what are they supposed to do next? Subscribe? Read more articles? Go to a product page? Make sure that their call to action simple to understand, and easy to follow. This usually means that they should be a SINGLE click away from their next destination.
Add Video To The Internet Marketing Mix
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
Video is an interesting subject when it comes to Internet marketing. Rumor has it that video is expensive, time consuming and unnecessary. False.
Some of the most popular videos on the Internet have been filmed with camcorders, flip cameras, or webcams. Take Matt Cutts for example. Matt is an employee of Google who posts a series of short videos targeted towards webmasters. These videos give useful information on how to optimize your website for Google without breaking any of the rules. Here is an example of one of the videos:
As you can see, there isn’t a lot of production value:
- Lighting: None
- Teleprompter: None
- Microphone: Crappy lapel mic
- Camera: Probably a consumer level camcorder
- Editing Required: None – No titles, no music, no powerpoint
- Views: 86,000+
Sure promotional videos that have bigger budgets can be catchier on your website, but content should come first. You need to provide valuable content to your visitor.
What are the benefits of adding video?
- Trust – People love people. Websites without pictures or video can make visitors hesitant to become customers.
- Message - I am a terrible writer. I know this, and if you have read my website then you will also know this. With video you get to explain things in the style that you are used to communicating. You can use tone in your voice to communicate messages that do not translate onto paper.
- Get Attention – La de dah, normal looking website, scroll, click, scroll, click. LOOK IT’S A VIDEO – I think I’ll watch it. Get the point? Videos gain attention, they will increase the time on site and make the visitor more satisfied.
- Additional Touchpoints – YouTube is the second largest search engine. If people are looking for videos on a certain subject they will just go to YouTube and search for it. If you don’t have any videos, you will be missing out on this huge opportunity for exposure.
Keyword Analysis – Kiss
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
We are 19 days into 2010 and a lot of companies have set new goals that are elaborate and time consuming. I would just like to remind everyone about the KISS method: Keep it simple, stupid.
This applies to everything, but in my world, it applies to Internet marketing – and today I am talking about keyword research.
When you are doing a keyword analysis for a website there is no need to build a list that is hundreds of words long. Most websites only warrant a keyword list that is 10-15 keywords long. When you add too many keywords it dilutes the focus of your website and makes it harder to achieve any of your goals.
Don’t Aim For Third Place In 2010
Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
Sure you will make the podium, and you will probably be considered one of the better companies in your market, but why are you only aiming for third place? I don’t think for a second that companies like Google, Zappos, and Amazon are thinking that they will be anything less than 1st place in the 2010.
I have several clients who are consistently 3/4th place in their markets for their Internet marketing campaigns. At their 2010 strategy meetings they are planning single digit market share growth to only maintain their position and revenue.
Why do these companies plan on being third? Why are they content with where they are at? They aren’t far enough behind the competition be totally out of the game, it is just a matter of priorities. They could easily have the budget to compete for SERP real estate but they don’t really seem to care.
When it comes to SEO 101, they “can’t” implement title tags, h1 tags, or add unique content to their pages. “Maybe next year, how about spring 2011?”. Why is this so hard for companies with multi-million dollar marketing budgets to make simple changes to their websites?
They hire a marketing agencies the same way that sports fans hire a trainer at the gym. It sounds really good to have a trainer and shows people that you are trying to get better, but this doesn’t fix the problem. If you don’t actually go to the gym it doesn’t make much sense having a trainer now does it?
Internet Marketing News – January 11-17
Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media
Here are some interesting Internet marketing articles that I found last week. Enjoy!
Internet Marketing Articles
- Single vs Double Opt-In – Have you ever wondered if you should have single or double opt-ins for your email campaign? This article helps to clear the air.
- Is Your Brand Built On Mirrors or Core Values? – Very inspiring article from Outspoken Media about creating remarkable core values for your business and living them.
- How Do You Get Your Arms Around the ‘Brave New World’ of B2B Marketing? Where Do You Start? – Great post by Adam Needles about where to start with B2B marketing.
SEO Articles
- 7 Overlooked Sources of Keyword Data – Here is a great article with several unique ways of conducting keyword research
Social Media Articles
- The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration – Great article for companies who are asking “where do I start with social media”.
- Social Media’s Halo Effect on Organic Search – Pretty interesting article on how tweeting about a haircut increased organic traffic.
- Social Media Predictions for 2010 – Good post by Scott Monty (Ford Social Media) about upcoming trends.
Getting Started With Internet Marketing
Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is a great way to raise the visibility of your company and products. Many companies can get overwhelmed with the amount of work that is involved with Internet marketing and ask the question “Where should I start?”.
I have written this article to answer that question, and I hope that it will give you some ideas for your company. Here are some easy ways that you can get started with Internet marketing.
- Create a website – This may sound obvious, but you would be suprised at how many companies still don’t have websites.
- Test your website - Have a small sample of your target demographic into your office to test the new website. Are they finding the information that they need? Is there anything missing? Is the sit navigation intuitive?
- Get your website ranking – Get your website ranked on search engines for keywords that your target market is using to search for your products. This is known as Search Engine Optimization.
- Email Marketing – Start collecting email addresses from website visitors. Give them a reason to sign up for your email list and use it to send them updates on products and market trends.
- Content Development – Publish articles and news stories on your website or blog.
- Press Releases – Publish timely and accurate press releases. This is often the first thing that gets neglected, but it can really increase your website visibility.
- Interact With Website Visitors – Respond to comments on your blog, search for your company name on Google and Twitter and respond to people who are talking about you.
If you have any questions about this article, or have any other questions, please submit your Internet marketing questions so I can help you.
The Interplay Of Search & Social
Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing, Social Media
Here is a keynote from the Search Insider Summit. I found it very interesting.
Spam Comments – Are They Even Trying?
Posted on 16. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
Seriously, is this guy even trying? Someone added a post on my Internet marketing blog telling me that I should use him for keyword optimization… Weak!
This guy should either be strengthening his algorithm for finding blogs or should be giving better instructions to his outsourcing partner overseas. #commentfail
I visited their blog and posted a couple links to this post to let them know how much I appreciate their spammy comments. I noticed the exact same comment spam on a couple other blogs that I manage.
Webinar: What Would Happen If You Turned Off PPC For A Month
Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
Enquiro has just announced its latest webiner: The Opportunity Cost of PPC
In this webinar, Enquiro will be sharing a case study with one of its clients, YouSendIt.
YouSendIt’s Director of Product Marketing, Angela Sanfilippo, will explain what happened when they turned off their PPC campaign for a month. In this 30 minute case study Enquiro and YouSendIt will discuss:
- Improved SEM performance through proper segmentation of campaigns
- The importance of nurturing a lead
- Demonstrating the value of search interally
To register visit the Enquiro Webinar Registration page.