Category Archives: Small Business Online Marketing Strategies

Marketing your small business online can be an effective way to market your products and services.  It can also be an enormous waste of time and effort, especially if you are using the wrong online marketing strategies

First, your design, writing, and offer all have to work together.  Poor copywriting, bad design, and painful user interfaces can all drive away your hard-won traffic. Using social media to shout at people can also drive people away (instead of drawing them in).

Get tips on the right way to write for the web. It’s different than writing for print and you may have to toss out some of the rules you learned back in school.

Small businesses make plenty of other online marketing mistakes, such as using too much jargon, or concentrating too much on a pretty design, instead of usability. Hard to use designs are just as bad. If visitors can’t use your site, they will leave.

And, of course, there’s landing pages.  Landing pages are your 24/7 sales team.  They’ve got to answer all the questions you can’t answer in person.  If they’re not working, neither are your sales (or your profits).  Learn the most common landing page goofs and how to correct them.

How to Survive the Ezine Crash

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Giant panda

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Do you post your articles to Ezine Articles, Article Alley, or other similar sites?

If you’re not familiar with them, they are content sites that allow you to post articles on nearly any subject you choose.  Ezine in particular has standards in place for minimum levels of quality and all articles are reviewed before they go live on the site.

The idea is that you get more visibility, because the site gets lots of traffic.  In return, you can place a resource box at the end, with a link back to your own site.  In addition, readers are allowed to repost your articles on their own sites, as long as they keep all the links and author profile intact.  It’s supposed to help your work spread.

Here comes Google and “Panda”

The panda in the picture may look cute and cuddly, but its Google namesake is giving lots of webmasters and marketers headaches. Google’s Panda update just changed how their algorithm works.   They want unique content, not words that have been repeated all over the web.  This has hit Ezine (and sites like it) pretty hard.

Quantcast estimates that their traffic has dropped by nearly one million readers in the last month. Ouch!

Google’s algorithm can change at any time.  We can’t control it.  What we can do is take a different approach.

Go direct

Use other blogs to gain exposure.  Write guest posts on your topic.  Most bloggers will let you add a resource box (like ezine does) at the end of your article – with a link to your own site.  Don’t write a sales pitch.  Give them something useful.

Sign up for HARO and get free publicity by responding to reporters’ queries in  your area of expertise.  Or, post a query of your own.  This can also be a good source of blog post ideas.  Follow up with the people who answer your question (they might guest post, or even become clients).

Use social media such as Twitter or Facebook or SnapChat to build your own fan base. Posting in different places gives you more exposure and helps insulate you from any one algorithm or site’s idiosyncrasies.

Content Marketing Update

Content mills are hurting even more now than they were when I first wrote this. Some are trying to survive by breaking themselves into pieces with more focused, niche sites.

Content marketing is still an important part of your marketing message though.  Use guest posts, Google Plus, and other tools to expand your audience. Keep your own site clearly focused on your specific market, your specific solutions, and your audience’s needs.  Make your your site uniquely useful and interesting, and the visits will follow.

A word about duplicate content

Panda is still causing some confusion though. The duplicate content Google is worrying about isn’t what many people think it is. Google wants the most authoritative version, and they want to make sure you don’t duplicate the same information on your own site (for example selling red shoes and putting each size on a different page).

5 Simple Ways to Get Your Readers to Love You

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When I first started writing this blog, my posts were rather dry.  My newsletter too.  I knew content marketing was important (though we didn’t really use that term then), so I was dutifully writing, without really thinking too much about it and without a real b2b content marketing strategy in mind.

Dull. dull dull. Not quite as bad as sharing what color socks I’d worn for the last five days, but pretty boring.

Since I was doing b2b marketing, I was trying too hard to be professional and formal instead of personable and likable.

Nobody wants to be lectured at, or read a dry recitation of marketing advice. It has to be entertaining. Heck, I didn’t even think to add pictures. Duh. So here are five b2b content marketing tips to make  your newsletters, posts, and email marketing more interesting. Your readers will love you for it.

Make your content marketing interesting

If you want people to read what you write, start with a great headline, like “The Worst Marketing Idea Ever” or “Ten Secrets to Successful Landing Pages.” Talk to them in a conversational way.  Ask some questions about what they are struggling with. Point out your own failings, and how you compensated for them.

Add illustrations to your posts

Don’t just write text, add photos or other images to your blog posts, newsletters (if appropriate) and social media posts.  People like looking at pictures, especially of other people. Use them to draw more attention to your site. There are lots of places to get free images for your blog.

Be personal

That doesn’t mean you have to go back to your sock colors, or write six paragraphs about the terrible headache you had two days ago. It just means sharing what you’re comfortable sharing. Showing that there’s a real person behind the curtain. Talk about dumb things you did, or setbacks, and then how you got over them; like writing boring posts about your socks.

Make connections

If they leave a comment, answer it. Respond to your emails. If someone new leaves a comment, email them and thank them. Go check out their blogs.  Leave them a comment or two. Comments can also be a great source of new blog post ideas.  Either use your own comments or refer back to other blogs or posts you’ve read or commented on.

Promote your readers

If they do something you think your other readers will like, showcase it.  I’ve started writing posts about my readers’ ebooks, videos, and newsletters. If you’ve got something you’d like to share, send me an email.

Have you tried any of these?  What are you doing to make connections?

P.S. And one simple way to confuse them – forget to edit the default post ID number so your title doesn’t show! Oy!

Why Your Web Site Visits Don’t Equal Sales

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Are you having this problem?  You get lots of visits to your site, but no sales (not even clicks). Nobody seems to click on anything, or buy anything?

Someone mentioned recently that he was getting a lot of visits to every page of his site (!), but nobody was clicking, or buying anything.

He proudly showed off his AWStats (those are the stats that your web host will often include in your hosting package), showing over 1,000 monthly visits to his brand-new site, from all over the world. Great, huh?

Not so fast.

I’m getting visits, why no buyers? Why no clicks?

The problem?

The visits were robots. AWStats counts every time a robot, a spider, or other automatic web indexing tool browses your site as a visit. It’s, of course, important to have Google notice you. However, robots, and spiders don’t click (or buy anything either).

Get a truer picture of your stats

If you want a more accurate picture of your stats, there are better tools. Head over to Google and set up analytics for your site. It’s free. It will show you visits, sources, time on page, and much more.  You can even set up goals and conversions (for particular actions or pages you want people to visit (like sales page).  You’ll get a much more accurate picture of what real people are doing.

Once you’ve got stats set up, you can get a better idea of what’s going on. Look at which pages are getting traffic, then where it’s coming from, how long people stay on each page, and the bounce rate.

Is the bounce rate too high?

This could be because the information isn’t what your visitors really wanted.  I had a blog post that referenced Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone to illustrate a point about voice mail.  I kept getting visits for people looking for recordings to use for their answering machines. The traffic was high, but so was the bounce rate. My post didn’t answer my visitor’s question or fit their needs.

Traffic to the right pages

Are there specific pages you want people to read?  Products you offer, or an article about an important industry topic?  Monitor which pages draw traffic, and from where.  If all the traffic you’re getting is going to a silly post about mustaches, rather than your serious take on choosing the right app developer, you may need to adjust your marketing strategy.

Traffic from the right sources

Do search engines see your site?  Are they sending traffic?  Are your social media efforts paying off with traffic to your site? Are you visible in the right places/blogs/groups/sites with comments and articles?

Sales funnel failure

There are a number of reasons that your sales funnel can fail.  It could be that your “buy” button is hard to see. Or, maybe your sales page is difficult to read and your page design needs an overhaul.  Another possibility is that your sales page is leaking (too many distractions).  Or, it could be as simple as a broken link somewhere. Try it yourself.  Go through your sign up process or your sales process.  Or, if you’re too close to it, ask a friend to try.

Not ready to buy

There’s another possibility. You can do everything right, but still not get high sales because you’re attracting people who aren’t ready to buy.  Either they’re still in the research phase of the purchasing process or the problem they have isn’t urgent.  If they don’t need to fix it right now, they won’t buy  immediately.  You can help them along by pointing out additional resources for their problem, offering a free quick consultation, or adding a chat option so they can ask questions. This can help nudge people along in the sales process without being pushy.

My Biggest Online Marketing Mistake

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Inspired by Michael Martine’s confession, I thought I’d share my biggest online marketing mistake.

It was really dumb.  Especially considering my background.  What was it?

I fell for the RSS/subscribers blogging stuff – and didn’t put enough energy and time into building my email list.

Old direct marketing words of wisdom: ‘The money is in the list.”  In case you missed it the first time, “The money is in the list!”

Build yours.  Offer a free ebook, or a video course, or an email course.  Build that list!

Why?

Because people who trust you enough to welcome you into their email inbox (or snail mailbox in the old days), are your best source of buyers.

You “visit” them every week or every month.  They know you, they rely on you, and they trust your expertise and advice. Subscribers are far better prospects than someone clicking on a banner ad on a web site or a search result in Google. In fact, email subscribers convert far better than any other internet advertising option.

Don’t believe me?

There are three times as many email accounts as social media accounts (according to Kissmetrics, as of 2012). Not every business is on Facebook, but they all have email, and they all check it regularly.

It’s more business-oriented than Facebook or Twitter. And, you can speak to subscribers directly. You can personalize your emails with their names, their past purchases (if any), or data about their behavior.  You can’t segment Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. Plus, with Facebook’s algorithm shenanigans it’s tough to even reach your audience in the first place!

And, email marketing drives more clicks and more conversions too.

OK, your turn.  What’s your biggest online marketing mistake?


Do You Make These Common Landing Page Mistakes?

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Ever wonder why your marketing campaign isn’t doing as well as you’d like?

You’re getting plenty of visits, but nobody is signing up, or downloading.  Your conversion rate makes you want to weep.

Maybe it’s your landing page. A landing page that’s confusing, hard to read, or hard to navigate can turn a great campaign into a hot mess.

On the other hand, a page that’s easy to read, easy to use, and compelling will turn a failed campaign into a roaring success.

Here are five common landing page mistakes  (and what you can do to fix them).

1) Not having one

The first step in a successful landing page is having one. Many companies forget to do this. Even big ones. They invest lots of money in Adwords, banners, and social media marketing – and then forget to make a landing page. Visitors get confused and discouraged, and then leave without buying anything.

2) Drinking your own Kool-aid

Sometimes we get so caught up in our products we forget what other people might think. Do they care that your widget has 1,047 different uses? Or are they mostly interested in just one or two of those? And why? Sell the holes.

3) Too many choices

I confess, I did this once, with snail mail.  I listened to my then boss and included both a cheaper book and an expensive training program in the same offer letter. Guess which one people bought? Ugh!

4) A weak guarantee

Offer a strong guarantee – and stand by it. My favorite is the backwards and forwards guarantee: if you don’t find your purchase useful, return it for a refund (just ask). Send the product to someone else you think can use it. Let me know why it didn’t work, and I’ll improve it for the next version or suggest other people or resources that may help.

5) Fancy wordplay

I love words. I do. But when you’re writing a landing page, keep it simple and direct. Not everyone may know those big words. You don’t want them stopping in the middle of reading to click on a dictionary widget (or, gasp, grab a book off the shelf). If you have to, run your text through a reading level analyzer.  Most word processors have them built in, and if you have the Yoast SEO plugin, that will check your blog posts.  You want a higher number score.  For example, this post clocks in at 81.5, which is roughly 8th or 9th grade level.