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10 ways to increase targeted traffic to your website

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:27:00 GMT

How to increase qualified traffic to your website

Most businesses have one common goal online, to increase the number of conversions on their website. In general an increase in traffic = an increase in conversions however that traffic does have to be qualified traffic. The internet is now the largest advertising medium in the UK and for good reason. The internet can offer unrivalled results per £ invested as well as giving you the ability to track your return on investment at every stage of the campaign.

So you have a great looking website with all the latest features which cost you a few grand but you are not getting anywhere near the return you expected from it. You keep asking yourself why is my website not working?

The simple answer is you do not have targeted traffic visiting your website on a daily basis. Imagine a retail shop that has all the latest gadgets and the best prices on the high street. If you open your shop but do not put a sign outside and have all the windows and doors blacked out the people passing by will have no idea that it is open for business and therefore will walk straight past. You must let people know you are open for business and you need to tempt them in. The same rules apply online you need to make it easy for people to find your website.

10 ways to increase targeted traffic to your website

Organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Search Engine Optimisation uses keywords in the text, headings, page names and META tags. Links from other relevant websites are another important factor. Relevant is the key here the link must be relevant and the content on the site linking back to yours must also be relevant.
Pay per Click (PPC): Advertise on Google and other search engines to get almost instant results. These ads are displayed based on the keyword typed by the user and you pay each time someone clicks thru on your ad and lands on your website. This is a highly effective strategy and gives invaluable data for your SEO campaign.
Article Writing: Write and publish educational articles, whitepapers and place them on article syndication sites. Other web site owners can publish them on their web sites. Links in the bottom resource box will lead interested people to your website.
Blogging: Blog marketing attracts readers. Blog regularly (at least once per week) about related topics your targeted customer is interested in. Include links back to your website. This is very effective and if you produce good quality content people will follow your updates and the search engines will too.
Social Networks: Set up profiles at popular social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. These networks are highly effective however you must be active and they can be very time consuming so make sure you plan time to do this.
Promo Items: Purchase things like pens, sweets or stress balls with your Web site name and URL on them and give them away at trade shows and industry events. If you can think of something a little different it will make you stand out from the crowd and be remembered.
Affiliate Marketing: Advertise on other relevant websites and you pay the website owner each time a referral purchases or takes a particular action such as signing up. Very effective for the right market but always research before making your decision.
Video: Setup viral video about your company, products and upload them on to a video network site such as you tube or vimeo and also put them on your website.
Forums: Participate in online forums as an expert. You get to promote your business “quietly” in your signature line. However this only works if you actively participate and contribute so make sure you plan time to do this.
Free Offer: Offer a free ebook or whitepaper on your site. Give away a free report or analysis. Promote this everywhere on your site in your emails on social networks and even offline.

Doing all of the above is very time consuming and highly complicated so I do not suggest you try to implement everything all at once. If you do want to tackle internet marketing yourself then write yourself a plan and begin with one or two key techniques. Study these and begin slowly and as your targeted traffic and therefore conversions increase then you can begin to free up more resources to tackle other techniques. Alternatively give us a call and we will work out a strategy to suit your budget.

Saras Hope Foundation

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:09:00 GMT

Here at WSI we are proud to announce that we are now managing the online presence of Saras Hope Foundation gratis. The first task is to get the current website up to date while we get to know the inner workings of this wonderful charity.

Our next step is to design a custom content management system to allow the volunteers and directors to keep the site updated themselves so we can concentrate on the marketing and help to achieve Saras’ dream faster. Read Saras’ story and help this childrens cancer charity achieve their goals. As the directors are highly active on the charity facebook page we will be building a similar environment for them to update the website.

If you have any suggestions for the new website please feel free to post them here or email us at info@totalwsisolutions.co.uk

Please get behind this fantastic charity that helps so many children with cancer and their parents and family members.

Why Apple are the best retailer in the world

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:15:00 GMT

Learn usability testing from Apple

Usability testing is a vital part of any retail business both on the high street and online. So why is usability testing so rare. One reason is that many people consider it to be expensive and if you take the example of Apple it probably is. However it does not have to be. Apple joined the world of retail in May 2001 and now has 287 stores worldwide as of March 2010. However Apple did not jump into the world of retail blind and they knew their stores would be a success before the doors of the first store in Virginia even opened.

With no experience in retail how could they be so sure it would work?

First of all Apple brought in the leader in the retail world Mickey Drexler to fill the skills gap on their board. Then on the advice of Drexler they hired a warehouse where they built a prototype of the store they had designed on paper. They then brought in a test group and watched them interact and interviewed them to see which aspects of the store were the most popular. From the results they knocked down the first version and rebuilt a new store layout and re-tested. They did this several times until they were happy with the study and this final design was then used universally in all new Apple stores. The data they collected was invaluable and even the most bizarre questions in the interviews gave them the best ideas for the design. The famous genius bar came from the question “Tell us about the best service experience you have ever had”. With 90% of interviewees stating that it was in a hotel. Once you have booked your hotel they are not selling you anything except good service and the staff are all there to help you. Based on this answer Apple decided to set up their genius bar to mimic a bar in the hotel lobby but instead of selling alcohol their bar would be a source of information and advice to all their customers.

Your online business is no different to this we can study the movements of visitors to your website with Google analytics. You can ask your customers opinions with polls and surveys and with the WSI Inter-View service you can have real people browse your website, complete chosen goals or search online for your products. You can see exactly what they are doing and even hear them as they think out loud and give their opinion on your website.

The information you get from the WSI Inter-View gives you the insight you need to improve conversions and visitor experience on your website.

The Internet Marketing Newsletter

Mon, 10 May 2010 22:09:00 GMT

Newsletter subscriptions through the roof

The increase in subscriptions to our newsletter has risen steadily since we first opened our Northern office however in the last month we have seen almost a 200% rise. This can only be down to one thing and that is the monthly webinar we invite all of our members to. The monthly webinar program started this year and happens in the last week of every month. The Webinar lasts an hour and covers various topics of Internet marketing from marketing on Twitter to Search engine strategies and much more. Every month one of our experts from around the world will host the webinar and give a presentation on their area of expertise. This is then followed by a Q&A session at the end.

The information and techniques you can pick up in these sessions are invaluable and we hope that with our members support and suggestions we will be able to continue to provide you with informative and fun webinars.

What is involved in the WSI Competitor Analysis Reports?

Thu, 20 May 2010 12:28:00 GMT

What is in a competitor analysis?

We have seen great success over the last few months with our competitor analysis reports which previously were only offered to existing customers, however we are also getting a lot of emails and phone calls asking for details of what information will be provided in the report and how the customer can then use this information. The reports are full of very detailed and accurate statistics of what your chosen competitors are doing to promote and market their businesses online. The details of the standard reports are explained below however we are able to create customised reports by special request. The data in the report is yours to do with as you please. Some customers have decided that they are happy with their current position in the market and order regular reports to monitor competitor activity. Others have taken the report and the recommendations to their in house team and implemented some or all of our suggestions. Most however have felt the need to increase their market share and strengthen their position online and have therefore asked us to carry out some or all of the recommendations contained in the report.

Search Report – In this report we look at your competitors search engine strategies. We analyse their Pay Per Click strategies to uncover their daily ad spend, find out which of their adverts generates the most traffic and see which keywords they are targeting in their campaigns and how they are performing.

The second part of this report looks at their Search Engine Optimisation strategy and uncovers how many quality inbound links their site has, their Google page rank, the number of pages they have as well as carrying out a detailed on site survey to see if they are using best practice when building and adding to their website. Based on the information gathered in this section we are able to estimate their monthly spend on SEO based upon the amount of work carried out multiplied by the average hourly rate for SEO work. This of course may vary depending on who they are using for SEO. The final section of this report will give you an overview of your competitors’ online activities as well as a list of recommendations and estimated budgets required to position your business above the competition.

Search & Social report – In this report we expand on the search report and look at your competitors’ presence on the social media networks. Detailing each network that they have a presence on and analysing their activities on these networks our researchers discover which tactics they are using to engage with customers and which of these tactics generate the best response and send the most traffic to their website. Based on their activity and the average hourly rate for social media experts we estimate their monthly spend on this form of online marketing. We analyse this data and as before recommend the best action for you to take to ensure your company is positioned above your competitors.

Complete online report – Covering all aspects of your competitors’ online presence in this we expand on the previous reports also looking at your competitors’ additional online marketing tactics such as email marketing and banner ads as well as looking at the functionality of their website, use of landing pages and the design of their website. As before each section of the report has a summary of the findings, their estimated costs for each and a list of recommendations along with an estimated budget to carry out these recommendations.

Whether you just want to keep track of your competition, increase your presence online or blow the competitors away our competitor analysis reports are the place to start and they can give you a realistic idea of just how much investment will be involved to take your business to the next level.

How can Twitter help my business?

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:04:00 GMT

There are still many people who just do not see the point in Twitter or social media for that matter when it comes to business.

How can Twitter help me sell more?
Why should I use Twitter?
How will Twitter affect my bottom line?

These are just some of the questions I get asked every day as well as hearing things like I tried Twitter for a few weeks and it didn’t get me any business and twitter will not work for my business.

There are two reasons in my opinion that most people fail to understand and make twitter work for them. The first is that they do not or can not give enough time up to firstly learn about it and secondly to use it on a regular basis. As with all social media Twitter can be very time consuming and in some cases life consuming. Believe me I know we have social media teams who work non stop on clients’ campaigns, but social media is their life and they love the fact that their job requires them to constantly be connected to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and all the other social networks out there. So you need a good amount of time to run a social media campaign well. You need to understand the quirks of each social network, listen to the users of the networks all day everyday in order to react fast to opportunities and you must, must, must be adding content to each of the networks on a regular basis.

The second reason most people fail on social networks is that they are too stuck in the old ways of marketing. Stop thinking campaigns and start thinking conversations. If you speak to a traditional marketer they will say just put your company news on such as opening a new store, discount on this range of products and so on. This is wrong and you will fail if this is all you do on social networks. People have changed and many now ignore marketing messages. People buy from people no matter if you are in the B2B or B2C sector your prospects are still people and they will buy from you if they trust you enough. To be successful in any social media campaign you must be a real person talking about things your target audience can relate to. Your tweets need to be a mix of personal feelings, interesting industry related information and your marketing messages. Take the example of an IT consultancy working in the B2B sector their target audience will be IT departments and possibly MD’s of SME’s. The MD will be interested in the latest technology that will help streamline his operations and cut his costs. The IT department staff will also be interested in the latest technology, advances and breakthroughs in the industry. This therefore should be around 60% of your tweets with around 15% personal and 25% marketing messages to keep your company top of mind. When I say personal though I do not mean reveal everything about your personal life but in this example perhaps the IT consultant may say “Just received my Ipad this thing is amazing” or ask questions of your audience like “Has anyone tried the new Ipad yet?”. By doing this you will build a relationship with your audience and they will become loyal followers and guess who they will call if they need an IT Consultant in the future.

Social media campaigns are highly involved and time consuming things to run and should not be attempted unless you have the resources to commit to it fully.

Understanding the users of social media

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:05:00 GMT

The Social media ladder

Before you can accurately target a social media campaign you must first understand all the different users of social media and how they can help you. Finding the social media influencers in your industry and positioning your content to them is the key.

The Spectators – These are people who read blogs, watch videos, listen to podcasts, read customer reviews and browse online forums for information. The Spectator does not comment, create content or even have their profile on a social network. They use social media platforms to gather information in order to make a purchasing decision. Many of these people will be your customers.

The Joiners – These are people who create and maintain their profiles on social networking sites. They also visit them on a regular basis to keep up to date with their friends and the people they may be following. They rarely add content of their own and spend most of their time gathering information in order to make that purchasing decision. Many of these people will be your customers.

The Collectors – These are people who are active on social media sites and they like to subscribe to RSS feeds, add tags to web pages or photos, vote for web sites online and use social bookmarking sites for easy reference back to the information they have found. A collector will rarely create content and as the Joiners and spectators mentioned before they will gather information to aid a purchasing decision. Again many of these will be your customers.

The Critics – These are people who are highly active online and on the social media networks. They will post reviews on products and services, comment on content created by other people and edit wiki articles. These people will influence the decisions of the Spectators, Joiners and Collectors and therefore you need the critics to find your content and spread the word.

The Creators – These are the most active group of people online and are also the minority. They will write blogs, articles or stories and publish them all over the web. They may even create music or videos and upload these to media sharing sites such as YouTube. Some may even go as far as creating web pages all about a topic, product or service that interests them. These people are the main influencers online and knowing the right creators is vital to the success of any social media campaign.

The Spectators, Joiners and Collectors are the majority of your customers no matter whether you sell DVD’s, a general medical service or a highly specialised consultancy service. The Critics and the Creators are the people who will influence your customers to either buy or not to buy from you so you need these people to help make your campaign a success. Don’t even consider a social media campaign until you have identified the key web influencers in your industry.

Volcanic ash cloud over Europe

Mon, 10 May 2010 21:57:00 GMT

Tweet to get home

The eruption of mount EyjafjallajÖkull earlier this month was a shock to everyone and the subsequent ash cloud over the UK and much of Europe caused air travel chaos. I’m sure most people knew someone affected by the chaos it caused with crazy stories of people spending thousands of pounds to get home and taking days to make a journey that should have taken four hours. However the most amazing thing to happen during the chaos across Europe was people coming together and helping each other out. How they did this was even more amazing.

Facebook groups were set up such as Carpool Europe and When Volcanoes Erupt to coordinate stranded travellers giving them up to the minute updates on opportunities to share cars, public transport options and even places to stay. Many other users of Facebook used the networking site to ask friends for help with messages like “Stuck in Barcelona does anyone have friends here that can put me up” and “Got the ferry from Santander no problem if anyone knows people who are stuck in Spain”.

Once again though Twitter proved to be the best way to get on the move giving minute by minute updates from not only your friends or members of a group you have joined but from the whole twitter community. By following the hashtags (or ashtags as they became known in this situation) “#getmehome” users were able to catch lifts from willing drivers including one of the Dragons Den stars Duncan Bannatyne who tweeted things like “OK we can take 4 on the 3.40 ferry” and “The Ferries from Calais ARE accepting foot passengers “. Others who were not making their way home were able to find places to stay by searching twitter for “#putmeup” and they would find tweets which would hopefully help them such as “concertbuzzer: Any Brits stranded in South Florida. Have room in house Lauderdale. 2 max. #putmeup “ and “bodaceacat: #ashtag #putmeup #offer beds near Gatwick. DM me”.

Once the airspace had been closed for a day or two some really good websites were made or adapted to help all those stranded abroad. However for instant help Twitter defiantly led the way as long as the users knew how to access the information using hashtags and the search function.

Tracking your competitors' online

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:15:00 GMT

This has been a busy month so far for our research department with our competitor analysis reports of all levels becoming very popular as more and more businesses are looking for their place online. Monitoring your competitors has always been important and businesses of all sizes need to keep track of what their competitors are up to. However this has never been more important than it is now as the internet continues to grow and your competitors begin to market themselves online. If you are not watching them they may just run away with your customers. Our reports are proving to be popular for two reasons according to a recent customer survey.

The first reason is the data they contain is invaluable to you especially if you are trying to set an online marketing budget. The report contains detailed analysis of your competitors’ strategy and budgets based on reported figures or estimated man hours, as well as recommendations and estimated budgets that you need to position your business as the market leader online.

The second reason is that keeping track of your competitors in this way ensures you have your finger on the pulse all the time and you have the time to react to any attack on your market share. It is for this reason that many of our clients request quarterly competitor analysis reports in order to accurately measure and maintain their position within the market.

The importance of research online

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:16:00 GMT

Everything we do begins with research. Whether you are looking to launch a new product, rebrand your whole business or start a new company if you fail to do thorough research then you will either fail or at the very least you will learn the hard and usually the expensive way. The Internet now gives you access to such vast amounts of data either free or through paid software as a service tools, that there is no excuse not to have carried out your due diligence.

So we have established that you can get general information just by searching the web, looking at specialist sites, news and information sites and social media sites. What you can also do is get people to complete surveys or comment on your ideas.

Taking this one step further you can gauge demand for your product by testing it online. If you are selling a product that is already readily available you can estimate the demand just by discovering how many people search for that product every month. However if you are launching an entirely new product you can use the internet to sell a small batch before you go and spend big money having it mass produced. By doing this first you can not only accurately establish the demand for your product but you can also find the correct pricing point. What would traditionally have taken weeks of research can now be completed in only a day or two and often you get much more accurate results which can be backed up with solid data.

The research you can do online is not only limited to general market research but also competitor analysis, opinion polls, usability research and so much more. Armed with the right information you can make the right decisions more often and faster than before.

How much does SEO cost?

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:37:00 GMT

The price of Search engine optimisation (SEO) is another question that is very difficult to answer but one I’m asked fairly often. Yet again this is another “How long is a piece of string?” type of question. As a general rule you will get what you pay for and professional services in any form cost a lot of money. You will be paying for the knowledge that will get you a return on your investment as well as for the actual results. As far as a ball park figure goes it is very difficult to estimate as there are so many factors involved but the prices can range from around £600 to £100,000 plus. In general as SEO is an ongoing strategy your investment will be made in monthly payments and many suppliers will tie you into a 12 or 18 month contract. We do not do this and work on a month by month basis however depending on the size of the campaign we would ask for at least 3-6 months to begin to show results. This start up period is required as the search engines do not visit your site on a regular basis unless you update your site on a regular basis. Our team are so confident in their skills and experience that our contracts are not fixed and we also set incentive based contracts to ensure that we get you the results first.

Let’s get back to the pricing, so the price varies dramatically and one of the main variables is the level of competition for the search terms you want to rank for. So for example if you are in a specialised niche market with limited competition a budget of £600 for 12 months may get you the results you need. However if you are in a highly competitive market such as financial services you could be looking at spending over £100,000 over 12 months to achieve the rankings you want. Unfortunately the level of competition is not the only variable involved as the search engines move the goal posts regularly, your site may need a lot of work done on the actual coding to make it search engine friendly and the number of search terms you want to rank for. Finally your competitors will not take kindly to you knocking them off the top and they will often respond by starting or stepping up their own SEO campaign.

Does that sound expensive? Yes it can be expensive however this is an investment and you should expect a positive return on any SEO campaign that is carried out by professionals and not only should you see it in your bottom line the consultant should be able to show it to you in his reports.

Siemens Transmission and distribution

Fri, 07 May 2010 00:35:00 GMT

We have recently launched a very simple micro site for a local division of Siemens. Siemens-Reyrolle is a basic micro site aimed at engineers and specifiers in the power transmission and distribution industry. They provide a range of products and services in relation to the switchgear for this industry to clients around the globe. Working with Siemens on this project has been great especially as Reyrolle has been a big part of the north east region for over 100 years. The site has been designed for engineers to quickly find information on the services available on a number of parts and also to allow us to ensure the site is found high in all relevant search terms placing 2^nd in Google for one particular search term within 2 weeks of the launch date.

How much does a website cost?

Thu, 06 May 2010 13:36:00 GMT

As soon as people find out that web design is one of our many services this is the first question we get asked. At a recent networking event I was asked this at least five times during the 2 hour event so I have decided to use the latest blog to answer (or not as the case may be) this question. The simple answer is your website should not cost you anything it should pay for itself ten times over and more if it is designed and managed well.

For the site itself you have two costs to consider the first is the domain name and hosting. The domain name can vary between £3 - £10 per year for an average domain and run into the £ 000’s for premium ones. The hosting of the site and emails again can vary from as little as £5 per month for a basic site which does not require much band width up to well over £100 per month for a high traffic site with big bandwidth demands.

The second cost is of course the website its self and again this can vary massively depending on how many pages you require, the quality of the graphics, the functionality of the site and if you need a Content Management System (CMS). For a small brochure site with around 5 pages of mainly text and a contact form you could probably get a site for as little as £200 made from start to finish by a local web designer. This would be fine if the site was just for fun or perhaps a personal site documenting a local group you are involved in however I would tend to recommend just setting up a blog for this sort of thing.

If the site is for business use you should be looking at having a professional create it for you with professionally designed graphics and a basic CMS to allow you to add to the site over time. In this case a site of 5 pages with a contact form will cost between £500 and £800 and should be designed to achieve your business goals. This cost is based on you supplying the text content so remember if you need to have copywriters create the text content for you this will be an additional cost.

Stepping up to the next level for a site of lets say 20 pages which has a contact form and an email newsletter sign up form as well as a CMS you would be looking at around £1,000-£1,500. As you step up again to a site with more functionality such as very basic Ecommerce sites you can expect to pay between £2,000 and £4,000 depending upon the amount of content and the number of products. Anything bigger or more customised than this would require more of a bespoke solution and you would really need to talk through your requirements with a consultant as the price can be anything from £4,000 up to £30,000 and beyond.

Now for the part that most people forget about and this is why most companies view their website as a cost. You need to market the site online through various techniques such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC), Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing and many more. There are millions of websites on the internet with thousands being added daily so if you do not market your site it will never be found and it then becomes a cost rather than an investment which gives you a return. We will get into the various techniques and average cost of each of these later, but for now think of it like this. Your new website is a big name Hollywood actor or actress and you have just spent a lot of money getting them to star in a TV commercial for you and then you do not buy any airtime so nobody ever sees the advert. I hope this answers a few questions or at least gives you some basic information on which you can base budget projections.

Be found everywhere online

Wed, 05 May 2010 20:52:00 GMT

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing highly relevant valuable content to attract a highly targeted audience. Using this technique to its full potential will ensure that your target audience find your content all the time and this will increase your brand awareness while also positioning yourself as the expert in your industry. If you are there with the answers to every question a potential customer asks then they will turn to you when the time is right to make a purchase.

So essentially it is “non interruption marketing” which basically means that instead of pushing your products and services to potential customers through advertising and direct marketing you are delivering the information they need to allow them to make a more educated purchasing decision. By doing so you will build your reputation as a trusted source that provides valuable and ongoing information, which will ultimately lead to you winning both their business and their loyalty.

In the online world content has always been King and it always will be however relevant and valuable content will take your business much further than traditional advertising type content which visitors will see straight through and not trust. If you do not do any content marketing as part of your overall Internet marketing strategy then you should be. Start with a content blueprint and go from there consistently putting out fresh relevant content to your audience.

Increase website conversion rates

Thu, 06 May 2010 13:30:00 GMT

In the last blog we talked a little about conversion in relation to Ecommerce websites however every website needs to convert in some way. Take Wikipedia for example they do not sell anything or even build up a database of users to email newsletters. So their main conversion goal is to get visitors to spend more time on their site by creating relevant and persuasive copy getting people to dive deeper into the site.

Increasing conversion is all about testing, tracking, measuring and understanding what visitors are doing on your site and Google analytics is a good place to start. Finding out where people are coming from and what they are doing once they get there. For example what images, buttons or links are people clicking on when they move between pages? If there is a set path or goal then monitoring what visitors are doing at each stage can be invaluable. By finding out why people are jumping out of the sales funnel at each stage you can tweak your pages to increase the conversions at each step in the sales process. Each small tweak will have a great impact on your bottom line and by constantly split testing and measuring you are always improving.

The next stage is to bring in real people to test your site using our Inter-View service. In this service we will get real users to test your site by giving them a goal or list of goals to complete. The best results are often seen when you leave the goal fairly open such as “Book your next holiday” or “Find a gift for your Mother”. With the website Inter-view you get video footage of each user as they navigate your website seeing where their mouse goes and hearing them as they think out loud and comment on what they like and dislike at each stage. Based on the information gathered in these tests you will find many ways to improve the user experience on your website and any conversion rate is directly related to the user experience. With any online business your focus should be to build targeted traffic first then concentrate on increasing conversion rates and this should be done for the lifetime of your online business to ensure you are getting the best results at all times.