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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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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”.

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.

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.