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For all the online marketing strategies that web designers and business owners employ, it's the results that matter most. That's one reason why so many books, seminars, and web pages are big on the topic of maximizing website conversion ratios – everything you do to bring traffic to your business website is a waste if you can't convince some of those visitors to become customers.

With that in mind, here are seven quick ways to increase the conversion ratios on your website, and improve your online marketing ROI at the same time:

1. Improve your business web design. This is a simple notion, but an effective one. The more credible and professional your business website looks, the more trust people put in your company, and the more likely they are to buy from you. Hint: work with an organization that has professional training and certification in landing page design, such as what they offer in MECLABS/MarketingExperiments curriculum.

2. Opt for a cleaner navigation structure. Just as in a physical retail store, customers who can't find what they're looking for quickly, and can't find help when they need it, are very likely to become frustrated and take their money elsewhere. There’s a reason why minimalist design has become so popular. Use the old “KISS” rule (Keep It Simple)!

3. Start a relationship with the customer. No matter how great your business website is, not everyone is going to be ready to buy on the first visit. For that reason, you should be collecting e-mail addresses and using auto-responders. It's an easy tool to install, and a great way to start a relationship with future customers and to keep in touch.

4. Add strong call to actions on every page. What do you really want people to do while they're on your pages? Figure that out, and then ask them to do it, in a very straightforward way. Asking for what you want isn't exactly an advanced marketing technique, but it can do wonders for your business website.

5. Encourage customers to leave online reviews. How will this help you improve your conversion ratios? The more visitors to your website see that you have been able to make other customers happy – in the form of four- and five-star reviews – the easier it is for them to make the decision to do business with your company. A study has shown that over 88% of all online reviews in the U.S. are positive ones, and 70% of consumers trust the word of other consumers, while only 27% trust the experts.

6. Use click-to-call functionality. Now more than ever, customers will be visiting your website through smart phones and other web-ready devices. By letting them click to call you instantly, you make it faster and more convenient for them to contact you and place an order, schedule an appointment, etc. Remember that a website designed for the mobile platform is very different than the design of your regular website.

7. Put your contact info in places that are easy to find. In a perfect world, visitors to your business website will understand exactly what you want them to do and decide to do it. Should they need assistance, or have a question, however, make it easy for them to reach you quickly. Most people do not feel comfortable doing business with a company whose contact information is difficult to find.

Remember, finding customers online is the name of the game, so use these tips to increase your website conversion ratios.

WSI (We Simplify the Internet) has been providing all size businesses with results-oriented internet and digital marketing strategies since the mid-90's. So don't hesitate to call the best in the business (at least we think so!). 

If you're in the Madison and Mount Horeb Wisconsin area and have been thinking about freshening up your website and start turning more visitors into customers, you should contact WSI or give us a call today at (608) 523-4255 and let's discuss these opportunities right away!

Best Regards,

Thomas J. Holzkopf
Certified Internet & Digital Marketing Consultant
Tom@WSIPrositebuilder.com
www.WSIPrositebuilder.com
Office: 608-523-4255

You probably receive at least one or two emails each day that end up in your spam folder, or unfortunately "sneak" past your spam filter and end up in you regular inbox, from so-called "SEO Experts" touting their search engine optimization expertise and guaranteeing you first place positioning in Google's search results. RUN, don't WALK, from these scammers.

Often times the language in those emails is written in poorly written English, which can be a dead giveaway right there that they are from some over the border country crooning your hard earned marketing dollars. Also watch out for the reputable web development firms and traditional marketing agencies in the area who also claim to be experts in search engine optimization and digital marketing, but they really have no training, experience or certifications to substantiate those statements.

Kimberly Nichols, a well-respected colleague of mine with her own WSI office up in Quebec, Canada, recently wrote one of the better articles on “SEO Guarantee Scams and How to Avoid Them” that I’ve read in a long while.

Unfortunately not all Digital Marketers have your best interest in mind. They typically come in several flavors: skilled, certified and highly trained digital marketing experts, then web developers who typically come with excellent graphic design skills but are not trained in "online marketing" techniques, and finally those with knowledge on how to "fool" the search engines and who get companies in trouble and even on the wrong side of the search engine gods by using their "black-hat" techniques.

Case in point is an article recently published by another esteemed colleague from the WSI network, Chuck Bankoff, who wrote: “Don’t let the “S” in SEO stand for Sucker” which details how an actual client was intentionally misled by a classic “bait-and-switch” with his keywords. The company in question provided results they could easily guarantee simply by making long tail keyword phrases even longer in the monthly analytics reports so they could meet their guarantee.

Legitimate Digital Marketing Experts will educate you as to what their strategy is, and not pull any punches as to what you can and can’t reasonably expect. Naturally you should expect a keyword placement report on a regular basis, but understand that is only part of the equation. It shows progress that the SEO Company should be using for themselves to show trends and progress, not absolutes. More to the point would be the actual analytics reports showing actual traffic and what keywords drove the traffic and where it came from.

Keyword selection should address 4 components:

1. Relevance: Are the phrases that are targeted actually relevant to your business…or just easy to obtain?
2. Popularity: Are the keyword phrases that are being targeted actually searched on in sufficient volume to drive sales.
3. Acceptable levels of competition: Is there a reasonable expectation that first page rankings are obtainable? This is where a legitimate “long tail keyword” strategy comes into play.
4. Monetization: Can you actually make money and grow your business by driving consumers to your website by targeting those phrases? Remember, the objective is increased business, not just more traffic.

Do yourself a favor and read Kimberly’s article. And as she says at the end of that article: “If it looks too good to be true…”

If you are looking to increase the visibility of your brand in the online environment, you should research and locate a certified SEO expert who has been in the business for several years, and can show results from past work they have performed for other clients. Don't be afraid to ask about their training and credentials!

WSI (We Simplify the Internet) has been providing all size businesses with results-oriented internet and digital marketing strategies since the mid-90's. So don't hesitate to call the best in the business (at least we think so!). 

If you're in the Madison and Mount Horeb Wisconsin area and would like to sit down and discuss your online objectives, you should contact WSI or give us a call today at (608) 523-4255 and let's discuss these opportunities right away!

Best Regards,

Thomas J. Holzkopf
Certified Internet & Digital Marketing Consultant
Tom@WSIPrositebuilder.com
www.WSIPrositebuilder.com
Office: 608-523-4255

 Search Marketing Partner Checklist

Now that you’ve made the decision to market your business via search engine advertising,

you need to find the best partner, one that can answer YES to all of these questions.

If you are in the market for a paid search advertising partner, don't hesitate to call the best in the business. We've been managing successful advanced pay-per-click campaigns since 2004, and offer services suitable for small to large-size companies.

Owners of all size businesses should have a digital marketing plan that takes advantage of the tremendous opportunities available in the internet and digital online environment. If you would like to sit down and discuss these opportunities, you should contact WSI since we have been helping all size businesses grow through professionally developed online strategies since the mid-90's.

If you're in the Madison Wisconsin area, give us a call today at (608) 523-4255 and let's discuss these opportunities right away!

Best Regards,

Thomas J. Holzkopf
Certified Internet & Digital Marketing Consultant
Tom@WSIPrositebuilder.com
www.WSIPrositebuilder.com
Office: 608-523-4255

Pinterest has slowly been staking a solid spot in the social media world. Although it’s best suited for personal use, a business may benefit from it as well.

Remember your locker in high school or the bulletin board in your dorm room? It had pictures, ticket stubs and other neat tidbits you hoped others would see – and comment on. Take that idea and spin it in a web-friendly way – and you have Pinterest.

See a photo on the web you like? “Pin it”. Comment on other interesting “pins”. The important part is to get involved in the Pinterest community.  Like all social media, Pinterest’s main goal is sharing, making it mostly a personal, social experience. However, just by thinking a little outside the box, we can see how easily it would be to fit this into a digital marketing plan with great success.

Here is a beginner’s look at Pinterest possibilities for your business:

About.
Warning: Not every business should add Pinterest to their list. By the visual nature of the site, it works best for services that may benefit from others seeing pictures of what you have to offer. Think restaurants, home decor, general retail, the wedding industry and travel.

Benefits.
There are a few benefits of Pinterest. Number one is that each image is automatically imbedded with a link back to the source. If that source is you, your site will see an increase in traffic as more people click on the image. Another benefit is that Pinterest images are easily shared, so the potential reach could be quite high if the picture is interesting.

Go the Extra Step.
Once you get the hang of Pinterest and start to get comfortable with it, try experimenting and thinking outside of the box. Try getting creative with contest ideas that get people to pin your images or consider adding a “Pin It” button to your blog.

Have you tried Pinterest yet? What are your thoughts?

Pinterest is one of many tools you can use to optimize your digital marketing plan. Get on the right path today by contacting a knowledgeable WSI Internet Consultant to assist with your strategy.

In most cases, the biggest obstacle to winning the new customer for your company, once they have visited your website, is in your products, your prices, or even your competitors. It's the trust and confidence that your new potential customer doesn't have yet.

In other words, it's hard for them to know whether you are going to do everything your website promises you will, and whether or not they will still feel good about their decision to buy from you later. If there were some way that you could ease their minds and reduce these fears, your online leads and sales would dramatically go up.

Luckily, there is something you can do to give customers more confidence in your business – you can let other buyers post online reviews of their purchases.

Having reviews on your site works wonders because customers trust each other more than they do you or the manufacturers, at least when they are first deciding whether or not to place an order. And so, if they see lots of four and five star reviews all over your site, they feel confident that they are dealing with a reputable company and are much more likely to do business with you.

In addition, there are other benefits to having online reviews:

Adding online reviews to your website could help your search engine positioning. Google and the other major search engines love customer-generated content like online reviews, and tend to index quickly. That means that your great reviews help you show up on search engines more often, and may even appear in search results themselves, leading to more sales.

Online reviews are great for Facebook fan pages and other social media marketing. Since the essence of social media marketing is getting other people to tell their friends and colleagues about what you do, it only makes sense to integrate your online reviews into your Facebook business fan page and other profiles. If customers love you, why not let everyone see it?

Online reviews lead to more sales and faster sales. When a potential buyer sees that so many other people are happy with your work, or your products, they generally do less comparison-shopping, make quicker buying decisions, and decide to place larger orders. For that reason, encouraging satisfied buyers to leave their impressions on your website doesn't just build your credibility – it directly increases the profits you can make from your business website.

If you haven't tried a review system on your business website yet, get in touch with us today to find out how easy it is to use one to grow your sales.

Owners of all size businesses should have an internet marketing plan that takes advantage of the tremendous opportunities available in the digital marketing environment. If you would like to sit down and discuss these opportunities, you should contact WSI since we have been helping small and medium size businesses grow through professionally developed online strategies since the mid-90's.

If you're in the Madison Wisconsin area, give us a call today at (608) 523-4255 and let's discuss these opportunities right away!

Best Regards,

Thomas J. Holzkopf
Certified Internet & Digital Marketing Consultant
Tom@WSIPrositebuilder.com
www.WSIPrositebuilder.com
Office: 608-523-4255

One  of the most fun and interesting things about business web design and online marketing is that it's a bit like fashion or art: Every once in a while, something that's been around for a long time comes back in a new form, and more effective than ever. We've already seen it in pay per click advertising, search engine marketing, and social media.

Now, the same thing is happening with barcodes... only this time, they're just a little bit different. Make no mistake, though, marketing through QR codes can be a wonderful way to attract more buyers, and more sales.

If you haven't tried QR codes before, or aren't entirely sure what they are, here's what you need to know: Although they look somewhat like traditional barcodes, QR codes are actually small images that customers can photograph or scan with their smart phones. Once they do, the QR code takes them to a specific Internet destination – one that you have specified.

In that way, QR codes bridge the gap between print advertising, mobile business web design, and online marketing. Where can QR codes be placed? There aren't many limits, since they can work almost anywhere that your customers can take a picture of them or scan them in their smart phones. That could include a billboard, your storefront window, on shelf space, on your business card and pamphlets, or in a print advertisement, to name just a few examples.

What makes QR code so exciting, however, isn't just that they can go almost anywhere, but that they can be used for almost anything. Here are just a few of the ways successful marketers have already put QR codes to use:

To offer shoppers further product info. Let's say your customer is looking around your store, and you would like them to have more information on the featured product. Simply place a QR code next to it, and they can find all the relevant details online in seconds.

To offer a coupon. Likewise, a QR code placed at the front of your retail shop, or in a print ad, could offer users an instant coupon or special web price. That's great for sales, and also allows you to track the QR code's effectiveness.

To take customers straight to online reviews. If you want shoppers to see how popular your products have been with others, simply use a QR code to show them the relevant reviews. Again, it only takes a second, and can make the difference between a sale and a missed opportunity.

To let customers compare prices. If you have the lowest prices, then don't keep it a secret. Your QR code could take visitors to a page showing your prices next to your competitors’.

To download a document. If you have the kind of product or service that can be promoted with a special report, article, flier, or other document, why not use QR code advertising to let customers access it or download it?

To sign up for something. From newsletters to events, QR codes are perfect for bringing customers to registration pages and sign-up sheets, and to your social media pages to get more “like”s, “follows”, network connections, “subscribes”, etc.

These are just a few uses for QR codes, and there are probably thousands more that exist, and thousands of new ideas currently being investigated. Their use is really just beginning to evolve.

Owners of all size businesses should have a mobile marketing plan that takes advantage of the tremendous opportunities available in the mobile technology environment. If you would like to sit down and discuss these opportunities, you should contact WSI since we have been helping small and medium size businesses grow through professionally developed mobile and online strategies for many years.

If you're in the Madison Wisconsin area, give us a call today at (608) 523-4255 and let's discuss these opportunities right away!

Best Regards,

Thomas J. Holzkopf
Certified Internet & Digital Marketing Consultant
Tom@WSIPrositebuilder.com
www.WSIPrositebuilder.com
Office: 608-523-4255

One interesting thing about online marketing plans – and one that is rarely discussed by the experts – is that a very high percentage of online marketing plans actually fail. That is, they get off to a good start, only to lose steam and never really materialize into the new sales and bottom-line gains that they were designed to produce.

Given that finding customers over the Internet is such an essential task for most businesses, how can this be?

The biggest reason most online marketing plans fail is because they are not really plans at all… they are a short list of items to do, or topics to think about. In other words, they include items like "check out social media", and "improve website traffic”, but they do not actually have any realistic actionable items attached to them. Therefore, over time, they become good ideas that were never put into play.

Your business can’t afford to make the same mistakes. Here is a handful of tips for putting together an online marketing plan that is actually a plan – and one that is likely to succeed:

Know what you want to accomplish. A plan without a goal is useless, so know what you want to achieve, in terms of increased conversions and sales, more traffic to your website, etc., before you begin.

Start small. It pays to start small and build up slowly. Do not pile so many items onto your online marketing plan that you will never finish them. A good online marketing strategy is a multi-year, on-going plan.

Turn ideas into steps. Likewise, having a list of things to try isn't enough; turn them into concrete steps you can follow on a daily or weekly basis.

Take advantage of information. Metrics are important to every step of your online marketing plan. If you cannot accurately measure traffic to your site and how many conversions you're getting, then you will never know what is working and what is not.

Review your progress periodically. Get together with your online marketing team from time to time and figure out how you are doing. That will stop you from going off in the wrong direction repeatedly.

Be flexible. Your plan should change and evolve as you discover which parts are effective and which parts aren’t. Do not be afraid to change your focus or tactics to take advantage of new information. Also, keep aware of new trends within this industry, because new opportunities are popping up on a regular basis. 

Each of these steps is something that a quality business web design and online marketing team can help you with, but as the owner or manager of your business, it is up to you to put them into play. An online marketing plan is only as good as the results it produces, so hold tight to this plan and turn yours into something that grows your business.

Owners of all size businesses should have an online marketing plan that takes advantage of the tremendous opportunities available in the online environment. If you would like to sit down and discuss these opportunities or have us review your existing online plan, you should contact WSI since we have been helping small and medium size businesses grow through professionally developed online strategies for many years. If you're in the Madison Wisconsin area, give us a call today at (608) 523-4255 and let's discuss these opportunities right away!
Best Regards,




Thomas J. Holzkopf
Certified Internet & Digital Marketing Consultant
Tom@WSIPrositebuilder.com
www.WSIPrositebuilder.com
Office: 608-523-4255