Internet Marketing - Increasing Web Traffic and Beyond

There is only one goal to keep in mind when using the Internet to market your business: make money.

On the surface, that statement may sound a little shallow. Yes, there are more iimportant things in life than money, but we're talking business here...and eventually (or hopefully sooner)...you need to make some dough. And, while you may have more specific objectives in mind, such as building brand awareness, increasing subscribershiip, reaching and helping more people, or just becoming famous...these are all just forms of "currency." Let's just keep it simple and assume you're reading this because you want your business to make more money.

OK, so how do you do that? The answer probably has not changed since the dawn of time: sales and marketing.

Using Your Website to Drive Online and Offline Sales

If you're over 30, you may have noticed that the world has changed a lot over the years. People are using computers in one form or another to do pretty much everything. Here's a few recent statistics and trends to get you thinking about the power and potentiall of marketing your business using the Internet:

1. Over 210 Million people use the Internet in the United States alone - 70% of the total population. That's pretty much everybody once you exclude infants, the incarcerated, and other population groups. (1)
2. Over 80% of Internet traffic comes from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask.com. That's almost 170 million people out there actively looking for your product or service. (2)
3. 63% of people searching for products purchase them offline (e.g. come into your store or call you on the phone). In other words, search engines aren't just for online businesses. (3)
4. Businesses that use the Internet grow 46% faster than businesses that don't. (4)
5. There is no other form of marketing or sales with a higher return on investment (ROI) than Internet Marketing (search engine optimization, pay per click, e-mail). (5) (6)
6. It is no longer necessary to have your ads make the sale. Traditional and expensive advertising methods such as TV commercials, radio ads, print ads, and direct mail are now being used to drive audiences to the advertiser's website. Why? Because for most products and services, a website is the preferred and most effective way to convert prospects to customers. Just our own obersvation. If you don't believe us, look at how less descriptive ads are these days and how often they tell you to visit their website for more information.

Internet Marketing Services - More than Just a #1 Ranking

We provide comprehensive Internet Marketing services to allow you to leverage the power and potential of the web to reach millions of people and increase your business.

While we do focus heavily on search engine optimization, our goal is to help your company to be more profitable. A top search engine ranking does not make that a reality. You want more qualified traffic. You want to convert more of that traffic to actual business, you want more leads and more sales. You need a strategy to accomplish these objectives while also providing your company the best return on its investment. If your company is making money, do you really care where your web and foot traffic come from (other than for analytical purposes to continue to improve your marketing campagin)?

Like we said, you need a strategy. We offer the following solutions:

• Internet marketing strategy, research, and planning
• Search engine marketing and optimization
• Online advertising solutions - pay per click ads
• Effective web design to increase business
• e-Commerce solutions
• Web Analytics
• Expert business and marketing consultants
  

Web Design - Attracting and Keeping Customers

Your website gives your customers and prospects a good look at how you do business. Your website may be the first thing a potential customer will see, or it may be the last thing they look at when choosing to do business with you. Will they like what they see?

Because more and more sales are being driven to the web, website design is critical to attracting and keeping customers. As such, our approach to website design is based on two key principles:

1. Customers make decisions based on emotion but use logic and reason to rationalize their decisions.
2. Customers want to do business with someone they trust, who they find unique, and who has a product or service with an overt benefit.

Your Website's Success in Three Seconds or Less

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

In less than three seconds, a visitor to your website will make a decision about the value of your organization based upon their emotional reaction to what they see.

If they stick around, their first impression will be reinforced or changed based on how easy your site is to use and how responsive your site is to their needs.

Confusing navigation, poorly-written content, overwhelming or unattractive visual design, or long download times will create "distrust" and prompt visitors to your website to find another company to meet their needs.

If your brand, your unique value, and your product offering is not clearly stated, visitors to your website will move on to other alternatives. Let's face it - why should the customer have to work to figure out how you can sell them something?

Customer-centric Web Design

Our team has years of experience working with organizations to create customer-centric designs. Using proven marketing methodology, design techniques, and understanding what your target audience wants, we can design your website to capture the emotional interest of visitors, while making sure your site also has the "left-brained" content necessary to help visitors solidify their decisions.

Our job is to not only to help you make a great first impression but to provide your organization with a powerful marketing tool to build trust and loyalty among your customers. By working with your organization to understand your business goals and customer needs, we develop website and marketing solutions to meet the needs of your customers and appeal to new visitors.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• keyword popularity research
• making a website clear and easy to use
• market and competitive analysis
• suggestive and effective copywriting
• increasing external links to your website
• analyzing your visitor's behavior and measuring your website's success.

Successful SEO campaigns require a solid understanding of website technology and the search engines themselves, but search engine optimization is far from being a technical practice. A good SEO consultant should understand design methodologies, communications, your business, your market, and your customer. SEO is also a delicate balancing act between cost and benefit, between risk and reward.

The SEO Process

Just like companies, no two SEO campaigns are exactly alike. As such, TechMark Consulting will customize an SEO campaign to meet your specific needs.

However, we do employ many basic processes for most of our SEO clients and have listed below the step-by-step processes we find to be the most critical to help you increase your web business.

Website Review

Initial Consultation

Keyword Research

Site Structure and Architecture Analysis

Web Copy Analysis

Code and Design Changes

Website Submission

Analysis and Reporting

Ongoing SEO Maintenance - Monthly Service

Successful search engine optimization requires constant tracking, maintenance, and a proactive approach to marketing. For an SEO campaign to be successful, we recommend and provide the following additional monthly services.

Web Analytics

Search Engine Rankings Tracking

Keyword Research

Additional Internet Marketing and Search Marketing Services

Natural SEO (organic search engine optimization) can be complemented by all of the following services:

• Link Building
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
• Copywriting - white papers, articles, and content creation or revisions to existing website
• Public Relations (PR)
• E-Mail Campaigns and E-Mail Newsletters
• Partner and Affiliate Program Strategies
  

Pay Per Click Ad Management (PPC)

What is PPC?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It is a form of online advertising where you bid on keywords. In a typical scenario, when people search the Internet using one of the keywords you bid on, your ad will show up at the top of the search engine rankings above the organic search engine listings.

A lot of people hear the words "online" and "advertising" and run for the hills. Advertising is too expensive, right? And, online advertising??? Forget about it. You tried that once and didn't see any results. Hang on. If you're interested in a very low cost way to increase your revenue and online visibility instantly, you'll want to keep reading.

Why PPC is different from other types of advertising

Pay Per Click ads are different from other types of advertising for a couple of reasons.

First, it is keyword based, so your ads will only be displayed to an audience that is actively searching for whatever products and services your keywords are targeting.

Second, you only pay for your ads when someone actually clicks on them and goes to your website.

Unlike traditional advertising, you're not paying a fortune to blast your ad out to thousands or millions of people through print, TV, or radio, hoping enough of the right people are reading or listening.

Keyword advertising allows you to zero in on your target market, increasing the likelihood that your message will be received by a thirsty crowd and that your ads will be successful. While, paying "per click" means that you don't have to pay to advertise to people who aren't interested.

How Much Does PPC Cost?

Let's review.

1. you can get your ad on top of the search engine listings,
2. your ad will only show up to people looking for what you have to offer,
3. and you don't have to pay unless they are interested enough in your ad to click on it and visit your website.

Sounds expensive doesn't it? It's not. In fact, it is so inexpensive that you can get started right away at just pennies a click.

Hold on, before you get too excited...there's a catch. You knew it sounded to good to be true!

The Anatomy of a Successful PPC Campaign

It takes a few things to run a successful ad campaign; however the least of these is money. To run a successful pay per click campaign, considerable research, setup, maintenance, and performance measurement are required. It's a lot of work and takes some expertise.

If you don't properly set up and manage your PPC campaign, you'll probably lose money. If you tried a PPC campaign on your own already and didn't see results, you probably didn't have the knowledge or time required to make it work. That's where we come in.

Here's what we do:

• Research and select the best keywords for your business based on popularity, competition, your target audience, and estimated bid price of each keyword
• Size up the competition and determine the best possible bid amounts for each keyword, so you can get the most clicks for the best value
• Write highly target, effective, and optimized online ads to get the browser's attention and drive traffic to your site
• Set up your account, creating ad groups to display the right ads to the right people and allow you to track the results and measure everything
• Build compelling landing pages (the pages that your ads will take the visitor to) that prompt visitors with proven call-to-action statements
• Measure your click through rates (how many people clicked through to your site), your conversion rate (how many visitors became buyers), and a host of other information to improve your ROI
• Continually monitor your bids, changing them automatically to give you the highest possible ranking at the lowest possible price
  

Does PPC Work?

Absolutely! We have taken over campaigns for clients and doubled their leads while at the same time, cut their ad costs in half. We have implemented campaigns for other clients that return over 10 times what they spend every month on PPC ads and our services combined. While we can't promise such astounding results for every client, we can promise that PPC ads do work...if they're done right.

Additionally, PPC advertising gives you incredible insight into your market, what keywords work for you, what ads work best, and what your customers are responding to on your website. It is the perfect companion to a natural search engine optimization campaign and a very inexpensive way to build brand recognition.

100% Measurable

Best of all, PPC advertising is 100% measurable, meaning you can track, analyze, and measure the results of your advertising efforts. No more spraying ads around and hoping the phone rings more often.

Get Started

If you're ready to start an effective, low cost advertising program or simply need more information, contact us. A Certified Online Advertising Professional will be more than happy to speak with you.

Complete e-Commerce Solutions for Small Business

Helping you find the right e-Commerce solution (and a primer in online transactions)

• A secure website (you probably already figured that one out by now)
• Shopping cart software to collect customer, order, and payment information
• A merchant account to accept credit cards (or even debit cards and checks)
• A payment authorization gateway account to authorize payments and send them to your merchant account
• A bank account (again...you probably already knew this one)

How online transactions work in a nutshell

1. A customer visits your website and decides to purchase something.
2. The customer selects the items they want to purchase, adding them to the shopping cart.
3. When the customer is finished, they checkout by adding their personal and payment information (this is still your shopping cart) and then submits the information to be processed.
4. On submission, your website's shopping cart software transmits the order information to the payment authorization gateway.
5. The payment authorization gateway authorizes the transaction (accepts or rejects it).
6. If the the information (personal info, form and amount of payment) is authorized, an authorization code is then sent to your merchant account. If it is rejected, then the customer stays on your website, where they can validate or enter a different payment method or account (item #3)t.
7. The merchant account attempts to reconcile the transaction by sending a request for funds to the customer's bank or credit card company and transferring the money into your bank account. If the request is denied, then the customer goes back to #3.
8. Once reconciliation takes place, the merchant account sends notice back to your payment authorization gateway that the transaction has been completed and you will be paid by the customer's bank or credit card.
9. The payment authorization gateway stores the information for you and sends confirmation to you and your customer.
10. The money is transferred from the customer's account to your account.

Your options - Hosted e-Commerce Solutions versus having your own Shopping Cart

1. You can sign up and pay for a monthly service where all the components mentioned above (even the website) are included.
2. You can purchase your own shopping cart software for your website and sign up for the other components separately. Gateways and merchant accounts typically charge monthly and transaction fees.

Common Advantages and Disadvantages of a Hosted Online Merchant Solution

• An all-in-one solution that is usually pretty easy to set up
• Usually provides templates to create a site if you don't have one
• Provides a web-based interface to manage products
• The technology is hosted, managed, and supported by another vendor (i.e. not your responsibility)
• An inexpensive solution in the short term (inexpensive doesn't mean the best or most profitable)

• If you have a website, the transaction portion takes place on the vendor's website, so the transaction is not transparent to the customer.
• The templates provided may not be sufficient and may not be compatible with your brand or look and feel of your website.
• The solution may not provide the level of flexibility or customization your product or service needs to be sold effectively.
• The solution may not provide important marketing capabilities such as contact management, search engine friendly pages, site analytics, or cross-selling capabilities

Common Advantages and Disadvantages of Owning a Shopping Cart

• Good shopping cart software is very robust, offering excellent marketing capabilities to increase sales, foster repeat business, and help you get found in search engines.
• Good shopping cart software is powerful, flexible, and allows for easy product management, shipping, and inventory control.
• Seamlessly integrates into existing website design and order processing is completely transparent to the customer.
• You own the shopping cart software, so you can customize it if needed.
• You can receive and manage extensive website analytics to measure traffic, customer behavior, and conversions.
• Shopping cart software is usually a one-time purchase, so the longer you're in business, the lower your total cost of ownership.
• Can manage wholesalers, affiliates, and channel sales.

• You own it; it's your responsibility. However, the software vendor should provide support for their product.
• Although not usually very difficult or expensive, shopping cart software needs to be installed and integrated into your website and set up to work with your payment gateway.
• You have separate software, gateway, and merchant accounts to manage...although this can be a good thing if you choose to change software or hosted solutions because you won't have to get new gateway or merchant accounts.
• It costs more up front.
• You will need to provide a secure website using an encrypted SSL certificate. This could be an added expense if you otherwise do not need one.

Web Hosting Information and Resources

• If you know all about web hosting and are looking for a reliable web hosting provider, take a look at our web hosting reviews page. If you want someone to work with locally or host your site locally, contact us, and we can also provide you a referral to a local web hosting provider.
  
• If you haven't identified what type of hosting plan you need yet, we have some tips on choosing the right web hosting plan for your business.
  
  
• If you are used to services like GoDaddy.com, we have an affiliate website that is managed, hosted, and serviced by GoDaddy. We sell domain names and just about everything else you'd need for your website or blog through it...including web hosting. Our prices are usually always lower than GoDaddy, and we offer this cost-savings opportunity as a courtesy to our customers (and if you have read this far...to you as well). It is especially great for registering, transferring, and managing domains. Our customers who have used it for hosting, e-mail, e-mail marketing, file and photo storage, and SSL certificates have found that it is highly reliable, easy to use, and very inexpensive. It isn't for everybody, but if you need an inexpensive and reliable hosting option and like to do it yourself, you should at least see all the services offered. Just be sure to follow the directions on that site and use the support on that site. We don't manage it. We just offer it to you as an option.