Your Website is Snowmageddon-Proof
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010If you live in the Mid-Atlantic region, especially anywhere near Baltimore and Washington, D.C., you’re likely trying to shake off the disoriented haze that has taken over the region. Life literally came to a stop as we had a ton of snow dropped on us within a four-day period. You know the creed of the U.S. Postal Service — “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”? Not true anymore. Most people and businesses haven’t received mail in over a week.
And while business has gone on thanks to conference calls and email (if you had power), if you happened to be a company that had some of your biggest business-driving events in the last week, you are out of luck— big time. It turns out this was the situation for one of our clients. They had not one but four events scheduled within the last week. All four have a proven track record of bringing in new business. All four were cancelled. Needless to say, they are bummed.
We learned about this because we had a conference call with them yesterday to discuss the plan for revamping their website, optimizing it from top to bottom and getting a program in place to use all of the tools that are now available to transform their site into the lead generation machine it’s meant to be. They are committed to this project and the philosophy behind it like never before. They see the value in investing in their website and using it as the hub of their marketing strategy. Even when it snows four or five feet within a four-day period and they can’t get out to fill their sales pipeline the way they know it needs to be filled, they will be able to count on their website to reach out and bring them leads. Maybe there needs to be a creed for the Internet now. Hmmm.
Ask The Marketing Coach: My Website Needs Help, What’s My First Move?
Monday, November 16th, 2009Dear Marketing Coach,
I know my company’s website needs some help, but I’m not sure what to do first. Our budget is tight right now so can you tell me a couple of things I can do to get started and what will give me the most bang for my buck?
When revamping a website, there are two areas of improvement that I like to focus on— traffic and conversions. A conversion is the desired action you want your website visitors to complete, such as filling out a contact form or an online purchase transaction. Typically, increasing volume while improving the quality of traffic and conversions will get you the most bang for your buck. But there are many tactics to achieve this goal so it’s no surprise that you’re left wondering where to start. To determine which tactics you should focus on first, take a step back and look at your website through the eyes of a potential customer. Now what do you see? Overall, is the site visually appealing? Can you tell right away what the purpose is of the website and what action to take if you are interested in the product or service offered? Is the site easy to navigate? Are there multiple conversion points that make it easy for you to contact the company or complete a transaction?
If you answered “No” to any of these questions then you’ve got yourself a lazy website! Whip it into shape with a fresh new conversion-focused design and save room in your budget for search engine optimization (SEO), which will improve the quality of the traffic you receive and boost your search engine rankings— you’ll start getting more website visitors and those visitors will convert to sales.
However, if you answered “Yes” to most of these questions then you are ready to focus on search engine marketing via a SEO, Pay Per Click (PPC), or Social Marketing campaign. SEO, PPC, and Social Marketing are all proven strategies for increasing website traffic and conversions. Which tactic you choose depends on your budget, goals, and target audience.
If you had a hard time answering the above questions, then contact Pomerantz for a free Website Evaluation and let us tell you what we think!
Do you have a question for the Marketing Coach? Go ahead, just ask! Email thecoach@pomagency.com or leave a comment to have all of your marketing questions answered.
Journey to a New Website — Where to Begin?
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009At Pomerantz, we recently took some of our own advice and decided to give our website a complete overhaul— total redesign, new content management system, and fully optimized for search engines. During this journey, as we walked a mile in our clients’ shoes, we discovered that there were some things that even our agency struggled with along the way (and we’re the professionals!). That got me thinking about how challenging it can be to figure out where to start with all of this web stuff, how to determine what’s going to work for your business, and how to select a service provider that will turn your goals into reality. Here are a few tips to help you sort through the muck and focus in on what’s really important:
1. Research the basics
You could spend countless hours reading articles about web design, web development, content management systems, internet marketing, search engine optimization, web analytics, and more, but the goal of your research should not be to become an expert in these disciplines. The idea is to form a basic understanding of the tools available to enhance your company’s web presence so you don’t feel overwhelmed when shopping around for service providers. A few quick searches can help you make sense of the difference between pay per click advertising and search engine optimization or weigh the pros and cons of using a content management system versus not using a CMS. But when it comes to understanding the techniques that are used to implement these tactics— it’s probably best to leave that to the professionals.
2. Research your competitors
Although any good web service provider includes competitive analysis when formulating an internet marketing strategy, it doesn’t hurt to go into the process already knowing what your competitors are up to. Start with your competitors’ websites and make note of what you like and what you don’t like. Look for certain design styles that catch your eye (in a good or bad way), try to find specific functions that appeal to you such as the navigation or portfolio gallery, notice the calls to action on the websites and how prospects are encouraged to contact the company or take a desired action, check to see if your competitors are utilizing a blog or promoting social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) on their websites.
3. Shop around
If your company doesn’t have an agency of record that can help with a website redesign or internet marketing, do some comparison shopping before you pick your service provider. Not all web design firms, search engine companies, and internet marketing agencies are created equal. Many have a checklist of standard services that they will sell you, even if your company doesn’t need it, so beware of firms that don’t talk to you about your business and goals before offering prices and solutions. Don’t be afraid to ask for references, descriptions of the web work the agency has performed, and the results their clients have seen. Also, if an agency can’t explain their services or results in a way that you can understand… then keep looking!
Don’t worry, if you need help along the way just Ask The Marketing Coach! Or if you want to start shopping around now, contact Pomerantz for a free Website Evalution.
