Last week I wrote about how Content is the Kings’ Gold… but not the King. In that post, I promised I’d write a bit more about “Authentic Connections”, and different kinds of Optimizations that the King can use  as he or she pays out the gold.  We’ll get a big picture feel for how this works here.

Connection Cycle Marketing:  Online marketing continues to rapidly evolve and so do the related TLA (Three Letter Acronym) disciplines of SEO, SEM, CRO, LPO, VBO, etc. All are part of the marketing mix you need for success, but there must be a simpler way to think about going about it?  Yes… and no — we’ll look at the bigger picture here — the “Yes” part because it’s simpler. 

I like to include them all together under an umbrella term I call Connection Cycle Marketing — CCM.  The important point about this focus is that Connection, between you and your prospects, is the real King you are after.  You are King of your business, but your prospective customers are King of your livelihood, so while Content is very important (your Gold) it is a kind of currency you pay out to get to that final goal — the authentic Connection with site visitors.

“… you think in terms of optimizing visitor behavior at your site — a subtle but very important strategy.  You want to optimize for what visitors will think, instead of just what you want them to do.”

Understand Using the Rule of Fours…

Let’s consider high level strategic thinking by grouping tactics four ways.  People seem to like grouping things in fours, going back thousands of years.  We have the Greek concept of four primary elements, four Apostles, the four noble Truths in Buddhism, and the four Horsemen of the Apocolypse.  We will look at three interesting “fours” for Connection Cycle Marketing.

1 – Optimize. 2 – Connect. 3 – Convert.  4 – Repeat. That’s the first “four” approach — the WebFadds rule of Four.  Optimize includes not only SEO, but also Landing Page Optimization, and Conversion Rate Optimization.  Plus you need an optimized CMS — another TLA standing for Content Management System. SEO gets people to your site, and the others make sure they complete desired business outcomes.  Then you Connect with visitors so that you may Convert them to customers.  What did I leave out?  Well, it’s implied that if you’re optimizing something at a website, it must be Content.  Let’s look at that closer in the next grouping of fours…

1 – Social Media Marketing.  2 – Content Marketing.  3 – Optimizations.  4 – CRM for Lead Nurturing. Now we start with Social Media and seek to connect there with real people, gaining an “authentic connection” instead of simply auto-blasting links to posts and content on your site.  We use good Content marketing tactics to further “romance” prospects “authority, liking and reciprocity”, as Scott Brinker writes about it – in Four Principles of Conversion Content Marketing. Then we convert, often with a lead form, and while they are prospects we use a CRM (this TLA stands for Customer Relationship Manaager) for lead nurturing.

One More Group of Four…

Brinker's Post-Click Marketing Heuristic (click to see larger), is a good way to work through a Marketing attack keyed to audience types.

1 – Audience Type Awareness.  2 – Content to Persuade each Audience Type.  3 – Visitor Behavior Optimization (VBO).  4 – Transform Leads to Customers. A couple of key differences in this fourfold approach:  you begin by understanding different types of visitors with different learning styles, needs, and thought processes will visit your site, then instead of thinking about optimizing a site… you think in terms of optimizing visitor behavior at your site — a subtle but very important strategy.

You want to optimize for what visitors will think, instead of just what you want them to do.  This requires some different testing methods, and design tactics.  Scott Brinker, again, has some very interesting related insights and has developed a detailed chart in a post on “A Post-Click Marketing Heuristic.”  He identifies three major focus areas in his chart:  Context, Content, Conversions (I guess that would be CCC).  I like his work, but respectfully submit that he has left out the whole unification of the web team with the sales team via quality of lead captured and automatically entered into a good CRM. Finally you need feedback from Sales to MarCom-Web Team so they can adjust tactics based on sales results.

This should give you some good ways to approach CCM, and all the other TLA’s.  We’ll talk more about them here as we go, and I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

In tighter times, where will your marketing budget find the best return? Online advertising is growing and becoming much more effective, according to three new studies.  And at least one new platform to automate and streamline online media buying is in the works.

CHART:  Sources of Leads that have become more effective:

When it comes to leads, online advertising is shown to me much more effective than offline advertising, according to recently released research data from Hubspot. “Outbound” is old-school media you send to your prospects, versus new-school “inbound” marketing tactics.

• Hubspot has published “50 Charts & Graphs” pulled from a variety of sources including surveys, and their own analysis of over 2500 customers which shows the distinct trend to focus online for “inbound” marketing efforts (chart above).  Download the free PDF.
• According to a recent study by the research group BIA/Kelsey, 36% of media buyers budgets will be spent online in the next four years. As reported in that study, “…local online media is gaining not so much because it can tap smaller marketers that have tended to be overlooked by major media, it’s because traditional outlets are losing ground in general.”
• eMarketer reports a “WorldWide” increase in ad spending on Facebook up 39% between 2009 and 2010

And a strategic look at the effect of media management behavior itself on the media buying trends, from the Nieman Journalism Lab, has uncovered a new media buying player that could shake things up further. Noting that online media buying is more costly because it is more complex, the article on “The Newsonomics of online ad spending, and its costs“, profiled a new service in beta called “Transis”.

“Transis automates the entire digital media buying process from planning through billing and centralizes all related communication. It aims to bring the diverse tasks of ad placement — from building media plans, handling RFPs and insertion orders, billing and reconciliation — into a single console for ad agencies. The intent: more ad volume for Centro and the 2,000 or so websites on which it places ads.”

So, several major studies continue to show a decided up-tick in online ad buying, but like all forward looking projections — they are guesstimates at best. What we do know is that technology is evolving quickly, and new media buying platforms have been shown to greatly affect buying behavior in the past — witness Google Adwords. And, we know that consumer “mobile behavior” is rapidly tilting toward the online realm with 800 million web browsing smart-phones sold in 2009. So, my bet is with BIA/Kelsy — 36% of media ad buying online by 2014.

Here Comes Easier Editing & Video Embedding…

2010 is shaping up to become the year of media and video online.  Not only is Google moving forward with its new WAVE technology (email me if you’d like an invite to the BETA test version), but WordPress 2.9 is officially out today with enhanced image editing, and easier video embedding features.

Below is a short overview video showing off the new features — I used the simple new Video embedding method to add it.

SPECIAL Upgrade Deal – Complete Upgrade, Monitoring & Analtyics Install

I’ve been installing and enjoying the new version — great for content editing — so I wanted to offer a SPECIAL WordPress Upgrade & Service PAK deal for the holiday release.  Our normal 3-month Upgrade & Service PAK costs $239 — that’s only $79 a month.
Special for readers of this newsletter, and blog post… just $199 (click to pay now with any major credit card — limited time… good through 1/25/2010).

You get a complete upgrade of both WordPress plus all your currently installed plugins.  PLUS… we install and configure five essential plugins, including a Virus scanner, System Health monitor, Disk usage monitor, backup program, and an actionable analytics visitor review with recommendations to increase conversions.    To read more about how our Analytics report will help you — see article, Using Google Analytics for Profitable Results.  At the end of the three months we provide a live chat walk through of your site to make sure you know how to automatically do upgrades in the future, and for optimization recommendations to gather more prospects, leads and customers at your sites.  It’s a great PAK, and we do it for three months for two reasons:

• Usually there are 1-3 “bug fix” and “security patch” upgrades that follow a major update
• That should be all you need for a year or more!  Note that WordPress 2.9 makes both updating the core program and plugins a snap you can do yourself.

To see how much power we add to your WordPress CMS & Business Blog… click the small screenshot at above right to enlarge it.

WordPress 2.9 Feature Overview:

Wouldn’t it be good if you could get 20% – 70% more leads from your site? Many companies do. What about increases of 200% – 400%? It’s possible. I’ll tell you how. And, we’ll see if the “description” tags most of us use to craft copy for search returns are outdated, plus we’ll consider an important new Twitter service… it’s commerce time for tweeters.

Conversion Alert: Are there ways to squeeze more ROI out of your website? Definitely, and recent studies show the pay-off can be very big. I attended a webinar this week by a company specializing in squeezing more results — conversions (like when a visitor “converts” to a prospect, etc.) — out of landing pages and direct emails. So far every single company that applies a certain conversion success formula has seen increases… and some of them are huge — over 200%. To prove it to yourself, all you need is a free Google analytics account set-up properly to track goals, conversions and related ROI numbers. Then you use another free tool — the Google “Optimizer” to test for winning combinations of headlines, graphics, and calls to action. We can make this happen with a Landing Page Optimization Campaign – contact me for a quote.

Google Evolution: Have you squinted at the Google search results page lately? If you do, you’ll see a “show options” link  at top left, which when clicked reveals a sidebar of search refinements like related videos, forums, past week returns and more. Nice. But for SEO professionals and “Content Masters,” still another Google development adds a new twist on ways to succeed in search ranking, attracting visitors and inspiring conversions: “Rich Snippets.” Now Google is encouraging webmasters to mark-up content so that Google will find and return more meaningful excerpts than what is commonly delivered in search returns. Watch for plugins to facilitate this work.

Above, watch video presentation by Google experts on new Rich Snippets tactics

Twitter Update: It’s commerce time on Twitter folks. You knew it had to happen. Check out Twitpay’s new RT2Buy service . So now for all those who ask just what is the ROI for twittering? You can have a direct answer in the form of revenue via your twitter followers. We have a great program — our Social Media-MAX Package – to build a focused, targeted list of followers efficiently — contact me today.

So… how are your landing pages… and now, your growing Twitter list(s) converting? Time to call an Optimizer – reach me at (360) 566-2451.

Twitter Engagement: Are you on Twitter yet?  Yes… it will pay off for your business if you use it efficiently and correctly to connect with prospects.  Below are some ideas on how to advertise using Twitter.

Remember… it’s not about followers. It’s about engagement. Many users miss the ways, besides just tweeting, to engage with their “followers”:

1. Reply directly at (@) someone. Use the at symbol then their twitter name to begin the message (hovering over their profile pic will show an auto reply icon that automatically types this in the send field). Then, they will see your message in their “@” message, via the link on the right sidebar.
2. Direct Messages: also on the right sidebar, this is your way to send a private message/tweet directly to the follower of your choice.

Emerging Twitter Ad services: Below you will find a short list of advertising services — interesting. My advice is that it is best to get your word out there naturally — organically — by engaging your prospects on twitter, and having your posts get discussed and retweated from your business blog (we can help you get business blog to twitter postings automated — contact me). After that, it will be interesting to use analytics to track and study ROI for the following services…

• URL shortening service includes paid ads: Adjix
• * Magpie sets up an Ad network for twitter: Be A Magpie
• * Twittads monetize a twitter profile: TwittAd
• * Featured Users features your Twitter profile: Featured Users

If you have a favorite service you’ve used from the four above, or another method of advertising… stop by and let us know. As always, we are interested in how traffic from ads “convert” visitors into prospects, leads, and customers.

So… how is your site converting?

WordPress CMS News: A new report shows WordPress taking a leading position as one of the top four Open Source Content Management Solutions — read more here.  Version 2.8 is coming soon, and rumored to add even more flexible CMS capabilities.  If you have upgraded to 2.7.x, the upgrade to 2.8 will be easy — no expensive programmer required… just push a button.  If now… contact us, and we can upgrade you.

Are you optimized for Twittering yet? Social Media Marketing is coming fast and hard, with Twitter a major force (see below).  You will find me twittering @webfadds (and Spirit too). And, there are ways to optimize and automate — I’ll show you some here.

Not yet? Well, maybe you’re still on the fence about the “business worthiness” of Tweeting. It’s simply micro-blogging for business people and you are out there letting people get to know you before they buy. Why? People buy from people they know. It’s that simple. Add to that the ability to brand and establish authority in your niche.

And, the Twittersphere itself is offering increasingly useful tools to take your twittering to the next level…

Twitter Resources:

• Polling? You bet — check out: StrawPoll
• Productivity? It’s covered. Track Daily Goals with a social twist of accountability  | An event manager that auto-links to Google Maps, updates your Google Calendar, and auto-invites via Twitter  | Twitter for Organizations | Share files on Twitter
• Job Search? You got it… a job search engine for Twitter
• Research? Check it out… Track Trends and Events with TwitScoop | Tweetscan hunts for topics of interest and sends you an alert
• Publicity? Of course. TweeTube shares photos, YouTube videos, multiple website urls and more (from your iPhone too)
• Staying Efficiently Organized? Right. Have a good look at Easy Tweets* to promote your business and monitor your brands featuring an easy, efficient dashboard (we include coaching for this service in our Social Media MAX pack)
• In Gmail? Yup. Get an app to do Twitter from Gmail (another reason why Google is watching carefully)

Interesting Business Marketing Use of Twitter: ForkFly — a service providing discounts from hundreds of Portland, Oregon merchants. Hmmmmm. Get a following, sell access to focused followers. Earn money. Opportunity knocks.

Another Interesting, Government (hey… looks like they can be efficient sometimes) use of Twitter: If you are a Twitter user you can get northbound Canadian border wait times by sending a direct message to WSDOT – the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Is all of this useful in business? Well, what is one closed sale worth to you? Ten? I had a business meeting last week with a prospect I found on twitter, and am estimating proposals this week. Still questioning it? I agree, in business you have to focus on ROI… so do it. You can track it — Web Analytics Word is reported that Ominiture, a popular commercial Analytics provider, is integrating with Twitter.

Time to Get Going: We have a new package — Social Media-MAX Pack – here at WebFadds to help you get going. You leverage your Business Blog in a synergy with Twitter to engage prospects and leads… and learn about your niche. We coach and train you on efficiency in addition to installing and configuring your package. Contact us to start today.

It works. A week ago, I had 38 followers on Twitter. Now I have 295 (at time of writing), 344 predicted later this week, with over 1,000 predicted ( by yet another twitter service, of course) next month…

How did I do it? I’m practicing what I teach… using the synergy in our Social Media-MAX Pack is very powerful. Like a rocket. Watch me prove this @webfadds.

Is it fake? No.  Not if your intent is actually to engage colleagues and prospects in dialog about your niche focus, and business passions (with a bit of the personal side sprinked in, so people can know you too).  There are automated tools that save you time, but if you proceed ethically, (no spam) with honest intent… it’s for real.  You’ll probably see a few “fakes”… but Twitter is pretty quick to close down those accounts.

You can use our “old technology” contact form to get started… or just contact me on Twitter. And, we can chat about ways to increase conversions at your site too.

* WebFadds is an authorized reseller for Easy Tweets.  You’ll find excellent service and features (more coming… in Beta now) from the support folks there.

Contact Us · (360) 566-2451 · Email | Twitter: WebFadds

WebFadds.com Conversion Marketing Program

How well is your website converting? If you can’t answer this question, or you don’t know what “conversions” are – you’re not alone. Conversions are when a visitor to your website takes one step closer to an important business goal for you.  That is, when a visitor a converts to a prospect (downloads a whitepaper), converts to a lead (fills out a form), or becomes a customer (makes a purchase).

We took a poll about conversions at LinkedIn.com, and while no one was brave enough to answer “Huh, what’s a conversion?” — 22% may well have answered that way.  They’re not tracking conversions and don’t know how well their site is performing. And what’s worse — they aren’t discovering ways to increase their conversions, and so their sales.

We recently optimized a lead form landing page for a client, and over the two following months they saw their leads increase by 43%.  The client values each lead at $100, since they close one in ten leads for a $1000 sale.  So, in a two month time period, after installing Google Analytics, optimizing the landing page, and running an Adwords PPC campaign to bring traffic for the test — they had 80 more leads worth $8,000 to the company — $48k more business per year. In national surveys, companies of all sizes focused on optimizing for conversions report gains ranging from 20% to 150%.

What’s makes a successful Conversion Site Marketing Program? It’s a process we’ve boiled down into three words:  Optimize, Connect, Convert. First, Optimize your site with a smart, SEO savvy CMS (Content Management System) solution, and install Google Analytics.  Custom configure it for SEO — Search Engine Optimization.  Optimize your landing pages for conversions.  Second, connect with your prospects and customers using a Business Blog, eNewsletters, and Social Marketing.  Use a good Google Adwords targeted PPC campaign to bring qualified prospects to your landing pages.  Third, make conversions, and analyze your statistics (particularly your “sales funnel” at your site) to continually test and optimize to increase your conversions. That’s the strategy for maximum R.O.I. for your web business mission.

Custom Design & Configuration of your WordPress Business Blog, or CMS.  This platform both saves you money (it’s Open Source — meaning free to use with frequent free updates), and is optimized for SEO out of the box.  We’ll design a blog to match our existing site, or upgrade your old-school side to a dynamic, automated CMS solution for your company.  Costs range depending on size and scope of project.  Simple Business Blog Set-ups average $499.

Max-SEO Configuration, for WordPress based Business Blogs and CMS solutions.  We research the actual terms people search on and weave them into your site, meta-tags, and titles using an installation of five major SEO plugins, plus we install ping services and coach you on blog copywriting.  Now, you’re optimized.  Starts at $489.

Analytics-MAX service. We’ll install Google Analytics at your site, help you set-up your conversion “funnel”, and site goals, then track and analyze results.  $199 mo. – 6 mo.

eNewsletter Service — we offer two options: An installed WordPress plugin for a one-time fee (includes custom template creation), and a pro-service through Constant-Contact that tracks open rate, provides 100’s of templates, tech. support, and an online control panel (set-up and monthly fees apply for this option).  WordPress is not required for the second option.

Adwords PPC campaigns. Bring targeted, qualified leads directly to your landing and conversion pages so you can analyze how well your site is performing, make adjustments, and increase conversions.  Management fee is 35% of your PPC ad buy ($1200 min. PPC buy), so figure $1620 for a minimum campaign ($1200 PPC ad buy, plus $420 management fee).

Landing Page Optimization: Want to increase leads at your website by 15% – 60% or more?  Make your site pay you back – WebFadds will track, analyze and adjust your key landing pages to increase conversion rates – Contact us for estimate.

Reach us: email:  sales@webfadds.com  •  phone: 360.566.2451

Contact Us · (360) 566-2451 · Email

Hello -

How well does your website convert visitors to leads or customers?: That’s precisely the question I asked in a new Poll at LinkedIn. The advantage of placing a poll on LinkedIN, is that mostly professionals, executives and C-level management will see it, they run it in a directory of polls on the site, and you can see some interesting demographic breakouts like results by Gender, Job Function, and Company Size. So, how many C-Level Managers said their sites convert well? Pop over to the poll to find out (and take it while you’re there). Oh, and if you’re new to tracking conversions (leads are good “conversions” for service companies to track, while sales are a primary conversion to track in ecommerce), Google Analytics is an excellent package, recently updated with enterprise level features, to use at your sites.

I’m being followed: It just started recently. There are several people following me, and I know it is true. Paranoid? Schizo? We’ll leave that debate for another time — but for now, I’m talking about being followed — on twitter. I confess to avoiding “twittering” for some time, but when I saw the “first twitter report live from a jet airline crash” appear on network news — I had to cave in and check it out. There are a couple of great plugins for your WordPress CMS that place your twitter stream in your sidebar, and also automatically twitter your latest posts. I’m using them at WebFadds.com, and also just installed them for Tom Hale, adwords specialist extraordinaire (see Tom’s twitter stream at ThomasCreekConcepts.com).

Newsletter Options: When you plan to integrate an enewsletter into you site, you have three strong options. And I strongly recommend an eNewsletter as a key tactic to Connect — the middle strategy in our “Optimize, Connect, Convert” solution (contact me to learn more). The three options? Use FeedBurner to create a “newsletter” sign-up that sends your RSS feeds to email, integrate a newsletter plugin into your WordPress CMS, or use a 3rd-party SAS newsletter provider to host and send your newsletters. The Feedburner option is the most efficient. The newsletter plugin is good for do-it-yourselfers, while a professional service like Constant Contact, can be great for companies requiring tech-support and a large list solution, off-loaded from their site hosting server. Learn more about the last two at our eNewsletter Service page, and visit Feedburner to learn about their service, then BestRatePlans to see an implementation.

Best of luck and success online -

Scott

You can sign up for our RSS feed… here

Contact Us · (360) 566-2451 · Email
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Optimize, Connect, Convert: These are the most important three words I can say to you about your website.  Your ROI depends on these three simple strategies.  Your business depends on it.  Optimize means best use of your time, and best return from your online business.  Optimize with an automated dynamic website that saves you time.  Optimize your landing pages to produce more conversions (a “conversion” happens when a visitor “converts” to a lead or a customer).  Connect with your propects by engaging them in conversation — on your blog, with your email newsletters, in comments, and in emails.  Do so persuasively with the goal of converting always in mind.  Conversion blogging.  That leads to the last word… but you’re already there — Convert.  How many businesses don’t focus on this?  Too many.  Your opportunity is to blast ahead of the competition by setting up conversion goals (Google Analytics facilitates this), then tracking and optimizing your site to increase conversions.  It’s simple, really, and Google has free tools to help you.  If you have a solid product or service and you focus on these three simple strategies… your business will grow.  Take a look at our “Analytics-MAX Site Goal Service” to help keep you on track.

You can download our new Services Overview PDF with a range of ways to help improve your SEO, your site optimization, and work on the essentials of connecting and converting… Here.

Consult with me for a Buck: I’ve been helping students get going with their BlogMastering over at Global Scholar, and there’s a Fall Special — 1 hour for 1 Dollar.  Save some gas money, and get your WordPress Business Blog and CMS Website solution questions answered.  It works best if you write down 5-7 questions before we meet, then we will go over them together and surf the web so you can lock in your learning.  Ask about SEO, Navigation structure, eNewsletters, Editing your site Stylesheets, etc.  For a Buck.  Not bad.

Free IT Magazines: Are you keeping up with the latest developments in IT?  It’s fast moving out there, and our sister site, WebHelperMagazine.com, has a list of popular IT and Web Development magazines available free:  http://www.webhelpermagazine.com/magazines/

Always be Testing: Here are the words your website designer hates to hear:  We need to test several revisions to our landing pages to see which versions convert better.  In fact, busy marketing managers tend to shy away from that at first… until they learn about how testing time, spent well, improves their conversions from 10% — 140%.  Yup.  That’s right.  And guess what?  Google (go figure) has a free tool to help you automate your testing.  Called the “Google Website Optimizer”, it rotates in different variables that affect conversions — like Headlines, Graphics, and calls to action — then determines the winning combination.  So tell your designer this isn’t print design where everything is frozen in place.  Moving a buy (or download, or contact) button just a few inches on your page can make a lot of difference to your bottom line.  Amazon has become very profitable using thise method.  Develop a culture of testing.  We can help you — contact me.

SEO Matters: Title Tag Tips…
One of the big keys to the SEO puzzle is writing good Title tags.  Do you know about them?  You can watch a video overview with tips on how to write them (make sure your key SEO phrase is in them), and get advice on how to automate them at your WordPress Business Blog here.

“Conversion Blogging” Builds eMail Lists Leading to Sales…
If you’re in business to blog, or want to blog for your business, the whole thing boils down to conversions. How many blog visitors did you convert into customers? I’m not sure who coined the phrase “Conversion Blogging”, but I highly recommend two free videos about it by Yaro Starak, a blogging guru with a successful track record. You’ll see that he teaches you how to use your blog to build your email newsletter list, and gives a lot of other great tips to help you succeed.  TIP:  pay careful attention to how Yaro is using following his own advice on his video landing page — extra-credit when you note his own conversion technique there.

Biz Growth TIP: Get Real… Real Estate Agents (and Business Bloggers)…
We’ve built a number of custom real estate blogs this year, and one common mistake I see is too many boring listings appearing on those blogs.  They’re forgetting that the best conversion process at a business blog is to engage, then converse, then gain a client (convert).  Whether you’re in real estate, or any other profession, ask yourself if your business blog engages with interesting, personal (you’re selling yourself and your sales staff) content crafted to lead toward more conversation (comments, emails, phone calls).  That’s where the success comes from in your business blog.

Custom Theme Uses our MaxRef Widgets for Content Access…
I just finished a custom blog theme for Wang And Wang Law Offices, LLC, and it uses our own Max-Ref widgets plugin for WordPress to break out access to the “Intellectual Property” section of their site.  You’ll see it there on the sidebar.  Contact me if you’d like to deploy this technique on your own WordPress website.

For more details and quotes on deploying these techinques at your own dynamic, business websites, reach me at:  scott [at] webfadds [dot] com