San Diego Web Design and Online Marketing

20 Things To Remember For Good Web Copy

Edwin Martinez — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:05:45 +0000

1. Tight writing. That doesn’t mean bad or easy writing.

2. Copy of about 600-800 words is better for SEO and catching the long tail of search.

3. Title â€“ Subject â€“ Support, in that order, like subject, verb, object.

4. Titles should be snappy and informative â€“ clickable, but clear.

5. Leads (first sentence or paragraph) should get to the point. Tell the reader what the article’s about first thing.

6. No fancy, wordy intros where it’s not clear what you’re talking about.

7. Information beats fluff every time. Pretty is for books and newspapers (and only sometimes).

8. Information does not beat style every time. Style keeps people awake.

9. Sans serif fonts are easier and faster to read on computer screens.

10. White space is awesome â€“ even better than big, pretty pictures.

11. Content should be scannable.

12. Think in bullets and subtitles.

13. People like lists.

14. Pictures should be specific and informative, not generic, decorative and ad-like

15. Photos should be relevant to content.

16. People in pictures should look friendly and approachable (and have their whole head).

17. Photos should be full body if possible (so guys can check out packages and stuff).

18. Spell stuff right. It makes you look smarter.

19. Grammar IS important. Unless you’re not really a professional.

20. Online press releases should be even tighter than Web copy.

Ideas to Boost The effectiveness of your Online Lead Generation Efforts

Edwin Martinez — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 02:38:46 +0000

For most business professionals the business climate has changed dramatically. In an e-commerce environment the focus or goal of a Web site is encouraging the site visitor to buy something. The second most critical objective is to capture the contact information from a visitor so that a pipeline of prospects can be developed. This leads arising from the Web will still need to be worked effectively to get to our primary focus of getting our customer to buy something.
Building a pipeline begins with attaining both a phone number and an e-mail address from someone. If you have a traditional direct mail program in place, then a street address is vital as well. While direct mail can still be of value, e-mails can be powerful, better targeted and less expensive. For example, by grouping your prospect base into categories. For example if you are in real estate this categories would be single family vs. condo buyers or buyers vs. sellers. You can send out e-mails that are tightly aligned with someone’s interests. You will experience a much better response rate by segmenting in this manner.

Here are a few more ideas to boost the effectiveness of your Web site/online lead generation efforts.

1. Take advantage of the two main opportunities on search engines: search engine optimization or (SEO) and search engine marketing. SEO, also known as organic or natural search is the process by which a web site is designed to be aligned with the algorithms of the search engines. Key ingredients include quality content, search engine friendly architecture and effective linking strategies. Each major search engine has a paid component to its search results as well. This involves paying for site visitors on a “per click” basis. There are a series of variables that need to be considered when starting a campaign. These include keyword selection, geography (where in the world do you want your listing to show up) and bid strategy (how aggressive do you want to be? What is your budget? etc.).

2. Keep the content on your site fresh and accurate. For example, it’s a big turn-off to arrive at a site with inaccurate information or links that don’t work. Create a compelling reason for someone to come back to your site and search for your products and services.

3. Honor channel preference - By that I mean make it as easy for someone to contact you via e-mail as by telephone. Prompt follow-up is also critical. Make sure you get back to them before they have a chance to reach out to a competitor. And as already mentioned, get complete information from each person so that you can maintain multiple contact points with them.

4. Utilize a contact management program. There are a number of these programs on the market today that will allow you to keep in close contact with those who warrant it, schedule others for contact later on, and also parse the database for mailings (as described above).

5. Study competitor sites. Although most sites have similar attributes, especially ones that are template driven, others are unique with varying degrees of professionalism. While a template site is okay, it has limitations from both a design standpoint and from a search engine optimization perspective. Many businesses have sites through the companies that they are representing (Prudential, Century 21, etc.) and also have another site that allows greater flexibility and opportunity for differentiation.

6. IMPORTANT - If you send an e-mail to your database and you do it in one bulk e-mail, make sure that you blind copy (Blind CC) all of the recipients. I have received e-mails where the e-mail is sent to 200 + individuals who had requested to be on the mailing list. The person who sent it out didn’t Blind CC everyone, and the entire list saw each other’s names.
You may be out of controw as far as what happens to your industry and business levels but what remains in your control is the lead generation and follow-up process. Hard work, strong organizational skills and a willingness to embrace e-mail/the Internet, are important ingredients to attaining impressive results.

Five Simple Internet Marketing Techniques

Edwin Martinez — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:59:28 +0000

Each of the following five internet marketing techniques can be implemented without a considerable investment (well… except perhaps time). Some of them might be more accurately described as internet marketing advice rather than internet marketing techniques (most likely #5), each of them can have a positive impact on your internet marketing initiatives.

Track and analyze your web site traffic.
Most web hosts offer traffic analysis data to their clients, and it is arguably the most important tool at your disposal in measuring the effectiveness of your internet marketing techniques and overall website performance. By taking the time to understand this data, you can begin to understand the motivations and interests of your audience. Are many of them leaving on one particular page? Perhaps you should make some changes to keep their interest. Are most of them looking at one particular part of your site? Perhaps you should make it a more featured area. Since this data updates on a regular basis, you are also able to gauge the effectiveness of any changes that you make. These are the most basic examples, as there are many more useful bits of information available- what search terms your visitors are using to find you, what sites are bringing you the most traffic, how long your visitors are staying, etc. Maintaining a successful website is an ongoing process, and visitor data is crucial to getting optimum results.
Request links from non-competing, quality companies related to your industry.
This is a simple but effective piece of internet marketing advice. Links allow you to get quality traffic while increasing the prestige of your business. Visitors that enter your site from a link that they find on another site are predisposed to believe that they will find something of value there (if not, why would the site take the time and effort to link to it?). The added benefit to link building internet marketing techniques is that they can give a tremendous boost to your link popularity, which is a major factor in determining how your site gets ranked in search engines.
Write informative articles about your business or products and make them available to online publications and webmasters.
There are numerous sites that will allow you to offer original informational articles for others to publish. In fact, our own company routinely publishes articles containing internet marketing advice. Such an exchange benefits you in several ways. First, all of these sites require anyone who is reprinting your article to provide a link back to your site, which can provide highly targeted visitors (visitors that most likely already have a good impression of you from your article). This is also another way to boost your link popularity, which is vitally important to your search engine rankings (as discussed above and in our last issue). Moreover, if you offer a service, a reputation is your most valuable asset. Widely distributed articles can help to establish you as an expert in your field and help you to gain credibility with your future clients. Although internet marketing techniques such as these may require a considerable time investment, the payoff can be well worth the trouble.
Give your website visitors a clear call to action.
If your site isn’t intended to sell a product or gain a customer, then what is it for? Your internet marketing techniques should have a clear purpose, meaning that every page on your site should focus on getting the visitor to take an action. This could be purchasing something online, filling out a form or sending an email, making a phone call, or even simply moving on to the next step in the process. Your website should be more than a static billboard proclaiming that you are open for business- it should compel your visitors to follow a specific path that leads to a sale. The answer can be as simple as placing a prominent offer on your pages.
When it comes to your site, don’t overlook the obvious.
As previously mentioned, this might fall better into the category of internet marketing advice, rather than internet marketing techniques. However, it is important that you compare your website to an actual store. Is everything clean and organized, or is everything messy and cluttered? Many websites give bad first impressions with issues that could easily be avoided. Broken links are a sign of sloppiness that are fairly common. To combat this, there are several websites that will automatically scan your site and identify any broken links. Seeing little red “x’s” where a graphic or photo should appear is another common problem that is easily addressed. Does your site maintain its look and functionality with most browsers? People are sometimes dismayed to learn that their site (which looks great in Internet Explorer) doesn’t maintain its look or functionality with other popular browsers such as Firefox. The time and resources required to fix these problems are small when compared with the cost of tarnishing your professional image.