5 Top Tips to Convert Your Website Visitors into Paying Customers

Following on from our last article ‘How to Increase Website Traffic’ we will explore some of the basic elements required to turn this traffic into paying customers.

The primary goal for any website is to convert visitors into customers, it is also essential to raise brand awareness, improve your search rankings and drive traffic to your website through your social media channels.

However, once on your site you have a short timeframe to capture the user’s interest and make the conversion. Follow our five step formula to increase your websites conversions.

1. Know Your Target Audience

Research is the key to any successful online venture and this is required to build a clear understanding of your target audience. Through your research it is very beneficial to develop a profile of your target customer and include their demographics such as age, gender, marital status, income and location. Now the focus shifts to their underlying motivations; what is the major problem they are experiencing and how does your website solve this. It is essential for you to understand how you can solve their problems and highlight this on your website.

2. Make Your Website User Friendly

Internet users generally have a short time frame to conduct their search. They also have a short attention span, therefore if you have managed to get them to click onto your website it is imperative that your site is clear and they can navigate to the page they want with ease.

Some basic features that should be on your website include a logical menu, clean design, clear calls to action and simple functionality e.g. add to cart features, request a call-back etc. The primary goal is to make your site so user friendly that your users become customers in the shortest space of time. It is also worth researching why your customers are visiting your site and in turn giving them what they want in a clearly designed format.

3. Focus On Your Customers’ Pain Points.

Back to research, through effective research you will understand your target audience’s pain points. You must then use your website to present the ideal solution to their problem. Using this approach can help direct your overall marketing strategy and keep you focused on the needs of your visitor knowing that when they land on your site, they feel like they must take action and have your product or service to resolve their issue. By understanding your customers pain points and integrating this into your marketing strategy your website will attract customers and answer their most urgent needs.

4. Use Clear Language.

Regularly assess your marketing campaigns, look out for poof talk or buzzwords in your ad copy or technical lingo on your landing pages. If this is the case it’s time to rework your marketing strategy. The best advertisements and landing pages present a clear, concise message about your products that encourage customers to click through.

A simple question to ask at the beginning of any marketing campaign is “what does your product do, and for whom?” then provide a simple call to action.

5. Make Sure Your Products or Services Are Competitively Priced.

Where you are selling products online clearly communicate your unique selling points. This brings you back to research, make sure that your products or services are competitively priced. The chances are that visitors coming onto your website will be comparing you directly to your competitors. Ensure your website clearly communicates why your products or services are better than your competitors. This will help you convert visitors to customers.

Driving traffic to your site is the first step towards converting them into customers. Don’t lose them at this point, follow the steps above to improve your conversion rates. Is your website driving conversions? If not, contact us now at WebResults on 01-2071872 or visit our website and fill out a contact form to get more information or a FREE WEBSITE REVIEW at www.webresults.ie.

How To Increase Website Traffic

You have just got your new website and now you find yourself waiting for the influx of traffic followed by all those new leads or orders.

Unfortunately, a shiny new website is no guarantee of any sort of traffic to your website.

So how do your drive high quality traffic to your website. Read some of our top tips for increasing your website traffic to make the process a little easier for you.

1.       Set up Google authorship. Google authorship is up there as one of the top traffic strategies of 2014. Sign up to Google plus with your personal profile and then create rel=author on your own website. This will help your articles gain authority in the search engines.

2.       To get immediate targeted traffic to your website consider investing in Google Adwords. This is Google’s advertising platform and is a sure way of bringing in targeted traffic to your site along with increasing sales as a result. Keep your Adwords campaign very focused in order to get the best results.

3.       Ensure that you have social media profiles set up for your business. Now, before you rush out and sign up to every social media platform out there. Pick the most suitable platform for your target customers and start with this first. It is better to have one social media platform active and performing well rather than spreading yourself too thin across too many platforms.

4.       Content. Writing great content is a must in 2014. Create a guide, an infographic or post from an expert such as a guest post.

a)      Do your keyword research and make sure you target relevant search terms.

b)      Optimise the post including an image, Meta tags and H1 tags.

Make your activity a habit. Start slowly building your profile and engagement with your target market. Be focused on your target terms and you will start to see results in your rankings within Google. At WebResults we have helped many businesses from SME’s to multinationals implement their digital marketing campaigns successfully. Contact us now to find out how we can help you on 01 2071872 or email info@webresults.ie.

Google AdWords for Small Businesses

When it comes to promoting your business services or products on line, this is achievable for small businesses using Google AdWords. Small businesses can even tackle the big guns in their industry for an achievable budget on this platform. By setting up an AdWords account correctly, even a small budget can yield impressions and clicks on Google provided you use the right targeting options and account structure.

The Issue

The main point to understand about Google AdWords is that it is a complicated platform and is difficult to master. Anyone who tells you it is a walk in the park is not telling you the truth, however when implemented correctly it can bring great results to your business objectives. Don’t get me wrong. Anyone can go in and set up a campaign. However, to maximise it and make it work for most businesses AdWords takes careful planning and practice to master which can take time. Time most business owners just don’t have, in addition to their already loaded work schedule. This is one of the reasons there are so many businesses who don’t think AdWords really works. However, with time, effort and patience your Google AdWords campaign can yield great returns and there are many businesses out there who have increased their profits dramatically and others who use it as their main advertising medium.

Keep It Simple

What a lot of business owners think about AdWords is that you need to have a huge account with hundreds of keywords in it or a huge budget. The fact is, you don’t need a huge campaign to be successful. If you have an AdWords account with too many words and not enough time to manage it you will most probably overreach and waste money. The best approach is to start your campaign small and over time as you become more comfortable with the platform gradually grow your account. Obviously the size of your account deciphers how much time is required to manage it.

Tracking Your AdWords Progress

One of the best pieces of advice we can give you is to track your AdWords account. By this we mean setting up a Google Analytics account for your website so you can get accurate data on your visits, users etc. You can then link your AdWords and Analytics account and monitor the return from your AdWords campaigns. Also set up AdWords Conversion Tracking which gives you data on your Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ads and Keywords. This tracking informs you of clicks and conversions from specific keywords and gives you a great insight into how each keyword or Ad Group is performing.

Don’t Overreach

Keep your account manageable and don’t try to overreach. This can happen in a number of situations such as miss-targeting your ads. Be it network, location, device targeting or even down to the match types used for your keywords, incorrectly targeted ads will guarantee to lose you money. It is always best to plan your account and target your campaigns towards pre-qualified search users, by doing this you will get higher click-through rates and hence higher conversions.

Don’t Overpay – Set A Consistent AdWords Budget

Getting to the top of Google SERP page is not essential in AdWords campaigns, it probably won’t even be a reality when running your campaign on a small budget. So our advice is to take a step back and look at your budgeting realistically. Firstly, set a daily budget that will determine how much you will pay over the month. In AdWords you decide your monthly budget and divide it by the number of days you are running your campaign in the month, to get your daily budget. The budget must tie in with your businesses financials e.g. don’t spend more on clicks that will eat into your company profit unless you have a strategy in place to drive return on investment whether in the short or long term.

By careful planning around your budget. Set up your campaign clearly, this will reduce your time and effort around changing your budget. Also bear in mind if you keep changing your budget it means Google has to recalibrate how it shows your ads and hence can impact negatively on your account.

Google will suggest increasing your budget in order to increase your clicks. Before doing this, ensure that the clicks you are targeting will drive the right traffic for your business.

Bidding In AdWords For Small Businesses

Bidding is a very important factor in determining your ad positioning so it is essential that you calculate correctly how much you will be bidding based on your budget to ensure an ROI. Here is a nice formula to work off:

Revenue or Customer’s LTV * conversion rate = Max Bid

Once you have decided on your maximum bid, your quality score will determine your ad positioning. The higher your quality score, the more likely you are to rank towards the top of the page.

Next Steps

Now having made informed decisions on your targeted traffic, budget calculated and set correctly and bidding set, you are on the way to running a profitable AdWords account.

If you need help setting up or managing your pay per click campaigns, contact WebResults. We have dedicated PPC specialists with the expertise to get your AdWords campaign working for your business. Call us on 01-2071872 or email us at info@webresults.ie

Check Out 5 Standout Changes To Twitter Layout

This week brought the first of the changes of the new face of Twitter, the steadily emerging powerhouse of Social Media. Tuesday saw the initial roll-out of the redesign changing its image dramatically.

Twitters new design resembles an older layout of its main competitor Facebook and appears to be placing more of the emphasis on streams of tweets rather than its profile.

1/ The first change is unmissable as Twitter has introduced a larger cover photo, essentially the top of the profile page. Twitter seems to be adapting to the ever changing landscape of Social Media bringing a more visual element to the user’s profile.

2/ In the past Twitter users could control a number of elements on their page, now it seems Twitter is giving out even more control. Users will be able to pin their favourite tweets to the top of their page as a static post giving the page more individuality.

3/ As with most Social Media channels these days the provider has to reduce the noise (the sheer amount of tweets appearing on a page), Twitter is combating this in a clever way. Basically when a tweet appears on a page it is in small text and as engagement increases the text enlarges giving it more prominence on the page.

4/ Twitter has also introduced a new filtering option that helps users view the tweets they want to see. The new options in the filter include Tweets, Tweets and Replies and Tweets with photos and video, helping the user browse through individual Twitter profiles.

5/ Finally Twitter has revamped how people can follow and be followed on their channel. They have turned the old list into a grid design that features a mini Twitter profile to give users a better look at other users they’re following or users who are following them.

Twitter have already started rolling this out and you should notice some changes in the coming weeks! If you aren’t tweeting yet now is a good time to start as new accounts will get the new layout straight away.

Here’s some of the main benefits of Twitters new design layout for your business include:

• Larger profile picture – getting your brand seen more clearly,
• Customised header/cover photo – opportunity to get creative and promote your brands unique selling points.
• Best tweets – the more popular a tweet the larger the font so get writing compelling tweets.
• Pinned tweets – Like Facebook you can now pin important tweets to the top of your page, this can be used for offers, sales etc.

With Facebook charging more and more for advertising on their channel, now is a good time to maximise the opportunity of getting your brand out to your customers through Twitter. It is a very useful tool to use in every on-line business and should be a part of your Digital Marketing Strategy if it isn’t already. Contact us at WebResults where we can work with you to manage your on-line presence effectively through our tried and tested Digital Marketing Strategy.

How to increase Ecommerce Sales and Traffic

Do you want more online sales?

Are you  thinking of setting up an ecommerce store for your business or do you already have one that is not delivering to its potential?

Are you wondering how you should set up your ecommerce site so it can maximise every website visitor, every sales opportunity?

Is your site ready to sell, you just don’t have the traffic you should?

1. Use your Facebook profile to share a link or image back to your online store.
But be creative about how you use it. Link to a tweet from a happy customer. It is proven that sharing images on Facebook outperforms any other type of post. Try to add some sort of text overlay to the image which will get people interacting with the image – “Which Spring trends do you prefer” or some question about the images/products.

3. When you’re selling your products try and let the customer visualise themselves with your product. So if you are selling bikes you could have a couple of people cycling on the bikes through a park or if you are selling mirrors you could use a picture of your mirror on a wall in a house surrounded by a warm family atmosphere.

4. Just like all conventional retail stores try placing similar selling items together so that your potential customer can get an overall feel for your product. Try to recommend related products and upsells. Getting your customers to buy additional products is always a plus.

5. Consumer research has shown that over 40% of Facebook users will like or share something in order to get a discount. So try encouraging your current fans to share your special offers or seasonal promotions by running competitions as this will bring back new potential customers to your page. Running time sensitive offers or limits on the amount of a certain product that will be sold at a discounted price can also work to increase shares and sales. Facebook advertising targeting your current group of fans is also the lowest way of advertising on Facebook.

6. Another great way of increasing shares and likes can be running a caption contest. Simply include a post on Facebook and ask people to come up with a caption that best fits the picture. Including a link back to your online store within this post can also increase visits to your website. You could also offer free shipping to your customers with a time sensitive offer as well.

7. Make sure your product descriptions are descriptive and engaging. It is important to write your own descriptions, as this gives Google a reason to index your site and choosing the right keywords can help you get found in Google search.

8. Did you know the most frequent page people exit on ecommerce sites is the checkout? In order to keep your potential customers at this vital stage, make sure you have your checkout process down to a fine art. Have the cheapest shipping option at default, make it easy for returning customers to sign in, and be honest about shipping costs. Include a handy search feature. Be sure it works to deliver accurate / relevant results. Monitor search queries to ensure you use popular terms to target other potential customers.

Make sure it takes as few clicks as possible to complete a purchase. If visitors do leave, you can use remarketing to target those people who do abandon your checkout.

Carry out regular analytics by closely monitoring user behaviour and navigation paths on your site, and use the results of such analytics to constantly improve the purchase process.

9. Is your site optimised for tablets and mobile?

10. Consider using PPC advertising for your ecommerce site and set up ecommerce conversion tracking.  You can incorporate lead generation conversions to ensure your keywords are working if there is a gap between people who are searching and then purchasing.

11. Be sure landing pages from any campaigns are relevant, compelling and match whatever offer that was promised from the advertising copy or link.

Follow some of the tips above to increase your online sales and share your experiences with us.

At Webresults.ie we identify the best digital marketing strategy for your business, in order to achieve maximum results.

If you would like to grow your business through the web in 2014 contact WebResults.ie now for a Free audit of your website. We will identify any weaknesses that exist and offer some pointers on how you can drive your business to its full potential on the web.

Content Marketing in 2014

Last year we learned that content was a big deal in order to rank in Google search and this year nothing has changed. In fact, it has become even more important. We see that Google is ranking content that people are sharing and discussing. So when you are devising content, ask yourself is your information compelling, interesting, helpful – will people pass it on to others because they think it will bring benefit to their connections?

How do you create an effective content marketing strategy for your business.

1. First of all, if you have a website but no blog it might be a good time to implement a blog. Think about how a blog can add value to your web presence.Will a blog on your website bring more benefit (e.g. blog.yourwebsite.com or http://www.yourwebsite.com/blog) or should you set up an external blog on a blog site e.g. yourcompanyname.wordpress.com. If you have a news/info area already on your website where you can add new content, then an external blog will drive traffic into your website and create valuable links for the search engines. If on the other hand, you don’t have an updateable area on your website, you can attach a blog to your website to build out the content on you website. With any activity be clear about your objectives and what you want to achieve from that activity.

2. Make sure you know your audience. What are they looking for? What are the problems they need solved? What can you do to make their life easier? It is important that you help your prospective customers by giving them information that they will find useful. It is about holding the interest of your reader and putting yourself in their shoes.

3. What sort of content are you able to offer your potential customers – will it be text articles, pdf downloads, videos, eBooks etc .Maybe you can create a nice infographic about changes within your industry? Or maybe a downloadable eBook of tips and trends for your particular niche. Can you use images, ask questions. What type of content will engage with your target market? Make sure your content is always unique and that it is speaking to your customers.

4. You now need to plan your content around specific dates of the year relevant to your business. Have a content calendar in place and decide who in your organisation is going to write each article and what content piece will be written for that time of the year. For instance, Valentine’s Day is coming up soon and if you have an ecommerce store that sells gifts, flowers, trips away etc it is now time to start planning your content around these areas. Consider outsourcing article writing to a third party content marketing provider if you won’t get around to it. The key is to build a schedule and a routine and stick to you. Once your followers expect content, don’t let them down. The search engines will reward you for regular, relevant content focused on the keywords that are important to your business.

5. Adapt your content to the right audience. If you are sharing your content across various channels, be sure to customise it to suit the audience in question.That infographic we talked about earlier will not get the same reaction on Facebook as it would on Twitter for instance. So create different types of content for each internet platform.

6. Finally, a vital part of your content marketing strategy will be the tracking of activity around your content. How many people clicked that article link on your website? How many people viewed that video on Facebook? How many times was that whitepaper downloaded on Twitter? Did any of this traffic become a customer for your business? Which platform drove the highest quality visitors to your website? ……You get the idea.

At Webresults.ie we identify the right digital marketing strategy for your business in order to achieve maximum results for your business and increase your online revenue.

We can work with you through our outsourced services or if you would like to bring the skills in-house find out more about our Web Mentor Programme where we guide you and ensure your time is focused on activities that will drive results.

If you would like to grow your business through the web in 2014 contact WebResults.ie now for a Free audit of your website. We will identify any weaknesses that exist and offer some pointers on how you can drive your business to its full potential on the web.

Maximise Your Business Potential On The Web In 2014

As we approach a new year, don’t fall back into the old habits of hoping that you will get better results without having made any changes. If you want to see brilliant results, devise a brilliant action plan that will drive your online business forward for 2014. Set out some clear business objectives and define some Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

 

Some key considerations when implementing your action plan.

 

Website

Get your website in order. Are you confident that your website will convert your visitors into leads/sales for your business? Have you monitored how people are interacting with your website? Are you offering clear, compelling calls to action?

 

Is your existing website mobile responsive? Can your website visitors easily read your content on whatever mobile devices they might be using without have to pinch and squeeze their screens?

 

If you are planning on moving your website or changing any urls, make sure to use 301 redirects to connect old links to the most relevant new pages. Failure to do so could result in a loss of rankings.

Integrate social sharing buttons on your site to make it easy for people to share. Post content to encourage people to retweet or respond or comment on Facebook. Using shares through social media will increase your visibility both to the search engines and your prospects more effectively than through manual link building efforts.

 

 

Content

Set out a clear schedule that focuses on content and ties your content to your search engine optimisation goals.
Content will form a big part of every marketer’s strategy in 2014. Google wants to create fulfilling content for all its users. This could be anything from text content and infographics to video in order to contribute to the overall user experience. Just make sure your content is relevant to your business and it is something that people can share. Set out a monthly content marketing strategy around your business and stick to it. You will reap the rewards through increased traffic to your website along with increased rankings.

 

Links & Social

There have been a number of algorithm changes from Google this year which have resulted in many websites seeing their rankings drop in the search engines. Many sites would have used spammy link building tactics to manipulate the search engines in the past which they now find has resulted in their website being penalised. Go through your links and see if you have any unethical links out there. We then suggest that you start to remove these links using the disavow tool. From now on, start to monitor your links to your site and use the disavow tool to remove any links that you feel are harmful to your site. Going forward, focus on building natural links, these are links created by people who share your content because they deem it to be relevant and useful.

 

Use the social networks to build relevant links into the content on your website.

 

Local Search

Google places a lot of emphasis on local search and is now beginning to display rankings from their own Google + social network. Get your business on Google + and ensure you link it to Google + Local (Formally Google Places).

2014 will all be about location and proximity targeting. Providing details of your business, hours of business, video and getting people to review your business on your Google + Local profile will not only enhance the user experience but will help your rankings on Google for local search.

 

At Webresults.ie we identify the right digital strategy for your business in order to achieve maximum results for your business and increase your revenue through the web.

We can work with you through our outsourced services or if you would like to bring the skills in-house, find out more about our Web Mentor Programme, where we guide you and ensure your time is focused on activities that will drive results.

 

If you would like to grow your business through the web in 2014, contact WebResults.ie now for a FREE review of your website.
We will identify any weaknesses that exist and offer some pointers on how you can drive your business to its full potential on the web.

 

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and successful 2014

What is your Social Media Strategy this Christmas?

Maximise your social media strategy this Christmas and take advantage of the business opportunities in your market. Some tips that might help:

• Write relevant, compelling content
• Don’t just post for the sake of it. Provide information that will offer value to your clients.
• Teach them something new, that is relevant and that will help them gain something.
• Be sure that you use your social media activity to help you search engine rankings.
• Include search terms in your posts that contain the keywords that you are targeting as a business.

Engage with your customers

 No matter which platform you are using it is important to interact with your customers. Make sure you connect with your customers by providing feedback, promoting conversation and encouraging debate. Talk about something that is novel or new. Post images, questions. This will also get people sharing with their connections. This is how great companies ensure social media success for Christmas.

Create Value

Christmas is a busy time for everyone but it is also an expensive time. Providing value for your customers is so important. This could be anything from helpful blogs posts that are related to your product or providing discounts and vouchers online. Customers will be thankful as Christmas can be an expensive time for everyone.

Which Platform to use?

There are many platforms to choose from when planning your social media Christmas campaign. If your budget is tight try picking one platform first and see how it goes. It is better to have one good social media campaign on one platform rather than covering all social media angles and not doing well at all. Last year, Facebook was responsible for 4% of all Christmas visits to retail websites. Make sure your website is one of these this year!

Tip: Wish your fans a Happy Christmas around 23rd and make them aware of your post Christmas sales. Did you know Christmas Day 2012 was the 5^th biggest shopping day of the year last year with over 107 million visits to retail websites. Do not miss out!

Paid Advertising on Social Media

• Run targeted pay per click campaigns using Twitter
• Target people who are connected to people who like your page on Facebook. Run a competition and use PPC advertising to get beyond your friends and family – find new prospects.
• Target relevant people using their email addresses through Facebook and remind them of your offering.
• Get on front of people who visited your website using ‘remarketing’activities.
• Understand what worked before. Analyse behaviour using analytics.

At Webresults.ie, we identify the right social media strategy for your business in order to achieve maximum results. We work with your business to build an effective social media campaign that produces results. Get in gear now and maximise your businesses potential. Contact us at Webresults.ie to get started today.

Cyber Monday – Busy day for online retailers expected.

Cyber Monday (sometimes called Mega Monday) has now become one of the busiest shopping days of the year with savy retailers using this day to highlight sales and discounts available online, as well as coming out with some creative marketing ideas to get us to spend our money and avail of all these limited time deals online.

Primarily a USA phenomenon Cyber Monday has now grown to be one of the biggest shopping days across the world with many shoppers using cyber Monday to purchase Christmas presents for loved ones.

With a lot of early deals available across the internet the hottest categories will surely be fashion and electronics with many hoping to snap up a heavily discounted iPad or smartphone.

Online shoppers are now more comfortable shopping on their mobile phone so it will be no surprise that many of these transactions will take place via Smartphone. Last year for instance, Amazon sold approximately 41 items per second online. This will no doubt grow this year again. For Online Retailers, Digital Marketing Activities can really drive your sales for the end of the year. There are many novel businesses like Christmasmadeeasy.ie, who take away the stress and pressure of preparing Christmas dinner. Are you taking advantage of the Christmas opportunity as an online retailer?

With much of the online sales activity due to take place between the hours of 6pm and 10pm on Monday we can be sure that this Cyber Monday will probably set a few records this year.

As an online retailer or a business where Christmas activity is a time when people tend to buy your products or use your services more than other times, it is an ideal opportunity for you to increase sales. There is still time to take advantage of the Christmas market, as people continue to purchase online and avail of services, over the next few weeks. There are businesses that will continue to offer the opportunity to purchase gifts even on Christmas day, for those who ‘forget’ to purchasing for their loved ones. Sites like allgifts.ie offer a full range of vouchers for all types of gifts and activities.

At WebResults.ie, we ensure you maximise the opportunity for your business. We can work with you to identify the best online channels to get your business on front of your key targets.

We will get your Google Adwords, Facebook, YouTube campaigns set up and running quickly. Contact us at WebResults.ie now.

What does the Google Hummingbird update mean for your web strategy?

In September 2013 Google announced the biggest update to its search algorithm in over a decade. The update is called Hummingbird and it is the third update in around 18 months after the Penguin and Panda updates. Although many sites felt the effects of Penguin and Panda, these two updates were just tweaks to an algorithm. However, the Hummingbird update was a major overhaul of the algorithm.

This update, like the ones before is aimed to improve the search results. So how is it going to do that?  Hummingbird specifically focuses on semantics – which is the relationship between the words in the search. Therefore, Hummingbird will be paying more attention to each word in a search query, rather than just focusing on particular words. The aim is that the results match the meaning of the search rather than just a few words of the search.

So the principle is still the same; to produce high quality and regular content. But you may need to tweak your content in some ways. The update means Google is capable of understanding more detailed searches, so you may want to focus on more specific topics. Rather than writing about “the best mobile phones” you might write about the “the best mobile phones for business executives”. You can also vary your keywords as Google can now substitute a keyword, based on its understanding of the search, so an example of this could be substituting the term “GAA jersey” for “gaelic jersey”.

Although Google only announced the changes in September the changes have been in place since August. So if you have seen a major change in the traffic visiting your website since then it may be time to look deeper into the Hummingbird changes.

At Webresults.ie we provide a wide range of digital marketing services including search engine optimisation (SEO) and web content strategies. To find out more about any of our services please contact us.