No one is going to argue that mobile internet use will surpass desktop use.  The only question is when.  This infographic indicates it will be within the next year, but whenever it happens, the point is that your digital marketing activities need to include mobile presence.  So, what sort of presence do you need? Should you have a mobile web site or a mobile application or both? Those seem to be the choices for how your mobile marketing strategy should play out and they are not mutually exclusive.   I read recently that over 60% of people prefer using a mobile website over a mobile app.  I have no idea if that’s true, but when I correlate that with some other conjecture I’ve read recently that over a quarter  of mobile apps downloaded are never used after being downloaded, I’m thinking there might be some truth in there somewhere.  So it would appear the safest bet is to have a mobile web site, for sure.  Whether you do a mobile app probably depends on what your … [Read more...]

Search Engine Optimization consultants are in the business of helping you get better visibility and generating more business for you.  After all, this is marketing!  But, how can you tell if a consultant will do a good job for you?  Here are a couple tell tales that may tip you off: Calibrate the commitments and expectations.  If someone tells you they can get you increased search rankings in days, you should probably move on to someone else.  The way the search engines work, it takes time to build up rankings.  Usually at least a couple months before results really start to show up.  On the other hand, if YOUR expectations are that SEO will pay off immediately, then you might want to consider some other form of instant gratification.  SEO isn’t it. How transparent is the consultant?  Make sure that your SEO consultant is being completely transparent with the methods being used, right from the the beginning.  Probably the most important question to ask is how are they … [Read more...]

Do you know who's on your site? If you are generating any traffic at all to your web properties, you probably would like to know who it is that is visitiing.  And if your visitors are spending any amount of time looking at your website, they probably are someone you would like to have a conversation with.  But how do you know who they are? There are many ways to cultivate leads, using both traditional marketing as well as digital.  Traditional methods such as working call lists, mailing, emailing, and print are still the bulk of where marketing dollars go.  But digital marketing techniques are taking a larger percentage of the marketing budget and in many cases has surpassed other more traditional methods.  Digital marketing using website properties and techniques like search engine optimization and social media marketing have become very important for all businesses. So, how do you know who visits your website?  The obvious way is to use some sort of call to action.  Have … [Read more...]

What is a landing page? Simply put, a landing page is a web page that helps businesses capture leads. It is different from a Home page, which usually serve as the doorway to generic information about the various products, solutions, and services offered by the business. As such, a typical Home page has too many elements vying for the visitors’ attention. A targeted landing page will work towards compelling a visitor to take the specific and desired action. There are several ways a visitor can be directed to your landing page: Search engine results link when someone runs a query for your keyword Clickable links in your pay per click ad or other online advertisements Links pointing to this page incorporated in social media posts Email campaigns providing links to this page Organic search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns throw up links to this page during relevant keyword searches The impact of your landing page can be measured by analyzing the number of visitors who … [Read more...]

If you’ve been trying to figure out how to get inbound leads through your web properties on your own, you undoubtedly have been using your knowledge of search optimization and social media marketing.  But are you getting the results you expect?  Maybe it’s time to look at getting some help.  In previous posts, I’ve talked about the basic decision of whether you want to develop your digital marketing skill internally or whether you should hire a professional.  It can be a hard decision – time versus money. Many small to medium sized companies struggle with this decision.  Here’s an article that’s focused more on insurance agencies, but the same principles apply to any small business.  Basically, if you’ve tried generating results from your inbound programs and your efforts aren’t bringing the return you feel they should, then it’s time to call for help.  More importantly, if you can’t seem to track enough data to analyze whether your efforts are being … [Read more...]