MacDonald on Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

You spend a lot of time and money to get visitors to your website, and then the majority of them will leave again without contacting you or making a purchase, never to return.  Turn some of those “not today” visitors into future customers by persuading them to join your email list.

Here are the five steps to building a healthy opt-in email marketing list for your small business:

1. Use a third-party email marketing service provider.  I prefer Aweber.com — other providers include ConstantContact.com and GetResponse.com.  Why should you pay for a third-party service?  Your website host or ISP is not really geared to handle your email newsletter needs; if you don’t use a third-party provider, you’ll find that many or even most of your subscribers do not receive your emails.  Packages start at $20 a month and it is well worth the investment.
2. Put an email collection box (the little form your visitors fill out with their name and email address) on the front page of your site, and ideally on every page.  Make it easy for your visitors to sign up to your list.
3. Make an irresistable offer to induce your visitors to subscribe.  Offer free information, a discount coupon, insider deals:  anything that will appeal to your audience.
4. Tell your visitors exactly what they are going to send them in their email.  A weekly newsletter?  Special discounts?  Recipes?  And then stick to your promise.  Give them what you promised them, and not a bunch of other stuff.
5. Send marketing emails on Wednesday.  Statistics show that emails sent between Tuesday and Thursday stand the best chance of actually being opened.

Need help getting your email list and website collection boxes set up?  Contact me at catherine@macdonaldonmarketing.com

Welcome to SEO Tuesdays. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of creating a website that enjoys good search engine rankings for the search queries your potential customers are likely to use when searching for products or services your business provides.

Getting good search engine rankings for your site is a longterm project that never really ends, but the results of good SEO are worth it. Statistics suggest that 85% of people who use Google click only on the “organic” search results and completely ignore the paid search listings. Therefore, SEO is worth a significant chunk of your online marketing time and/or budget.

To successfully improve your site’s search engine rankings, you need to understand the four basic steps of good SEO:

1. Identifying keyword phrases
2. Optimizing your website
3. Developing inbound links
4. Tracking your results

Today we’re going to cover the basics of identifying keyword phrases to target in your search engine optimization efforts. When people who are looking for your products or services go to Google, what do they type? You need to identify the phrases your customers are likely to be using to search so that you can begin to optimize your site to improve search engine rankings for those phrases. In SEO terms, these are called keyword phrases.

Brainstorm for a few minutes and will have a list of phrases to start you out. Keep these tips in mind:

• Think Laterally: If you sell aboveground pools, in addition to all the pool-related keyword phrases, what about phrases like summer fun, backyard improvements, etc.?

• Go Local: If you have a bricks and mortar location and you primarily serve a limited geographic area, include geographic keywords in your phrases. You have a much better chance of building a good ranking on “Bangor bed and breakfast” than on just “bed and breakfast” and people who are searching for “Bangor bed and breakfast” are ready to make a booking.

• Use Tools: Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and the free keyword suggestion tool from Wordtracker to find new keyword phrases and get an understanding of the search volume for each phrase.

• Prioritize: Choose no more than a dozen of the best phrases on which to focus your SEO efforts to start. The best phrases will be very specific to your products, services, and possibly geographic area and have a reasonable search volume. Beware of picking phrases that are too general, because while more people may be searching using these phrases, there will be far more competition from other sites for top rankings.

Now what? Put this list in a safe place — you’ll be referring to it over and over again as you optimize your website.

Next week I’ll show you how to start putting these keyword phrases to use in your SEO efforts. We will cover website optimization, followed by inbound links and analytics. Be sure to subscribe if you’re interested in learning more about SEO for small business sites.

Have you been working on search engine optimization for your small business website? Please comment and share your thoughts and results!

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