Coaching For Success
Bring Your Web Site Photos To Life
Dec 22nd
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Get £50 off a website 10 point MOT. Use the Contact Us form on the top of this page for more details
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It’s hard enough getting visitors to your internet business web site in the first place, but actually engaging them and keeping them there and getting them to interact with the content on your site is another matter altogether. Adding videos to your site certainly helps, but that takes time and planning and you may not be in a position to create videos right now.
If you have photos on your site (and how many sites don’t have at least a few photos on them?), they may engage your visitors but aren’t particularly interactive. However, that can change now, thanks to Phlook (pronounced “flook”), a web site that takes any photo you care to upload and converts it to an interactive version of the same photo.
What’s It All About?
It’s about giving your visitors more opportunities to interact with your site by making the photos on your site interactive, thus allowing your visitors to interact with them, thereby engaging them more and potentially leading them to take the action you desire. It’s a proven fact that when visitors enjoy being at a web site and spend time there, they feel more relaxed and so are more inclined to buy a product or service, supply their e-mail address, recommend the site to friends, etc.
Phlook now provides you with another avenue for you to extend your visitors’ time on your internet business web site and make more of them feel comfortable with your site so you can eventually get the outcome you desire.
How Does It Work?
The service couldn’t be any easier to use. First, you register for the site (it’s free) and then you’re ready to start converting your photos. Just follow these simple steps:
- Upload a photo
- Enter a description, select a category and enter tags
- Save the changes
- Copy the code to embed the photo into your site
Once the photo is on your site, your visitors can then interact with it by hovering their mouse over it, at which time several options become available, including adding a note to the photo, voting for the photo as a favourite, zooming in and out and e-mailing the photo to friends.
To Interact, Or Not To Interact?
While this may not be suitable for all internet business web sites (even though the more you can interact with your visitors, the more successful your conversions are likely to be, but that would be a business decision for your company), there’s little denying the benefits it could bring in the form of potential conversions, or at least return visits (how many people aren’t curious to see whether or not their comments spurred any further discussion?). This gives people the chance to be heard, and it could also help generate feedback for your web site design and its content while helping to develop a sense of community for your site and your brand.
Engaging and interacting with web site visitors is becoming more important as the social side of the internet looms larger in people’s daily lives, so taking advantage of tools like this can only be beneficial to your web site and your overall internet marketing strategy.
3 Steps To Making Money Through Facebook
Dec 21st
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Get £50 off a website 10 point MOT. Use the Contact Us form on the top of this page for more details
******************************************************************************************************************Step 2 – Create Interesting And Engaging Content
Facebook now boasts over half a billion users, so isn’t it time your internet business used that to your advantage? We think so, so let’s take a look at some ways your internet business can benefit financially through Facebook.
Approach With Care
Since Facebook is a social network, using the same approach with its users as you might in normal business situations will backfire pretty badly. Users on Facebook are there to socialise through sharing experiences, photos and videos and aren’t there to buy products.
Before you start using Facebook as a sales outlet, you should set up a 3 step strategy to establish relationships with your brand’s fans, create interesting and engaging content and finally measure results.
Step 1 – Engage With Users Who Like Your Page
The first thing you need to do is create a page for your business which stands out from all the other businesses on Facebook. One of the best ways to do this is through the use of apps, which can be shared with friends, and which can have a dramatic impact on your company’s ROI.
Another design aspect to take advantage of is the use of a separate tab on which to display products and services and so avoid forcing the same on your fans, who may click the “unlike” button otherwise and end up dismissing your brand, maybe for good.
Visit Facebook’s app directory to select some of the amazing apps available.
Step 2 – Create Interesting And Engaging Content
With the emergence of Facebook for e-commerce purposes, a new type of search engine optimisation (SEO) has come into being revolving around news feeds.
What determines which news feeds appear on a user’s page are the following:
- how often the user interacts with a page
- the number of likes or comments a post has
- how old the post is
If the content you create on your page follows the above formula, updates will be seen by your fans. If not, you may find your company with no fans.
If you’re just trying to get your company established on Facebook, a good option to try is Facebook advertising. Ads can be delivered to people based on the preferences specified in their profile. Not only that but Facebook can give you an idea of how effective your ad will be before it’s placed, saving you from potentially wasting your advertising money.
Step 3 – Measure Campaign Performance
You can get invaluable customer information using Facebook Insights to review customers’ country of residence, age and gender to make changes to or enhance your Facebook strategy. After analysing the data, you can determine the best content to offer, what your current audience is and what type of improvements you might want to make.
As should be clear from the foregoing, Facebook requires a different approach compared to “business as usual”. It’s all about connecting with people and developing ongoing relationships with your target audience by bringing a human touch to your customer interactions. Create a dialogue with your fans, gain their trust and confidence and you’ll be successful at monetising Facebook for your internet business.
A UK internet business coach is well versed in Facebook and how to set your internet business up to take advantage of the opportunity to increase your profits through Facebook.
Facebook Is Fast Becoming As Important As Face-To-Face Consumer Interaction
Dec 20th
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Get £50 off a website 10 point MOT. Use the Contact Us form on the top of this page for more details
******************************************************************************************************************Digital Marketing Numbers Generally On The Rise
Despite the importance attributed to it by internet marketing experts, many internet business owners are still not fully committed to putting much in the way of resources into implementing social media as an integral part of their search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy.
But, data supplied by e-mail marketing company Constant Contact from a recent survey shows that things are changing and that more and more business owners are beginning to recognise the fact that social media should start playing a more prominent role in their internet marketing strategies.
Social Media Numbers On The Rise
The numbers from Constant Contact’s survey show a sizable increase in small business owners’ interest in the use of social media to boost their online marketing efforts.
Let’s take a look at those numbers, resulting from a survey of 1,500 small business owners:
- 63 percent stated that Facebook was a major factor in their marketing efforts during the autumn. That number is up from the previous survey conducted during Spring, when 50.5 percent responded similarly.
- 30 percent of the same respondents said Twitter was their main focus among social media platforms during the same period. Again, that number is up from the previous survey conducted during Spring, when 26.5 percent responded similarly.
Digital Marketing Numbers Generally On The Rise
Social media numbers are obviously on the rise, but numbers for other forms of digital marketing were also shown to be on the rise, according to the same autumn Constant Contact survey.
The increases in other, more traditional forms of small business marketing, i.e. event marketing, online surveys and email marketing, were more modest, but still on the up, whereas other non-digital, less cyber-centric forms of marketing (in-person interactions, direct mail and telephone conversations) showed modest declines.
While face-to-face contact still plays a major role in the day-to-day operations of most small businesses, interaction via the internet, social media and other forms of digital media is becoming the preferred method of communication for many business owners due in large part to its immediacy. To illustrate the point, 62 percent of small business owners responding to the survey claimed that having a presence on Facebook is just as important to their businesses as dealing with consumers face-to-face.
Inter-personal communications will always play a vital role in how small business owners conduct business, but it’s mainly a change in the medium via which the communications are being conducted that is being seen, especially in the rapidly increasing use of social media, Facebook in particular.
This survey shows that making sure your internet business has a social media presence, particularly where Facebook is concerned, is of vital importance for your business’s future success.
If you’re still on the fence where social media are concerned, a UK internet business coach can go over the benefits of establishing a presence for your business on the social media networks, and can work with you to take full advantage of the marketing power of Facebook and the other social networks.
The Power Of Testing Your Web Site Can’t Be Underestimated
Dec 19th
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Get £50 off a website 10 point MOT. Use the Contact Us form on the top of this page for more details
******************************************************************************************************************Web Site Testing Providers
As an internet business owner, it’s vital your web site performs at the highest level possible in order to attempt to ensure maximum profit potential for both you and your business. One of the most important things you can do to try to ensure your web site is functioning at its best is to conduct split testing, or A/B testing, on your site.
Introduction To The Concept Of Split Testing
OK, we’ve told you what you need to do to try to achieve maximum results from your web site, but perhaps the whole concept of split testing is new to you, so a few words of introduction might be in order.
Split testing refers to running 2 or more different tests to determine which one would work best when implemented. So, let’s take a simple direct mail example to show how it might work. You send out two sets of postcards to different consumers, one set blue, the other green, and see how many of each you get back. If the majority of cards returned to you are blue, then blue would be the winner in this test and would be said to have the most “pull”, and would be the colour you would use going forward in your actual direct mail campaign.
The same concept applies to online marketing, running 2 different tests at the same time, but the results are much more immediate and you can act upon them much more quickly and implement any changes needed very rapidly.
Web Site Testing Providers
SiteSpect is one of the forerunners in the web site testing field, and they recently worked with the online travel/destination site, Vegas.com, to turn its mobile strategy around. They had been losing money but with a few simple tests courtesy of SiteSpect managed to turn that around within a month and a half. SiteSpect provided a mobile strategy that increased ROI and revenues and continues to do so.
In addition to A/B testing, SiteSpect provides other tools to analyse statistical data for best results and charges fees on a cost per case basis.
Two new testing upstarts have recently appeared on the scene, namely Visual Website Optimizer and Optimizely, both of which offer split testing at a cost dependant on the services required and both offer free trials.
Testing today is extremely efficient and cost-effective, something many internet business owners fail to take into consideration, and there are many excellent providers out there who can help get your web site set up for success in the future.
A UK internet business consultant will help you devise a testing strategy for your web site and advise you as to an appropriate provider for your A/B testing needs.
Online Shopping On Track To Reach Record Levels Over Christmas
Dec 18th
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Get £50 off a website 10 point MOT. Use the Contact Us form on the top of this page for more details
******************************************************************************************************************Online Consumer Spending On The Rise
Despite how bad the global economy has been, internet business owners are hoping that sales over the Christmas period will help take their business and the economy out of the depression they’ve been in.
In the period leading up to Christmas, sales have been brisk, giving business owners hope for a turnaround in their fortunes over the upcoming Christmas shopping season. According to comScore, online business owners have no cause for concern because they’re predicting online sales will break all previous records.
Spending Reaching Pre-Recession Levels
Consumer spending has begun to pick up this year and that fact is borne out by the numbers recorded so far this year. Let’s look at some of the figures to get an idea of what’s going on:
- The research by comScore shows that shoppers in the US spent more than 9 billion dollars over the first 3 weeks in November, which represents an increase of 13 percent over the same period in 2009.
- comScore anticipates spending to exceed 32 billion dollars by the end of December, which would surpass the total set over the same period in 2007 before the recession set in.
- The total amount spent in 2010 up to and including the month of October was almost 110 billion dollars, which represents an increase of 9 percent over the same period in 2009.
Online Consumer Spending On The Rise
A separate report produced by MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse shows that consumer spending in general is on the rise, with online spending showing particularly strong signs of significant growth. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers from this report:
- Internet sales for the early part of November showed an increase of 11.4 percent over the same period the previous year
- August and September showed very strong growth of from 7 to 8 percent over those same months from the prior year
- Online spending over the Christmas shopping season looks set to be on a par with the best results ever recorded in 2007, which is a dramatic recovery considering the doom and gloom of the past couple of years
One very important point to note for online internet business owners is that, according to the people polled for comScore’s report, 33 percent of online shoppers claimed they would only purchase goods online during the Christmas shopping season if shipping was free.
The main thing to take from both of these reports for online retailers is the fact that consumer confidence appears to be almost back to where it was during the pre-recession era and, as a result, so are sales.
A UK internet business coach can work with you to take advantage of these trends and of the impending Christmas shopping season.
