Blog - WebWise Design & Marketing

3 Summer Estore Tips To Increase Sales

ecommerce, How To, Tips / By John / August 7, 2014

Summer sales lead quickly to the beginning of the holiday season. Now is the time to make some changes to your estore that will help improve your holiday sales. Here are 3 tips for your ecommerce website that will increase sales.

Fine-tune Your Product Descriptions — Search Engine Optimized, yet engaging and inviting product descriptions. Your descriptions are your sales pitch for each of your products.
High-Quality Product Photos — Great photos sell products! Money spent on professional-quality photos will translate into sales. It is that simple. Photos snapped with your phone are not high enough quality to be used in your estore.
Auto-responder “Thank You” 15 Days after sale — Schedule an email follow-up with a “Thank You again for your order” message with the order summary and customer service contact info. When possible include, “Customers who purchased this (these) item(s) also purchased (or viewed) these items.” Please don’t make it one big sales pitch. The message should focus on appreciation for their business, ending with a “Thank you” and “Hope you are enjoying your new ____________,” or “Hope your ____________ is __________. “

Doing those three things, will take some time but will, without a doubt, increase your estore sales.

As always, we are happy to help. Please call us at 800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750.

How Content Marketing Benefits Your Small Business

Content, Marketing / By John / July 30, 2014

This is the first of a short series of posts on How Content Marketing Benefits Your Small Business.

Content Marketing is more than a buzz word. Done right, it will benefit your small business, community, or association. So, if it is not a buzz word, what is it?

Here is the definition from The Content Marketing Institute.

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Okay, I know that reads a little like a mission statement straight from a committee from a galaxy far, far away, but let’s talk about getting started with an outline of some of the elements. As we are getting started, it is important to remember, Content Marketing is only effective if it is focused and delivered to the right audience.

Important Elements of Successful Content Marketing

Audience

The most critical element
The old adage, “If you target everyone, you’ll hit no one” is worth remembering
Learn who and where your audience is, and what they do, online and offline
- Demographics of key social networking platforms – Pew Institute
Your audience-preferred media channels, formats, and communication styles may vary widely

Objectives

Raise brand awareness
Lead generation
Build email list
Convert prospects to customers
Retain customers

Determine Goals

Specific outcomes and benchmarks
- Increase number of forms filled out per week, specific number of new subscribers, etc.

Subject Matter

Determine your core message. (The primary benefit you offer your customers.)
Align your core message and your reader’s interest
Focus on benefits for your audience

Content Type

Email Newsletter
Blog post
Video
Tweet
LinkedIn
Facebook post
E-book, white paper

Distribution Method

Blogging (RSS Syndication)
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Google+

Schedule (Depends on delivery type)

Daily, Weekly, Monthly
Try to be consistent

Of course, we are just scratching the surface here. Watch for our next post about How Content Marketing Benefits Your Small Business.

5 Quick and Easy Tips to Improving Your Website

Content, Tips, Web Design / By John / July 8, 2014

It doesn’t always take a complete redesign to improve your website traffic and engagement. Do it quickly using these quick and easy tips.

Prominently display your Toll Free (or Local) Phone Number at the top of all your pages.
1. In the top right-hand corner, in a size and color that will make it easily seen.
2. This is an item where function over form pays dividends.
Review your contact information, and update it if needed.
1. We believe your contact info should be in the footer of every page.
2. Be sure your phone numbers, address, business hours, and events calendars are current
Identify your audience, and start your copy with the benefits you offer them.
1. You only have moments to convince visitors to look at more.
2. Don’t place your value proposition at the bottom of the page.
Make sure your home page copy has links to your most important pages
1. Google loves properly coded internal links to relevant pages
Real, verifiable testimonials can help change a visitor to a customer.
1. Having canned-appearing testimonials from a name with one initial for either name is simply a waste of time.

Keyword SEO is Not Enough – 8 Steps to Fixing

Google, Search, SEO / By John / May 12, 2014

That statement is certainly not a great revelation. However, it is worth repeating. While it has never been a case of “build it and they will come” for websites, many think a Search Engine Optimized website will automatically do well for nearly any search using keywords related to what their website offers. It seems that many people think that “Keywords” = SEO. Obviously, that has always been an overly simplistic view, but keywords do play a big role in getting a given web page displayed in search results. That said, there is much more to SEO, and certainly more to generating traffic to your website.

How people use the Internet and Web has dramatically changed.

Much that happens on the Internet no longer includes viewing a web page. It happens on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, various chat platforms, regular email, newsletters, and other platforms. People are using phones and other mobile devices, not just desktop computers. When internet activity does involve viewing a web page, in many cases the visitor came from a link in content on one of the aforementioned platforms and devices.

How Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines evaluate and rank available content on the web that can be displayed in Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) rankings has dramatically changed as well. Reportedly, Google has over 200 Ranking Factors. Only a portion of those have to do with on-page SEO.

On top of that, with Google’s “Universal Search” results displaying many elements in addition to traditional snippets and links to relevant websites. Search results may now include (not all at the same time) the following.

Site Links (6 pack)
Google Map + Pins
Local Carousel – Photos
List Carousel – Just that, grouped list of results
Knowledge Panel – Top Right, info related to query
Google AdWords – Top, Right Column, Bottom

Answer Box
Image Mega-Block
Video Results
News Results
Social Results
In-Depth Articles

Where eight to ten traditional listings were once displayed for a query, now there are often only three or four. The competition for results page real estate is very real.

It is this simple. Traditional on-page, keyword search engine optimization, is not enough by itself to achieve high rankings in search results. What you do online other than on your website, and what others say about your business and your web presence, impacts your website traffic.

Here are 8 steps to fixing your search results rankings.

Have a quick-loading, attractive, relevant, and frequently updated website.
- Google includes site speed in their 200 ranking “signals”
Well-written content that visitors find of value, and worthy of sharing
- Compelling content that conveys your value proposition for your product or service
On-Page Search Engine Optimization done correctly, including headings and internal links
Add a blog, or “what’s new” page that has fresh and compelling content
Don’t forget any given keyword has to be on a web page to show up in search results
Create and use at least one or two Social Media accounts
Place Social Media share and follow buttons on your website
Send a monthly email newsletter (include links to your website) to clients and prospects

I know. It sounds like more work and time, and it is. That said, in today’s rapidly and constantly changing online world, Keyword SEO is Not Enough.

1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750 or contact@webwisedesign.com

Landing Page Key Elements Refresher — SEO Notes

SEO, Web Design / By John / March 18, 2014

We often talk about important key elements of a well written landing page when we are talking with clients and prospects. Every page on your website is a potential landing page, so it doesn’t hurt to mention these key elements even more frequently.

Of course, pages vary greatly due to the nature of their content. However, there are some basic tenets that should be nearly universal. Here are some key elements that should be included in nearly every page.

Headline
- Short description of what is on the page
- Contains same keywords as title of page
Sub-Headlines
- Makes for easy scanning — People scan before reading
Content
- Page-specific, well-written descriptive text
Images or video
- Visuals attract attention — Videos engage website visitor
Bulleted and/or Numbered lists
- Makes for easy scanning — Did I see this somewhere before?
Calls to action
- Call us today at 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750 for help with your landing pages.

Every page on your website is a potential landing page.

Too many people still believe that nearly everyone sees the home page first when visiting a website. That is far from the reality. You need to treat every page as a landing page that conveys your message, or describes your product or services effectively.

Did I mention calls to action in the key elements of landing pages?

We could be “Putting The Web To Work For YOU!” Call 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750 today!