Digital Marketing Consultant

How are your conversion rates for your website?  Is your traffic up but the conversion rates are down?   It just might be all about your site loading time.

Most people will not wait very long for a site to load up before they click the back button and leave the site forever.  As a website owner, your Internet connection is more than likely a high speed connection.  The biggest mistake that many website owners make is forgetting that just under half of all Internet users still do not have high speed connection.  Yes, they may still be using the lower 56K modem connections.  The difference between load times on highspeed and a 56K internet connection can be shocking.

Sites that load quickly with high speed can seem like an eternity loading with 56K.  Of course, we should keep this in the perspective that we are talking about seconds not years.   But the reality is what loads fast with highspeed can take between 30-80 seconds with 56K.  In some situations, the extremely slow load time can time out your potential customer’s search and not provide the site at all.

Your webpage should load as quickly as possible to be effective with a 56K connection, and it should never exceed 25 seconds.   Reducing your 56K load time to under 10 seconds will create a substantial increase in traffic to your site, which, in turn, will effect conversion rates for your site.

The best way to check the 56K load time for your site is to simply use a 56K connection and check it for yourself.  This is best because you will actually experience the load time in the identical way your potential customer would be. 

Other methods you can use to determine the load time for our site is by statistics and load time testing by diagnostic programs.  The diagnostic programs provide times for several different types of connections including T1, DSL and dial up connections.  You should test internal pages for your website as well as the home page.

There are several things you can do to improve the load time for your site. 
1.      Reduce the number and size of graphics on your site.
2.      Limit the use of large tables on your site. 
3.      Multimedia Bling including things that flash, blinks, and spins should be avoided.

Watch the load speed for your site on various connections and watch your conversion rate improve.  If you must have a slow loading section of your website, warn the viewer.  Here is an example where it loads slowly because of the weight of the videos. 

Everyone should understand the value of effective quality content when it comes to Internet Marketing.  But what defines effective content?  The biggest mistake I see is the lack of understanding by the website owner of how the visitor will preceive the product or service.

Rule Number One: Look at your website from an outsider's viewpoint.

If you are offering quality services and products to your customers, you are doing them a favor.  When you know you are providing this to your customers, it will be reflected in your site content both in words and in tone.

Your content should inform your customers of the following:
•    What products and services you offer in a clear and concise phrase
•    How these products and services will benefit the customer
•    Write a call-to-action from the customer

Most website owners take time to make sure their Home page is perfect for attracting and retaining visitors, but often the internal pages of a website are not given the same attention when building a website.  

This can be a real problem for your marketing.  Not all visitors enter your website through your Home page.  Check your statistics and you may be surprised to learn that a lot of traffic enters your site through the internal pages.  Think about it.  These visitors never even may look at your wonderful Home page.  This makes it important that every page of your website be developed with the same intensity as you provided for your Home page.

Every page of your website should let visitors know what you and your website are about.  This can be accomplished with an opening sentence such as, “My Company offers quality ink cartridges at wholesale prices."  Every visitor to a page with this at the top will know what you are all about.   A concise statement about what you offer the benefits to your visitor will make a difference in your conversion rates.

Your website pages should have a call-to-action even if it is as simple as a purchase button.  To sum it up, look at your text as a prospect would, tell your prospect concisely what you do, and make sure the action they need to take is as simple as possible.

A lot of people today are starting an online business, but one of the first steps to your online business success is profitability.  Before starting an online business, you must first determine what online business can be profitable.  Do a business plan which includes the costs of administration, sales, and eventual shipping.

The reason Amazon and music downloading sites are so profitable is because there is little or no warehousing with many products and even less shipping costs.  Yes, you can build any type of online website you want to build, but the question remains, will it be profitable?   So make your plan and calculations.

Choose something which interests you.  You can be the expert.  It can be a small niche in that your website does not need to have geographic limits.  What you might consider odd-ball music can find a large market worldwide.  You just need to be the expert.

The website is your store.  Building a website that is user friendly is important, but it also need conversion architecture, i.e. the site must make the visitor want to buy or to take action.  And the site must be so intuitive that the visitor does not have to think to use it.

You can increase your sites profitability by adding links to services and products for which you can receive a commission.  You can also increased your profitability by using Google AdWords, links, and even banner advertising.  Another opportunity to improve profitability of your website is to become an affiliate marketer promoting other businesses on your website.

Determine the multiple ways you can make your site profitable before building your website.  All of these methods of making your site profitable can be included in the development of your website.   I will say that most first-time websites are not successful unless you deal with an experienced Internet and Digital Marketing Consultant who can save you from all the pitfalls.

Chances are, you have heard the rule “Keep it simple stupid.”  You know, the one where simple is best for everyone concerned.  Well, this analogy applies to Internet marketing sales.

By keeping the process simple, you will have more conversions on your website.   Internet marketing has become a way of life in our modern world.  The competition has been getting heavier with each new website that is launched on the web today.  With this increased competition, how can you get your website to the top?

The first thing that you must commit to is customer satisfaction.  All the big players on the Internet already know the importance of customer satisfaction, so if you are just starting out, you have to make this commitment right from the start or risk being left behind.   You will be facing these mega sites and you best believe they are focusing on customer service.  

You must remember at all times who is king on Internet marketing.  Yes, you are correct; the customer is king.

The buying process on your site must be both secure and simply.   Your website should be developed with codes and keywords that allow    shoppers direct access to specific products and information about the products.   Once they have connected with the specific product they are looking for, the shopping experience must focus on quick carting and checkout for the products they have selected.  

You will also want to make sure you have a large selection of payment options available to your customers.   A website that only offers credit card payments will miss out on the sales of customers who may not feel secure disclosing this information on the Internet.

The real objective of your site is probably to secure sales.  To accomplish this, site pages must exhibit your salesmanship.  Your pages have to effectively make the sale for you.  This is what we call Conversion Architecture.  See the free Wisdom Book for details.

The first mistake a lot of new Internet marketing business owners make is thinking that because they have a good product and that they know their product that they will have a successful Internet or Digital business.

While it is true having a good product and being knowledgeable about the product is important, there is much more needed to be truly successful.   To gain your spot among the most successful Internet marketers will require the following:
•    Customer Service
•    Fundamentals of Internet marketing
•    Basic understanding Internet marketing

Regardless of the product being sold or even who is your target market, the basics of Internet marketing are the same.  Marketing has several phases which can turn an Internet marketing business into a successful online business.

To get your business going, you will need to generate traffic.  In order to obtain sales, you must have traffic to your site.  There are several different ways to create traffic.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is an effective method to obtain traffic for conversion on your site.  You want to make sure that your target market knows and understands your site is open and ready for business.

People will not visit if they do not know your site is in operation.   A marketing partner will be helpful in making your website known to your target market.  Some of the methods used are keywords, blogs, videos, articles, links, and media marketing such as Facebook, YouTube and others.

Creating the traffic is just one of the first steps.  In order to be successful, you will need to convert the traffic to sales. Your website should be built with the end result in mind.  You should be looking for sales of products, services, and information.

Encourage and entice your visitors to take the next step by making a purchase.  You want to make the sale and create customer loyalty to ensure future sales. Repeat visitors and purchases will be one of the ways to secure your future success.  Repeat customers are one of the greatest benefits to a business.  Customer service will go a long ways in securing repeat business from your customers.  

Don't hesitate to read the FREE Wisdom Book to learn and understand the processes.

Building a website is not difficult.  Attracting traffic is difficult, but making sure your site sells effectively can be more challenging.

The number of online business owners that do not pay attention to their website statistics is concerning.   The statistics provide valuable information about the traffic to your site.   You can find out who the traffic is, where they come from, and how they connected to your site.   Without this valuable information a business owner is only making a guess about their sites effectiveness for sales.

Providing easy solutions for your visitors improves your site selling ability.   Review your site to see how difficult it is to locate and purchase products.  If you find you have to click through several pages to get the product located and purchased, you will want to make adjustments to your site to make the process simpler.

Do your advertisements link to your home page?   Advertisements for products or services should link directly to the specific service or product page rather than the home page. 

Check for the load time of your site.  You want the load time to be as minimal as possible.  Not all customers are going to have high speed Internet, so you will need to test the loading time for even a 56K modem.  Remember sites with lots of graphics tend to take much longer to load than site with fewer graphics.  What will it matter how cool your site looks if you never get the visitor because it takes to long to load the site.

These are just a few basic checks for finding out how your site sells.  Making the recommended adjustments can lead to your successful online business.  But it may not be enough.  Our free wisdom book will give you much more detail.

I am going to repeat something that I have said just a few days ago: The majority of website businesses do not succeed.   In fact, most end up in miserable failure.  A lot of websites have a pleasing appearance, even great features, and lots of traffic, but the real purpose for a website business is to produce income. 

 

The purpose of the website is obtained by several different methods including:

• Direct product sales
• Affiliate promotions
• Generation of leads

Regardless of the method used, the bottom line goal is to convert the traffic into paying customers, i.e. Conversion Architecture.  A lot of websites fail to obtain the necessary conversions.

I repeat a few of the most common reasons conversions do not occur with one additional  reason:

1.   No compelling sales copy on your website.  Your content should provide information about what you do.  The content should urge and suggest to your customer the reason why purchasing now is best.  

2.  Failure to establish the call-to-action.   Think about what you want your visitors to do once they arrive on your site.   This may be to purchase something, subscribe to something, or to contact you directly.   The key here is do not leave it to the imagination spell it out for them on your.  You job as the owner of your website is to help others.  You should provide the directions your market will need to follow to take the action you desire them to take. 

3.  Make navigating your website easy for the newbie visitor on your site.   People tend to leave websites quickly if they are difficult to navigate.  If you are not sure if people find your website easy to navigate, listen to what they have to saw.  Just by listening, you can discover the challenges people are having on your website.

4.  Have not understood how SEO and SEM all works together.  If you are not spending your life working to make your business website work, you are probably only getting some of the information you need to make your on-line business succeed.

These are just a few of the main reasons some websites fail.   By taking care to know all the reasons, you will probably understand that you need full-time, qualified help and, finally then you can attain the success for your online business you have dreamed of having.

The Internet is full of marketers trying to make a go of it on the Internet, but many of these marketers are not making money.  Are there things they could learn that would make a difference in their success?  Learning the art of preselling could be one of those things.  There is something to be gained with the technique of preselling.

An effective presell creates a desire within the customer to know more.  This leads them on to click through more information about your products and services.  All products and services have both positive and negative attributes and good preselling will provide both sides of the story objectively.  Often marketers believe that sharing any of the cons for a product or service will cost them sales.  But the truth of the matter is being honest and upfront with your potential customers builds trust with them.  As you gain the customers trust, your sales will increase.

This should not be difficult to understand since we all want to know all the details about things we are contemplating purchasing.  Preselling works best when it is presented in a conversational and informative manner.   Your goal with preselling is to make your customer comfortable and to gain their trust.

Product reviews and testimonials are also an important part of preselling.  These reviews and testimonials should back up what you are establishing with your potential customer.  Make these more real to your visitors by including a picture of the person providing the review or testimonial.

Preselling will effectively move your customer to the purchase stage when they get to your call to action.  Take the time to learn the art of preselling; it will pay off with increased sales.