Digital Marketing Consultant

First, what is website Stickiness?  It is another way of calling Time-on-site or on-page.  In other words, does your website make people want to stay, want to read, want to go deeper into your website?  If so, that is a sticky site. Stickness is part of website conversion architecture.

Our business is devoted to making your website sticky.  But perhaps you have asked how you can determine the stickiness of your website.  There are several ways to measure the stickiness of a website and we will discuss those in this edition.

Some of the sticky attributes you should have implemented on your website include.
•    Making the information for your target market easy to access
•    Clearly and concisely tell your visitors what you do and what your site has to offer in products and services.
•    Keep your website up-to-date with new information, products, and services.
•    Use professional appearing graphics
•    Provide references, testimonials and guarantees for your products and services.
•    Include an effective call to action on your website

After you have the above attributes actively in operation on your website, it is time to start measuring for success.  Measuring is necessary for every successful internet marketing site.  By measuring the stickiness of your site, you will find areas which you need to make adjustments on and tweak you site to become stickier. 

The number of visitors to your site is an important statistic.  But when it comes to stickiness, importance is placed upon how long your visitors remain on your site.  Remember if your visitors get to your website and then can’t locate the information for which they are searching, they will become frustrated and leave and probably never return again.

For an online business, the customers’ point of contact is your website.  Your website represents your company and you.  The website should be constructed and maintained to build credibility for your company and the products and services it offers.

Most webhosting companies offer tools to track the traffic to your site (see Google Analytics) along with time visitors stay on your site that can be used to track the stickability of your site.   These tools can even drill down to the page level for your site to provide specific areas on which to focus for stickiness improvement.

Recently, once again there have been some new website design and development trends appearing as a result of search engine modifications.  Some of these have been present for a while and others are still emerging.  Some website owners have felt the impact of some of the changes occurring with the search engines in the recent past.  We will take a look at some of the current and possibly upcoming trends.

Language and Code Changes

Website coding is becoming more interactive with increased functionality.  Previously used HTML/CSS is moving over for JavaScript, JQUERY, and AJAX.  Some limited use of Flash is also occurring or variations with other types of coding creating similar effects, such as a really cool coding found at spritely.net.

Increased popularity of mobile, Grids, and Retro Designs.

Grids are generally seen with product promotion pages and portfolio designs. These designs promote interactivity on the site and simplification for the visitors reducing their confusion with searching.

Designs that are printer friendly with increased white space, large headlines, columned content, improved organization, and large fonts are preferred.

Improved Performance across various browsers.

Developing a website with designs complementing and working effectively will a variety of browsers including Opera, Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox is necessary to assure all potential customers can access your site with their favorite browser.

Development of Platforms that are Interactive

Social media has ushered in interactive websites that encourage user participation.

Ease Of Navigation 

Sites will need to be more user friendly once again noting increased interactivity.   Navigation is key to the search engine ranking process.  The search engines are most kind to the sites that are user friendly.

Employment of Slab Typefaces to enhance Prominence

Logos on websites are employing slab typefaces which are similar to large headers.  Slab typefaces have already been utilized this year.

Solid Typography

Solid and large typography is being used for headings and subheadings to enhance the ability of the reader to simply scan the webpage quickly.

You may want to consider including some of the following enhancements to your website for improved user experience and search engine ranking:
•    Rich user interfaces
•    Font replacement
•    Huge Images
•    Modal boxes
•    Embossing
•    PNG transparency
•    Media blocks
•    Columns
•    Introduction Block
•    Carousels

Putting in too much of a good thing can be detrimental.  So be careful.  If you want to have your business online done correctly, contact us.  Or first, simply check out our wisdom book.

Developing a website that will communicate in an effective manner with your visitors is one of the first steps of website construction.  The comfort of your visitors must be taken into consideration.  The ultimate goal for your website is to obtain sales and request for your products, information, or services. 

Understanding where your visitors are coming from is essential for you to have a website with their comfort in mind.   Some key components that should be followed for visitor friendly website layout:

1.    Present yourself on the website.   This is your opportunity to introduce yourself to your visitor.  A photo of yourself and your real name are the basics of a good introduction.

2.    Let them know what you do and what your website is about IMMEDIATELY.  Answer the question they will have upon arriving at your website: What will I find and do on this website and Why should I look deeper into this site?.  You will need to provide a clear and concise answer for this question.

3.    Communicate how your unique product, services, or information can provide a unique benefit for your visitor.  The secret here is not to sell but to tell your visitor what benefits you offer them.

4.    Provide the visitor why they need your product or service and tell how you can fulfill their needs.  Know your products and services first hand and make sure testimonials used are from real people who have first person knowledge of the products and services.  Avoid fake testimonials and reviews.   Include details for product description, purchase details, payment options, delivery options, and any specific instructions.

5.    Provide an intuitive pathway for visitors on your website from beginning to end.  Important information should be placed in the most prominent location for the visitor to view.   Prominent locations can be defined by use of headlines.   Stay away from a cluttered website or your visitors will stay away.

6.    Place effective images of your offers remembering that visitors cannot pick them up or touch them.  Great pictures are golden.

You can find great advice on line on how to do everything right.

Being under construction for a successful website in reality means the foundation is being developed.   The foundation of any successful website or online business starts with the content.   Everyone understands the need to have a good solid foundation in the construction of a building or road.  The same applies to a website. 

You can’t construct a lasting building on a foundation consisting of a couple of 2x4’s.  Likewise, you can’t build a successful website with just a page or two of content.  You need to prepare to have a lot of content for your sub topics and all of your products and ideas.

Having established the need for a lot of content, you will need to structure the content to facilitate both navigation by your visitors and recognition by the search engines.  

Traffic to your site is dependent upon how well your business, products, goals, and even your reputation are woven into the content on your website.   The layout of your content on your site is equally important for both visitors and search engines.   Once this is accomplished, your website represents good construction from the top to the bottom.   Your website will function as great running machine that is ready for business.

You want both your visitors and the search engines to be able to drill down through your content with the easiest path for the specific product that are searching for.

The following steps can help you organize and categorize your content:
1.     Take inventory of your products and services identifying the main category and various groups of sub categories.
2.    Use a keyword tool such as Google Adwords to take a glimpse at words and phrases potential visitors to your site would use to find your products and services.
3.    Take the time to compare your product listing with the results found with the keyword tool to develop your final categories.
4.    Drop your products or services into the appropriate categories.  You may find some products and services fit in more than one category.
5.    Add relevant content to the products or services to describe the products and services for both visitors and search engines.
6.    Enhance the flow from each point of your site to another with a number of links for your visitors and search engines to have to go from one point to another point.

Yes, you will need to do a lot of work upfront to identify the most competitive keywords.   Keywords, content and layout, title tags, navigation, internal linking provides for the strongest foundation in the construction of your website.   Following these basics will set your website in the best advantage for success when your under construction sign is taken down and the traffic begins to flow.

If you think this sounds too complicated, it is only part of the work.

Although Digital and Internet are used interchangably in this article, Digital Marketing includes Internet Marketing and all the surrounding tools and opportunities.  It has many facets and it can be easy to get off track if you are not careful.  This is where a successful Digital or Internet Marketing Consultant can be of the best help in moving your business to the next level.

An Internet or Digital Marketing Consultant will provide energy and enthusiasm for your project.  As a minimum, a Digital Marketing Consultant should be skilled and have proven expertise in the basic areas of Internet Marketing that describe and are included in Search Engine Optimization:

•    Tagging and meta description and keywords
•    Website design and internet marketing to capture the needs of your target market and offering solutions for these needs
•    Website design
•    Website content
•    Website development

Is a consultant needed after the website is developed?

Yes, development of the website is just the first step.   Ongoing marketing will be needed to maintain search engine ranking and maintain traffic flow to your website.   A Digital Marketing Consultant can also help keep you abreast of the evolving technology that will need to be incorporated into your online business for continued success.  The rules and the tools change every day.

Qualities of the best Internet Marketing Consultant include:
•    Experienced in Internet/Digital Marketing
•    Knowledge and understanding of sales and marketing and, preferrably, your industry and/or market sector
•    A vision of the future in Internet Marketing; what to use and what not to use today
•    Skill level ranges from basic to advanced; you need it all.
•    Will have a good track record.
•    Will have built in accountability.

And if you want to export anywhere, it would be preferrable to have a consultant that knows, lives, and understands other markets.

Carefully select an Internet/Digital Marketing Consultant with whom you feel is working with you to make your internet marketing business a success.  Developing a long-term relationship with a trusted and knowledgeable Internet/Digital Marketing Consultant should be profitable for you and your business.

An excellent opportunity to learn more is to attend our free webinar and to download our free whitepaper.