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A Baker’s Dozen Twitter Tips That Pay Dividends

December 16, 2014 By John

Twitter Tweet BirdTwitter is so easy to use, and will pay dividends when used properly, that it belongs in the marketing plan for nearly every business. Here are some tips that will help you use Twitter effectively.

  • Retweet: It is simple. Share what you learn.
  • Use Hashtags: Maximize your audience. Use hashtags, e.g. #Twitter #Twittertips #SocialMedia
  • Tweet at regular intervals (start with a couple) and at the same time of day
  • Follow those who follow you (though check out their tweets to be sure they are a good fit)
  • Reply to mentions to build engagement
  • Do NOT retweet an URL without following it first to see if it is appropriate
  • Follow or favorite people who retweet your Tweets to increase followers
  • Tweet about your own blog posts (with a link to the post)
  • Tweet about your new or updated products or services (with a link to the page on your website)
  • Tweet discount codes or coupons
  • Don’t tweet all about you. Tweet about others as well.
  • It is fine to tweet the same thing more than once, though do it at a different time of day.
  • Use Hootsuite.com or a similar tool for scheduling and monitoring your Tweets

Bonus Tip:

Leave enough character spaces for your handle to display if you are retweeted, e.g., @webwisedesign and one space takes up 14 characters, so we have fewer than 126 characters available for our tweet content.

Here are a couple of good resources for you:

Twitter’s Beginner’s Guide

The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines

If you need help getting started with Twitter, or want to get better at using Twitter as part of your Social Media marketing strategy, give us a call.

Call Today! 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media, Tips, Twitter

Is Your Website Ready For Visitors?

November 4, 2014 By John

Is your website, the place you hope to convert prospects to customers, ready to receive visitors?

When we use links to our websites using Social Media, we essentially invite people to our website. When we invite people to our homes, we generally check to see if everything is in its place and that there is nothing seriously amiss. Is that true with your website? When was the last time you reviewed your website to see if it reflects your business and your products or services as they are today?

Here is a little check list to make sure your website is ready for visitors.

  • Know and state who you are, what you do, and the benefits of what you offer to your visitor.
  • Know who you would like to visit your website.
    • Knowing your audience is critical. If you believe your audience is everyone, you will likely fail.
    • Who are they? Why would they want what you offer? When would they want it?
  • Speak to your visitors from their perspective, not with an industry-speak sales pitch.
    • Explain that you know some of their challenges, and how they can benefit from your products or services. If possible, show some specifics.
  • Does your navigation present a clear and easy path to your most important content?
  • Is your contact and location information readily visible?
  • Is your website mobile friendly?

If your website looks as good as you would like, and you check off all the items in the list, your website should be ready for visitors.

Of course, we are always happy to help. Email or call us today! — 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750

Filed Under: Customer Service, Marketing, Tips, Web Design

3 Summer Estore Tips To Increase Sales

August 7, 2014 By John

Sales growth chartSummer 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Filed Under: ecommerce, How To, Tips

5 Quick and Easy Tips to Improving Your Website

July 8, 2014 By John

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. Quick, Easy TipsIdentify 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.
  4. Make sure your home page copy has links to your most important pages
    1. Google loves properly coded internal links to relevant pages
  5. 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.

Filed Under: Content, Tips, Web Design

4 Software Tools That Can Make Your Life Easier

April 14, 2014 By John

Through the maze imageThought I would share some of the software applications I use to make my daily life run more smoothly. I believe they will for many of you as well. They are all multiplatform, which is a requisite for me and most of you reading this.

KeePass is a free, open source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and mobile devices. Not the prettiest, but function over form wins when it comes to secure password management. Store the data file in a Dropbox folder, and you always have up-to-date passwords on any of your devices. keepass.info

Dropbox is a free (2GB+) service lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again! Always have your passwords synced. (See Keepass above.) www.dropbox.com

Evernote says their application “makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web.” Throw it in Evernote (type it, speak it, email it, scan it, take a photo in it, clip it with a browser extension), find it easily whether you organize it or not.  Currently, I have 3262 “notes”, somewhat organized, tagged and in Notebooks. www.evernote.com

Todoist is one of many TO DO apps available. To-do-list and task management apps are subjective by nature. After trying many over several years, I have been using Todoist for nearly two years and just renewed the “Premium” version for another year. It simply fits the way I work very well.  Has a very good addon for MS Outlook. It runs 13 platforms including iOS, Windows, Chrome + more. www.todoist.com 

These applications are nearly indispensable for me at work, and they make managing documents, receipts, and other personal information a breeze as well.

Give them a try. I will be surprised if you don’t find them useful.

Bonus tip: Give Microsoft’s OneNote a try. Easily capture ideas, whatever form they come in. Type, handwrite, or sketch your thoughts. Clip links and webpages, insert photos and videos, embed tables, and attach files. All your notes, on all your devices, all up-to-date, and it’s free!

Filed Under: Tips

Five Tips for a Merry Ecommerce Season

September 9, 2013 By John

1. Photo Quality — High-Quality, Background, Lighting, Composition

  • Professional-Quality Photos sell! Do not use quick shots from your camera phone.

2. Detailed Product Descriptions — Engaging, Interesting, Complete

  • Truly describe your product. Don’t make them guess. Full descriptions sell.

3. Shipping – Upfront, Transparent, Full Disclosure

  • This is a deal breaker/maker for many. Don’t make your shopper login to find the cost. Price as low as possible. Free Shipping Sells.

4. Discounts and Specials – We all like a bargain

  • Introductory prices, close outs, use your imagination

5. Know Your Customer – This honestly should not have to be on this list, but is too important to omit.

  • New, Returning, Gender, Age, as well as you can ascertain.

Bonus: Tips for Empowering your Thank You page

Filed Under: ecommerce, Marketing, Tips

Branding With Every Email – Get Your Email Delivered – Professional Presentation

March 25, 2013 By John

Domain emailI wrote here about using domain mail over five years ago. With the number of people not taking advantage of one of the simplest means of branding available, I believe the subject deserves another go round. I am talking about those who are not using their domain email accounts when sending or replying to business email. Domain email is simply an email account using a name of your choice, e.g., you@yourcompany.com or info@yourcompany.com.

Here are just three of many reasons it is important to use domain mail.

  • Branding
  • Deliverability
  • Professional Presentation

Branding 

In businesses and on websites of all kinds, too often you will see contact email such as billybob@yahoo.com, 2cool@hotmail.com (now outlook.com), you@yourISP.com, sally312@gmail.com or something similar. Those same addresses get used routinely in emails to clients, prospects, and co-workers. Instead of those personal addresses, your prospects, clients, vendors, and others should be seeing email from you@yourdomain.com, bill@yourdomain.com, sally@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com, support@yourdomain.com, or anyone@yourdomain.com.  EVERY email sent from and replied to your business should be reminding your prospects, clients and vendors of your brand. Using domain mail is the least expensive branding tool you can implement, and you are branding with every email you send.

Deliverability

If your email doesn’t get delivered and opened, you are wasting your time writing and sending it. Spam has become ubiquitous, and your prospects and clients may hesitate to open an email from a toocutesy@yahoo.com, allnumbers@hotmail.com, silly@gmail.com or inappropriate@someother.com address. Deliverability can be critical when you are sending a proposal or answering a specific request. Domain mail addresses are not as prone to be caught in spam filters as the “other” @ addresses I have been mentioning. Your recipients will, at a glance, know the email is coming from your business if you use your domain mail account.  Get every email you send delivered and opened.

Professional Presentation 

In other manners of communication, i.e., phone, letters, faxes, and face-to-face, nearly everyone does their best to present themselves and their business professionally. You would be surprised at the number of people who spend thousands of dollars on traditional marketing materials, their web sites and nicely done email campaigns, yet diminish their value by including an inappropriate email address. Using your domain email will present you professionally as many times as you send an email. Why wouldn’t you want to do that with every email you send?

Okay, let’s address the two most common excuses for not using domain mail. The first is, “I don’t want to check two or more email accounts.” With today’s email programs that easily check more than one account at a time (I check over a dozen at a time), that is not a very good reason to miss out on branding with every email. If you honestly feel you can only check one email account, then your email provider can forward as many accounts as you like to just one account. Of course, that account should be a domain mail account.   The second reason is, “I like Gmail, and I use mydomain@gmail.com.” I will grant that doing this is better than using personal non-domain email accounts. It still doesn’t give you the branding or level of professional presentation that is afforded by using domain mail. If you feel you can’t live without Gmail, then use Google Apps for Business, which included Gmail that uses your domain mail. Your mail will get sent from and to you@yourdomain.com, but you will still have all the advantages of Gmail’s web-based interface. Google charges $5/user/month or $50/user/year.

Start using your domain mail for every email you send today!

P.S. If you are a client of ours and are not using your domain mail, call or email us and we will be happy to help you get started.

Filed Under: Branding, Email, Marketing, Tips

Quick Twitter Tips for New (and seasoned) Twitter Users

July 18, 2011 By John

Despite all the blog posts listing right and wrong ways to use Twitter, the reality is you should use TwitterTwitter in the manner that works best for you, and that can vary  greatly from business to business.  Of course, there are some basic Do’s and Don’ts, but you can find those nearly anywhere (including a link later in this post). Here are a few simple things to think about before sending the next tweet.

  • Proof before you tweet
  • Don’t retweet an url without clicking on and reading the landing page. It may not be what you think.
  • Don’t use all 140 characters. Leave room so you get credit when retweeted.
  • Spread your tweets out over time. Don’t flood your followers with ten tweets at a time.
  • Don’t forget, you are not tweeting to @justsomeoneyouknow. Potentially, millions can see your tweet
  • Help others. Retweet what is interesting to you and hopefully your followers.
  • If you want to get tweeted, retweet others.
  • If you want to get retweeted for specific topics, use hashtags (“#” Symbols)

For those of you who want more Twitter information, the excellent “The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing” by @Copyblogger is a great resource.

And, of course, we always appreciate follows: Follow @webwisedesign

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media, Tips, Twitter

Keyword Research = Higher Google Search Results Rankings

December 15, 2010 By John

It is no great revelation that keywords are essential in getting your website to rank higher in Google search results. That said, too often not enough attention is paid to keyword research. Knowing the queries people actually use, is integral in getting the visitors you want to your website

Google Search box

Now, the folks at Google are going to tell you to just write good copy that your potential visitors find compelling, and your rankings will take care of themselves. While that is true in a perfect world, it isn’t quite that simple.

Of course there are may factors (Google’s Matt Cutts says 200+ “signals”) that dictate where your listing shows up on Google’s search results pages, and the keywords on your web pages are only part of it. The fact is, they play a very big role.

Why is keyword research important? Well, your visitors won’t get to your website so they can read your “compelling copy” unless it contains the keywords your potential visitors use when they do a search on Google, or other search engine. Your web pages may have “compelling copy” as far as you are concerned, but are you thinking about the same keywords as your potential visitors? Keyword research can help you figure that out.

Where to start? Write your compelling copy, and then read it out loud. How does it sound? Did you or your audience hear keywords you believe potential visitors would use to find your products or services?

Make a list of keywords you believe identify your products or services. Ask for input from co-workers, customers, friends, your barber, or hair dresser.

Take a good look at the list. Are all or some of those keywords on your website? Remember, Google sells relevance. Your pages should be product or service-specific, as should your keywords. The wrong keywords may get visitors to your website, but those visitors may not stay, because they were looking for something you don’t offer. Your goal should be to attract self-qualified visitors (leads, prospects) that want or need what you offer.

Okay, let’s see if anyone actually searches for your keywords. Google has a good free tool (Google Keyword Tool) for you to use. It is geared toward those who are using, or may use, Google AdWords. You do not have to have an AdWords account to use the keyword tool. It will show how much competition there is for your keywords, global monthly searches, local monthly searches, and more. You may do a simple search, or they’ll give you more options than you will care to deal with. Keep it simple. You just want to see if people really are searching using your keywords.

If your keywords have a lot of search volume, you should use Google Trends, where you can search for two terms, e.g. lake property, lakefront property, and you’ll see charts showing the relative search volume (more people search for lake property). You can filter the results by date, regions, cities, etc.

There are non-Google tools out there as well. A very good one is the Free Keyword Suggestion Tool From Wordtracker. Another is WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool.

There is a great deal more to say about keywords, and we’ll discuss them again. Hopefully, this will give you an understanding of the importance of choosing the right keywords. One of America’s favorite authors knew something about choosing the right words when he said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Oh, that author if you are wondering, was Mark Twain.

Go to work and make that keyword list today! Edit that compelling copy to contain your researched keywords, and get results!

Filed Under: AdWords, Google, Marketing, Search, SEO, Tips, Web Design

How can Twitter help your business?

August 30, 2010 By John

twitter Increasingly, we are asked, “should we be using Twitter and/or Facebook for our business?” Today we are going to talk only about Twitter. Obviously, not every business should be using Twitter, though for the most part, if you have or intend to have a successful web presence, the answer is yes. If you already have a Facebook page, the answer is definitely yes, you should be using Twitter too.

One of the first responses we get when discussing Twitter with our clients is that they don’t know what Twitter is, or they don’t know very many people who actually use Twitter. That doesn’t mean there aren’t prospective “followers” and customers-to-be out there using Twitter, and in numbers that will likely surprise you. Will it take some time to build a followers list of any size? Yes. But, like the miners of the gold rush days, savvy Twitter users have learned that it pays to pan for those flecks of gold in those streams.

Before you start, it is important to remember this. First and foremost: DO NOT use Twitter only for pushing your products or services. Your tweets should add value to the conversations, needs, and lives of your followers and potential (those whom receive retweets, among others) followers.  If all you do is promote your products or services, you will only realize a small part of what Twitter can do for you.

Each tweet can be no more than 140 characters. You don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time writing them, but you should pay careful attention to what you write. As with anything, there can be unintended consequences if you write in haste or a poor state of mind. While forms of shorthand work for kids and others that live nearly exclusively in the texting world, I strongly believe, for business purposes, that you practice writing succinctly (admittedly, hard for me to do at times) so your message is clear. I am not saying to use abbreviations at all, just keep them, well, short.

One of the reasons I believe Twitter should be an integral part of any business’s online strategy, is that Twitter is viral. Tweet something worth retweeting (similar to email forwarding), and all of a sudden you have some potential new followers, as some of your followers retweet to their followers. Oh, and Google indexes “tweets,” so your well-written tweets can be found when people do a Google search for keywords you may have tweeted. Also, if any of your followers display their Twitter stream on their Facebook page, your tweets will show for all of their Facebook friends to see. Think branding, branding, branding. Are you feeling it?

So, how can Twitter help your business? In no particular order, consider the following.

  • Customer Service
  • Branding, branding, branding
  • Answer common questions (even though the answers are on your website) about your products or services
  • Build transparency and trust
  • Announcements of specials or events
  • Reward loyalty – send a coupon code that your followers can redeem in your store.
  • Build credability – share tips and useful links to your website and other websites
  • Your Twitter conversations add value to your brand, product, or service
  • Adding a Voice to your business – people like to know there are actual people with whom to communicate

Are you struggling to keep fresh content on your website’s home page? Displaying your Tweets on your home page can help you with that!

So, how do you start? Create a pesonal Twitter account and follow some of the social media experts so you know what is going on in social media. After you gotten your feet wet with your personal Twitter account, jump in and create a Twitter account for your business, and tweet, tweet.

By the way, you may reach us on Twitter @webwisedesign. We would love to hear from you, and of course, we appreciate any followers at www.twitter.com/webwisedesign. Follow us on Twitter

Need more convincing? Here are a couple of resources with a lot of good information for you. The first from Lisa Barone who does a really great job of listing ways to market and build your business. The second is from Twitter itself, and will help you get started. 80 Ways To Use Twitter As A SMB Owner and Twitter 101 for Business – A Special Guide

As always, we are happy to answer your questions. Leave a comment, or give us a call at 1-800-281-9993.

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media, Tips, Twitter

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Phone 608-822-3750
Toll-free: 1-800-281-9993
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