Archive for the ‘Web Marketing’ Category

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Advanced Blogging at #ftw2010

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Between my responsibilities of blogging, speaking, generating business for my company, and trying to be a better husband and dad, I’m also ramping up for Social Media FTW, a conference I co-founded with Chrystie Corns and Jaica Kinsman.

As part of our ongoing online marketing campaigns, we’re running a series of interviews with our speakers. Because I was around, we interviewed me first. Watch the lovely and talented Chrystie Corns strut her interview skills below or wach the interview on YouTube.

And, if you haven’t signed up yet there’s still time! However, with over half the tickets gone, they won’t be around for ever. Remember, last year we sold out!

To learn more and register for this year’s Social Media FTW Fall Conference visit our site.

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Marketing, flyte news | No Comments »

Marketing & Advertising Tips: The Placement of Flyers

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Yesterday, as Colin from Market Street Eats and I were discussing owning the sales process (see yesterday’s post), we were putting up a new poster for Social Media FTW, the upcoming social media conference we’re putting on up here in Maine.

Colin taped up the poster on the back of the Dasani cooler that faces people as they walk in and when they’re sitting down. While doing this we were  patting each other on the back for being able to see opportunities that other people miss (again, see yesterday’s post.) After five to ten minutes of this activity, and after the poster had been in place for a few minutes I got ready to go. It was only then that I looked at the entire back of the Dasani cooler:

Yes, it appears that there was already a poster for Social Media FTW on the back of the cooler, and neither Colin nor I had seen it.

1st Lesson Learned: Put your marketing and advertising where people will see it. We understand why giant conglomerates spend all that money to get shelf space at eye level. We stood in front of the poster for over five minutes, STARING at the back of that cooler, and neither of us saw the poster at knee level.

2nd Lesson Learned: Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.

Rich Brooks
Missing the Obvious

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Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media & Web Marketing Courses in Maine

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Although the leaves aren’t changing yet, they will be soon (sniff!) and that means that classes are getting back in session.

This year I’ll be teaching not one but two classes at the University of Southern Maine:

Web Marketing for Small Business
In this 4 week course you’ll learn how to build an effective web presence for your small business or non-profit. You’ll learn about search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, blogging, social media, e-commerce, traffic reports, and how to build a web site that generates leads and makes sales. (Please be aware, though: this is NOT an HTML course. You’re not learning how to build a web site, but rather how to make a web site that will build your business.)

4 Thursdays, September 30-October 28, 7-9 p.m.
$215 (8 contact hours/ 0.8 CEUs)
Abromson Center, 88 Bedford Street, USM Portland campus

I’m also teaching a brand new course this fall as well:

Social Media Marketing for Businesses (and the People That Run Them)
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are certainly popular, but should they be important parts of your marketing strategy? In this two-class course, you’ll learn how these and other popular social media sites can increase the online visibility of your business, and put you in contact with new audiences.

You’ll learn how to setup and optimize profiles on the most popular, influential sites, how to connect with people in the social media sphere, and how to measure your success. You’ll learn the do’s and don’ts of social media, how to build an audience, and how to listen to what people are saying about you and your business.

We’ll talk about social networking, blogging, online video and all the tools your company needs to master this new arena of marketing.

2 Wednesdays, November 10 and 17, 7-9 p.m.
$115 (4 contact hours/ 0.4 CEUs)
USM Library Computer Lab

Hope to see you there!

Rich Brooks
You Can Call Me “Teach”

Photo credit: Lee Nachtigal

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Posted in Analytics, Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing, flyte news | 2 Comments »

Machine Translations: Can Google Translate Parlez-vous français for Your Web Site?

Friday, August 13th, 2010

For years when people asked me about creating translations for their web site I suggested that if it was critical to their business they hire a translator to create secondary pages on their site in the languages they were targeting, especially if their site was full of jargon or idioms. (“Idiom, sir?”) There are plenty of examples of bad translations out there, be they machine or human created:

  • Our Mongolian hotpot buffet guarantees you will be able to eat all you wish until you are fed up.
  • Specialist in women and other diseases.
  • Poo Ping: Thai Cuisine

are just a few of the examples I found online. However, recently I had been reading that Google and other companies had made some giant steps forward by reading human translated documents (often from the UN) and comparing them for better understanding context and language.

So, when Goldbelt Tours, a client of ours, asked for affordable translation we tried Google Translate.

Here is the original page:

At the bottom is the translate bar:

And I chose French:

I especially like the “Contribute Better Translation” feature:

So, does it work? Well, I translated some of the French translation back into English:

Original English:

See it all, do it all, above it all.

Soar to new heights in scenic adventure aboard the Mount Roberts Tramway, Juneau’s top attraction, and experience the best Alaska has to offer.

Translated French:

See it all, do it all, above it all. Voir tout cela, tout faire, par-dessus tout.

Soar to new heights in scenic adventure aboard the Mount Roberts Tramway , Juneau’s top attraction, and experience the best Alaska has to offer. Atteindre de nouveaux sommets dans l’aventure à bord du pittoresque Roberts Tramway du Mont, Haut attraction de Juneau, et l’expérience le meilleur de l’Alaska a à offrir.

Translated English:

See it all, do it all, above everything.

Reaching new heights in adventure on the picturesque Mount Roberts Tramway, Juneau’s top attraction, and experience the best Alaska has to offer.

Final Decision:

Not bad. Now, I wouldn’t want some life saving device instructions translated through Google Translate for fear of being over or under medicated, or ending up with a defibrillator paddle being used on my butt, but for most non-jargony web sites that need to reach an international audience, Google Translate might be the right tool for you.

Rich Brooks
Veillez à suivre Rich Brooks sur Twitter tweets pour son habile.

(Translated back as “Be sure to follow Rich Brooks on Twitter tweets for his skillful.” Apparently there’s still work to be done.)

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Posted in Web Copywriting, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »

Optimizing Landing Pages – MarketingExperiments Webinar

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

HAND IN HAND IS THE ONLY WAY TO LANDJust finished listening to a webinar on optimizing landing pages put on by Flint McGlaughlin of MarketingExperiments. There was some great information in it–some I heard/knew, and some was new to me. Whether you’re looking to increase the leads your web site is generating or to sell more online, there was some sound advice when it comes to landing pages.

BTW, landing pages could be considered any page on your site, but for the purpose of this webinar the focus was on pages designed to get someone to take a desired action, such as request a quote, sign up for an email newsletter, etc. Although not necessary, these pages might be outside the normal navigation of the site, and only linked to from an ad or banner on another page.

  • Don’t overwhelm people with form fields. Keep them as minimal as possible, asking as few questions as possible.
  • Look at value vs. cost in the eyes of your prospects. If the cost (whether it’s time, effort or price) outweighs the perceived value you’re going to fail.

How do you fix this? Reduce the perceived cost and increase the perceived value.

You can reduce the perceived cost by reducing friction. Friction might come from unnecessary length or difficulty on the landing page. Look at your landing pages now. Is there too much text? Too much scrolling? Too many pages to purchase?

You can further decrease perceived cost by quickly answer the visitor’s questions:

  • Where am I?
  • What can I do here?

According to Flint you have “four inches and seven seconds” to answer these questions. If you don’t, your visitor will click the back button and you’ll lose the lead. When someone firsts gets to your landing page there’s a moment of disorientation; confusion is a big contributor to friction, so answering these two questions immediately will increase your conversion rate.

The next big fix is to increase the perceived value of your offering. Do this by identifying and communicating key factors that differentiate your from your competition. Use specific, quantitative & “instantly credible” language. Even if you’re not going head-to-head with your competition, you should still try and be as specific as possible.

I sometimes struggle with this (specificity) myself for our own landing pages. Do our web sites have 4x the awesome sauce of our competitors’ sites? Will signing up for our email newsletter make you 176% more smarterer? I’m still working on those metrics.

Some other bon mots I wrote down:

  • Lose all caps in your headlines…difficult to read and frustrating to visitors.
  • Use a strong headline; big, bold and dramatic.
  • Include at least one paragraph of text, w/bold and/or italicized text to highlight the important ideas. This paragraph needs to overcome the natural cynicism of anyone surfing the net.
  • Use images that draw the eye to the text, not that compete with it.

OK, now I’m off to optimize some of our pages and try some A/B split testing on them. Wish me luck!

Rich Brooks
176% Smarterer

Photo credit: Niffty

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Posted in Web Copywriting, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | 1 Comment »

Measuring Conversion Rates At Your Web Site

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Whether you have an e-commerce site or a lead generation site, you can’t know if it’s successful unless you know its conversion rate.

Your conversion rate is simply what percentage of site visitors take a desired action on your site. That might include:

  • Signing up for an email newsletter
  • Completing a contact form
  • Making a purchase
  • Leaving a comment on your blog
  • or anything else that’s measurable and leads to a sale (or whatever your business or organization goals may be.)

To succeed on the web you need to drive more qualified leads to your web site and convert more of that traffic into business. Too many people focus just on increasing traffic, but without improving your conversion rate those visitors will flow in and out of your web site like water through a sieve. Most businesses would be better served to increasing their conversion rates rather than spending money on advertising.

In this month’s flyte log we take a look at 6 Reasons Your Conversion Rates Are So Low. If you’ve been struggling why your web site isn’t generating more leads or more sales, be sure to check it out. And if you’re still struggling after reading the article, please feel free to contact me. We can take a look at the web site and make some recommendations to improve both your online visibility and your conversion rates.

Rich Brooks
Conversion is King

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Posted in Analytics, Web Marketing | No Comments »

Matching Offline & Online Marketing: Dirty Water & Cold Beer

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Today I found this amazing video through a tweet. A retweet, actually: a tweet that had been repeated by someone else and gave credit to that person. And that was also a retweet of an earlier tweet.

Besides just having a very powerful message (which can’t be overlooked) it was a fantastic combination of both creative offline and online marketing. Not only did UNICEF come up with a easy-to-understand story, they made their story so shareable on the Web.

The story: The idea of selling Dirty Water from a soda machine in New York could easily have been featured in either of the books by Chip and Dan Heath).

The sharing: The video was put on YouTube where people could link to it or embed it on their own blog. (The link I followed actually linked to a 3rd party advertising blog, although I can’t remember which one it was.) People could share it through tweets or post it to their Facebook wall.

It reminded me of that Heineken video that was shorter on social commentary and longer on pranks. It also was a great combination of offline and online tactics.

Of course, most small businesses don’t have the advertising budget of Heineken. Still, it does get the creative juices flowing.

They’re both good examples of how using different channels together can have a cumulative effect, and help your message go further.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Marketing

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Posted in Social Media, Web Marketing | 1 Comment »

How to Ignore Everything The Experts Say And Still Succeed In Social Media (Except This One Thing)

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

This article originally appeared in the Social Media Examiner where I am sometimes blessed to be a guest blogger. If you’ve already read it, check out my new article there called 12 Ways to Market Your Event with Social Media.

There are a lot of social media experts out there—including the ones who claim there’s no such thing as a “social media expert”—that are telling us how social media works, how it doesn’t work, and how we all must behave in the social media arena.

Much of this advice is framed as “universal truths” that every business must follow. Unfortunately, a lot of it is based on the expert’s personal experience that may not be appropriate for you. Even the most well intended advice is often off the mark when it comes to your business.

There’s nothing wrong with sage advice, but when guidelines become rules they need to be re-examined and scrutinized.

What follows are some of the oft-quoted “rules” that you need to question as you use social media for your own business.

(more…)

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Social Media, Web Marketing | 1 Comment »

The Visibility Formula: A Full Court Press for Online Visibility

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

So many business owners who struggle with poor search engine rankings and stumble through social media feeling lost and confused see online visibility as some sort of magic that they don’t understand.

They feel that businesses that end up on page one of Google results must be practitioners of the mystic arts, or companies that generate leads through Twitter and Facebook must have some powerful voodoo.

Put away your totems, scrying mirrors and eyes of newt. (Actually, hold on to those eyes of newt; they go great in arugula salads.) There’s no magic to increasing your online visibility; it’s all science, and it’s a formula that anyone can learn, repeat and improve on.

In this month’s flyte log, our cleverly-named monthly email newsletter, we discuss The Visibility Formula: How Web Marketing Builds Your Business. In the article we talk about:

  • Search engine optimization, both on-page and off-page techniques
  • Social media marketing
  • The power of blogging
  • Email marketing
  • Webinars, and
  • Measuring and improving on your results.

If you’ve been struggling with how to increase your online visibility, drive more qualified leads to your site and convert that traffic into business, check out The Visibility Formula…and then give flyte a call.

Rich Brooks
Droppin’ Science

Photo Credit: Amy Loves Yah

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Posted in Analytics, Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Email Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Web Marketing | No Comments »

Guest Blogging: How to Reach New Audiences Through Blogging

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Whether you’re looking to reach new audiences through your blogging, or want to attract a fresh group of visitors to your own blog, guest blogging may be the solution.

Guest blogging is just what it sounds like: you contribute a post to another blog or you invite someone else to post to your blog.

The benefit to the guest blogger is that he’ll immediately be introduced to that blog’s audience. The usual practice is that the guest blogger gets a byline and will often get a “resource box” at the bottom of the post. A resource box is a sort of a bio/call-to-action with “do-follow” links to their own blog, web site, Twitter page or e-commerce site.

The benefit to the blog owner is that she’ll get fresh content for her blog that she didn’t have to create herself. In addition, it’s typical that the guest blogger will promote his post through his own social network, driving new traffic to the blog. These new visitors may end up reading other posts, driving up page views (and ad rates), subscribing to the blog, and following links back to the blogger’s main site.

The benefit to the blog’s audience is that they get fresh ideas, often that complement the main themes of the blog. Guest posts at a marketing blog could be about sales or direct mail. Guest posts at a wine blog might be about stinky cheeses or stemware.

If you’re planning on supplementing your own blogging with guest posts, be sure to know what you’re getting into:

  • There’s still work involved: you’ll probably want to vet new posts and new bloggers, which means some sort of application form and filtering process.
  • You’ll need to created some sort of editorial guidelines: how long should posts be? Can they be repurposed or must they be original? How “salesy” can they be? How many outbound links are OK? Who’s responsible for finding images?
  • You’ll need to determine how you want to receive content: are Word docs OK? Google Docs? HTML pulled from WordPress or TypePad?
  • You’ll need to determine what type of credit you’ll give: how big is the resource box, how many links can they create to their own site, and does “anything go” within that resource box?

If you’re guest blogging for someone else you’ll probably want to know the answers to a lot of the same questions. Plus, what type of promotion will the blog owner do on your behalf? What’s expected of you as far as marketing and promotion goes? How big an audience does the blog have, and how many unique pages view a month does it receive? Does the blog editor get “final cut” over your content?

This has been on my mind a lot lately as I’ve been guest blogging for the Social Media Examiner and BlogWorld. In addition, I’ve been looking to expand the number of voices on the flyte blog, especially as I’m considering launching a new blog/venture in the not-too-distant future.

So, here it is: I’m looking for guest bloggers for the flyte blog. I’m hoping to have one fresh blog post a week from a voice outside flyte that target small business owners and non-profits. The topics can be on marketing, sales, HR, communications, direct mail, vendor relationships, building membership…whatever!

If you’re interested in guest blogging at the flyte blog please fill out the application form below to get the ball rolling. If you proposed topics seem to be appropriate for our audience we’ll be back in touch with more information!

Rich Brooks
Small Business Blogging Consultant

Photo Credit: Stephen Cummings

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Copywriting, Web Marketing | 1 Comment »

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