News from WSI Internet Marketing

e-Newsletter from Janet Smith & Andrew Davis

April/May 2007

Articles in this Issue

Three Seconds to Impact

Getting Results with Pay Per Click

Greetings!

Have you had a look at second life (www.secondlife.com) yet?

Do you have your own Avatar?

... No, neither have I!

I personally think it is a bit frightening that nearly 6 million people have created themselves an alter ego that exists in a non-existent world where they can buy islands with Linden dollars that have a real-world exchange rate with the US dollar.

All this freaky, geeky stuff aside, the Internet has become a place where any company can do real business with real people. Whatever your business - local service company, small retailer with ambition, b2b supplier - just starting up, long trading history - can you afford to ignore the power of the Internet?

For practical, straightforward advice on making the most of your web presence and Internet Marketing activity simply give me a call.

Janet Smith
01422 823 075

Three Seconds to Impact.

What happens that makes a person decide to read a web page or not? How does someone decide to explore deeper into a website, or not?

Attraction.

The first three seconds do not involve evaluating the usefulness of information, only if it is attractive enough to warrant further exploration.

The attraction phase is a subjective experience, there is no right or wrong, it is about what you like or don't like without the need for fact or theory.

So, if it is not easy for us to agree whether Ricky Gervais is funny, whether Damien Hurst's art is any good or whether Angelina Jolie is the sexiest woman on the planet, how are we to agree what to put on a webpage to ensure it attracts readers?

Subjective Response.

As we all respond to information subjectively and non-consciously before our conscious mind kicks-in; we have just three seconds to attract a visitor's interest and work out how to keep their attention - and they must not even know we're doing it.

A quick scan of headlines, bullet points and images form the attraction phase. So, without scrolling down or moving off your own home page and ask yourself;

Is it clear to a visitor who I am?
Is it clear what I do?
Is the purpose of my website clear?
Is it clear what a visitor should do next?

If not, give me a call and we can debate whether Jose Mourinho or Russian money is the reason for Chelsea's success AND how to give your website a makeover to make it work for your business.

Getting Results with Pay-Per-Click.

Paid Search or Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an easy way to kick-start your Internet Marketing activity and to get instant traffic to your website.

Keywords + Advert = Traffic

Getting results and a good return on your investment (ROI) is not quite so straightforward. Here's how;
Stage One. Have a good product or service that people want.
Stage Two. Have a clear campaign strategy with quantifiable objectives and targets.
Stage Three. Undertake competitor and keyword research to develop and refine your list.
Stage Four. Create groups of adverts with relevant and compelling copy.
Stage Five. Have a landing page relevant to each advert group that gives the visitor exactly what they were expecting and leads them to take the desired action.
Stage Six. Execute the campaign; attaching specific and relevant keywords to specific and relevant adverts that attract the right quality as well as quantity of clicks.
Stage Seven. Monitor and measure your conversion rate. Conversion, not traffic, is what matters. Manage the campaign to maximise conversion; monitor, measure, report and undertake on-going campaign optimisation.

In Summary.

Good Keywords + Compelling Adverts = Targeted Traffic
and
Targeted Traffic + Relevant Landing Pages + Great Products/Services = Conversion/Sale

For further advice on Paid Search and all other Internet Marketing activity simply give me a call on 01422 823 075 or drop me an e-mail, jvsmith@wsimarketing.com