Are you playing pin the tail on the donkey with your Website? You know, blindly taking marketing action without ever knowing if you’re even close to your target or goal?
I can tell you that if you don’t have analytics set up on your site, or you’ve never looked at them, you are operating blind. And it’s probably costing you money.
The easiest way to get a handle on what’s really going on with your Website and its visitors is to have your Web person install free Google Analytics on your site. Then, of course, you have to learn a thing or two about what all your nifty new analytics statistics mean and which ones you should pay attention to.
So this week I’ve got a post from guest blogger Jason Shindler, CEO of Curvine Web Solutions that explains a few simple ways to use Google Analytics without getting totally lost and confused…
Using Google Analytics to Make Your Website Shine
Everyone knows that you need to know how many people are using your Web site. But most people don't know what to do with the information they receive. Using Google Analytics, you can see who is visiting your website and take action based on the information. In this post, I’ll present four ways to improve the marketing of your small business using the information found in Google Analytics.
1. Quality Versus Quantity. People tell me all the time that their site gets thousands of hits. But what does that mean? Did you get 2,000 people who weren’t interested in your services and products? Or were there many people who were very interested in you and what you offer?
You can determine this by visiting the dashboard and reviewing the number of pages per visit. People who visit one page are generally not interested. People who visit 10 pages might be more interested. There are no universal rules to how many pages per visit is normal, as the structure of a site, the technology used and the type of content make every site different. However, all other things being equal, a higher pages per visit number is typically better. Note that many people get confused between hits, page views, and visits. A great piece on the difference between these confusing terms is located here.
2. Visits to Your Website Should Not Bounce. The bounce rate is related to the number of pages per visit and is also an indicator of quality of traffic. A bounce means that someone came to the first page they visited and then didn’t visit any other pages. In almost all cases, a “bounce” represents a visitor who wasn’t interested in your site. Higher bounce rates are bad.
Just like the first rule, they are no general rules on what is an appropriate bounce rate, but you can compare different referring sites or ad campaigns to see which is more effective and which is generating the right type of visitor for your site. For example, an ad campaign that costs $100 that generates 100 visitors, but has a bounce rate of 99% is not as good as a $100 ad campaign that generates 100 visitors, but has a bounce rate of 25%.
3. Have a Goal in Mind. When you invite visitors to your site, you should have a goal (we all have goals, but have you articulated specific goals for visitors to your Web site). For example, get them to sign up for your mailing list, have them buy a product, or have them send email your way. Each of these goals can be tracked in Google Analytics, and you can generate meaningful statistics.
For example, you could find out that 23% of your visitors signed up for your mailing list or that your latest advertising campaign cost you $30, while delivering $500 in sales. To read more about how to set up goals in Google Analytics, click here.
4. Know Your Audience. As a group, what do your website visitors look like? Do they have fancy computers with fast connections? Do they all speak Swahili? Knowing more about who visits your site might change the choices you make.
For example, realizing that all of your users have slow connections might make you more mindful of the time it takes to load each page. You can find all of this in the “Visitors” tab. Key stats to look for are connection speed, screen resolution, and flash version (if you use Flash on your site).
For those of you who have used Google Analytics, what have you learned about your site's users? What actions have you taken? Respond here by leaving a comment, then read more about Web site development at Jason’s blog.
[tags] Using, Google Analytics, Website, small business, marketing, online, How to, bounce rates, goals, small business, Jason Shindler, Stacy Karacostas [/tags]
Whether you’ve already got your book or e-book on your Website (and maybe Amazon), or you’re just thinking about writing one, this is a question you need to answer. Because writing and publishing a book is only half the battle. You still have to figure out how to market and sell it. Otherwise you’re likely to end up with hundreds of copies of the fantastic tome you slaved over sitting in your garage or closet gathering dust.
These days, with so much marketing happening online, it only makes sense that you should be able to market a book or ebook using the power of the Web. And according to online book marketing expert Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. you absolutely can!! After putting 9 self-published books on national bestsellers lists she’s got the results to prove it!
Now you can learn exactly how to use low cost online marketing tools like social media sites, Wikipedia, and your own blog or Website to promote and sell your book. Plus, these same tools can help you become a well-known and respected author with more clients than you can handle.
Wanna know more??? All you have to do is join me when I interview Penny this month. She’s promised to pack this call with tons of super simple tips and ideas you can use promote your book or ebook online and on the cheap. I know you’re going to walk away boatloads of helpful advice. Best of all, it’s 100% FREE to listen in live!
Here’s just a sample of what she’s promised to cover:
• The secret to getting thousands of hits on your book’s web site and then converting them into sales!
• How to create a Website and/or blog that sells your book—and what not to do!
• Top internet promotion techniques that’ll get your book flying off shelves without costing you a dime
• The Virtual Author Tour™, how you can “tour” yourself on the net to generate plenty of buzz—and sales
• How to use sites like Facebook and Squidoo to build your customer base
• How to market your book and yourself using Wikipedia—without breaking the rules
• The secrets of using Twitter to promote your book and drive more sales to your web site
If you’ve written a book and need a low-cost but effective promotional campaign to get it out to the masses, then you need to sign up for this FREE call!
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-13.htm
Can’t make the live call? No problem! I’ll be recording it, and sending a link to the audio to everyone who registers for it a couple days later. That way you can listen in whenever it’s convenient.
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-13.htm
[tags] Marketing, Promote, promotions, online, Self-Published, Book, E-book, ebook, Social Marketing, Web 2.0 Tools, Stacy Karacostas, Penny Sansevieri, Penny C. Sansevieri [/tags]
Small business Practical Marketing Expert Stacy Karacostas shares one of the big secrets of creating effective, sales-making marketing in this short video shot in her backyard mountain biking skills park. Whether you're having trouble choosing the right marketing tactics, or struggling to get clients and sales with the marketing you're doing, this video tip is sure to help you learn how to achieve your goals.
[tags] small business, marketing tip, video tactics, how to, Stacy Karacostas, SuccessStream, secrets, practical [/tags]
Is word of mouth and referrals enough to grow your business, especially with the economy headed south? My experience working with hundreds of small business owners has shown that while you might get by for awhile solely on referrals and word of mouth, typically that’s not going to be enough over the long haul.
That means you’re going to have to do some marketing and/or advertising.
Sadly, most of the entrepreneurs I've run into spend almost all their time and energy creating, then working in, their business. To the point that they forget to even think about growing it until after they get established and realize people aren’t just rolling through their doors or making the phone ring off the hook.
Then, when the do decide to start marketing they don’t know what to do. So they waste tons of time and money on tactics and materials that don’t create results. Something you probably can’t afford.
With the economy on the downslide, and people tightening their purse strings, making sure your marketing is effective becomes even more important. Because suddenly you aren't just up against your competitors…You also have to convince people to spend their hard-earned cash at all.
And just running an ad here or there, throwing up a brochure Website, or sending out an occasional postcard or letter isn't going to do it. If you want your marketing to get results (IE leads, sales, new clients, etc.) you have to think it through and plan it out. Then market on a consistent basis.
Otherwise you'll just end up flushing hours and dollars down the toilet, getting frustrated, and possibly even closing your doors (Ahhh!). To help you out, here's...
7 Things You Have to Know to Market and Grow Your Small Business Effectively
1) Your Target Market
So many entrepreneurs go out in to the world trying to sell to everyone and anyone who might buy what they're selling. But this is an expensive and ineffective way to market a business.
It's like cold-calling by starting with the 'A's in the phone book. Most of the folks you call either aren't going to be interested, willing, or able to buy your product or service. Instead you need to focus on the people who most want what you sell, and have the ability to buy.
2) What They Care About
Everyone has different wants, needs, goals, pains and problems. And we’re all looking for solutions to help us fix a problem, achieve a goal, or meet a need. So once you know who is most likely to buy what you are selling, you need to understand why they would want to.
Once you understand how your products and services can help them, you can speak directly to what matters most to them (instead of what you think is most important). And you can create headlines that grab their attention, ads that make them want to know more, and offers they can't refuse.
3) Your USP
USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. This is what makes your business, products, services or results different from the competition. And it has to make what you offer seem so different it’s clear prospects can only get this from you.
Think of it this way…If you don't give people a good reason to buy from you instead of the guy down the street, they probably won't.
4) The Benefits
Most business owners focus their marketing on selling the features of their product or service (the size, shape, speed, power, time commitment, process, etc). But they forget to
explain why they prospect should care.
It's easy to think everyone can see exactly why what you are selling is so great. But oftentimes they can't. And you can't expect anyone to take the time to think it through.
Rather than saying: "This computer has a dual core processor" (which means nothing to the average consumer)...Say "The lightening fast dual core processor lets you run more programs and applications at the same time without crashing your computer. So you save time and reduce the frustration that goes with losing files."
5) The Purpose of the Piece
It's not enough use marketing and advertising just to let people know about your business or what you're selling. You need to know what each piece of marketing should do...And what the reader should do after reading it. Only then can you create a compelling "call to action" (“Call A to get B”, “Click here to learn more” etc.) telling them exactly what to do next.
This is key, because if you don't tell them what to do next, there's no telling what they might do. They might answer the phone, click away from your site, or go fold laundry instead of buying, calling you, or signing up for your free report online.
6) What Happens Next
Very few things can be sold effectively to all people on the first shot. Studies show people have to see your name, ad or promotion a minimum of 7 times just to notice it. Then likely another 7 or more times before they take action (assuming they're even interested in what you're selling in the first place).
Why? Because these days we are bombarded with information. Not only that, people are skeptical. So you have to get in front of them over and over to establish familiarity, then rapport, then desire, then trust, and finally get them to take action (which may not even be making a purchase).
This means you need to know what should happen next in the sales cycle to keep people moving down the path towards buying. Otherwise they probably won't.
7) How to Get Your Message Read—and Responded to
How much junk mail or email do you get that you never even open? And even when you do open it, how much of it do you actually read?
What about Websites? How often do you go to a Website then click away because you can't find what you're looking for quickly and easily?
One of the biggest problems small business owners have with promoting their products and services is their marketing materials don't get read. And even when they do get read, the reader doesn't get what you do or offer, what makes it so great, and why they need it NOW.
This is usually because you try to write it yourself (and writing copy is completely different from how most of us were taught to write in school). Or you hire the wrong person to write it for you.
You see, there are lots of people who hang out their shingle as a copywriter, but couldn’t sell their way out of a paper bag. And even a great writer can’t help you make sales if you don't know enough about your target market, USP, the purpose of the piece, etc. to give them the info they need to do the job.
So spend some time focusing on these 7 things and incorporating into all the marketing you do. If you do it right, and you have something of value to sell, your marketing is sure to start drawing new customers to your business like bees to honey.
[tags] Top 7 Things You Have to Know to Market and Grow Your Small Business Effectively, Stacy Karacostas, success stream, marketing junkie, marketing, small business marketing [/tags]
