10 Ways to Increase Online Sales

This blog post marks the first in a series that will show you how to increase your online sales by converting website traffic.

It seems everyone is talking about search engine optimization these days. At least in a lot of Internet marketing circles. It's SEO this and SEO that. Everyone is obsessed with search engine rankings and visibility.

I get it. These things are important, and I've been known to check my own Google rankings from time to time. Okay, maybe once a week. But I also realize the importance of website conversions (lead and sales generation). This is something a lot of business website owners tend to neglect. They have plenty of traffic, but they are not generating online sales from their traffic -- at least not like they could be.

So in this article, I'll explain the importance of traffic conversion and show you to ten ways to increase your online sales for greater success.

Let's start with a definition, just so we are on the same page...

Within the context of online marketing, a website conversion takes place when somebody goes from being a casual website visitor to something else. For example, if somebody visits your website and eventually purchases a product or service, a website conversion has occurred. The person has "converted" from a casual website visitor to a customer. You have generated an online sale from one of your visitors.

There are many kinds of conversions, and they differ from one website to another. It all depends on what you want people to do when they reach your site. If somebody contacts you about your products or services, another type of conversion has taken place (from casual visitor to inquiry). If a person signs up for your newsletter, yet another type of conversion has taken place (from website visitor to subscriber).

Donations, sign-ups, clicks, purchases, downloads -- these are all forms of website conversion. In each of these actions, the visitor has become something more than "just a visitor."

And that brings me to another point...

Turning Web Traffic Into Sales

Website traffic is not the ultimate goal of an Internet marketing program. Many people obsess over their traffic levels to the point of neglecting other things (like website conversions). So let me say it once more. Traffic is not your ultimate goal. It is only a stepping-stone toward your ultimate goal -- online sales and lead generation.

Here's an Internet marketing observation that may shock you. The average business website has more than enough traffic to support the company's business goals, but simply does not capitalize on that traffic. In other words, people are visiting the website on a regular basis, but not doing anything once they get there. In this common scenario, the business owner needs to do something to increase online sales and grow the business.

I can give you a prime example of this from my own experience...

I once did SEO work for a real estate agent who swore he did not have enough traffic. After analyzing his website analytics, we found that he actually had about 1,000 visitors per month. Those of you familiar with (A) Internet marketing and (B) the real estate business will realize that this person had plenty of traffic. If the agent turned five of those 1,000 visitors into clients each month, he would have had more business than he could handle!

But therein lay the problem. The vast majority of visitors were leaving without doing anything. This is a website conversion problem, and it was costing him a lot of business. So we addressed that problem in tandem with the SEO services he wanted.

This real-life story underlines the importance of converting web traffic. By itself, website traffic will not help you grow your business. You have to get those people to do something. In order to increase your online sales you need an effective system in place designed to do just that.

How do you go about it? Good question! That's the subject of this new article series. In the dozen or so blog posts that follow, I will offer you many tips for increasing your online lead and sales generation.

Small Business Website Success - David vs Goliath

by Brandon Cornett

Can your small business website compete with the "big dogs" online? Sure it can. That's the great thing about the Internet. Here's how to go about it...

With the right approach, your small business can outperform larger competitors online. It's like the old tale of David versus Goliath. In this article, I'll explain how you can use the Internet as an equalizer.

In the old tale of David versus Goliath, the hero used his cunning and his aim to defeat a much larger opponent. Here's how your small business can do the same thing online...

From a business standpoint, the Internet serves as an equalizer between small companies and large corporations. You see it all the time. A small company will work hard to grow its Internet presence, and before long that business is competing with the "giants" of its industry for web traffic and sales.

The Internet as Equalizer

Online, it does not matter how large your budget is, or how long you've been in business. It only matters how effectively you drive traffic to your website, and how well you capitalize on that traffic. This is what I love about the Internet, and it's what I strive to teach others.

For instance, I have a real estate website that ranks up there with the largest corporate sites in the major search engines like Google. It also provides just as much content as the big corporate-owned sites. They have budgets and staffs that make mine seem insignificant -- I'm just one guy who happens to be passionate about web publishing. But by learning how to be more effective online, I've taken their size out of the equation.

Online, Smarter is Better Than Bigger

You can outperform your larger competitors in a number of ways online, regardless of their marketing budget or staff size. Here are some of the ways you can beat "Goliath" in terms of Internet success:

• By doing more keyword research to find out what phrases your customers are searching online (i.e. search engine optimization).
• By creating more content -- and better content -- built around your list of key phrases and topics (i.e. content development).
• By having a nicer looking website, or a better organized website (i.e. web design and usability).
• By doing a better job converting web traffic into leads and sales (i.e. lead generation).

These are just a few of the ways you can use the Internet as an equalizer between your company and your larger competitors. Online, nobody cares how much money you spend on your marketing program ... or how many people it took to create your website ... or how long you've been in business. They care about products and services that help them achieve their goals. If your website does a better job of presenting those products and services than the websites of the "giants" in your industry, then so be it.

In our current web-based economy, the Internet can make or break a company -- especially a small or medium-sized business. Good search engine rankings alone can easily triple a company's sales. That's how powerful the Internet can be for your small business. And if you work hard and build a strong web presence, there's no reason you can't slay some giants.

I hope this article has given you the motivation needed to take your Internet success to new heights. If you'd like some practical advice on what to do next, refer to the website listed below.

Brandon Cornett is the author of many articles and e-books on small business website success and similar topics. Learn more about this topic by visiting http://www.austinseoguy.com/small-biz

Internet Web Marketing - 5 Key Components

Article summary: An explanation of the main parts of an Internet web site marketing program and how they interact with one another.


Any type of business can benefit from a strong web presence. That's where Internet marketing comes into the picture. By promoting your business online, you can reach a much larger audience than ever before, and with relative ease (compared to the pre-Internet days).

Here are some of the things you should have in place to ensure Internet web marketing success.

1. Planning & Strategy

You can't just rush into a web site marketing program and expect great results. Before you do that, you need to have a solid plan / strategy that accounts for such things as audience, message, selling points, techniques, etc.

The best way to address these things is by asking some key questions:

• What are the key selling points of my product or service?
• Who is my audience, and how does my product / service relate to them?
• How will I reach and communicate with my audience online?
• What are the primary (and specific) goals of my Internet web marketing program?
• What kind of information do I need on my web site to accomplish these goals?
• Who is going to manage my web site marketing program?

These are just a few of the question you should ask about your web site promotion and Internet marketing campaign. Obviously, the questions listed above will generate even more questions. And that's the whole point.

2. Online Visibility

So let's say you have answered all of the questions above and addressed the issues they present. Now you have a web site and you are ready to promote it in order to generate business. What next? The next key component of your Internet web marketing program is online visibility. By this, I mean the ease with which people can find you online.

The size of the Internet is measured in billions of documents / pages, and it's growing every day. Even within your industry and niche, there will be many web sites for your audience to choose from. So you need your site to be extremely visible and easy to find.

There are many ways to accomplish this kind of visibility. Search engine marketing can obviously help, but that's not the only thing you can do. You can also publish articles online to drive traffic and increase visibility, distribute press releases online, publish a business blog and more.

3. Lead / Sales Generation

Website traffic is important for Internet web marketing success. There's no doubt about that. But traffic is only one step along the path to your ultimate goal, which is to increase sales and grow your business via the Internet.

That's where lead generation / sales generation come into the picture. These are also referred to as online conversions. For example, if somebody visits your web site and joins your newsletter, then a conversion has taken place. The person has "converted" from just a visitor to a newsletter subscriber. Other forms of conversion include lead capture, sales, inquiries and other forms of contact.

Here are ten good ways to increase conversion rates.

4. Tracking & Analysis

How will you know what's working and what's not if you have no tracking system in place? The answer, obviously, is that you cannot. So in order to further your Internet web site marketing success, you have to track and analyze your results.

This will include such things as watching your website analytics program to a customer feedback form at conversion points. There are many ways to track and monitor performance, so the important thing is to find what works for you and stick to it.

One of the great things about Internet marketing is that you can get nearly instant results and feedback. You can try something, judge the success, and then try something new for comparison. But you can't do any of this until you track and analyze your web site marketing efforts. This is the strategic side of Internet marketing.

5. Constant Evolution

As consumers, we are motivated by the same things today as ten years ago. We still seek products and services that will help us in some way -- by making us smarter, healthier, wealthier, happier. etc.

But while the motivations of consumers haven't changed much, the methods for reaching those consumers are constantly evolving. This is especially true online, where new technologies emerge every year.

To ensure the long-term success of your Internet web marketing program, you need to keep track of emerging trends and technologies in this arena. For example, few business owners had heard of a blog five years ago, but now it seems that everybody has one. This is one evolutionary example of many.

Website Marketing Strategies - More Than Chess Pieces

Message on home page: "Our strategic website marketing services are designed to help you leverage your resources in a way that maximizes your response while ensuring optimum performance at all times." [Usually supported by a stock photo of chess pieces on a board]

Jargon-free translation: "Our website marketing services are designed to work."



If you've been operating a business website for any length of time, you've probably encountered an example of jargon-infused puffery like the one I've translated above. Perhaps it came to you in a spam email from some company that claimed to take your online success "into the stratosphere." Or perhaps you read it on the home page of a web marketing firm, right above the ubiquitous stock photo of chess pieces on a chess board.

But what is "strategic" website marketing anyway? If you ask me, it's one word too many, because the first word is a given and therefore completely unnecessary. Strategic marketing is the only kind worth pursuing, online or offline. It's common sense. It's a no-brainer. It means, basically, that you have some goal behind your website marketing program -- a strategy of some kind. Marketing programs without strategies are like cars without engines.

So in essence, a company that uses the "strategic" adjective to describe their services is simply trying to impress you with big words. After all, if you have no strategies behind your website marketing program, then you have no objectives either. And if you lack a clear objective, you have no way to measure your success.

So let's strike the word "strategic" from the record, and replace it with the word "successful." No we have something worth pursuing -- successful website marketing. Who cares about chess pieces? You want results, right? Right!

Beyond Chess Pieces - 5 Parts of Website Marketing Success

So let's put the jargon aside and speak frankly for a moment. Here are the five things you need to ensure your success in the online arena:

1. Your Product or Service -- We should get this straight before we go any further. A bad product with effective marketing is still a bad product. So the first step to online business success is to have a product or service that's worth talking about in the first place. If what you have to offer is no different than what your competitors are offering, then your website marketing program has already failed. Back to the drawing board!

2. Your Intended Audience -- Quick, tell me five things about your intended audience (the people to who your are marketing your product or service). In other words, five characteristics that define your prospective customers. Are you stuck? Can't past item #1? Then you haven't done the proper homework to make your online marketing successful. Regardless of all the shiny new technologies the Web has brought, people still need solutions to their problems. How can you address these problems if you don't know your audience?

3. Your Online Messaging -- Flashy websites and animated "greeters" will not motivate people to act. On the Web, people respond to clearly explained benefits and helpful instructions, not glitz and jargon. At some point you will have to tell your audience, in plain English, why they need your product or service. You also have to explain how it's different or (ideally) better than similar products on the market. Does your website currently do this? If you have trouble explaining these things, see item #1 above.

4. Your Observation and Tracking -- One of the best things about marketing online is the fact that you can get nearly instant feedback. For example, let's say I get 1,000 visitors per day to my website's home page. I have a call to action on the home page that is intended to generate inquiries from visitors. I can swap out the home page message for an alternative version, and within a day or two I'll know which one works better. Of course, before you can track results, you need some form of analytics in place to tell you everything about your website traffic, marketing results, website conversions and more.

5. Your Eternal Vigilance -- Success comes from trying things, learning from your mistakes, and adjusting your approach. This is true of sports, the arts, and -- yes -- website marketing as well. To get the best possible results, you must constantly try new things, test one approach against another, and analyze your results to learn from them. And don't every listen to somebody who says, "Oh, that technique didn't work for me, so it won't work for you either." There is actual experience, and there is hearsay ... only the former will reveal the truth.

The only website marketing strategies worth pursuing are those built around solid objectives and planning. The process begins with the product or service, which must be worth marketing in the first place. Then the process should identify the intended audience. It must include a clear message about the genuine benefits of the product or service. And lastly, the process must evolve over time through trial and errors.

Strategic Internet Marketing Services - Explained

I see a lot of companies offering strategic Internet marketing services these days. And I know from my own keyword research that a lot of people are researching this subject online. But what makes and Internet marketing service "strategic" to begin with. Let's explore this further...

A Strategic Approach to the Web

In my mind, anybody who launches an Internet marketing program without a solid strategy in mind is going to waste time, energy and money. Having a strategy in place will ensure that:

• You understand the goal of your Internet marketing campaign
• You know who your audience is and what they want
• You have a plan for reaching your ideal audience online
• You know where to focus your time, energy and money
• Other people in your organization understand these things as well

In other words, strategic Internet marketing could also be referred to as common sense Internet marketing. It takes into account all of the pieces of the puzzle ... the product or service being marketed, the intended audience, and the message and technology that will connect the two.

The question is, do all of the companies who claim to offer strategic Internet marketing services truly understand this concept? As with everyone else in this industry, I'm sure there are some that understand the concept of an Internet marketing strategy, while other are merely spinning buzzwords (and using pictures of chess pieces) to try and impress would-be clients.



A company who is shopping for this kind of marketing service must know exactly what they want. More specifically, the company should set its own goals and create its own definition of success. Otherwise, the Internet marketing company will define your success for you, and that is not what you want.

Choosing an Internet Marketing Company

So, let's say I operate a small business and I am looking for a strategic Internet marketing firm to help me promote my business online. Here is the wrong way to go about it, and the right way to go about it:

The wrong way: I do a Google search for the phrase strategic Internet marketing services and visit the top-three websites listed. I contact one of the companies and ask how they can help me. They give me a basic spiel about their services, after which I sign on with them.

The wright way: I do a search for strategic Internet marketing services as before, but this time I make a list of 10 to 12 companies. I realize that for every one company that truly excels at Internet marketing there are several that have no idea what they're doing. So I create a longer list this time around.

Next, I visit the websites of these companies and see if they are full of puffery and jargon, or if they offer straightforward information. After all, if an Internet marketing company can't even explain what they do, how are they going to help me with my online messaging?

Next, I will do some research to see what I can find out about the companies on my list. Are they active online, publishing articles and news, or are they stagnant. Is there any bad press about the company? Any good press?

After narrowing down the initial list to about five so-called strategic Internet marketing services, I will contact them to see if they truly understand the strategy marketing online. I will also present them with my clearly outlined definition of success (i.e. what my Internet marketing objectives are). Otherwise, they will define my objectives for me, and that's the last thing I want.

Lastly, I will listen to them explain how they can help me achieve my goals. If they beat around the bush or seem to lack any sort of plan of attack, I will scratch them from my list.

After all this, I should have two or three strategic Internet marketing services who are worth considering. Is it hard work to find a reliable marketing service these days? Well, it does take some time and effort on your part. But it's time well spent. Because in the end, you will have chosen a carefully screened Internet marketing partner to help you achieve your goals, instead of choosing some company that simply knows how to throw jargon around.

Good luck with your strategic Internet marketing campaign!

Web Marketing Conversions - New Article

I recently finished a new tutorial on increasing website conversions and posted it to the articles section of the main website.

In my line of work, I deal with a lot of different Austin businesses -- ranging from landscaping companies to mortgage companies, and everything in between. It seems to me the concept of website conversions is poorly understood by many Austin companies ... and even quite a few marketing firms in town!

A website conversion takes place whenever a web visitor goes from one status to another status, ideally moving closer to being your next customer. For example, if somebody signs up for a newsletter through your website, they have been "converted" from a regular web visitor to a newsletter subscriber. An online conversion has taken place.

Similarly, if somebody contacts you after visiting your business website, another type of website conversion has taken place. In this case, the web visitor has become an actual lead that you can follow up with. This is how relationships begin online.

To learn more about this topic, check out the new article here.

Business Directory for Cedar Park, Texas

Just a quick note to let you know that I've recently launched a business directory for companies in Cedar Park, Texas. It's called Cedar Park Today and it gives businesses in that city another way to promote themselves online.

I know most of my clients serve the Cedar Park area (as well as Austin and elsewhere). If this is true for your company, then you may wish to list yourself in this new directory.

You get a basic link listing, like most web directories, but you also get your own profile page with logo, company description and more. This is what makes the Cedar Park, Texas directory more valuable than the "average" web directory.

Check out the benefits here

Website Usability for Internet Marketing Success

Picture this Internet marketing scenario:

You are standing behind your company's website, ready to accept a new customer / client. A prospective customer is standing on the other side, in front of your website. She is looking for exactly what you provide, and is willing to pay for it.

The only thing is, you don't know the prospective customer is there in front of the website. How could you know? She has not contacted you in any way, not yet. So if you want to make a connection with the prospect, she will first have to enter your website, navigate her way through the site, find what she's after, and then contact you in some fashion.

But what if she cannot use your website? What if the navigation system utterly confuses her? Or what if she can't even find the item she wants?

You guessed it ... she will leave as quickly as she came. After all, there are other websites to look at and other companies to consider.

Importance of Website Usability
In the scenario above, website usability made the difference between a sale gained and a sale lost. If a person cannot use your website, you have no chance to connect with that person. Nine times out of ten, a confused website visitor will not ask for guidance. And you won't be able to offer guidance because you won't know they're confused. They will merely be a blip in your website analytics program ... nothing more.

A lot of Internet marketing folks put all their focus on getting people to the website, but not nearly enough focus on the experience people have when they reach the website. These short-sighted folks clamor about search engine optimization, pay-per-click, and other traffic generators. But you don't hear them talk much about usability, "funnel simplicity," or on-site experience. This is an example of only seeing half of the big picture.

Usability 101
Entire books have been written on website usability. I personally recommend one called Don't Make Me Think. But to keep things brief in this blog post, let's just touch on some website usability hot spots. These are areas that can almost always use improvement.

• Navigation.Label your navigation in a clear way. Don't be cute or clever.
• Home page. Keep your home page clean, inviting and uncluttered.
• Action paths. Define the actions you want people to take, and present them in a clear way.
• Calls to action. People will go where they want on your site, but it helps to offer direction.
• Interactivity. If you have listing data and searches, be sure to offer clear and ample instructions.
• Web conventions. Following web conventions (like making your logo a link to the home page) helps visitors get around by using things they're familiar with.
  

Usability Equals Visibility
Helping your website visitors should be all the motivation you need to get on the usability bus. But if you need more incentive, consider this. Most improvements in website usability also help with search engine visibility. In fact, I've written an extensive article that gives several examples of this:

Usability Equals Visibility

-Brandon

Austin SEO at Squidoo.com

Using Web Analytics

If you operate a business website but have no idea how to access your website's analytics, you are operating under a severe handicap.

What Is Web Analytics?
Web analytics is a web marketing term with broad use and applications. Basically, it boils down to this. A website analytics program can give you information about your website visitors. They give you the ability to monitor the activity of your site visitors. Obviously, this data can be very useful to your Internet marketing efforts!

Even if you don't have a web analytics program installed on your website, your site log should offer basic information such as number of visitors per day, leading traffic sources, etc. But if you really want to know what's happening on your website, you should install a web analytics program.

Web Analytics Programs
If you'd like to take the no-cost route (which is always popular), you could use Google Analytics. This used to be called Urchin, until Google bought and renamed it. Google Analytics will give you such information as:

• Number of visitors per day
• Number of page views per day
  
• Location of your visitors
• Key search phrases that people used to find you
• Top sources of traffic
• Top entry page
• Top exit page
• And more

Google Analytics gives you plenty of raw data, but it also "dresses" it up in various charts and graphs, as illustrated below.





These images represent a small slice of what Google Analytics provides. Obviously, I can't show everything here on the blog.

This data provided by Google Analytics is enough for most small to medium-sized businesses. And the price can't be beat. But if you want to get more advanced (and you have the budget to do so), you might look into a company / product like WebTrends or WebSideStory.

Learn More

• What is Web Analytics?
• Understanding Web Analytics
• Web Analytics Demystified

~Brandon

Austin Internet Marketing Services - An Overview

I've put up a new page to offer an overview of my Austin Internet marketing services.

After a website review, I realized that the various services and training I provide are in various locations. They are where they are for good reason, but it still helps to have an all-inclusive page listing everything I provide.

Go there now

If you have a question about any of my Austin Internet marketing services, or if you need something that's not listed on the page, please contact me.

~Brandon

Does Your Website Make People Guess?

I hate websites that make me guess.

I stumbled my way onto some kind of marketing website recently (at least I think it was a marketing website), and this is what the home page said:

On time solutions, right on the market. When only the best will suffice, we deliver. Our tailored solutions will help you bring out the best in your company...

I kid you not, this went on for several paragraphs. Not once did it mention any kind of product or service that I could decipher.

So I looked at the web address, logo and tag line, thinking those would give me some insight. Nothing. Just more vagaries.

Now let me ask you this:

What if this company offered exactly what I was looking for? What if they were the perfect fit for a particular business need I had? That's right, nothing would've happened.

Don't overestimate your prospects' knowledge of what you do. Don't think "they'll get it eventually" when they travel around the site. If you don't tell people what you do on the home page, in plain English ... there won't be an eventually.

Until next time,

-Austin SEO Guy