25 ways to Generate Sales Leads

Doug Williams @ 7:07 am

This blog entry was posted on January 30, 2009.

New sales leads are the lifeblood of any business. In tough times you have to get creative on ways to get sales leads. To grow your business and keep it healthy, you need a steady flow of new customers. Where will they come from? Here are 25 ways to generate new sales leads. We purposely did not include the dreaded cold calling that most people dislike.

Convert your website into a lead generation website.
Write a blog (business blog marketing).
Add a clear call to action on your website such as “Request a Quote”
Interact with website visitors by supplying valuable information using auto responders.
Publish a weekly newsletter with “how-to tips”
Optimize your website for search traffic.
Advertise on the search engines (PPC advertising)
Advertise on other websites using affiliate marketing.
Offer payment for referrals to partners in related industries.
Market new products to existing customers.
Email marketing
Direct mail post cards or sales letters
Use a follow-up tool such as a post card or note card
Hire a commission only sales force.
Speak regularly at business or trade events.
Put on a seminar or workshop
Educational events through the Web (webinars)
Print advertising (newspaper, magazines, trade journals)
Purchase leads
Advertise on local cable TV.
Join a lead referral group
Be active in your local chamber of commerce.
Encourage referrals from current customers.
Customer complaints can, and should be treated as opportunities.
Publish regular press releases

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Filed under: Business Consulting,Internet Marketing

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Mobile Websites: Ten Big Mistakes You Should Avoid

Doug Williams @ 5:44 am

This blog entry was posted on January 28, 2009.

Here are 10 ways to ruin a mobile website design. Designing for the small screen is very different than for the desktop. Mobile websites are being added quickly by businesses of all sizes. Care needs to be taken to design your mobile website correctly. These are taken from W3C mobile web best practices

Structure: Having too many large number of navigation links on a page or having to navigate through to many pages to reach content. This must be carefully balanced.
Graphics: Do not use graphics for spacing purposes. Do not use large images that will load slowly. Mobile web pages should not exceed 10KB in size.
Pop-up Windows: Do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user.
Image Maps: Do not use image maps unless you know the device supports them effectively.
Frames: Do not use frames. Many mobile devices do not support frames. In addition, frames are recognized as being generally problematic.
Color: Overuse of color. Mobile devices often do not have good color contrast. Ensure that foreground and background color combinations provide sufficient contrast.
Tables: Do not use tables. Do not use nested tables. Do not use tables for layout. Tables do not work well on limited size screens.
Cookies: Do not rely on cookies being available. Many mobile devices do not implement cookies or offer only an incomplete implementation.
Fonts: Do not rely on support of font related styling. Mobile devices often have few fonts and limited support for font sizes and effects (bold, italic etc.).
Input: Avoid free text entry where possible. Provide pre-selected default values where possible. Keep the number of keystrokes to a minimum. Where possible, use selection lists and radio buttons.

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Filed under: Mobile Web

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Planning with Website Wireframes

Doug Williams @ 5:16 am

This blog entry was posted on January 26, 2009.

Website wireframes are grayscale block diagrams that illustrate the overall navigation and blocks of elements such as images, content and functionality. They are the skeletal rendering of how the web page elements fit onto the page. These are an organizing plan and not a design. They are done before any artwork is generated.

The term “wireframe” comes from the world of computer graphics and 3D animation. Here wireframes are used for prototyping and because they are quick to generate and they use a minimum of computer processing.

Using a planning wireframe will often generate new requirements and questions that hadn’t been thought of before. It forces you to think through your website’s functionality at the page level. This helps minimize more costly changes later on in the development process.

How to make a wireframe

Determine the basic layout such as how many columns the page will have. Should the navigation be along the top (horizontal) or on the side (vertical)?
Decide on the call to action for the page. Place it where it can be easily seen, preferably above the fold.
Organize and place the page elements such as the header, footer, navigation, content objects, and branding elements. Group and prioritize the elements according to how you want them seen.
Label the navigation links, headings and content objects.

Use placeholders for text and images. Use dummy text such as lorem ipsum to show text areas.
The wireframe gives the web designer a visual guide to design from. This ensures the call to action and priority elements are placed on the page for maximum effectiveness.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Website Design

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Getting Website Visitors to Take Action

Doug Williams @ 6:23 am

This blog entry was posted on January 24, 2009.

The objective in any website is to get the visitor to take action. You work hard to bring visitors to your website. But many will leave if you don’t plan specific actions for your visitor. This could be getting them to buy, get a quote, sign up, call or simply to go to the next page.

What action do you want from your visitors? Build this into your navigation. Each page should have its own call to action. This needs to be planned into the business website design.

Without prompting, most people will put off buying or taking action. Visitors need clear instructions on how to proceed. Using calls to action throughout the website helps convert prospects. Getting a visitor to take the action you want is conversion.

Your website should guide take visitors thru your selling sequence. Each page should be designed with a clear action designed in. This could be the next step in your sales process, request a quote, buy now of call now. Avoid making the user think and decide their next step.

When visitors arrive to your website, there needs to be a clear path to action. This needs to be visible on the home page and able to be seen in the first 3 seconds of arrival. Place your offer above the fold so that it is clearly visible to the arriving visitor. Eye tracking studies show that a call to action placed in the upper right quadrant of the page is most often seen and acted upon.

The words you choose will help trigger action. Use action words like “make”, “do”, “write”, “take”, and “build.” When searching for answers, people like to be told “what to do”… So tell them.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Website Design

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Using Google Analytics To Chart Success

Adam Bullock @ 4:54 am

This blog entry was posted on January 22, 2009.

Using the S.M.A.R.T. method detailed by Doug in his earlier blog, the easy part is to set and define a goal. But how do you keep track of your goal and measure it?

Use Google Analytics! It’s free, powerful, and is perfect for the casual user to check out cool statistics or the business owner looking to set up goals and measure them.

How do you get access to Google Analytics? Well, if you have an @gmail.com email address, you already have an account! Just go to Google’s home page and click “My Account” at the top-right or sign in. Clicking on “Analytics” takes you to this tool. Be forewarned, however, you can’t run Analytics on any site – you need to prove that you own it. This step could be the most complicated for some.

To prove ownership, you need to add a snippet of code generated by Google into your website’s code. This shows that you have ownership of the domain, plus it’s the way to track visits to your website. After following the tutorial and putting Google’s code into your website’s code, wait a little bit for confirmation and the stats will start flowing in.

And these are the main areas you will find within your Google Analytics account. Each area goes into further detail with more stats that you can imagine. Wonder what your visitors do on your site? Check out “Visitors” and look at fun stats like how long your typical visitor spends on your website, average pageviews per visit, or their loyalty (which visitors return and how many times).

It’s easy to get flooded with a massive amount of data and try to make sense of everything, and that’s where setting up goals is an easy way to chart your progress…which would make for an excellent blog a little further down the line.

Have some fun playing around with Google Analytics, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section below.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing

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Does Your Website have a Purpose?

Doug Williams @ 6:19 am

This blog entry was posted on January 20, 2009.

Without a clear purpose or objective, a website will not get results.The first task in website planning is to list out what you hope to accomplish with your website. A clearly defined purpose will help the rest of the planning process.

Start with asking yourself, “Why am I building this website?” What results do you need ? This could be qualified sales leads, online sales or creating awareness for your brand. Decide on your objective before you decide if you want a blog, e-commerce or other web technology.

Is your website designed to sell products online, build your prospect list or gather requests for proposal? Perhaps you want to enhance your company image or strengthen your brand? It could be customer service or tech support. You could create an Internet community that is passionate about some cause.

Draft a purpose statement with specific goals you want to reach. This statement should be clearly focused on what the new website will accomplish and what your website visitors will get from it. Do you have short term and long term goals?

Goals for your website need to be S.M.A.R.T.

Specific: A specific goal is much more likely to be met than a general.
Measurable: A goal is measurable if you can measure the results.
Achievable: Set goals that can be accomplished.
Realistic: Don’t make your site goals too easy, just attainable.
Time Sensitive: For a goal to work, it should have time limits.

Example: I want to be making one online sale each day within 90 days of the website launch.

Build your website around your central purpose. Let’s assume that your website purpose is to build an opt-in email list that you can market to with your newsletter. You would focus your site on getting visitors to register for your newsletter. You may give away an eBook, free report or something else of value.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Link Popularity,Social Media Marketing,Website Design

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Managing Your Website Sales Funnel

Doug Williams @ 7:02 am

This blog entry was posted on January 18, 2009.

A business website should be designed with a specific goal in mind. There should be the final action that you want your visitor to take online. This could be to buy, to request more information or to request a quote.

The sales funnel is a metaphor. We can visualize the sales process which is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. A large number of prospects will yield a much smaller number of sales. The website sales funnel describes the process your website visitors go through from the moment they arrive at the site until they fulfill your goal.

The sales funnel is a way to focus on your sales conversion as you make changes. Start by breaking your sales process down into steps or stages that each visitor who buys from you will pass thru. Increasing the flow at any step will increase your final sales numbers.

In the example above 8% of visitors who arrive at the website will end up buying. The number of people who buy can be increased in two ways.

Increase the number of visitors who arrive to the website.
Make improvements on your website and increase the percentage of people who buy

Website statistics packages such as Google Analytics allow you to set-up a sales funnel to track this data automatically. This way you can make changes to your website and watch the impact. This allows you to change and refine your website conversion rate over time.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Website Design

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Stay Active During Your Website's Planning Process

Adam Bullock @ 7:14 am

This blog entry was posted on January 16, 2009.

The planning process in creating a website is key to the success of every single step in the entire project. The duration needed to make sure everything is planned out and ready can take quite a bit of time (mostly dependent on the size and complexity of the site), but there are some things that can be done during this step that can benefit you in both the short and long-term!

Put up a temporary page: There’s no need to spend too much time on this “splash” page, but make sure your domain is registered and there is a page that indicates a site is coming soon. Bonus points if you include some relevant keywords, company name, or email address an interested person can use to contact you. You never know when Google is going to index your page, and it’s better to have “Widget repair, widget installation – Widgets ‘n More is COMING SOON!” than just “COMING SOON!”

Start blogging: If you’re planning on having a blog on your website, why wait? Start writing now! After that first “splash” page is up for a little bit, have your blog on there so you’re already bringing in readership and developing keyword-rich content while your site goes through the design, production, and programming processes.

Investigate your competition: Take some time to check out your competition. What are they doing well? Ask the company that is creating your website their advice on what is making them successful and do it better.

Work out the “details”: This includes applying for payment gateway services (Authorize.net, for example), making sure you have full control of your domain name, and if you are creating a new business entity, that nobody has a trademark on the desired company name. The small stuff can create big delays in the production process.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing,Internet Marketing

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Planning Your Website: The Site Map

Doug Williams @ 6:31 am

This blog entry was posted on January 14, 2009.

One of the first steps in creating your new website is to create a site map of which pages you want to include. This is actually “story-boarding” your sales presentation. Having a picture of your whole web site will make it easier to create a menu system that is useful to your visitors.

The planning site map is actually a flowchart that shows your list of pages and sub-pages. It shows how they relate to each other. This doesn’t require special software. The example below was prepared using Microsoft Word.

Let’s say you have a restaurant and you want a 10 page website. You would start by listing out the topics that would answer the questions your visitors would have.

For a restaurant a visitor may want to know:

What makes the restaurant special and different than others in the area?
What’s their menu and pricing?
Will the food work with my diet?
Where are they located and what are their hours?
Can I get a job there?
Do they sell gift cards?

This is a site map that would answer these questions.

How to create a site map

Start by listing out the pages to include. Avoid using obscure names for your pages, it will only confuse your visitors . Your home page should explain what you provide and why they should choose you. The About Us page should talk about your history, mission, vision and values.
Group pages that cover the same general subject. Then order them according to how people will look for them. For example, people will first look for the menu and then ask about the nutritional values.
The sequence of topics should match your best sales process. In the site map above, the visitor would look first at the Home page. Then they would want to learn about the restaurant (About Us). Then they would want to check out the menu. Finally they would want to see where they are located and their hours.
Use the site map to create the menu or navigation for your website.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Website Design

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Your Website Must Build Trust

Doug Williams @ 6:05 am

This blog entry was posted on January 12, 2009.

Today’s web surfer is very skeptical. The web is an impersonal medium so it is important to build credibility and make your website trustworthy. If your website does not appear credible or professional, potential buyers will leave in seconds.

Overcoming a lack of trust is also one of the biggest impediments to online sales success.

Start with a clean design and useful information and make sure there are no misspellings or broken links. Avoid confusing your visitor. Keep the design, navigation and information clear and to the point. Understand what a visitor wants to accomplish and help them reach their goal.
Provide quality content. Your content and your products need to appear top notch. The images you select and the words you use reflect on the quality you provide. The key is to show what a great value your product or service is.
Assure your customers that your company is trustworthy. Always have a privacy policy. Join organizations such as Truste and BBBOnLine. Place their logos on your site. Clearly show your phone number and address. Include a guarantee and a returns policy.
Testimonials: People will trust what other people say about you, much more then what you say about yourself. Positive customers that are specific are the most powerful. Here is an example of a powerful testimonial with detail. “You guys are great and helped me out of a jam; your customer service ran my order out to the airport so I could get it the same day. You’re the best!”

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Social Media Marketing