Category Archives: eMarketing

What Are The Latest Internet Usage Statistics?

eMarketing,

Please point me to your favorite, reliable, and up-to-date source for Internet usage metrics such as:

  • How long does the average person (in the U.S.) spend online each day?
  • What’s an updated stat on high-speed Internet penetration?
  • How is this time being spent online? Personal? Work? Surfing? Searching?
  • Who and how many are using IE6, IE7, Firefox, Safari?
  • What’s the most common screen resolution for these Internet users?

We want to make sure our personalized micro sites can be enjoyed by all, but if we can’t do that we’d like to figure out what an acceptable level might look like going forward.

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Here are the relevant links:

What Canned Responses Should My Online Store Generate?

eMarketing,

I was trying to find a website that offers free canned responses that I can send out to our customers after they have made a purchase at our online shop (order confirmation-thank you for your order…etc.) also a canned response that is responding to a customer inquiry.

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If you do want to “borrow” some canned responses, I’d suggest modeling them on Amazon. They’ve got the email response language down.

See also: commentary on the canned responses

How Can I Generate Traffic To My Website?

eMarketing, Starting Out, , ,

I am looking for an online service/website that will generate quality traffic to my site so my sales will increase.

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You actually have 2 questions: “How to increase traffic” and “How to increase sales”. The second question is actually more important. Just because you get more visitors doesn’t mean you’ll get more sales. You need to be selling the right thing to the right people at the right time. That means your site should clearly identify who your audience is, what problem you solve of theirs, and how you solve it.

Once you’ve crafted this compelling benefit statement, only then it makes sense to find sites that drive traffic to you. And what type of traffic? You only want to attract that matches your audience. If you’re selling a product for men, and you only get women visiting your site, while it’s possible some women will buy the product for a man in her life, you would get many more conversions if you started by getting men to visit your site.

 

See also: Marketing 101

How Can I Have A Successful Website Launch?

eMarketing, ,

I am looking for a clear, concise ‘how to” on the steps necessary to successfully launch a new web site. What are the things I need to think about in terms of my audience (bankers), the press, trade shows, email blasts, direct mail, and other marketing tactics.

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A website is a business. Make sure you have a clear strategic plan for what you’re trying to accomplish, who you’re trying to sell to, how you differentiate yourself, etc. Here’s an article to get you started.

If you’ve already done your planning “homework”, then after your site is up, your next step is traffic. This is a function of targeting your website’s solution to your market’s problem. Each campaign is different, because each market is different and you want your site to standout from the others. In general online solutions can include: emails to existing clients, co-marketing with other sites, back-links from other sites, press releases, white papers, SEO, PPC, videos, eBooks, and articles.

How Can I Increase My Website Rank?

eMarketing, ,

What the first thing I should do on the Internet? I want to have a PR rank website 4 at least, should I have a blog, forum, if yes, where, and where is should I tell about my posting, site, etc..?

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Site optimization is a long-term process. First, you need to identify what keywords you want top position for, and determine what page rank (a number from 0 to 10) the top sites have. You’re looking for keywords that have traffic (there are people interested in the topic) as well as relatively low page ranks for the top sites.

Once you identify your keywords, you need to populate at least your home page with the words “naturally”. Don’t forget to include the keywords in the title of the page itself and in the keywords tag (which isn’t as important as it once was).

Next, you need backlinks, links from other sites to your site. The better the site that gives you backlinks, the better your pagerank.

It takes time for your site to go up in rank. Newer sites naturally get a lower ranking than newer sites.

Overhauling My Website (And Why You Should Care)

Creative Business Ideas, eMarketing, ,

Engine OverhaulPerhaps you’ve already noticed – I overhauled my website. This is my third rewrite of my site.

Originally I wrote the website using a canned template and site builder software that my web host provided for free. While that worked, it wasn’t a reflection of my business.

I then rewrote the site using Dreamweaver. This software gave me lots of control over the result, but it was a hard learning process.

As I’ve explained to many of my clients who wanted website advice – in addition to budgeting time and money to create the site, you’ll need to also keep the site up-to-date, which is an ongoing expense (since you need to pay a web designer to update the site for you).

Normally, to create a web site, you hire a web designer. A web designer combines the skills of a graphic artist with those of a computer programmer. They write your website in a language like HTML, which describes what goes where on a page on your website. The HTML is stored on your host computer. To create your website, the designer uploads the design to your host. To modify your site, the designer changes the relevant files and re-uploads them.

Recently, there’s a better way to build website, using blog (more formally called CMS = Content Management System) technology. CMS is designed to make it easy to write articles. CMS separates the design of the site from the content. So, you can have someone create the design for you (or do it yourself), and then you can change the content when you want, without the need to hire anyone, or use any special software. Only basic computer expertise is needed.

Since I’ve been answering marketing questions for a while, I realized that I could share some of this information with others. So I created a blog, and tied it into my existing site. It worked fine, but it didn’t look like the rest of the site, so I decided to rewrite my website to use CMS. You’re now looking at the result.

The biggest upside to the new look is that the site is easily searchable (by category, date, keyword, or search phrase). It’s more modern looking, and it’s also easier to change how it looks. I can update the site from anywhere in the world and people can subscribe to the RSS feed.

Overhauling your existing site isn’t for everyone. But the next time you’re planning to have your web designer update your site, you might consider CMS.

How Can I Create An E-Mail Marketing Plan?

eMarketing,

We sell software by Internet

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I’m assuming that your website is up, and keyword-targeted for your audience. That will help people who need you to find you.

For an email campaign the #1 thing you need is to avoid spamming your prospects. Ideally, you have a list of people who want to be contacted about your type of software (that’s the purpose of a sign up form on your website).

If you don’t have such a list, then you’ll need to avoid getting your emails blocked. Follow the ICANN guidelines (http://www.icann.org/faq/) to ensure you don’t get yourself in trouble.

Post relevant information on your software on the various blogs that your audience reads. That will help to generate some targeted traffic (and hopefully get people to opt-in to your email list).

Make your subject line short and to the point. Make your first sentence on who you’re targeting and why (Here are more tips)

Ideally, use contact manager software to measure your email bounce and open rates. Don’t send out all your emails all at once. Split test your emails to make the offer get more results.

How Can I Advertise My Business For Free?

eMarketing, Publicity, Starting Out, ,

I want to advertise my business on the web.

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There are lots of places to advertise on the web. The question is, where are your potential clients looking? What problem do you solve for them? How do you solve their problem? Why should they trust you?

Before wasting your time posting, figure out your strategic marketing plan. Then, you can advertise for the right customer at the right place at the right time (and stand out from all the other free advertisements).

How Can I Market Mortgage Protection Insurance?

eMarketing, Services, , ,

I have been in the insurance business for a while. I have a handful of associates that are in the same situation that I am. We are looking for a more effective presence on the Internet regarding mortgage protection insurance. We have tried all the “free” posting ideas (i.e. Craigslist, etc.) but we’re looking more toward directed interest in this particular product.

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Last month Overture listed the relatively low number of 2764 searches for “mortgage protection insurance” (contrast this with 1.7 million searches for “mortgage”) Not surprisingly, if people aren’t searching for it, they won’t find you.

The key is to determine who is your target audience (people with mortgage) and what problem you solve (avoiding foreclosure of your home when you die).

People don’t look for insurance regularly – they think about it when they have a big lifestyle change: a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, a new home, an inheritance, and at tax time (when meeting with financial advisers). Therefore, it would make sense to create a series of marketing pieces that help people at these times:

“How To Ensure Your Marriage Is Financially Strong”

“10 Financial Tips for New Parents”

“Keep Your New Home In the Family”

These educational articles would be published on your website, in article banks, local magazines, etc. The purpose is to provide genuine information, with a link back to your site for more information.

How Can I Market My Computer Basics Training?

eMarketing, Products, ,

I am looking for your ideas for marketing my computer basics training kit…This will be of use to anyone seeking basic computing and Financial accounting skills for low to mid level jobs or personal use. It is written in simple language and all menus and options are described. The cover has been designed attractive with testimonials from the current users on the back cover (this is being published as a book for the first time, earlier I had given samples to some local enthusiasts to collect their response).

The problem is though there is a demand for this type of product, there are a number of big & small players with similar product. My shoestring marketing budget restricts me from larger than life publicity.

I can’t go for net marketing because of my target audience.

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As you mentioned, advertising via the web will be hard for your audience. However, many people can use a browser and read their emails, but can’t create a word processing document or spreadsheet. Also, people who help people who need training do use the web. Almost 400,000 people searched on “computer training” last month. Therefore, a net presence makes a lot of sense.

If you want to focus locally, focus on people re-entering the job market (retirees, stay-at-home moms/dads, ESL speakers). Your local SCORE, SBA, Community College, library, retirement homes, etc. may already be the focal point for these groups of people.

Does your book have an accompanying video? If not, create one. Post some lesson parts on your website & YouTube (etc.).

Since you’re a small fish in a big pond, you’ll need to create a strategy to make you stand out. You don’t want to say, “I’m just like the big players, but what I did is, umm, a little bit better.” You need something that makes you stand out. Guarantees? Phone support? Teleconference support? Videos? Seminars? Without a clear message, you’re going to have an uphill battle.