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January 29, 2014

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How Does Reputation Management Work?

Internet marketing may be cheaper compared with radio television advertisements, but it does not mean that you should immediately make use of the internet as a tool in order to promote your products. Before doing so, you should first be aware of the problems or issues you might face when launching the campaign in the internet.

When using the net for marketing purposes, two of the problems that you might face are low website rankings and receiving negative publicity or comments from your customers who are not happy with the quality of the product that they have purchased. You may be able to resolve the first problem through different Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that may make your website more visible in search engines. Meanwhile, you may be able to deal with the second problem by seeking aid from people who are skilled when in the field of online reputation management.

Reputation Management

It is concerned with handling all the negative information being thrown against you online in a way that they will have minimal or no effect on your business, specifically on the number of your product sales. You may be able to regain your client’s trust and save your online image by doing the following:

  • Analyze the problem and determine how big or small it is. Before taking any action in order to resolve the problem, you should first do research in order to know how serious the problem is. If you were able to know the severity of the issue, then you will have an idea on what reputation management techniques you should use to put an end to it as soon as possible.
  • Interact with your unhappy clients online in order to address their concerns regarding the product. By doing this, clients who are not happy with the quality of the product will feel that you are taking the problem seriously.
  • Communicate with you former clients and ask if they can post comments containing positive information about you and the products they bought from you before. This will show that many people are satisfied with your performance as an entrepreneur and with the product that is in their possession.

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December 29, 2013

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Immediate Promotion with Flyers

There are numerous methods to promote a company, but approaching a customer directly and handing them a flyer is extremely effective. It allows businesses to satisfy new customers, offer information about their company, and adds a personal touch to the campaign.

The location for passing out flyers is crucial. Since flyers come with an average response rate of 1.5-2%, businesses will want to boost the total numbers of people receiving flyers. To do this goal, flyers need to be distributed in densely populated areas. Large areas like shopping malls, apartment complexes, and parking lots are perfect.

The kind of products may also influence where you can advertise. For instance, if the business sells sporting goods, a retirement home would not be a great spot to advertise. Locations that could be optimal are parking lots to keep fit gyms and shopping centers, and residential areas. The advertiser has to consider who will use their product and what types of places they would frequent. Once that has been determined, they are able to start marketing there.

Flyers

Other suggestions to consider are target markets as well as their income potential. It is vital to understand if the good or service is going to be widely appealing and affordable to all types of people and income levels. If the method is created for affluent men, it must be marketed differently than if it’s being targeted at middle-class women. Additionally, ethnic groups can also create a distinction in the type of advertising that is done. Marketing to some number of Russians ought to be not even close to the advertising that is performed for African-Americans. Element in all possibilities after which deduce where and how the campaign might be best suited.

If flyers are going to be left instead of distributed, then, that too, requires a befitting location. Places must have high visitors along with a wide selection of people arriving and out. Service venues such as laundromats, barbershops, beauty salons, and doctor and dentist offices really are a prime illustration of pertinent areas. Other sites which have a continuing influx of individuals are bus, train, airports, or subway stations, and fast food restaurants. Flyers could be hidden in inconspicuous places for example in magazine pouches or on chairs as well as in booths. Similarly, marketers could tuck ads in book pouches at the library or perhaps in bathroom stalls and make contact with booths.

Direct marketing is about the locality. Research should be conducted prior to committing ones’ time, money, and efforts in to the campaign. Discover who the prospective audience is and how and where they’ll be bewitched with the advertisement. Get the best locations and use fall off or face-to-face methods to market the product.

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October 22, 2013

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General

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Why Should I Set Up a Business Continuity Plan?

Any business can be susceptible to a disaster which unexpectedly disrupts day-to-day business activities. In an age where businesses rely on technology to remain competitive, operating without a disaster recovery plan is a risky business and a serious threat to business continuity for any organization.

The increased reliance on IT infrastructure to streamline business processes and maintain a competitive advantage has made planning for business continuity more important than ever. Planning for business continuity requires a comprehensive assessment of potential losses from a disaster and this can often take quite a bit of time, particularly if there is no recovery plan in place.

The old adage, “Failure to plan means you plan to fail” is quite true when it comes to business continuity. Organizations that do not plan in advance for a disaster typically suffer a significant amount of downtime depending upon the nature and effects of the disaster itself. In fact, failing to plan for business continuity is the number one reason most businesses close their doors following a catastrophe while others that have a disaster recovery plan in place continue to flourish.

Set Up a Business

What is Business Continuity?

Business continuity is sometimes known as business continuance and is a process which defines the procedures which are to be followed by an organization to ensure critical business processes will continue to function during and following a disaster. A business continuity plan includes a solid disaster recovery plan which helps a business to prevent the disruption of services which are mission-critical to business processes.

The process of planning for business continuity involves a decision making process. The plan begins with deciding which functions are the most critical to enable failover systems to be put in place. This is followed by a plan for maintaining critical services at an alternative location along with a contingency plan which outlines events which can seriously impact a business following an unexpected disaster.

Why and How Important Is It for a Business To Have a Strategic Business Continuity Solution in Place?

The importance of a business continuity plan should never be underestimated. In fact, with the increased reliance on technology infrastructures for critical business operations, planning for disaster recovery should be placed very high on the priority list.

Statistical analysis studies have shown that more than 80 percent of organizations which encounter a disaster can expect to go out of business within a year following the event. Regardless of whether disasters occur as the result of a manmade reason or via an act of nature, they can occur anywhere and at any time.

Substantial evidence also shows that businesses which implement business continuity plans prior to a disaster often ride out catastrophes with minimal or no loss of data, hardware, or business revenue. This in turn allows organizations to maintain business continuity and consumer confidence as well as the support of company shareholders.

Business Continuity Plan

When you think about it, what would you do if your business facilities were damaged or destroyed during a disaster? How would you relocate in time to continue serving your customer base? Would you be prepared by having the proper resources, databases, contact information and other necessary items to adapt to these changes?

Having a solid business continuity plan provides answers to these questions by helping you to identify the critical business components. Investing the time in advance will ensure business survival following an unanticipated disaster.

Who Can Help You Setup A Business Continuity Solution For Your Business?

Implementing a business continuity plan will affect your business on many different levels, which is why it is essential to ensure the inception of disaster recovery technologies is done correctly from the very start.

As more companies seek effective business continuity solutions, there is an increased number of business continuity and disaster recovery solution providers which employ a staff of experienced professionals which hold accreditation from Microsoft, Citrix, Cisco, VMware, and other IT sources. Additionally, if you are already using a cloud solutions provider, many of the cloud vendors provide consultants, which have extensive expertise in business continuity solutions.

There is also a host of independent consultants which specialize in helping businesses develop business continuity and disaster recovery plans, like this company for example. In this case, it is important to invest the time to research the company before choosing to employ a business continuity consultant since you want to ensure business processes will continue in the most reliable and effective way possible following a disaster.

What Plans Need To Be Put In Place Before Disaster Strikes? What Are Some of the Best Practices?

Business continuity and disaster recovery plans typically follow common standard procedures, with variations added according to the individual requirements of an organization. The following areas are common considerations which are included in a solid plan for recovery: (more…)

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October 6, 2013

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Blogging

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Top 9 Raw Powers of Social Media while Blogging

Social media has gone above and beyond anyone’s demands as to just how popular it would become. I don’t think anyone knew just how huge Facebook or networks like Twitter would become and how much of an opportunity they are for traffic.

There are different ways to utilize the traffic that you can obtain from both but to properly optimize the blog traffic; you have to understand the power behind social media in order to effectively manipulate it.

Social Media

There’s also quite a lot of things you must remember when utilizing social media as well because everyone thinks their content is viral worthy. What exactly makes something viral and what exactly determines what will go viral? No one honestly knows for sure and that’s the beauty of the internet, we can’t exactly determine what will and won’t go viral. It could happen to anyone and at most times, it seems to happen to random people that weren’t even trying to get their name out there.

  1. It’s free traffic – This means that you didn’t pay a dime for the traffic. Social media is usually spread around by hand and this means that people like your content enough to spread it around.
  2. It can go viral – Let’s face it, a lot of things that end up going viral, aren’t exactly things we predict or expect to go viral. All it takes is one person to share something and you could be behind the next big hit.
  3. Social media has huge influence – People trust links they find on social media websites far more than they do on say Google or anywhere else. People seem to put a lot of trust into social media websites.
  4. It’s like a train that you can’t turn off – This might sound awful but it’s actually a good thing. If something of yours happens to go viral, then you all of a sudden have this rush of traffic coming in and there’s nothing you can do about it.
  5. There’s far more to share – Unlike a normal static page website or a sales page, people can share each post, each page or even each category if you set it up that way. This way, there’s a lot more content to share and more opportunity for your blog to get out there.
  6. People like to read – Not everyone likes to read but people on social media sites love going through other people’s walls, profiles and what not. Social media websites are filled with people who love to read blogs based on things that they want to know more information on.
  7. Google trusts you – Google may not exactly be best friends with Facebook behind the scenes, but Google holds a lot of rapport and authority behind social media website backlinks. There are plenty of different backlinks out there but if you can happen to get a backlink to stick on a major social networking site, then that is absolutely golden. Sites like those are usually well kept so Google knows if one of those sites is referring a link, then it has to be good.
  8. You connect with other bloggers – Networking is a fantastic idea no matter what field you’re in. When you’re sharing your blog out there on the social media networks, it also gives you an opportunity to meet other bloggers in your particular niche and you never know what that could lead to. Perhaps a traffic swap partnership could be in the future.
  9. You’re an authority figure – The funny thing about owning a website or a blog is, when you tell people something and they see other websites and people saying the same thing, they come to think of you as an authority figure and will believe whatever you say. You can become an expert just by telling people you’re an expert.

The social media outlet has been around for a while now but has just recently started booming in the last few years. No one knows how long it’s going to stay, just how popular it’s going to become and if it will ever have a downfall, so it’s best to take advantage of social media now before it’s too late. However, it doesn’t really seem like it’s going anywhere anytime soon and it expands rapidly.

Just a mere few years ago, you would’ve never thought that you’d be using an app like Twitter to talk to people but now it’s a major form of communication for companies and even celebrities. Tweet this, Hash tag this, reply to this, etc is what you hear commonly from these places. The best thing to do when you see a brand new social media platform pop up is to jump on it ASAP before it becomes widely popular so you’ll be on top of the roster for the brand new platform.

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October 5, 2013

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If You Want to Rock Your Blog, You Better Have Real Passion!

Let’s be honest: if you’re trying to start a blog, chances are good that you want to be heard. Unfortunately, real blog fans aren’t going to give you the time of day unless you truly demonstrate wheat you’re talking about. The easiest example can be found in the world of gambling. If you’re trying to write about betting on the ponies, not understanding horse racing odds is going to immediate show that you’re a rank amateur at best and a fake at worst. Is that really the type of picture that you want to send to your audience? I didn’t think so!

The better way to do things is to look at showing real passion in every post that you make. You can sit and blame your problems on the economy or the fact that people don’t’ really value information anymore…that’s your choice. But if you really want to consistently make profits over time, you have to embrace the world that exists in the here and now. That’s done through talking about what really interests your audience. That’s why they’re going to come to your site, and that’s the reason why they’re going to stay. Anything less than that is really just a waste of your time. Why would you want to have your time wasted? Why would you want to live in a way that doesn’t serve your best interests at heart?

Passion

Getting your own blog is powerful because overtime you learn how to shape you thoughts. You write faster you get more people to read you, and they’ll give you feedback. You also get to check your stats. If you aren’t hitting the mark, don’t’ worry — your audience will let you know about it. As your blog grows in reputation, you’ll actually be able to qualify for very good advertising packages. People are going to want to advertise on your blog when they see the level of quality is pretty high.

Setting the foundation for a great blogging experience might take time, but it’s definitely worth it. Make sure that you’re looking at what your audience really craves. And if you don’t know what they’re looking for, it never hurts to ask them. After all, you can’t be expected to read their minds. They will grow to learn your voice and separate it from the piles of garbage out there. Why lie? Online marketing isn’t for everyone, but a lot of people beg to differ. They are so convinced that they can make it in this business, only to find that producing information around the clock is very challenging. Don’t get discouraged in your quest to build the “perfect” blog. As long as you learn quickly from mistakes along the way, there’s nothing that you can’t do!

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September 4, 2013

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Use Orbital Campaigns To Enhance Your Marketing Effort

Marketing though digital media such as TV and online has become incredibly popular over the last few years. A once flagging television advertising industry has recovered in part, thanks mainly to its incorporation of some of the viral techniques that have made online advertising so successful.

In business though, it is not enough just to have people talking about your advert, it’s conversions that matter. One way of improving conversions is to increase the ways in which consumers can interact with your brand, using a related campaign that encourages those who had their attention caught by your advert to take more notice of the company behind it.

So how do you do this? Orbital campaigns can consist of many different aspects that all use the theme of your advert to feed back into your company. A popular advert is nothing if nobody knows who produces it, so feeding off the buzz created by your ad is essential if your campaign is to be considered a success. Here are some ways of doing this:

Orbital campaigns

Create a Specialist Website

You might be able to create a great buzz from your campaign, but if the product you are trying to sell isn’t something that people would want immediately (insurance, for example) then they aren’t very likely to follow it up by clicking on to your website. If you create a special website that is specific to your campaign however it can be an effective way of driving consumer interest towards your brand and keeping you in their minds even after the end of the campaign.

This can then help to drive a secondary viral online campaign that will have your brand buzzing around the internet, not only securing more potential customers but also doing wonders for your internet marketing efforts.

Social Networking

Social networking has become a great way for businesses to interact with customers, and sites such as Facebook and Twitter provide companies with an effective way of connecting the marketing campaign with the brand. Pointing your customers in the direction of your business Twitter and Facebook accounts is as close as it comes to providing physical contact with your company over the internet, forging a community of people who have one thing in common, your brand. By getting people to “Like” you on Facebook, you will also be getting them to tell all of their “Friends” about your company and your campaign, opening yourself up to potentially thousands more people who will interact with your company.

Promotional Products

If you have created a campaign with memorable characters or catchphrases, using relevant promotional products and promotional gifts can be an effective way of capitalising on the success of your campaign. It is providing potential customers not only with a further interaction with your brand, but putting something physical into the hands of consumers who have only had a virtual relationship with your company up until that point.

Improving the interaction between those who are interested in your advertising campaign and your brand is a key way of increasing conversions. A popular advertising campaign is a great start, but orbital campaigns are vital if those who are interested are going to be convinced to buy from you.

When you are looking at your next big marketing and advertising campaign, make sure you go orbital to improve your chances of success.

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July 24, 2013

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Content

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Best Christmas Backgrounds for your Website

We are at the middle of the year, and the Christmas season is not near yet, but it’s always good to get prepared on time. So why won’t you save some great free Christmas wallpapers which you can use later on your website for Christmas decoration. People love Christmas and so will your visitors surely be pleaseantly surprised seeing fresh and themed Christmas update.

We have chosen some nice backgrounds from our favorite Christmas backgrounds site. Hope you will like them

1. High Speed Christmas Background
High Speed Christmas Background

2. Green Christmas Minimalist Background
Green Christmas Minimalist Background

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July 23, 2013

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Marketing Intelligence

Constant Improvement

Always be on the lookout for ways to improve your marketing intelligence. When you make adjustments along the way, change only one variable at a time, so you can determine which variable made a difference.

One way to test and measure your marketing results is to conduct a marketing audit. Ask your customers for some honest (and brutal) feedback regarding your business. Find out where they think your business excels and where some improvement wouldn’t go astray.

“Negative responses are good”

What! – NO WAY.

Yes they are… it means that your customers want you to do better otherwise why would they bother? It’s important to develop a strong rapport with your customers so they feel comfortable telling you how it really is.

Marketing Intelligence

Intelligent Direct Mail.

“Is there any other kind?”

When using direct response marketing always test the headline and the body copy. Write a number of variations of each and record the responses that come back. Over a period of time, you’ll find that one particular message works better than all the others.

So use this one & trash the rest… but don’t stop there.

“Testing & measuring is a work-in-progress thing and you need to keep on doing it & doing it & doing it”

Keep accurate & up to date records of the costs & success rate of every strategy. This information will prove to be invaluable in the future & will ensure that you don’t tread old ground.

When comparing the costs to the marketing results, consider both the tangible and intangible results. Increased sales, a tangible result, and enhanced business credibility, an intangible result, are both important to the growth of your business.

Looking at overall costs can help you determine which tactics are putting a strain on your finances without reaping any benefits.

Ah Yes… A Web Site.

Internet based marketing is also a great marketing intelligence tool for tracking results.

Set your Web site up to track how many visits are made by consumers each day. You can include customer information forms on your Web site for those interested in more information.

Comparing the conversion rate of visits to the number of submitted information forms can give you an idea of how effective your marketing is and you can then adjust it to suit.

Keep track of how many new and repeat customers your business has.

Ask your new customers how they heard about your business and keep a record this information, as it will reveal your strongest marketing tactics.

An extended period of slow activity may indicate that your marketing techniques need to be adjusted and a decrease in repeat business is a certainly a clear sign that something’s not working.

Through a strategic approach to marketing intelligence, you’ll keep your fingers firmly on the pulse of your business.

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July 11, 2013

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SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis is a very useful technique to analyse your business and find your competitive edge… call it high-brow business intelligence.

Marketing intelligence is one thing…

… this is most definitely something else!

The result of internal analysis and external research, it’s actually an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Strengths & Weaknesses – The internal aspects generally considered to include marketing, financial, manufacturing and organisational.

Opportunities & Threats – External issues such as demographics, the internet & other technological developments and the local or world economic situation.

SWOT analysis

Here’s a Simplified Example of a SWOT Analysis -

Strengths

• High performing sales team
• Wide spread company recognition
• Well established consumer base

Weaknesses

• Prices perceived as too expensive
• Increases in raw material cost affecting retail prices
• Brand identity inconsistent

Opportunities

• Internet growth presenting new opportunities to increase sales
• Boutique markets emerging
• Changing market trends

Threats

• Sales threatened by new, low cost competitors coming into the market.
• Some wholesalers planning to market directly to the consumer
• Rise in popularity of competitors niche product

More than just marketing information, a SWOT analysis can be used for the entire company or a small department within a large company.

Wherever the area of focus is, the results will vary, even between companies competing in the same industry.

For example, one company may see the internet as a huge opportunity whereas a not-so-savy competitor may view it as a huge threat.

How Important is it?

The primary benefit of this wonderful competitive intelligence tool is its ability to help clarify and summarise important issues and opportunities that a business may be presented with.

It plays a major role assisting a business to focus on important aspects and strategies.

The desired result is to –

Maximise strengths and minimise weaknesses

in order to

Take advantage of external opportunities and overcome the threats.

The SWOT analysis template is normally presented as a grid, comprising four sections, one for each of the headings: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

The Greatest Advantage.

The greatest advantage of a SWOT analysis is they’re easy to do and they cost nothing, just some time. Any business that’s aware of market threats and its own weaknesses is in a very strong position, strategically. The analysis will expose the strengths the business needs to defend itself against these threats. It can help generate new ideas as to how a company can use a particular strength to defend against threats in the market. If a company is aware of the potential threats then it can have responses and plans ready to counteract them when they happen.

The Disadvantages.

Usually, a typical analysis is a basic list and not a scientific document. A company may not be sufficiently focused on how it’s going to achieve the objectives if too much time and energy is wasted on creating lists.

Prioritising also suffers with a list option. A large number of threats may be discarded by creating a bigger list of opportunities whereas the threats may be way more significant.

Used correctly, this analysis is a powerful business tool but more often than not, it’s used in an informal fashion. You can purchase software to achieve more scientific results and give the analysis a better structure.

Spend time & effort assembling an accurate analysis so it’s much more than just a tick list.

Done correctly it will allow you to measure your company’s strength against your competitors. You may have the best sales team that you’ve ever had but… your competition might be better.

And… you may never, ever know without the benefits of a SWOT analysis.

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May 27, 2013

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SEO Tips

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SEO that works for local businesses

It’s true, the world has gone mad and I’m about to prove it. To find out why and uncover another way to leverage your existing resources just read to the bottom of this article. Don’t skip this vital document though because there is gold in here.

If you have been in business for any length of time you would have probably heard of Search Engine Optimisation otherwise known as SEO.

As soon as the internet started to get better understood and more widely used it became apparent that there were people out there searching for information, education and also buying products and services.

Providers of these products and services realised that if they could get their website in front of people there was a possibility that those same people would part with some of their hard earned cash.

This has spawned a whole new industry. SEO specialists were born who promised the earth and some even delivered it…

SEO Specialists – Good Guys and Bad Guys

The idea behind search engine optimisation is simply to find ways to improve the chance of your website getting a higher rank or position for a certain specific search term. SEO people call this SERP or Search Engine Ranking Position. The idea being that if your website can be at the front of results there is a better chance of someone clicking through to your website.

Google and others provide some useful tips on how to improve your website and therefore rank better. There are also people out there who have attempted to deconstruct or reverse engineer Googles algorithm’s and in doing so will offer their services as SEO experts. Some of these hired guns are good guys (white hat) and some are bad guys (black hat).

The white hat good guys tend to work with the system and understand the importance of creating good content that adds value, being an authority and building up good relationships with associates.

The black hat bad guys will try and find ways to get a good ranking but they will use methods which are often times not helpful and will play a game with Google. These can work, at least in the short term and they may even be slightly faster but my advice is to beware of the big giant Google, lest it should find out and banish your website for a very long time!

SEO that works

How to get a high search engine rank?

Probably the easiest way to think about this is to see it from the search engines perspective. Google is as good a place to start as any where.

Google is a service provider who is interested in making sure they keep searchers happy. They do this by making sure that the results they deliver to people are relevant to the search. If people keep on using Google then Google can sell services to businesses who wish to advertise with them.

In simple terms and it’s far easier to do it this way. If a business wants to get a better ranking position then all it needs to do is find out what people are searching for. Identify who the competition is and do a better job than they do. The great Google will then reward them with a great position when people search for a specific search term.

There are of course a lot of things local businesses can do to help improve their position and get found;

  • Register their business for local search
  • Identify which keywords to focus on (a vital step that people sometimes forget)
  • On-site optimisation (title tags, description, alt tags, header tags etc)
  • Off-site optimisation (back links, articles, forums, blogs and so on)
  • Creating relevant content and becoming an authority site

In reality getting a good search engine ranking is not rocket science and some terms are easier with less competition than other terms. Local business should sit up and take notice because fewer people are using yellow pages and more people are turning to their computer and browser.

The beauty of the internet is that so much can be tweaked, changed, tested and measured and at a pretty low cost. So getting a great return on investment is not only doable it can be accurately calculated. Things that work can be leveraged and things that don’t can be dropped.

One last thing you should ponder

There is so much talk about SEO that people sometimes forget about a lesser discussed topic but which is never the less important and in some cases more important. What is that topic?

Website conversion optimisation

Just imagine that you had 1000 visitors to your website each month. Out of all these visitors you got 10 leads via email or phone call each month. This gives you 10 leads divided by 1000 visitors a 1% website conversion rate.

To get double the number of leads you would need to double the number of visitors. This may be easy enough to do or it may not and there is an alternative and easier way of looking this.

Just imagine you could find a way to improve your conversion ratio from 1% to 2% then you would get 20 leads per month from the same number of visitors. Do you think it’s possible to give users a better experience, offer slightly more value and generally improved things that would get 2% or more people to contact you?