Monthly Archives: July 2011

If you are like a lot of my co-workers here at Bimo Marketing then you are an entrepreneur. We are constantly doing wacky stuff for our clients. We also do creative around the office, like the time we programmed the coffee machine for jokes of the day.

The other day we were brainstorming and we wanted to create a blog with essential websites entrepreneurs would need to start-up their start-up business. So if you own a business or are looking to start one then make no mistake about it… These are the best, most cost-effective sites:

• Email Set-up- Google Apps is king of fast e-mail, and size limits.

 

• Accounting- Quickbooks is the top site for usability.

 

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)- Salesforce is the best software for lead management.

 

• Website Design- Adobe Creative Suite 5 have the essentials for design.

 

• Storage/Backup- DropBox is the leader.

 

• Payment Processing- PayPal is the best and easiest to use.

 

• Chat tool- Hip Chat has the best service.

 

• Toll Free Number- Kall8 is only $2 a month.

 

• Note Taking- Evernote is champion!

 

• Phone Systems- Google Voice.

 

• Company Credit Card- AMEX is the best for start-ups.

 

• Databases- Mysql, even Facebook uses it.

 

• Text editor- Notepad ++

 

• Webhosting- Dreamhost, most cost-effective for unlimited bandwith and space.

 

• Email Marketing- Mail Chimp is effective and friendly.

 

• Marketing- Bimo Marketing (we know our stuff)

Let’s use a online cupcake business as an example.  You own a cupcake website and your website was created
in your likeness. When you look at it you see the message YOU want to send out. However, what do others see when they visit your cupcake website? I am not simply talking about how they read your text…

Do you know your website may look completely different depending on what browser your visitors are using?

In fact there are over 59 different browsers. Do yourself a favor and use websites like Browsershots .org to visually see what your website looks like on different browsers. The results may shock you. Many websites look distorted on Internet Explorer, and considering this is one of the most popular browsers you will need to fix the problem. Most of the time the fix has to do with your document type at the top of your code.

Do you know what a bounce rate is?

If you do not have Google Analytics set up on your website I advise you stop what you are doing right now and get it set up, it takes 5 minutes to set up. Analytics tells you everything about your website… Yes, everything. It will tell you the bounce rate ( the % of people who leave your site immediately) if you have a high bounce rate your page needs to be fixed! Any rate over 65% needs tweaking.

 

Where does it rank?

If you have a webpage and you do not rank for a term on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or Aol your site will NEVER be seen. Translation: you will not get new business because people can not find you.

Visit mikes marketing tools .com and use the FREE rank checker tool. For example if you have the cupcake store in Boca Raton Florida. Your keywords are ‘Florida cupcakes’ or ‘Boca Raton Cupcakes’ to start. If you do not rank on the top 100 pages contact Bimo for a consultation ASAP.

My grandmother’s friends have their own blog.

The statement above is true, many people today own a blog. Why? Because it is easy to create and it is a great way to connect and share your ideas with the world.

Some blogs are 100 times more popular than 1 million other blogs. Simple because the blogs were optimized to be found. It is like a rolling snowball, you get one visitor then two then 3 thousand. A popular blog gives you more power in the world… and oh yeah ($$$$). Below are 10 tips to optimize your blog.

 

Do Not Use the Default Design- the top 100 blogs are designed to be different. Having a blog that looks good will get you repeat visitors alone. Customize your header, this can cost you less then $5. I recommend getting a simple design on a site like fiverr.com.

Change you post link structure- if your posts has some thing like /p2? at the end.  You need to change your post link name. To do this you need to edit permanent link structure, change it to %postname% . By doing so your post link will have the same name as the title of your blog! A good site to learn more is http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

Optimize anchor text- click here links are so 1994. Make sure you are filing in your alt tags correctly…. alt=”put something relevant here.” Visitors will click if they know where they are clicking.

Post often- Keep a theme to your blog, but don’t overkill it. If your blog is about growing peyote, post often about peyote, but add a post about how native American history has influenced modern day medicine.

RSS Feeds can be better- If you do not offer an RSS Feed on your blog you are writing the blog for yourself. There is so many benefits to indexing your RSS feed, this is Blog SEO 101. Set up your RSS Feed, place it in the above the fold of your blog, submit it to any of the 1000 blog feed sites. You will find your blog appearing on more and more Google searches each month.

Write from the heart- I had a buddy in college who would write curse words on his term paper (in a graceful way) you would think he failed, however he got paid to tutor English writing by the college. People are people,  speak from the heart and your blogs will make more sense to them.

Plugins increase visitor experience- Share button plug-ins, gravity forms, survey plug-ins the list goes on and on. Plug-ins give people more interactions and better experiences on your blog.

Ping other Sites- similar to submitting your RSS Feed when you ping other sites you say to them: “Hey I have a new great post on my site… Let the world know.” Try submitting your new posts to sites like Technorati and FeedBurner.

Offer posts via email- Some people do not understand RSS Feeds or just do not want to use them. Instead offer them an email service to receive your new posts. The most popular service to do this automatically is FeedBlitz.

Create good categories- try to get away from “uncategorized” blogs. Nearly every blog has an uncategorized post, not because the blog content is really irrelevant but because uncategorized is the default choice in word press.

 

If you own a web blog and would like to learn more how you can optimize it give us a call.

Marketing is a strange and wonderful science. It’s origins likely go back earlier than mankind. It can be found in nature, employed in the most subtle and intricate ways. The gorgeous colors in flowers aren’t there just to be pretty. Birds and bees (unlike dogs) have color vision, enabling them to seek out the most colorful flowers. Birds sing symphonies in the spring to attract a healthy and attractive mate. Imagine an early cavewoman, smearing her lips with berry juice, giving her an unusual and impressive edge over her fellow cave-ladies. Yes, reproduction is the goal in all these scenarios but all business seeks to expand and grow. We thrive on replication and survival of the fittest is the law in this jungle as well. In all of these cases the creatures are marketing, but what is more important is that other creatures are actively seeking them. Here’s a bit of insight on marketing methodologies with excellent returns on investment (ROI) most likely to help your business grow.

Inbound marketing is where you help yourself get found by people who are actively shopping, searching, and seeking answers in your industry. It’s just about the opposite of traditional marketing methods like cold calling, email blasts, and print ads. Outbound marketing is blasting your message out as loud and as far as you can and hoping someone, somewhere identifies with it. Yes, people look in specific classified sections for a potential local match to a need, but when craigslist has to tone down their human services barter section, you know there are places to go where people are directly seeking you and your business!

Word of Mouth is classic marketing method utilized by virtually every industry in existence. Satisfied customers are the key to creating the ‘buzz’ that drives WOM marketing. It is one of the most credible forms of advertising because people who don’t stand to gain personally by promoting something put their reputations on the line every time they make a recommendation. Your job is not only to provide them with the medium to do this in but to thrill them so with your services that they do gladly and unconsciously. Ratings and reviews critically impact purchasing habits. What’s shared at the water cooler isn’t likely to go viral, but you can make a bigger splash with potential buyers by making a review available to them through a blog/social network post or search engine ad/listing.

SEM/SMM/OBM/ETC…

I know, that was a lot of acronyms. Search (Engine) Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Online Brand Management all have their own departments, but they are so closely related to the same thing: Internet Marketing. Close to 80% of internet users conduct product research online, often on their smartphones while in the store with the goods right in front of them! When 1 out of every 8 minutes spent online is spent on Facebook, you have to be educated and aggressive about how and where you target your customers. Targeted email campaigns can also increase traffic and conversion, but even the almighty email is experiencing diminishing returns. Email/SMS can inspire a prospect to buy and familiarize them with the brand, but with consumers wising up on how to avoid unrequested solicitation you have to ask yourself: “Why force myself where I am not wanted?” Your future clientele is out there, and they’re actively looking for you. Position yourself accordingly!

You’re working hard to get targeted traffic to your website. You may spend money on advertising and marketing your site through pay per click, banner advertising, search engine optimization or other types of online advertising. But what occurs when visitors eventually come to your website? Are they actually purchasing your products or services or perhaps filling out the form? Is he or she subscribing to your newsletter?

A successful web site is all about converting visitors to paying customers. This is measured by the conversion rate: how many website visitors it takes to sell 1 item, or capture 1 lead.

How come conversion rate is so essential? Conversion is a critical point to your business achievements on the Internet. Increasing the conversion rate is an extremely direct, affordable strategy to boost profits significantly even without having to get additional website visitors.

Listed below are 7 methods for you to use to further improve your conversion rate and turn your prospective customers to buyers:

#1. Create awareness, grab their attention immediately.

Put your sales pitch, your order button or the most important statement of what your site offers above the scroll; short and sweet. By no means put anything important below the scroll. Your primary or top selling products and services must be accessible from your home page.

#2. Offer high quality products and services and/or content.

The most cricial point is to display what great value your product or service is and how your product or service will make their lifestyles much better.

In case you have an e-commerce site, you should offer quality products at very competitive prices. For an information-based website, your content material must be well-respected, updated and reliable. And most importantly, visitors should hang on every word.

#3. Style and design your web page exclusively for your target visitors.

There’s no rule that says that each and every single visitor needs to come into your site via your home page. They can get to your main page from a sister site offering the same goods, product pages or a landing page. Visitors from a Pay Per Click campaign may come in from a certain page, but visitors from your press announcements may come in from another one. You must provide unique visitors with the right content designed to make them act in response to your offer.

#4. Make it simple for your potential customers.

How you layout your website can make all the difference. Avoid confusing navigational structures. If you are selling products, make the ordering process easy.

#5. Think active!

Use a driven and active tone to keep your customers motivated and fully interested in the sales process. Active tone is more dynamic, which makes the visitor feel that you are speaking to them directly. Give some personality to your site. Keep them engaged!

#6. Strengthen the trust factor.

Trust is a key factor of success on the Internet. Visitors return only to websites they believe in. They purchase only from websites they are aware will protect their private information, provide them with excellent service, and give them products which are worth their money. Assure customers that you are going to keep their privacy; let them know precisely what data you are collecting and exactly how you are utilizing it so users feel comfortable submitting their data.

#7. Build customer loyalty.

Loyalty marketing is a proven method to increase conversion rates. The more engaged they are, you are closer to a sale or a loyal customer.

Technology and concepts are changing so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up with everything. The biggest challenges will be aimed at advertising and marketing. If you own a business then chances are you own a webpage or are thinking about it. With the advent of the internet many advertising dollars are being directed away from traditional media such as direct mail, yellow pages, newspapers, billboards, radio, and television advertising.

Okay you have a website and it is pretty good, but where is the traffic?

Having a webpage is a start but without SEM search engine marketing. It is like having a high power engine without gasoline. You need to drive your page so it ranks high on the search engine. SEM includes SEO (Search engine optimization) Banner ads, Pay-per click, keywords and many other creative techniques that will allow your competitors who are not using SEM.

Specializing in SEM is what Bimo does. SEM brings our clients profits many times the cost of the service. The firms that utilize an effective SEM program will eventually dominate the business generated by the web.

The handwriting is on the wall, the future is now, Bimo makes more and more options will be available to you.  Such as mobile marketing, sms marketing, and customer service tools that will promote your business. Top spots on Google for heavy traffic terms generate over $100,000 in profits a month.

The best way to judge if SEM is for you; take all of the forms of advertising such as yellow pages, newspapers, T.V, radio, bill boards, direct mail, and SEM. And rate them on a scale of 1 (best)to 10(worst).

1. Is it aimed that the right target?
2. How long does it stay in-front of your prospects?
3. What is its flexibility? (can you alter the message daily?)
4. What is the cost per profitable contact?

The one with the highest score should get the bulk of your advertising dollars. The internet will eventually make all other forms of advertising obsolete.