The Net Impact Roadmap

“Build it and they will come.” Really?

“Build it and they will come.” is a great movie line. It is also is a recipe for Internet disaster. Replace that phrase with, “Build it, make it informative, make it useful, keep it fresh, help them find it, get others talking about it, keep it interesting, get a lot of high quality links…and they will come. Unless, by the way, some other firm in your market space does all of that better.” Oh and don’t forget, “Building it tomorrow may be different than building it today and will be different than building it next year.”

The same is true for “Marketing it.” Anyone who works in the SEO industry knows that getting the “prime” key words for a site onto page one can be grueling. This is literally the top ten list. Your website earns its placement only by being better than the competition. This top ten list changes constantly as a new savvy player enters the space and old players become complacent. To be on page one for organic search in a competitive marketplace requires consistent thorough competitive research, technical correctness, fresh content, links from other authoritative sources, outbound marketing and market awareness. It’s a full contact sport.

Blogging for Traffic and Internal Benefit

Increasingly that sport includes social network site marketing as well. As an example, over the past six months we have created numerous blogs for our clients. These have been both for integration into their website and stand alone blogs that relate information about their company or a particular aspect of the firm that had its own story to tell. The resulting SEO improvement from the links and fresh optimized content has been consistent. In addition, when done properly, the new blogs will create great enthusiasm and excitement within the organization.

Social Marketing Examples

In another instance a client site has experienced a large increase in links and thus traffic from some effort in working with Del.icio.us and Stumble Upon. Stumble Upon in particular brought in unexpected traffic generated from Western Europe. The truth is, with social marketing, you genuinely do not know what will roll in with the tide of traffic. But through careful web analytics patrol and review, you can discover marketing gems that are delivered to your doorstep to nurture and improve. “Build it and they will come.” I really wish that were so…but then, what fun would that be?

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“Why can’t I just buy a $99 per month package and be number one?”

Every week The Net Impact team runs into a discussion regarding SEO packages offered by other SEO firms. The conversation usually begins with “Why can SEO Company A offer us a SEO package that promises to deliver results for $99 per month while other firms, like TNI, only offer custom solutions that are higher in price?” It is a fair question to ask. One that is not easily explained without first educating our prospects a bit on what SEO really is, or maybe better stated, what it has become. Once upon a time SEO solely meant, to most providers, developing site-appropriate meta data, keywords and submitting to directories. When the bar was lower for most firms competitively, then it was possible for an automated program or an unassociated third party to simply follow a routine and achieve some results. Also, some years ago, there wasn’t the appreciation of how powerful the Internet had become as a marketing tool. Firms did not yet realize that the search engines had become so entrenched into the daily lives of individuals. With those points in mind we now fast forward to 2008. Today, developing a website or operating a website meant to market your services or product without taking organic search and other traffic generation marketing efforts into consideration is, for lack of a better term, marketing suicide. Yes, there are still sites strictly built to support a professionals business card. If your networking is all local and you do not feel the need to drive extra attention to your business then perhaps a GoDaddy hosting account and a Web Site Tonight template could be exactly what you need. No argument. For any firm though that is embroiled in a competitive marketplace or wants to bring in more recognition this solution, without a lot of web-savvy support, just won’t fly.
What should I look for in a SEO service?

Let’s start with the obvious. See how your potential SEO service provider does for their own firm. Do a search on, “Search Engine Marketing firm City” or use your state if you prefer. See if they come up on page one. I absolutely throw out the argument that their SEO service is so busy taking care of customers they cannot do justice to their own site through their own effort. Really? We use our own site as a “test tube” for SEO on a regular basis. Only by continuing to quest for advancement can you achieve superiority.

Next, want to see their site (or your site) as the search engines do? There are many tools available for this test, try out this tool. SEO-Browser.com Or, you can download the Google toolbar to your desktop and check things out. There are way too many other “tools and toys” to mention. The fact is, you have ways to investigate.

Other steps are pretty common sense. Ask for references. Don’t just read testimonials. Review their client’s sites. Do their clients face the same level of competition your firm faces? There is a big difference in the way you would market a national sales automation firm vs. a local plumbing supply firm. Both need SEO, but differently. Interview the SEO firm. Ask tough questions. Ask about their process. See if their past experience matches your needs. Will they require any information from you or is this an automated program? Remember, your competition is product, service, region and keyword specific. How can they exclude you from that process and achieve results?

Finally, weigh your investment. Is this a closed-end package that ties you up for a year or more or are their services month to month? Do they seem eager to sign you up without ever knowing your circumstances? Like any good relationship, you have to feel comfortable that your energy will be well spent as well as your cash.

Make the selection of SEO support more than just a price proposition. Consider the decision based upon the desire to be on page one!

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For years now The Net Impact has been working with clients on the slow and painful process of getting competitors and just plain “traffic trap” sites to stop using trademarked names and terms. In some cases webmasters have inserted competitors names and products right into the titles and descriptions of landing pages engineered to steer searchers to their site rather than the intended destination. E-mails, threatening letters and phone calls from unleashed attorneys can eventually have impact but that is all corrective action after the fact. In some cases the lost sales or even worse, the potential brand confusion that can occur during the misuse interim can be substantial.

This particular “Wild, Wild West” frontier of the web may be coming to a close. According to an April 8th post in Search Engine Watch by Frank Watson titled, Others’ Trademark Terms in Meta Tags Illegal: Georgia Court Rule, there finally may be some definitive standards being put into place. Frank does a great job of defining the issues in this particular case so there is no reason for me to repeat those. From a white hat perspective, all SEO firms have known that this practice was unethical if not defined yet as illegal. Still there were times when a site owner found their site in competition for their own brand with interlopers. This being a state court ruling of course means that we could be 49 decisions away from a standard. Trying to nail down web legalities to physical borders is at the basic level very messy as we have seen in a wide variety of issues including online sales tax, wine sales, privacy, spam and the ADA.

Also to be interpreted (or misinterpreted based upon your side of the courtroom) still are issues related to very generic trademarks. Frank Watson points to the term “Kleenex” in his blog. Eric Goldman in a July 5th post last year titled, Google Subpoenaed for Keyword Purchase Data–Rhino Sports v. Sport Court directly displays how the trademarked term as a common use term issue can become very litigation friendly and involve parties large and small. Google seems to frequently find itself embroiled at least in the headlines for this type of case. Sometimes maybe it’s not so good to be the king.

We will undoubtedly see additional rulings in this arena very shortly. In the meantime, The Net Impact aggressively searches the web through automated (such as Google alerts) and manual efforts looking out for our clients and of course our own growing brands. Like every other element affecting Internet marketing, this one will continue to require study and vigilance. The Wild, Wild West may be getting a little tamer.

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Back in the early days of the Internet, banner ads and pop-ups were all the rage.  In fact, companies would spend outlandish amounts of money on these sorts of ads. 

Banner ads are still popular, but advertisers are using better judgment in the prices they pay, as well as the creative and marketing messages that they are conveying.  Banner placement and size, in particular, is more advanced and well thought out than ever before.

While the trend in the early days was top and side ads, now the 300×250 medium rectangle ad is king.  This ad, as seen here from a Google AdWords sample, fits in well with content.  At the same time, it is unobtrusive within the content compared to other ad sizes.  The price of these banners can be as much as double that of the top banner ads on a web site. 

Why?  Simply put, readers are more likely to click on these ads since they blend in with the content.  Therefore, this is a premium positions that advertisers and those web sites selling advertising covet.

If your web site is advertisement based and you have not implemented these 300×250 ads, it is certainly a good idea to do so.

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For those that need the functionality of a content management system but don’t have the budget, the last few years have created the revolution known as the open source content management system.

There are several extremely popular open source content management systems that provide a nice balance of features, customization and ease of use.  I can only speak for the content management systems that I have experience using, and even in that case the experience is limited.  Still, perhaps my experiences with these open source content management systems will have some benefit for you looking ahead if you are faced with the decision of using an open source CMS or having something custom built.

Drupal

Admittedly, my experience with this CMS is quite limited.  What I do know: Most experts claim that Drupal provides the most customization and tools of any content management system.  There are seemingly a limitless number of plugins for Drupal, and I have also run into more than a few very nice looking web sites with outstanding functionality built on this platform.  The downside?  I installed Drupal on my own host account, and I had no clue where to even begin with it.  That seems to be the consensus from what my own discussions with experts.  There is a big learning curve with Drupal, so if you want to get something launched quickly, there are probably better options.

Joomla/Mambo

Joomla and Mambo are two separate content managment systems which forked from the same CMS.  For the purposes of this discussion, we will look at them as the same.  Each provides lots of modules and plugins like Drupal, and there are also some very cool features that would otherwise seem to be custom-based such as Facebook-like community building.  The claim by many experts is that this content management system is more limited in functionality than Drupal, but it is also easier to use and get off the ground.  Take that statement for what it is worth.

WebGUI

I was introduced to this content management system by a friend.  It is not nearly as popular as the latter two open source content management systems, but it is probably the easiest to use of the bunch.  WebGUI is actually designed for people without much technical experience, making it the lowest learning curve if you are hoping to get something up quickly.

Other

In a literal sense, even Wordpress (the software that runs The Net Impact Roadmap) is a content management system.  All we do is plug the blog into an online interface, and off it goes to cyberspace.  However, it is not known literally as a content management system since the overall capabilities are limited for the most part.  Rumor has it that this idea will change within the next few years and Wordpress will develop far more CMS ability, but that is something we will just have to wait on.

There are plenty of quality content management systems that are on the internet and even available to be installed automatically from your host.  The above list is certainly not the end all in the open source CMS game, and you are likely to find some other content management systems that you like if you have time to look around.

Our next look at web design and development tools will be a look at a couple tools that are ASP.net based.

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Adobe Photoshop is widely known as the standard for graphic design.  In fact, it has become part of pop culture and our daily vernacular.  How many times have you heard, “That was Photoshopped”?  It is really no coincidence.  Photoshop really is an incredible tool for creating and editing photos and graphics.

Other extremely popular graphic design programs include Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Paint Shop Pro, and of course, the timeless Microsoft Paint.

Those are the popular graphic design programmers, but there are also some lesser known gems.  We profile those below:

The GIMP

The open source revolution is upon us.  The GIMP is one of the leading graphic design alternatives for Adobe Photoshop, and it happens to be 100 percent free.  The program allows you to do many of the same things that were previously only completed on Photoshop such as creating PSD files, editing photos easily and creating quality-looking text.  Like Photoshop, there are also some nice mods for The GIMP that make it a more useful tool.  Of course, Photoshop does have far more overall capability, but The GIMP is a nice alternative if you don’t want to shell out the money for Photoshop.

Paint.NET

From an interface standpoint, Paint.NET looks more like Microsoft Paint than it does Photoshop.  That layout means that it is very simple.  Like Photoshop and The GIMP, Paint.NET includes layers, neat graphic effects for photos and other graphic adjustment tools.  The interface does take some getting used to if you are more familiar with Photoshop, but some of the features are unique and very useful for editing photos.

Picasa

Picasa, from Google, is more for editing and organizing photos than it is creating and editing graphics like the tools listed above.  Even so, Picasa is a wonderful tool for editing photos and, in fact, has some advantages for photo editing over those more advanced tools.  For one, the simplicity of Picasa allows someone of any technical skill level to quickly and easily adjust photos to their liking.

MS Paint

We save the best for last, of course.  Windows has changed throughout the years, but thank goodness Bill Gates and company have kept MS Paint the same - or similar, at the very least.  The uses of Paint compared to the programs listed above is limited.  However, everyone with Microsoft Windows has Paint, and everyone has probably used it at one time or another.  So even while the uses of the program are so limited, it gets my seal of approval.

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One of the biggest challenges for sales teams today is keeping in contact with potential customers.  Generating leads and staying in contact with them is time consuming and expensive.  It can also distract sales people from providing existing customers the service they need and expect.  Unfortunately, most companies still rely solely on the sales team to develop leads. Since there is so much competition today, requiring your sales team to make constant phone calls, sending out letters and emails, will likely get nowhere.  In fact, there is so much demand for the attention of prospects today; there is now a strong resistance by these prospects to engage with sales people. 

Consumers and buyers no longer rely on sales people for information; they now have the ability to shop and research on-line. They are likely to engage with a sales person only when they get close to a purchase decision.  In the case of on-line purchases, there is typically no engagement with a sales person, so, it’s even more critical to have effective follow-up systems. The current market trends are placing exceptional demands on customer acquisition and retention strategies.  Status quo can be very inefficient and expensive.  Without addressing this new environment, productivity suffers, sales struggle or decline, turn-over increases and customer satisfaction drops.

Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was a way to improve the process of not only lead generation, but, more importantly, lead development?  Wouldn’t it be even better if this process could be automated?  These goals are achievable using new marketing automation technology and by re-defining the role of your sales people.

In direct sales, there is significant opportunity to increase the efficiency of the sales team by improving not only how sales communications are managed, but by whom. Business owners should carefully look at the role of the sales person and the role of their marketing resources.  There should be greater alignment between these two functions; freeing the sales people from unproductive tasks and requiring marketing to take on more responsibility to nurture both prospects and existing customers. Marketing automation tools facilitate this process. 

Leading companies are now integrating nurture programs into both their on-line and off-line marketing and sales strategies. These companies have their sales and marketing teams work together for the same goals - getting and keeping customers.  They rely on a marketing function to generate new leads and maintain contact with those new leads. Through this nurturing process, they also qualify the leads.  Once they are considered qualified, or reach some trigger point, then the lead is sent to sales.  With marketing automation technology, this can be automated and integrated with CRM software or other business applications. This strategy allows the sales team to stay in front of their customers more often, thereby building stronger relationships and improving retention rates. 

To help companies address this challenge, The Net Impact has partnered with Marketing Solutions, Inc (MSI), based in Chesterfield, Missouri.  MSI specializes in marketing automation software and lead nurturing programs.  Together, our combined resources offer small and mid-sized businesses a resource to improve their lead generation, lead conversion rates and customer retention.

Learn more about how technology can help your lead conversion at this St. Louis-area seminar.

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Today we are going to discuss color and how it relates to designing web sites.  Granted, I am hardly qualified to provide an art lesson, as my colleagues can attest.   However, color choice goes well beyond “what looks good” when you are designing a web site and have revenue on the line. 

The right or wrong color choices can make a difference in revenue for your web site.  This is a well-known idea for restaurants and stores, with such businesses spending thousands of dollars on design experts to help design interiors and providing customers with a certain atmospheric “feeling” due to the color.  Below is an outline of color meaning, as explained by About.com:

Blue: Calming, cool, importance, confidence, intelligence, stability, unity, conservatism, corporate

Green: Life, nature, growth, renewal, balance, harmony, stability

Silver: Sleek, modern, glamourous, distinguished, elegant, earthy

Red: Hot, anger, power, danger, emergency, attention

Pink: Physical weakness, delicate, feminine

Yellow: Happiness, joy, deceit, cheerful

Gold: Wealth, prosperity

Orange: Stimulant, vibrant, energy, warmth, attention

Purple: Royalty, nobility, spirituality, moodiness

Black: Conservative, mysterious, elegance

White: Purity, cleanliness, innocence

Brown: Wholesome, earthy, simplicity, friendliness

So what does any of this mean when designing your web site?  It can be important to keep in mind the nonverbal meaning of the colors you use on your web design and logo as you build your brand identity.  Certainly, a quality product and/or marketing campaign can override choosing the wrong color for your logo or web design, but your color choice does often have a quantifiable impact.  This is just one more thing to think about among the millions of considerations when starting a web site.

Seth Trachtman is a Web Marketing Account Manager for The Net Impact Web Design St. Louis.

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We looked at Zen Cart before as a nice, open source shopping cart.  However, there are still plenty of other options if you have specialized products or are looking for something cheap with an easy-to-use interfaace.

The Shopping Cart Alternatives

There are plenty of monthly services that you can use for your shopping cart that may also give you a headstart instead of building the cart yourself.  Among those options are Ebay Stores, Yahoo Stores, MonsterCommerce, and ProStores.  These services are just the tip of the iceberg. 

While each of these services is different, as a whole they do have general advantages over creating your own shopping cart.  Those advantages include:

1. Ease of Design

For the most part, the previously mentioned store applications offer template designs.  Template designs offer an effective, easy way for you to design a nice looking web site and get the web site launched quickly.  There are often templates that can be purchased for other shopping cart interfaces such as Zen Cart, but they still require some adjustments on the part of the store owner.

2. Customization

On one hand, complete shopping cart customization is only provided through creating your own shopping cart.  However, if you don’t have that type of ability or budget, using one of the preceding pre-packaged shopping carts offers plenty of flexibility in design and layout in most cases.

3. All-in-One Solutions

Most of the monthly store shopping carts have one other advantage that can save you time: Credit card processing.  While you may need to install modules or simply configure your account information with shopping carts like Zen Cart, many of the pre-packaged stores listed above do the credit card processing for you and make this process easier.

4. Non-Technical Advantages

Don’t know HTML or some other technologies necessary to design a web site or edit components?  The overriding purpose of these previously mentioned online stores, in most cases, is to give you the ability to design a store without using any code.

5. Safety

In general, using one of these pre-packaged stores is safer than coming up with a design yourself.  The designs provided by these store services have often been tested, so you know whether or not they make effective stores that will lead to conversions.  Also, you can get technical support from the store services if you ever run into problems.

Affiliate Stores

Somewhat closely related to shopping cart stores is the ever-growing affiliate store.  CafePress.com and Zazzle are two very popular affiliate stores that you can use to design your own apparel and sell it to customers.  CafePress seems to be the market leader, but Zazzle is catching up.  Both affiliate stores allow you to customize clothing, cups, and all sorts of other apparel with your logo and other designs.  CafePress lets you setup your own press, while you get a percentage of the sale with Zazzle.  Like the shopping cart stores listed above, these two affiliate stores are easy to setup, design and customize your apparel.

Seth Trachtman is a Web Marketing Account Manager for The Net Impact Web Design St. Louis.

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For any web site making money through advertising revenue, the creation and deployment of a media kit is an extremely important process.  The media kit for web sites is an informative guide to advertising on a web site, often including advertisement prices, banner locations and available advertising space.

The creation of the media kit can be a complicated and daunting task if you have never done it before.  Where do you even start?

The following steps will help you get started, and from there it will be a piece of cake.

1. Take an Inventory

Do you have existing advertising?  Do you know how many ads you will be putting on your web site?  Before setting up a media kit, it is a good idea to nail down the foundation of your advertising availability so that you know exactly what you will be offering to potential advertisers.

2. Evaluate Competitors

How are your competitors doing their advertising?  Your competitors can tell you a lot about not only where to put the advertising but also the advertising landscape.  If bigger competitors are struggling to find advertisers, it could be an indication that the advertising dollars in your web site’s industry are not available.  If this is the case, you may want to hold off on creating a media kit or adjust your plan to attract advertisers that are cautious about advertising in your industry.

3. Find Samples

There are media kit samples all over the internet, and evaluating what you like and don’t like is a good starting point for creating your media kit.  Simply type in “web site media kit” into your favorite search engine, and you should get thousands of results.  This is also a good idea to take an inventory on the format of the media kit - PDF or webpage.

4. Develop an Outline

Writing a media kit seems like a big process, but it really comes down to what you learned when writing a paper in school.  Plan ahead with an outline.  Outlining the media kit will make the process much faster, rather than adding and subtracting sections in a disorganized fashion without an outline.

5. Create the Media Kit

Once the media kit is mapped out, it is time to start putting it together.  Since your media kit is an important tool in your advertising sales, it is important to make it look neat and provide traditional calls to action.  Creating the media kit can take some time, but the difference between a good and a bad media kit can easily be reflected in sales.

Seth Trachtman is a Web Marketing Account Manager for The Net Impact Web Design St. Louis.

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