Attracting Customers

If you are solely depending on PageRank, Pay Per Click, and backlinks to attract prospects and drive your business, you may be missing out on other opportunities.  Sales communication or advertising is just one phase of five phases of Marketing, although many consider it to be the definition of Marketing. If websites are to fully reap the benefit of advertising, there are other methods that have historically proven effective.

  1. Word of Mouth: although the oldest form of advertising, simply asking your existing customers to spread positive comments about your business to their friends, colleagues, and relatives is a form of advertising.

  2. Business Cards: if you make onsite visits to your customers, inquire if you can leave a container of cards in an obvious location (next to the cash register).

  3. Conferences: visit the ones applicable to your type of business to network

  4. Associations: become a member of any that are relative,  again  networking

  5. Cold Calling: recommend Smart Calling by Art Sobczab to make this heretofore  onerous task easier

  6. Email Campaigns: find a list of your audience to send a polite, subtle message to ask if they would like more information about your business

  7. Bus Stop Bench: inexpensive, yet acquires many eyeballs

  8. Guest List:  use emails to your customers or website visitors to announce some change in your business model. Caution: only 3 or four times per year

  9. Social Media: probably obvious, but get listed in Facebook and Linkedin

Other Sales Communications such as TV, radio, and magazines may not have a positive ROI and newspapers just don’t work anymore. Add these methods to PageRank, PPC and backlinks. What do have to lose?

Website Return on Investment for Websites

Occasionally, the term Return on Investment (ROI) is mentioned as a metric for websites. Keep in mind, a website is an investment in advertising. Return on Investment can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of this investment. In my opinion, this is the single most important aspect of a website. Therefore, an analysis of a website should answer the questions: What does the website cost to develop and manage in relationship to the revenue it generates? Is it worth the expense?

First, let’s consider what are the rough estimated costs associated with first year ownership of a website. None of this metric is CPA compliant nor IRS sanctioned. And there is no one definition of ROI.  One calculation example:

  1. Development and design costs     $ 5,000

  2. Website domain purchase                    25

  3. Hosting                                                 60

  4. SEO set up                                       1,000

  5. Webmaster Yearly fee                    2,000

  6. Undetermined time costs for blog, Facebook, Twitter, content management

  7. Total first year                               $8,085 (cost of investment)

Next, let’s calculate how to measure the amount of revenue required for the ROI formula.

  1. Net profit margin = (revenue-expenses)     
                                               revenue           
    (for this example, assume 20%)
  2.       Additional required revenue is calculated by     new expense
                                                                                   net profit margin % $12,085    = $60,425      only new profit can pay for the website
         .20
  3.       ROI = (gain from investment – cost of Investment)      
               
                 cost of investment
     ($60,425-$8,085)                      
         
    $8,085                      thus ROI =6.5%

The calculation is not nearly as complicated at it seems because the only figures you are need are the net profit percentage and the cost of the website. Everyone knows their net profit margin and you know the cost of the website. This ROI percentage can be compared to the return on an alternate investment like a savings account which would have a ROI of near zero. Conclusion is that a website is a good use of money.

Quality Score Changes

Informative article especially about good management practices required on any business project. The piece could have delved more info how relevant links, not just any link, can improve your quality score. Effective links are those that have a PageRank equal to or greater than you site.

Leon Solomon

Webmyster 

Bridging the Gap Between Search and Display

Article by Marc Poirer

Definition of Push/Pull Marketing is backward. But article is quite informative and recommended reading.

Webmyster

Leon Solomon

Web Advertising Future Format

Jerry Bader’s recent article on humorous video does show a funny video from Dumbdum. However his explanation of marketing through this medium contains nothing new. Procter&Gamble has used the same principles for 50 years. And the cost of a video may be beyond a budget for a small business such as a cigar store. Otherwise, his position that using humor to create “stickiness” is well advised.

Search Engine Optimization

Book Review

The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Rebecca Lieb

She points out the very numerous variations to attain a high PageRank on search engines. The book is very well organized which facilitates the topics you want to read. And the hints about “stickiness” proved insightful. Good read.

Leon Solomon

SEO Made Simple

SEO Made Simple, Strategies for Dominating the World’s Largest Search Engine

Michael H. Fleisher

Book Review-The reading of his book was indeed enlightening to me as a neophyte website designer.  The frequent adaptations by Google Pagerank was a real surprise. Of course that means applying his suggestion to follow the blogs regarding SEO to make your own adaptations. The organization into “ On-Page Optimization” and “Off-Page Optimization” gave me clear insight on how to influence the placement. Although some of the advice was technical to a beginner, his instructions were possible to follow.  He pointed out the correct use of keywords, the importance of directories and links. The recommended analytic tools for verification of effectiveness is envalualuable.