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Website Marketing

Marketing Tips

August 13, 2009 by Joe

For those of you from previous classes & past web marketing projects, I have a new website that provides free marketing tips for growing sales leads for small businesses and manufacturing companies.  The site is Marketing for Manufacturing and it provides multiple tips available through e-mail or blog feed.

Take a look at Marketing for Manufacturing and let me know what you think.

If you have any questions or need some marketing tips, just leave a comment on the new site.

Joe

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Filed Under: Website Marketing Tagged With: Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Website

Get Your Business Listing Online – for Free!

January 26, 2009 by Joe

Google Maps with Directions Feature
Image via Wikipedia

This is a posting copied from a recent chamber of commerce newsletter article I wrote.

Many of you spend money to be listed in the Yellow pages and similar tree-based materials.  The search for products and services is rapidly moving to the Internet and you might be missing some great opportunities to get new customers.

Did you know you can have a free online listing and drive sales leads by using search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN?  At a bare minimum, you should enter your local business listing into Google Maps using www.google.com/local/add.  An even better solution I found in January is GetListed.org .  GetListed.org automatically checks to see if you are listed in the major local search listings.  It will then guide you on how to get listed.  I have done several of these and and have seen some good results.

I would love to hear how well your company performed.  Were you listed on most of the major search engines?  Did the change bring in some new sales leads, calls, or website visits?

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Filed Under: Website Marketing

New Website Marketing Article Available

September 8, 2008 by Joe

There is another new website marketing article titled Website Marketing Questions from Class (Part 2 of 2) .  The article answers important questions from class like:

  • How do I choose a company to get me on the search engines?
  • Which search engine first?
  • How to get on the search engines so that people looking for <insert your keyword phrase here>?
  • Why would an organization have 50 or more web site addresses?
  • What happens when a company asks you in an e-mail to add them to your contact list?

Filed Under: Website Marketing

Website Marketing – Resources from our class

June 22, 2008 by Joe

Walter Connolly in Libeled Lady trailer.

Image via Wikipedia

New Website Marketing website is LIVE

After much juggling and domain (website name) hunting, I have gathered most of the material from our class into a single website .  There are still 3 small postings that I plan to list before Tuesday June 24th.

The new website is called Website Marketing Workshop and is designed to provide a self-guided overview of Website Marketing.  Eventually, I may even considering offering onsite workshops through leads generated at this website.  I am currently talking with another chamber of commerce in Arkansas who has asked if I would provide the free 2 hour session and I believe that I will be able to.

Again, if you missed a point in class or something was a bit fuzzy…

  • Go to WebsiteMarketingWorkshop.com (Website Marketing Workshop) to view articles (postings) related to our discussions.
  • Ask questions in the comments portion of the postings

About the new website

  • Developed it using WordPress content management system in about 1 week.
  • Hosted for about $6 per month.
  • Went through 3 different domain names (website names) before I found one I was happy with.
  • Using FeedBurner to allow visitors to easily get updates by e-mail or RSS reader.

I hope you find it useful.

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Filed Under: Website Marketing Tagged With: Website Marketing Workshop

Contact info from our Website Marketing class

June 16, 2008 by Joe

Several of you in the Website Marketing class asked for contact information for Melody Harshbarger of Multi Media Connection Studios and Kirkham Systems. The full Kirkham contact information can be found on the Kirkham Systems website.

If you have a project where you need some strong marketing and advertising expertise, you can call Melody at (479) 478-9303 or e-mail her through the form shown below:

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Filed Under: Website Marketing Tagged With: Advertising, Advertising and Marketing, website marketing and advertising

Want to be part of a WORLD RECORD?

June 12, 2008 by Joe

Download Day 2008

If you haven’t already heard, the new version of the FREE FireFox internet browser is set to be released June 17th (Tuesday). If you want to be a part of history and help set a new record, click on the link above or go to the main FireFox website .

About FireFox

FireFox is the most popular browser that does NOT come pre-installed on all Windows computers (over 20% of U.S. internet users use FireFox). It is fast, stable, easy to navigate, easy to customize, and is so much more enjoyable to use. Most everyone who discovers FireFox and tries it ends up using it instead of Internet Explorer.

HINTS for Installing

After you have downloaded FireFox and start the installation process, there are 2 things you want to do. First, consider making FireFox your default browser. Second, allow it to import all your Favorites from Internet Explorer.

Caveat

Get FireFox, but keep Internet Explorer for browsing poorly designed websites. Unfortunately, there are a few websites that were designed without good web standards and they will not display properly. In my experience, about 1 in 300 sites I use will not work as well in FireFox. By the way, the only reason that Internet Explorer 7 had tabbed browsing was because of the growth of FireFox – competition is GOOD.

I look forward to sharing the "Most Downloads In One Day" record with you!

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Filed Under: Computer Software, Website Marketing Tagged With: Browsers, FireFox 3, FireFox world record, Internet Explorer

Follow-up from Friday Web Marketing class

June 9, 2008 by Joe

Van Buren, Arkansas

Image via Wikipedia

Just a quick note to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed our sessions at the Van Buren Chamber of Commerce on Friday June 6. We had two different sessions near capacity for a total of 32 participants.

Several of you requested contact information for Kirkham Systems and Melody Harshbarger of Multi Media Connection Studios. I will list those in the next posting.

I am currently finalizing details for a website that is exclusively website marketing information. I will let you know on this website when the new site is ready. I will include postings that provide additional detail for several of the elements we discussed briefly.

Thank you all for your participation and questions.

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Filed Under: Website Marketing

WAIT! Is that email really necessary? Ask Seth…

June 5, 2008 by Joe

:en:Seth Godin

Image via Wikipedia

Seth Godin (web marketing guru) has come up with an email check list that you should share with those people in your address book (you know who they are!) out of mercy for all the rest of us in their address book.

If you ever got too many FYI emails or OD’d on CCs, you will love his list of email rules. Just think of how much you could get done without emails that you don’t need.  Click "read more" to see the list.

read more | digg story

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Filed Under: Website Marketing

Is your website email address killing you?

June 3, 2008 by Joe

SIERRA MADRE, CA - MAY 29:  Seventieth anniversary cans of Spam, the often-maligned classic canned lunch meat made by Hormel Foods, are seen on a grocery store shelf May 29, 2008 in Sierra Madre, California. With the rise in food prices, sales of Spam are increasing as consumers look for ways to cut their food bills. According to the US Agriculture Department, the price of food is rising at the fastest rate since 1990. Increasingly expensive staples include such items as white bread, up 13 percent over last year, butter, up nine percent, and bacon at seven percent. The increasing sales have translated to 14 percent higher profits for Hormel. Spam was created in 1937 and was popularized as a staple food for World War II Western allied forces.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Yes, your email address on your website is killing you. Your organization is getting spam , missing sales leads , and aggravating customers because of it.

Can it really be that bad?

I thought listing my e-mail on my website was a good thing! I want to serve my customers & partners effectively and reach out.

Yes, the mailto link approach really is that bad.

Well, the problem is how the email address is done on your website. Most site designers still use the mailto link approach to gather feedback. There are three critical problems with this method:

  1. The Mailto Link is used to harvest e-mail addresses by spambots (spam robots) so that they can crush your inbox with junk mail. I personally experienced this when my spam went from 5 a day to over 50. It dropped back to normal several months after the website mailto link problem was fixed.
  2. The Mailto Link does not work for 75% of the people that click on it. This is because your browser often does not know what e-mail program you use. The mailto link can even crash or lockup a computer – not the best way to impress a potential customer.
  3. The Mailto Link does not provide good feedback information. When the mailto link DOES work, you typically get emails like "Send me some information about your product" or "I really like your service on the second page." Neither message lets you know what your customers want and then they may be unhappy with your lack of a good response.

What should I do to fix the mailto link problem?

First, do NOT just remove your mailto link from your website without having a fix in place.

Here are the steps to fix the mailto link problem. The solution is to develop a form that customers can use to interact with you.

  1. Define the information you want to get from sales leads and from comments. Having different forms for different functions (sales, request for information, or comments) is a good idea.
  2. Select only a few fields that are required for submission (name, comment, and email are typical). Don’t require all fields to be filled out – your customers will think you are pushy and not want to talk with you online.
  3. Develop a Contact Us form that pre-qualifies the information you are sent. Make sure the form data goes to the correct person’s email address.
  4. Put the form in the website and test it.
  5. Replace the mailto link with an image of the email address and link the image to your form page.

Yeah, but I have to show my email address.

OK, but you don’t have to use the mailto link. You can use a picture of your email address that links to your feedback form. This allows people to write down your email information and still contact you without being exposed to all the problems.

By the way, if you plan to use FrontPage to develop your forms, keep in mind that they will likely NOT work properly. Microsoft no longer supports FrontPage extensions needed to make forms function. FrontPage has other issues, but that is another (several) posts.

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Filed Under: Website Marketing Tagged With: mailto link, website email problem

Website Marketing Class – June 6th

May 23, 2008 by Joe

Our Website Marketing Class is fast approaching at the Van Buren Chamber of Commerce (June 6, 2008).

The class is filling up fairly quickly and we have added a second session in the afternoon.

Here is the official brochure content:
Have you ever thought:

  • Why don’t I get sales leads from my website?
  • How would a website help my business?
  • Isn’t getting online too expensive?

Then this seminar is what you are looking for!

June 6, 2008 (Friday)

Two Sessions:

  • 10 a.m. – 12 noon
  • 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Location: Van Buren Chamber Office – 510 Main Street

Registration: FREE for Chamber members and anyone signing up as a new member, $20 for non-Chamber members.

One person (for each session!) will receive a free website assessment ($250 value)

This seminar will be presented by Joe McCoy of Best Progress.
Call the VBCC at 474-2761 to register.  Seating is limited to the first 20 registrations.

You will discover:

  1. How to get a free website that looks sharp and is easy to edit.
  2. The top 16 mistakes small businesses make with their website.
  3. How to find out who is coming to your website and what pages they like.
  4. The free tools the pros use to help define marketing strategy.
  5. Ways to avoid the mistakes that even big companies make with their website marketing.
  6. Who to consider as your developer if you want a new website.
  7. The 5 most critical things you need to do for an effective website

This seminar will be presented by Joe McCoy of Best Progress.
Call the VBCC at 474-2761 to register.  Seating is limited to the first 20 registrations.

Filed Under: Website Marketing Tagged With: Van Buren Chamber of Commerce, Website Marketing Class, Website Training

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