TVS Internet Marketing, LLC.

Websites, SEO, and PPC for Small Business Websites

Travis Van Slooten

Don’t Start Email Marketing Until You Know This

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In a previous post I highlighted the 7 reasons why businesses should be email marketing. Towards the end of that post I gave a couple quick ideas on how to build a list.

Building your list is just part of the puzzle. The other part is actually marketing to your list. There are literally books and entire websites dedicated to the art of email marketing but for the purposes of today’s post, I thought I would provide some basic email marketing tips for the beginner.

1. Don’t send unsolicited emails.
At the very least, consider unsolicited emails on par with the telemarketer who calls you during dinner. Nothing loses a potential customer faster than emailing without permission. But more serious than a simple annoyance is that unsolicited email is considered spam. And sending spam can result in fines and penalties for violating the CAN-SPAM Act.

2. Have an email marketing plan.
Many small business owners start an email marketing program with only a vague idea of what they’re going to do. They do not define goals or have a clear marketing plan. Every email must have a purpose that dictates what you clearly want to convey so have a plan.

3. Have an engaging subject line.
Your subject line should promise short, digestible information that is likely to be of interest to your subscribers. The “from” line is also important. Few people are likely to open an email if they don’t recognize the sender. Make sure you use an email address that uses your business’ domain. An email address like, “joe_anderson1972@yahoo.com,” screams you aren’t taking your business seriously.

4. Send relevant content.
This may seem obvious but you’d be surprised how often business owners forget to keep their subscriber’s needs in mind. If your subscribers signed up to get helpful real estate tips from you, don’t send them emails about some great new restaurant you like and highly recommend. Save those kind of communications for Facebook or Twitter.

5. AVOID USING ALL CAPS!
Using all caps in the subject line or in the body of your email is equivalent to screaming in real life and turns off readers. Bold or underline important text instead.

6. Use proper grammar and avoid speling erors.
Make sure you check for spelling and grammar errors! Nothing gets subscribers hitting the unsubscribe link faster than an email that reads like a third grader wrote it.

7. Give your subscribers the option to unsubscribe.
As per the CAN-SPAM Act, you are required to provide an option for your readers to unsubscribe from your list. If you don’t, your emails can be reported as spam and you’ll be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act where you can be fined!

These are just some basic email marketing tips to get you started. While there is so much more to email marketing, don’t get too overwhelmed. Just keep it simple and use common sense. The main thing to remember is to keep your subscribers in mind. They want regular useful information from you and they want an option to say good bye if at any time you let them down. If you keep that in mind, you’ll be fine.

7 Reasons Why Your Business Should Be Email Marketing

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With the popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter and modern modes of communication such as texting and instant messaging (think Skype), email seems the way of the dinosaur. Despite its “old school” stigma, don’t write it off!

Not everyone uses Facebook or Twitter on a regular basis and there are still lots of people who don’t text or instant message. However, just about everyone has an email address and uses it regularly.

While you can’t reach all your potential customers via Facebook, you can probably reach all of them through email – IF you have their email address. We’ll discuss the easiest way to do that at the end of this post.

As a small business owner, it can be tempting to think that sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are “where’s it’s at,” and that email marketing is obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are so many reasons why small businesses should incorporate email marketing into their overall marketing mix. Here are just seven reasons why small businesses should engage in email marketing:

1. The transition from direct mail to email is easy.
Almost all small businesses have engaged in direct mail marketing at one time or another. They understand direct mail and are comfortable with the process. The transition from a printed piece to email is seamless and very easy to do since the two are so closely related. Instead of creating and mailing printed pieces, you are having your pieces created electronically and sent via email.

2. Tremendous cost savings.
While direct mail and email may be similar, the cost differences are significant. What does it cost to print and mail brochures or postcards? You can send the electronic equivalent instantly for literally pennies. The cost savings and return on investment from email is staggering when compared to direct mail and other marketing methods.

3. Increases customer loyalty and repeat business.
Customers become loyal when they feel they are in the know and are “special.” The mere fact that they are on “your list” and are getting direct communications from you will make them feel special. And regular direct communications with your customers will not only create loyalty but it will increase your chances of getting their repeat business.

4. Convenience.
For a small business, time and resources are often scarce. Emails require no software installation or consultations with a tech guru. Small businesses can manage the marketing process without having to hire someone or without having to add significant responsibilities to current staff.

5. You can measure your results.
Unlike direct mail, with email marketing you can actually track your results. You can measure metrics such as open rates (how many people actually read your emails), click through rates (how many people click through to your site), and conversion rates (how many people buy!).

6. Provides independence from the search engines.
If you have a large email list and are communicating regularly with your list, you won’t have to worry about your search engine rankings as much because you’ll still have a direct pipeline to past and potential customers. If you don’t have a list and you lose your rankings, your sales could potentially plummet overnight.

7. Leverages the costs of paid traffic.
Costs add up quickly when you pay for website traffic. Why not leverage what you’re paying by getting those visitors on your email list so you can continue to communicate with them even after they leave your website!

O.K., hopefully by now you can appreciate the benefits of email marketing – and why every small business owner should strive to build an email list. Now you’re probably wondering how to do it. The topic of building email lists is beyond the scope of this post but the easiest way to get started is to have an email opt-in form on your website like the one you see on this website.

Of course you have to entice your customers to trust you with their email address so you have to give them a reason for signing up. You can do that by offering exclusive discounts or specials. You can offer them a free guide – like the one we offer to entice business owners to join our list.

The main thing is you want to give your visitors something of value in exchange for them giving you their email address and becoming part of your list. Then once they join, you’ll have a constant, direct line of communication with your list!

Local Mobile Marketing: An Opportunity Too Huge To Ignore

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Local mobile marketing in its simplest terms is getting your website or marketing message in front of your targeted audience via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets like the popular iPad.

Why Local Mobile Marketing Matters to Your Business

All you have to do is look around and see how mobile devices are revolutionizing the way everyone communicates and gets their information. On average, people check messages, send texts, and return phone calls from their mobile phones 37 times a day. There are more Internet-connected mobile devices than there are desktops and laptops combined. According to CBS News, there are more than 5 billion cell phones in use worldwide, and about one billion of these are capable of connecting to the Internet.

If those numbers aren’t enough to convince you mobile marketing is important to your business, maybe this will:

“A recent study showed that 95% of smart phone users search for local information on their phones. 88% of the smart phone users take action within a day. 77% have either called or visited a local business because of the information they gathered during their smart phone search.”

What are you waiting for? From small start-ups to multinational giants, businesses are quickly shifting more dollars and resources into their mobile marketing efforts. Now, more than ever, is the time to get in front of your target audience by creating a compelling mobile marketing initiative before your competitors do.

How to Get Started

The first thing you should do is make sure your website is mobile friendly. By mobile friendly I mean you want to be sure your site looks good and is easy to navigate on mobile devices. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, you are likely losing business from mobile users.

The easiest way to determine if your website is ready for the mobile market or not is to simply pull it up on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet device like the iPad. How does it look? Is the content all jumbled and hard to read? Is it hard to navigate? If your answers are yes, then your website isn’t mobile friendly. If it’s not, you’re not alone. Most websites are not optimized for mobile devices.

If your website is a WordPress site, one of the easiest things you can do to make your website mobile friendly is to use the WP Touch plugin. Otherwise, the next best thing is to have a totally separate mobile site created or implement “responsive design.”

While all businesses benefit by having mobile-friendly websites, some businesses benefit more than others. If your business offers any sort of mobile product or service, emergency services, or simply appeals to those “on-the-go,” you fit in that lucrative category.

A perfect example of a business that benefits from instantaneous connections to customers with a mobile website is a car towing service. A motorist breaks down and is in need of an emergency towing service. Since he is not home, it is likely he will use a mobile device to find the towing service he needs. This highlights both the need for a mobile-friendly website, and a website well optimized for the search engines.

Designing a mobile website can be a challenge because there are so many inconsistencies between the devices used to access your website. Some, like smartphones, have very small screens and others, like iPads, have larger screens. Some can view Flash-video content, and some, like the devices from Apple, cannot.

Some have relatively fast processors, and full-featured browsers, and some don’t. Most do not have a full-sized keyboard, if they have a keyboard at all. Because of these factors, it is important that you optimize your mobile website for “touch screens.” This segment represents the fastest-growing segment of mobile devices, and nearly all of the new devices in production use touch-screen technology.

Local Mobile Marketing Strategies

The most basic mobile marketing strategy is to send “mobile coupons” direct to your customers’ cell phones. The coupons arrive as regular “text messages” and are received just like any other text message. The customer then just shows their “coupon” to the business to redeem it.

Other strategies expand on the basic strategy. Instead of sending your customers coupons, you can send them news about an upcoming sale, notify them of store hour changes, or send them to a page on your website asking them join your email list that will give them more (and better) discount offers.

Of all the strategies, the text + email invitation is the most powerful. You not only get to send these customers coupons via their mobile devices, but you can send them coupons and information via their email too. It’s the perfect one-two marketing punch!

Local mobile marketing is simply too huge of an opportunity for any business to ignore. Whether you are a small mom and pop business or Fortune 500 company, you should be tapping into the local mobile market in anyway that you can.

See How Easily You Can Track The Performance of Your Website

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Whether you are doing the SEO for your small business website yourself, or outsourcing it to a Minneapolis SEO company, how do you know if those SEO efforts are actually paying off? You might be wasting your time or throwing money down a rat hole for all you know. Enter Google Analytics.

What Is Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a FREE service that Google offers website owners who are looking for detailed statistics about their website.

To use Google Analytics, you simply insert a few lines of code into your website. The plethora of detailed statistics that Google provides will show you your site’s strengths and weaknesses. With this vital information, you can improve your return on website investment, increase conversion rates, and use the Internet to its fullest to increase your sales and profits.

Some of the statistics you can analyze include identifying the keywords that potential customers searched for to find your website. Google Analytics includes numerous other statistics such as how many people view your website, what pages they visited, how long they browsed your website, and if they click away from your website the minute they landed on it (a metric called “bounce rate”).

Armed with statistics like that, you can see what areas of your website are performing well and which areas need improvement. Google Analytics makes it possible for you to measure your results. Without it, how will you know if the money you’re spending on SEO and other Internet Marketing services is paying off?

The Benefits of Using Google Analytics

Knowing the vital statistics about your website will allow you to see what’s working and what isn’t. Google Analytics provides innumerable parameters for you to utilize during your decision-making process. For instance, you can analyze how many visitors entered your site during specific time periods. You can dig deeper and find out where in the world your visitors are coming from.

Google Analytics gives quantifiable answers to tough business questions. You will understand whether your visitors found you via a search engine or whether they were referred by another website. It will provide answers to questions such as: “How long did my visitors browse my website and what specific pages did they visit (or not visit)?”

One of the greatest benefits of Google Analytics is to show you what keywords your website ranks for – and what keywords visitors use to find your site. Once you know this information, you can optimize your site for those keywords to improve your rankings and traffic. Let’s say you discover that a handful of people are finding your website searching for, “chiropractors in Minneapolis.” You can optimize a page on your website for that keyword phrase so that your site ranks higher for it, thus bringing in even more traffic.

So what is Google Analytics? It’s a free analytical tool, but more importantly, it’s a tool that will allow you to easily measure the strengths and weaknesses of your website – and whether or not your SEO efforts are paying off. Regardless of what analytics program you use, it’s imperative that you use something so that you can track and measure your website’s performance!

What Is Google Places and Why Your Business Needs It

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What Is Google Places

So what is Google Places, you may be asking? In short, it is the quickest and easiest way to get found on Google! In April of 2010, Google introduced a revolutionary concept that has changed the way businesses market themselves online. Google created, and then fine-tuned, a unique database that collects detailed information about brick and mortar businesses such as name, address, phone number, email address, website URL, etc. That database today is called “Google Places.”

Each business listing in Google Places is called a “Place” page, and Google allows businesses to create and customize their own listing within Google Places. Think of a Place page like a micro-website containing only the most essential information about your business. Here is a brief, 60-second introductory video that summarizes Google Places and its benefits:

Important Terminology Note: Google Places is also referred to as Google Maps, Google Local, and Google Local Business Center. They are all one in the same and are used interchangeably.

4 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Google Places Listing

1. Google Accounts for 66% of the U.S. Search Market

According to the November 2011 data from ComScore, Google accounted for 66.2% of the U.S. search market. Take a look at this chart:

search engine numbers

What’s amazing is that Google gets more than double the traffic that Yahoo! and Bing get combined! With Google accounting for well over half of the searches conducted online, it makes sense to concentrate the bulk of your marketing efforts there initially. One of the easiest things you can do to get found on Google is to secure a Google Places listing.

2. Google Places Can Get You to the First Page on Google

Research shows that 95% of all Internet searchers find what they are looking for on page 1 of the search results. Rarely is someone going to click to page 2 or 3 to find what they are looking for. (source: iCrossing.com). In short, if you’re not on the first page of Google, you might as well be invisible.

Google displays Google Places listings with their organic (natural) search results when local searches are conducted. In addition, Google gives preference to local businesses that have an optimized listing in Google Places over the organic search results so they are often found on the top of the first page. With a well-optimized and detailed Google Places listing, you can easily get found on the first page – and often times on the top of the first page!

To see how Google Places is displayed along with organic results – and usually on top of the organic results – I did a search for bakeries in my city. Here were the results:

what is google places

Notice all those Google Places listings on the top of the first page? How nice would it be to have your business found there? The good news is, you can! You just have to spend a little time with your Google Places listing and you’ll reap the rewards.

3. Google Places Can Drive More Traffic to Your Business Website

It stands to reason that if Google Places can get you on the first page of Google – and in many cases on the top of the page – you’re going to get more traffic to your business website. A recent study by BrightLocal.com concluded that Google Places directs 33% of all website traffic to local business websites. With Google Places becoming more and more popular, this number will surely grow.

4. Google Places is Mobile Ready

Google automatically formats your Google Places listing for mobile devices. Remember those stats I shared with you earlier in this guide? Let me repeat them here again. A recent study showed that 95% of smart phone users search for local information on their phones. 88% of the smart phone users take action within a day. 77% have either called or visited a local business because of the information they gathered during their smart phone search. – (sources: Google, BIA/Kelsey). With a Google Places listing, you’ll be able to tap into that “smartphone search” market.

How To Set Up Your Google Places Listing

One of the great things about Google Places is that it’s free! To get started on your listing, visit the Google Places page. The first thing you’ll be asked to so is to sign in with your Google account information. Before you begin the registration process, we have two very important tips to share with you.

Tip #1:
Sign into Google Places with a Gmail account instead of a Google account. A Gmail account and a Google account are two different things. Registering for a Gmail account automatically signs you up for a Google account. Registering for a Google account does not automatically sign you up for a Gmail account.

Tip #2:
Open a brand new Gmail account for your business and link the new account to Google Places. A business Gmail account allows employees that you designate to make modifications to changing information.

Never use a personal Gmail account for Google Places! The reason is if you use your personal Gmail account for your Google Places listing, your employees or contractors (if you outsource your online marketing), will have access to your personal email. You want your business Gmail account to be separate from your personal Gmail account.

Once you log into Google Places, you’ll begin the process of entering all your business information. Take your time entering this information as it will not only convey to your potential customers what your business is all about, but it will also determine how well your listing ranks in Google’s search results. Following is a list of the information you’ll be entering and some tips to consider for each.

Company/Organization
The name must be how your customers recognize your business. In short, it is the actual name of your company or organization. Do not add qualifiers such as city names, URLs, and phone numbers. And don’t use keywords to try to “optimize” your listing. Google considers this extraneous information to be an attempt to game the system.

Business Address
Provide the exact street address. Each location of your business can have one listing, no more. PO Boxes do not count as physical locations. If you operate in a service area, list a central location, and then define the service area.

Primary Phone Number
List one local phone number for each business address. A local phone number verifies that your business operates at the local level. You have the option of adding additional phone numbers but you should always list your local business phone number first. Each physical location of your business should list a unique phone number. Never list call center phone numbers.

Website/Email
Your business URL must take potential customers to your primary business website. Do not list an URL that deceives potential customers by redirecting them to other web pages that do not relate to your business. Use a professional email account with a domain that corresponds with your business website’s URL. If your website URL is www.freshbakedgoods.com, your corresponding email address should be customerservice@freshbakedgoods.com.

Business Description
This may be the most important piece of information that your business provides. You need to clearly describe, without using frills or reciting industry jargon, exactly what products or services you provide. Make this part of your listing “sing” about the benefits of doing business with your company. Include one to three keywords that best describe your business.

Business Categories
You have up to five categories that you can list your business. This step classifies your business and it plays a pivotal role that determines which keywords Google will use to rank your business. You select your categories by what your business is (restaurant), not by what it sells or does. Place the most important category at the top of your rankings.

Additional Details
Here is where you can utilize your creativity. Most businesses include hours of operation, accepted credit cards, discounts, etc. You should include as much information as you deem necessary to prompt potential customers to call or visit your business. The information you enter here will help you rank for long tail search terms (searches with 3 or more keywords) so take advantage of this and be sure to enter additional details.

How To Claim Your Google Places Listing

Google is such a powerful search engine that Google may automatically create a Google Places listing for your business. Google utilizes numerous sources online to create these listings. Whether a Google Places listing already exists for your business or you need to create one from scratch, you want to claim your listing. By claiming your listing, you are confirming with Google that you are the owner of the business, and more importantly, claiming your listing prevents others from the unauthorized editing of your information!

Google verifies that you are the legitimate business owner by either calling you with a special PIN number or sending your PIN number on a postcard to your business address. Once you enter that PIN number while logged into your Google Places listing, you officially claim your listing.

You can follow the guidelines outlined here to set up your listing yourself, or you should check out our Google Places Optimization Service and our other Local SEO Services.

Beat Your Competition By Regularly Publishing Quality Content

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A “dynamic” website consists of regularly updated content. This is usually done by adding a blog to your website, or moving your site to a dynamic platform like WordPress. Google values dynamic websites more highly than static (rarely changing) websites.

A website with fresh content is naturally more relevant and up to date, so Google rewards these sites with higher rankings. This is why even the biggest names in the business world are adding company blogs to their websites.

The easiest way to add a dynamic element to your website is to build it with WordPress in the first place. If you already have a website you can look into how much it would cost to recreate it in WordPress. Conversely, you can also add a WordPress blog to your current website. Our Minneapolis SEO website is built entirely on WordPress so it gives us the flexibility to treat it like a static site AND post regular content like you’re reading here on our blog.

Regardless of what your website is built on, the key is to update it as often as possible. A solution like WordPress makes this as easy as using a word processing program. You can use your blog to announce industry news, sales, events and any other information potential customers might find useful. If you want to get even more interactive, you can write how-to and tutorial articles related to your business. This will benefit you in two ways: you will get more Google love from the fresh content, and you will also brand yourself as an expert in your field.

Final Note on the Importance of Fresh Content

In November of 2011, Google rolled out yet another algorithm update dubbed the “Google Fresh update.” You can read more about it on the official Google blog. In a nutshell, Google’s “freshness algorithm” will return fresher results if the topic being searched on requires it. This update will affect 35% of the searches being conducted on Google.

To see this in action, I did a search for “Jerry Sandusky,” a former Penn State football coach charged with sexually assaulting boys. I did this search back at the height of the scandal. It was a top news story at the time. Take a look at the search results and notice the freshness of the content being returned (highlighted in yellow):

google results

The obvious question is, what topics does Google think deserves fresher results? Well the truth is, nobody knows. However, a little common sense can help you decide which topics would require frequent, fresh content.

If you are a landscaping company, for example, you probably don’t need to generate new content as often as say a camera retailer. The camera niche is a rapidly changing niche with new camera models being released all the time. People in this niche want the latest and greatest information so it stands to reason Google would conclude the same and as a result provide fresher results for this niche than the landscaping niche.

Another quick thing you can do is conduct searches in your niche and see if Google is returning fresh results or not. If it is, then you’ll know you’ll have to generate frequent content to stay competitive!