If you are a small-to-medium sized website owner, have you put off performing multi-variate testing on your website? A/B testing? Think it only matters for multi-million dollar ecommerce websites? Conversion rate optimization has finally started to get the attention it has deserved all along. But how many of you small-to-medium website owners are actually implementing a solid conversion improvement strategy on your website? The number of small-to-medium website owners implementing conversion optimization is slowly increasing, but guaging the impact of marketing campaigns is not only for large online retailers. ROI matters even more for small-to-medium businesses with fewer resources to play with. So Here are 5 free- to low-cost ways that small to medium websites can increase their optimization rates and boost ROI. 1. Establish conversion benchmarks. Where does your website stand right now in terms of sales? Are there areas of your website that you would like to see improve? Note this and establish your current website standing as a benchmark. 2. Choose your definition of success: Is it traffic? Sales for a certain product? Leads? Whatever it is, articulate these business goals and have your marketing person log your website activity up to this point as the benchmark for future improvements. This is critical since many firms lack an effective system for measuring the success of their website against business goals and objectives. 3. Set up website analytics: If you have not done so already have an analytics product installed to help you collect valuable information about how visitors are using your web site. This data is gold to a web site owner, as well organized data helps you to make timely decisions, such as the best products to feature, how effective your advertising efforts have been at bringing converting visitors to your web site, etc. An analytics program I've used with good results is Omniture's Site Catalyst. So, now that you've got this web site visitor data, what do you do with it? Next week we'll talk about how to use visitor data to raise your web site conversion rates.

Its official. WIworks, Inc has finally launched our Internet Marketing blog. It's affectionately termed the WIblog.

We've given a lot of thought into how to present the most useful information for CEOs, directors, managers and other executives involved in any aspect of your company's internet marketing strategy. The goal of this blog is to provide a wealth of internet survival tips for CEOs. So, here's some tips on how to get the most from this blog:

• Choose the subject matter that's most relevant for your business organization by looking under the Categories section to the top right. There you'll find pertinent subjects such as Reputation Management, Social Media, SEO, PPC, Web Design, Programming, Training, etc. Feel free to add your own comments to any post. We want to hear how you, as executives in your company, handle internet marketing challenges and find out what help you need to survive and thrive in this ever-changing online world.
• Check in each week for our WIcast – a podcast featuring a variety of C-level executives, like yourself, who are managing the challenges of staying ahead of the pack in the internet marketing space.
• Subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date with the latest in Internet marketing strategies that we discuss on the WIblog
• Follow WIworksInc on Twitter and find out just what goes on in the day-to-day routine of this Internet Marketing Firm. We're sure you'll find some gems that you can use to ramp up your own internet marketing efforts. We post articles that we find helpful and tear apart those we think are giving misleading information. You don't want to miss that.
• Check out some of our web design projects on our Flickr feed. You might find just the inspiration you need to move ahead with that Internet Marketing strategy you've put on the back burner until just the right time.

This is an internet marketing strategies blog, but there will be no shortage of passion here. This blog was created for you. Your online business is your livelihood, and surely you have much passion for that. We want to hear about it. We can't wait to hear from you. We only ask that, as professionals, you treat others in this space with respect, even if they have a differing view. So jump into the conversations. Ask questions or make suggestions. Feel free to talk to us. We're listening.

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Branding is extremely important to a business, yet it is so often left in the dust. When you hear the term “branding” you think of logos and slogans. While these are part of a company’s “brand” they do not define the brand. Think of every major brand and then think of what they would be like if they were a real person. Nike “Just do it”, what do you think of? Speed, youth and confidence? That’s exactly what it’s designed to make you think of. The logo is designed to make you more confident in yourself when you purchase that brand. That’s what branding is all about; it’s the embodiment of who and what a company is and most importantly, why it matters. A good brand: -Motivates customers -Creates customer loyalty -Envokes an emotional response from your customers -Makes your credible -Is clear and concise How do I accomplish this? 1. Having a perspective Like a person companies have perspectives and views on certain issues. A fast food company isn’t all about healthy food, they are all about convenience, cost and taste. This vastly differs from a company like Wild Oats that charges premiums for its organic products. To them health is worth a little extra time and money and usually their customers agree. 2. Who are you, what do you do (why does it matter!?!) Many companies fail to define themselves and fly by the seat of their pants. Creating focus for a company will not only help your brand but it will help your employees identify with the company and understand why their work is important. More importantly than who you are and what you do is why does it matter. This is also known as a USP or a unique selling proposition. Why should customers buy from you and not your competitors, what is that’s different or special about you? If there is nothing that differentiates you from your competitors than you are unlikely to have huge success, 3. Presentation So much of branding is about perception and appearance. If you are a high end services company you need expensive offices and professional sounding receptionists. If you are a skateboard company it’s more about style and acting casual, a big office doesn’t suit you in this case. Keep presentation in your mind at all times, this is how your customers will perceive you. 4. Be consistent The thing that makes a brand work is that it’s consistent; it doesn’t change. When you go to McDonalds’ you know that you’re going to get the same Big Mac no matter where you are or when you buy. A coke is always going to taste like you expect and theres no surprises. Sure in reality there are failures and burgers aren’t always delicious. But this is why consistency is so important. You must make every attempt to deliver on your promises every single time. Failing to do what you claim will damage your brand very quickly. If your company focuses on service and you have an unhelpful customer service department say goodbye to your business. 5. Don’t be afraid to change This one sounds a little contradictory but it is ok to change certain elements of your brand to keep up with the market. If your brand focuses on being old fashioned taking on new logos and fancy designs isn’t a great idea. But in many cases brands need to be developed over time to become the Nikes and Pepsi’s of the world so don’t restrict yourself if it means improvement. http://www.slideshare.net/perfectpixels/creating-a-brand-persona http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1073790776

As you write content for a landing page, a micro site, a blog, a press release or a sales letter, always keep in mind that your main goal is to appeal to your customers and sell your product or service. To fully maximize selling sales copy, use these tips and techniques to get your customers to take action. 1. Your headline says it all – If your audience is not awestruck by your headline, then most likely they will not read anything else you have to say. Use descriptive words and phrases to make your headline compelling and creative. 2. Speak directly to your audience – Customers like to feel as if your writing is speaking directly to them. Use words like “you” and “your” as often as you can. Try to avoid this kind of wording: “One could assume that if one did the work necessary…” This not only sounds incredibly superior, but it disassociates the customer from your copy. 3. Don’t assume that your audience knows what you’re talking about - Always make it crystal clear about what you’re selling and all the benefits associated with your product or service. Make all action steps extremely obvious to get your customers to do what you want them to do. 4. Don’t use superfluous, incommodious words - Simply put: try not to use too many difficult words throughout your copy that most people are not familiar with. Again, this creates distance between your customer and your copy. If your customer has to look up every other word while reading your content, then your content does not flow well. Simplify it a little. 5. Write shorter paragraphs - Research has shown that longer paragraphs lose people’s interest. Keep things clear and concise. Short paragraphs, bullet points and lists can easily break up long paragraphs. 6. Create a good conclusion – Remember to effectively sum up your content in a well-written conclusion. Don’t end your content on a whim or it may leave your audience wondering what happened. Reiterate your main points about your product or service and explain to them again why it superior and why they should buy it. Consumers have mixed results when judging the credibility of a website. What influences their opinions of why they trust one site opposed to another? And why will they buy the same product from one site, but not another one that is very similar? Ongoing consumer studies, such as the Stanford Web Credibility Research http://credibility.stanford.edu are striving to answer such questions. Although consumer opinions on web credibility will always differ, implementing these few simple tips and techniques into your sales copy may influence your reader to take the action you want them to.

In a word, Yes. Steve Rubel pointed out that "Blogging creates communities around complaints''. That's a sobering thought for all companies now - whether they are doing business online or not. Customers have a voice and are using it in many instances simply to hurt people or businesses they've had a bad experience with. Search engine reputation management can no longer be an afterthought. Exploring this issue further, Ann Smarty over at SEOSmarty.com posted a list of major services that encourage spreading negative reputation online. It's a complex problem on many levels that you will likely face sooner than later. The danger for businesses is great. These sites allow anyone to post complaints of any type. If this happens to your company, it can destroy your business. A good way to diffuse the complaints is to join in these discussions and give your side of the story, explaining how you are addressing the situation. But with the proliferation of blogs, it's become more and more difficult for a company to monitor every mention of their web site online. Clearly, it's best to be proactive about your negative online reputation potential. Check out the above list, consider the impact sites like these can have on your business, and give us a call. We can help.