What is a conversion?
A conversion is a visitor performing a desired action. The desired action can include a newsletter signup, free trial, send email for more information or a purchase.

Your conversion program should have both long term and long term goals.  A long term conversion goal would be revenue generation while a short term goal would be downaload a free trial, send an email for information or even a phone call(are you tracking phone calls from your program?)

Too many inbound marketing programs confuse the visitor with so many conversion opportunities that the vistor becomes confused and takes no action-YIKES.  We ensure that our magnet site programs provide a clear and concise opportunity for the visitor and we aim to have the opportunity be found within 3 seconds from the time a prospect arrives at a site.

What Drives Conversions?

This is the million dollar question and there is no silver bullet or recipe that works for everyone but there are some simple things you can do to help boost your conversion rates.

1. Buttons/banners seem to work better than text links but strategically placed text links in your copy or offer shouldn’t be excluded.
2. Make your call to action buttons green, green means go and tests show that visitors respond to green more favorably than any other color.
3. Your navigation bar menu items should have your three most important offers, information, etc in the first three positions.  Checkout your navigation, you might be surprised what you find.
4. We often get asked about PPC campaigns and our response is that it can be effective but be aware you need to manage the budget carefully and monitor the conversion activity.  Although paid listing get top position on the page, I have seen studies that show as many as 88% of people go directly to the organic search listings and completely disregard the paid listings.
5. Remember the 3 second rule above? The use of arrows to direct visitors to the conversion opportunity can be extremely effective.
6. Is your value proposition clearly stated? Try a new conversion opportunity every quarter until you find success
7. Don’t confuse the visitor!  2 call to actions at the most, more than that tends to make people take no action.
8. Make sure your sign up form is easy, Mint.com is a good example of an easy sign up and form.
9. Add a picture of a padlock by the form to show its secure.   Be sure you are running a secure site and not just adding a padlock with no intention of keeping the data protected.
10. A testimonial next to the call to action can be a big help with conversion especially if the testimonial is from an easily identifiable source.

We constantly test new offers, designs and calls to action and yet to find one that works in all cases.  You need to be constantly trying new opportunities with your program.  Please contact us and let us show you how to make a magnet program ramp up your inbound marketing program.

Here are some simple and useful tips on how to combine the best of both worlds so you give your audience a great experience:

1. Don’t get overly caught up in keywords.  Keyword density is old school.  It’s more about providing information that includes the words and variation of words the way your audience uses them.  When you overly use a couple words, it’s obvious and doesn’t provide a great customer experience.  No one likes that including your visitors and the search engines.  Be as natural as possible when writing content.
2. Longtail search terms are the way to go and provide less competition but more importantly match how your audience actually speaks about the problems or solutions your company provides.  We aren’t cavemen.  We speak in sentences or fragments.  The copy on your site should include these strings of words.  Again, think natural when writing.
3. It’s a good practice to consider what type questions a visitor has when coming to your sites.  Then use those questions as headlines.
4. Speak your audience’s language.  This is sales 101.  Don’t write or speak about what’s important to you.  Write or speak about what is important to your audience.
5. Don’t just ask your visitors to click something or fill out a form without a great incentive.  Something that they find valuable.  Valuable information can be a great incentive, its not always about a financial incentive.
6. Don’t try to cram your entire message on the main page of your site.  Lead your audience to sub-pages and/or magnet sites where you can give them more detailed information.  Just like when you interact with a prospect in person, you don’t tell them everything all at once.  You go through a process to get to know each other and build a relationship.  The same is true online.  You have to build a relationship.  Use an outline or flow chart to diagram the process.
7. Something I was surprised to learn recently is that Google advises using more paragraphs as opposed to bullets.  I think you have to decide for yourself what is going to give your visitor the best experience.  It may be that bullets are needed to grab their attention and pull them in while paragraphs are better once they’ve expressed interested in learning more.  My point here is that even though you may hear that Google like paragraphs better than bullets, it’s more important that you do what’s right for your customer.  Ultimately Google will reward you for that.  Be aware of what the search engines value but don’t chase the algorithm.
8. It’s important to support content with references.  If you saw an article on another site or are referring to some statistics you came across in a research paper, cite them.  If you do add links to exterior cites then ensure a new browser widow opens to that site so your site is still open.

By consistently doing all of the above, you are positioning yourself as a trusted resource for your specific subject areas.  This is the ultimate goal and everything you create should support this.  If you are interested in learning more about how to use magnet sites to increase your audience, please call us at  954.876.9941.

Here are the key ideas:

• One of the biggest challenges is the algorithms are constantly changing. It’s important that you keep up with these changes or work with a good partner that can make sure you understand the impact these changes may have on your web real estate. Don’t chase the search engine algorithms but be aware of the trends and make sure you keep your portfolio optimized for a positive visitor experience.  You can monitor the changes here
• Your inbound strategy and SEO efforts are long term. There are no quick fixes, silver bullets or one-off methods that will work.
• Inbound Links – All links are not created equal. Your goal should be to develop quality links. Don’t fall for tricks like reciprocal links for which Google gives no value. Having a diverse link portfolio that comes from different types of websites that have similar content is best. Magnet sites are a great source for quality links because you control the authoritative content and can be sure that the links don’t get tainted.
• Website Content is the key to getting rank and more importantly giving the visitor a positive experience, you want the visitor to have a good experience and so do the search engines, your goals are synonymous with theirs.  Be natural with the way you present your content and don’t think stuffing a bunch of keywords is going to help, it will be a red flag to the search engines and won’t deliver what the visitor is trying to learn. Write your content the way your users talk about it, think in terms of a sales call.
• Don’t try and hit homeruns with your content strategy instead go for long tail terms as we do with our magnet domains. For instance use CRM Software  Solutions instead of just using CRM.  You should target having 300-500 words per page that use the keyword 3-5 times but also use terms e.g CRM solution. Quality content is the most important part of your strategy. You will be rewarded for good content with the search engines and more importantly your prospects.
• Google spiders spend very little time on meta tags so use the tags to let the search engines how your title and descriptions should be displayed but don’t expect any search engine rank gain.  The reason why it has very little value is because it was abused so now  search engines don’t value it in the algorithms.
• Inbound marketing results take about 6-12 months if you work at it consistently. It takes time to digest new changes you make and Google also wants fresh content so it is a never ending process.  You need to have a dynamic program that is constantly evloving with fresh offers and ideas for your prospects.  The days of putting up a static website and waiting for the phone to ring is a losing strategy.  A focus on getting found is a winning formula that requires a focused plan of action. The goal should be qualified traffic that spends time on your web real estate and takes action.   Your web real estate is like a 24×7 trade show so treat it as such.

Hearing the information presented at the webinar reinforced that the magnet sites we develop for our clients and ourselves adhere to these  best practices and are in alignment with the goals of Google and Bing which is to provide the most relevant results to visitors searching for information.

So how many websites does your company really need? As many as you need.

Why?  Most companies, and I’m betting yours is the same, doesn’t just serve one singular audience nor do you have one singular offer.  Having websites that can address these different audiences and offers is a very effective method for generating more awareness, interest and trust for your company.  Now I’m not talking about full, blown out multi-page websites.  Instead, these sites are mini-sites, or what we call magnet websites in our organization, that are one or two focused pages.

Here are some reasons why every company should have multiple websites:

Domain Names – Most company websites are branded with their name (i.e. www.pfizer.com).  This is great if someone knows about you already and will type in your url but what about all those people that don’t know you exist but are looking for you based on the problem they want you to solve for them?  (i.e. www.deepradiatingpain.com) By having multiple websites you can own domain names that represent the generic categories you represent.  Not to mention the amount of people who type in the exact search directly into their url with a .com right after it.  By having multiple websites that represent the problems you solve for audience, you will show up when they are looking for you.  And we all know, showing up is 90% of success.

Single Minded Purpose – How often do you go to a website and have to sort through a lot of useless information get to what you are looking for?  A lot I bet.  By having multiple websites, you can focus your message in a way that matters and has meaning to your customers and prospects.  In the example above, if I was experiencing deep radiating pain and found www.deepradiatingpain.com, when I searched, I would expect when I went to that magnet site to find information that would help me solve that problem.  In this example, the site would be sponsored by Pfizer who makes a product called Lyrica specifically designed to help people experiencing deep radiating pain.  The site could have all kinds of resources and tools to help educate me and get me interested in learning more and ultimately trying out this product.  Don’t you think that would be useful?

Alternative Tactics and Testing – Most companies follow a traditional sales approach that they have found successful.  This is great to draw on your past successes aimed at your traditional customer base.  Except for the fact that it limits you from reaching new audiences for your products and services.  There may be markets you are afraid to approach or you feel may conflict with your current strategy.  Magnet sites are a great way to test different messages, different offers and go after different audiences to grow your business and stay ahead of the competition.

Inspire Immediate Action - If you are relying on your main company website to deliver information, it may take your visitor some time to search for and find the relevant details they need.  This may, and often does, frustrate them so they leave before they take an action.  Magnet sites can get right to the point.  If someone has deep radiating pain, do you think they want to read through mounds of information or learn about an offer that allows them to try a new product that promises instant relief?  Magnet sites can create urgency and impact although you may need to test different offers (see above) to determine what works the best.

Reach New Audiences – Magnet Sites can be a tool to create new markets for old products or services.  You typically can not approach every audience for a product or service with the same tactics.  Magnet sites can be used to customize your approach for new or alternative audiences so you can speak directly to that market’s needs.

Support Other Advertising Efforts – Magnet sites can be great landing sites for print, television, online, video, banner and display ads as well as for articles, newsletters, and news releases.  By separating your campaign site you can track results and effectiveness more accurately.  You can experiment with marketing tactics aimed at new  audiences without impacting your regular site visitors.

Make Money with Niche Marketing - You’ve heard about the “Long Tail” by now right?  The internet is the world’s largest customer network.  You can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere which opens up new opportunities for every business.  What are you doing about it though?  If you are like most companies, you are probably selling the same product, the same way, to the same audience, so that your audience is probably no longer paying attention.

Companies have to be different to be heard.  They have to be bold and innovative.  They have to constantly try new approaches to reach their audiences.  By having multiple websites (i.e. Magnets) delivering targeted, alternative presentations to different, alternative audiences, you can expand and build your business without adversely affecting your current visitors.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how to use Magnet Websites to increase your audience, contact us  today.

Attracting a niche audience is extremely valuable but we all know the ultimate goal is building a relationship with each visitor so they become a customer and refer you to others.  So how do you do that?

Magnet Websites can, and should, be a vital part of your marketing strategy to help you determine how to build relationships with your audience.  Magnet Sites provide a great platform you can use to supercharge your marketing.  For instance:

Research - Magnet Sites are a great vehicle to use to engage your visitors in a conversation about information you may be looking for.  You can do this in the form of a survey or a discussion board to name a few.  Also the domain names themselves can be a great test to see what people are searching for.  If you are thinking about a new product and want to get an idea on what people are searching for and responding to, magnet websites are a great tool.  It’s like a focus group that’s always available.

Ideas/Messaging -  How many times when you are in a meeting do multiple people have ideas but you can only implement one?  Well no more, magnet websites are a great vehicle to test different messages or ideas and measure the impact they have.  You may be surprised what gets the attention of your audience.  Rather than try to guess what the best idea is in a  room, test it in the real world.

Pricing - Ever wonder what the right price to charge for a new service or product is?  By having multiple magnet websites that your traditional customers aren’t visiting, you can test different offers to determine how visitors respond.  This can give you valuable insight into your pricing strategy that you can then carry out on a larger scale.

These are just a few of the ways your Magnet Websites can Supercharge your marketing.  If you are interested in arranging a FREE brainstorming session to talk about ways to use your magnet websites contact us today by email or call us at 954.294.6467.

Here are some frequently asked questions that I wanted to share. I will continue to add to these each month so if you have a specific question about something, please let me know.

How much time should I be spending on my magnet program each month?

It is less about how much time you spend on your magnet program and more about how engaged you are with the program. The more engaged you are with your program and your BCN team, the more successful your program will be. If you can’t answer yes to each of these questions, it is probably a clue you are not engaged enough:

• Are you reviewing your Inbound Marketing Report each month?
• Do you know how many visitors your magnets are attracting, what your average time on site is and your average bounce rate?
• Are you sharing with us what is working on your main site that we can replicate?
• Are you letting us know what is working in your offline marketing efforts that we can learn from?
• Are you reviewing at least 5 or 10 of your magnet sites each month and providing us with ideas on how to continually improve the content to build trust with your visitors?

What should my bounce rate be? How can I improve my bounce rate?

Let’s make sure we all understand what bounce rate is. Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page. A high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by making sure you tailor the content on your entrance pages to what the visitor is expecting to see based on the domain name and tag line. Landing pages should provide the information and services that are promised.

So back to what should your bounce rate be? We use 70% as a guideline. To us, anything above 70% means your content is scaring your visitors away. Our goal is to continually improve content and conversion strategies month after month on your magnet program to achieve average bounce rates below 60%.

What’s the difference between a magnet site, a micro-site and a landing page?

• A Magnet Site uses a domain name that represents how a prospect would be looking for you (i.e. popular logical semantic words). That combined with relevant, authoritative content that relates to that domain name as well as specific conversion opportunities (banners, downloads, lead request) make a magnet site. The goal of a magnet site is to attract visitors that are looking for you using the main criteria that search engines use to index and rank sites (i.e. domain name, content, and relevant links). Magnet sites combine some of the elements of a Microsite and Landing Page.
• A Microsite (sometimes known as a mini-site) generally refers to a small website that is the off-shoot of its parent website. It is considered a separate entity as it may present different information and even have a different URL. This would normally be linked from the home page. Many times the information on a micro site is duplicated from the main site. The url could be a specific brand or event of the parent website company. For instance an art gallery might create a microsite for a specific exhibit they are showcasing.
• A Landing Page is a website page designed to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. A landing page can be the home page of your website but a good landing page will be targeted to a particular stream of traffic – i.e. from an email campaign advertising a particular white paper or event. Landing pages are very targeted and have an interesting offer which can only be taken advantage of by filling out a lead capture form. The goal of a Landing Page is to convert visitors into leads with which you can follow up.

Hopefully this clears it up for you as well as provides information on the role Magnet Sites, Microsites and Landing Pages play in your overall digital marketing campaign.

What are the different types of magnet sites I can have in my program?

• Generic Magnet Site – A generic Magnet Site does not have your company or brand represented on it. It is a combination of automatic feeds as well as specific unique content on a particular topic. These generic Magnet Sites can be used for a variety of purposes. The simplest purpose is as a test to see if that domain name generates an audience and drives specific actions. It could also be a discussion board where initially you just want to create a conversation without any “advertising” or “sponsors” on the sites. It could also be used to test various content before you associate your company or brand with it (i.e. a new product or service idea, a competitor product that you want to get some feedback on, etc.). It could also be a great survey or polling site. The possibilities are endless.
• Company sponsored Magnet Site – These are our most popular types of magnets, especially at the beginning of a program. These sites are independent information/resource destinations that have your company or brand represented on them as a sponsor but are not viewed as company owned sites by the audience. A comparison would be like going to the http://news.yahoo.com/ where there are all types of news sources with various sponsors represented via links, banner ads, articles, videos, etc.
• Company branded Magnet Site - These sites are branded with your logo and colors. Visitors on these sites assume you own and are responsible for the site and all the content provided on it.

What are the different types of things that I should be doing on my magnet sites?

There are a lot of different things you can do on a magnet site – just not all at once though. Here are the most common elements to include:

• Blogroll – bring in outside, frequently updated content from the blogosphere
• RSS feeds – syndicated content from specific trade or industry sources
• Unique Content – articles, faqs, case studies, tips, how to lists, etc.
• Videos – video channel
• Banner Ads
• Contact Us Button(s)
• Lead Capture Form (Sign up for something, daily deal alert, newsletter, etc.)
• Downloads – carrots, motivators, freebies
• Sign up for Webinars
• Discussion Board
• Ability to post comments/ask questions
• Testimonials
• LivePerson (LiveChat)

How often should I be adding new content to my magnet sites?

We believe you should be testing something new every month on a portion of your magnet sites. We also believe that once we find something that is working, whether it is on your main site or one of your magnet sites, we should replicate it to your other magnet sites. Conversely, if we find that something isn’t working – let’s change it. So the answer is monthly.

I have some magnet sites that are doing really well and are consistently in the top 10 performers for my magnet program. How can I leverage this?

There are many ways to leverage your top performers. One way is to convert your magnet site from a generic or company sponsored magnet site to a company branded magnet site. These sites also are prime candidates to convert to a more robust microsite or in some cases a complete website.

When should I add more sites to my magnet program?

The simple answer is when you want to capture a larger audience. Once you begin having success with conversions and have determined what causes your audience to take desired actions, adding to your magnet program is a cost effective way to leverage that. More magnets = larger audience = more conversion opportunities.

To discuss any of these questions in more detail or to add a question of your own, please contact me at wendy@bigcustomernetwork.com. I hope you found this helpful. Thanks!

Your magnet program gives you access to a huge piece of your market.  A market that would be difficult, not to mention costly, to acquire if you used traditional outbound marketing techniques like print, broadcast, and TV advertising, trade shows, direct mail or telemarketing campaigns.

Now that you have the internet real estate and the audience, what’s next?  You’ve got the booth (your magnets) and prospects (visitors) are stopping by to check you out.  How do you turn those prospects into customers?

Here are some best practices to help you leverage your magnet program.

10 Magnet Program Best Practices:

1. Add video. – When we add video to magnet sites, time on site goes up and bounce rate goes down almost immediately.
2. Make one of your magnet sites an industry discussion board. – Every industry should have a discussion board and even better if you are the featured sponsor of that discussion board.
3. Test something every month. – Use your magnet program to test an idea, a message, a new offer or hot topic in your industry right now.  You will get results immediately that you can use for other magnets or your main site.
4. Get your sales and customer service team involved. – They know what is working in the offline world.  Include them in the conversation and share that information with us so we can test it in the online world.
5. Trust Testimonials. – One of the quickest ways to build trust with your visitors is to include testimonials on your magnet sites.  Consider doing a video testimonial next time you are with one of your customers or invite them to send you a quick clip.
6. Use what works. – If something is working well on your main site, tell us!  We can replicate your success on your other internet real estate.  Also tell us what doesn’t work.  If no one has every filled out the “Sign up to receive our newsletter” lead request form on your home page, let us know.
7. Repurpose Content. – Don’t get caught up thinking you have to constantly generate new unique content.  Use what you have and create other formats out of it.  For instance, an article can be turned into a video, a series of articles into an e-book, a video can be transcribed and turned into several articles or add some voice over to a Powerpoint presentation and voila, you’ve got a recorded webinar.  The ideas are endless.
8. Play on your playground. – Your Magnet Sites are the ultimate playground for your company.  Spend time visiting at least 5 of your Magnet Sites each month. Play. Think about the type of “activities” your visitors want to engage in and then provide them.  Again, refer back to #3.  Test something. Remember, your magnet program is your always open trade show booth.
9. The numbers don’t lie. – The analytics we provide you every month tell an important story.  Spend time reviewing them, understanding them and then using the data to drive actions.
10. Let the magnets do their magic. – Magnet programs provide an objective, scientific approach to getting found on the internet.  With that being said, there is some magic to all this that constantly surprises us.  Let it surprise you.  It’s a big part of the fun!

Don’t get overwhelmed and think you have to do all 10 items of this at once.  Take one or two items each month and work on them.  Small incremental changes will have a big impact over time.  If you need some extra firepower, let us know and we can help.  With a few simple steps each month, your magnet program will be one of the most important marketing and business tools for your company.

Be on the lookout for these Upcoming topics:

• Client Success Story:  What happens when your Discussion Board gets too much traffic?
• What is Google Analytics really all about?: Why bounce rate and time on site important? What is a conversion?

If there is a topic or question you would like us to cover, let us know.  Leave a comment or email me at wendy@bigcustomernetwork.com.

There is tremendous power that comes with reviewing your website analytics each week or at least each month and then doing something about the results – or lack thereof.

For instance, if you find that you have a high bounce rate (80% or above) it may mean that there isn’t a strong connection between what the users are looking for and what they actually see on your website.  This could be, and typically is,  a reflection of a company that can’t clearly articulate what they do, why they are different and why the user should care.  You can bet that is having an impact in your offline business as well.

If you find that you are getting good traffic but a low percentage of that traffic is converting to a lead or a sale, it could mean that either you haven’t created any conversion opportunities or that they aren’t compelling enough.  This is kinda like having a weak sales person out there selling your product the wrong way or never asking for the order.  Don’t you want to know that?

Paying attention to your website analytics is paying attention to your business.  Just like you look at your financials routinely, you should be looking at your analytics.  There is also a great payoff.  You can implement immediate actions on the web and measure whether those actions are impacting your results pretty quickly.  There is immediate gratification.

The better you do on the web, the better you will do in your business.

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