For years people said “knowledge is power”, and they were probably right. Knowledge and information used to be reserved for a special few. Then came the internet and for many years access to knowledge was indeed power. We all marveled at how much information was available and how much more was on the way. Today even access to knowledge is not enough, there is simply far too much of it. Now power comes to those who can filter knowledge from the vast quantities of information. Thanks to the modern search engines like Google we now have the tools that serve us up large degrees of information. The ultimate race, power goes to those that can effectively filter this information. Search Engines are the ultimate filters at the forefront of a new power. The makers of the big search engines know this, they are in a new race, a race to relevancy, a race to serve filtered useful information to users. They do not need to own the information, they do not need to control it. They just pass it on, filter it for the rest of us. Every search and every request requires an answer, I guess one question remains, “what happens when all the questions are answered”…

The search engine approach is fundamentally driven by matching up a set of search keywords to keyword content contained in website pages. During this part of the search process the search engine will produce a number of website pages to present to the user in a results list.

If you want to be considered in the list of website pages to be presented, your website page must contain in the page content one or more of the keywords contained in the search words used by the search engine user. So the first thing you need to do is to check that your website pages contain keywords that would likely be popular keywords used by your target market.

The goal of the search engine is to give the user access to the most relevant website page that most closely matches their search request or access to the information they are looking for. You need to convince the search engines that you have that information and that your website page contains information that is of great use to the search user.

The next stage of this process is where the search engine decides what order to present these results. It is in this stage that website pages compete for final placement. This ultimately determines whether your website page finishes at number 1 or 100 or anywhere else. Having a well designed CSS web standards compliant website will help you get a step ahead of your competition. You can also ensure a higher placement by growing the number of links into your website and building a greater Google “page rank” than your competitors. You can build links into your website by negotiation and exchange of links with other websites and by advertising your website online. Industry specific and relevant links are of much higher value to you in contrast to links that do not relate necessarily to the content of your website pages.

When you walk into a retail store you experience the quality of the surroundings, the service level of the staff and the quality of the product. An online store is a vastly different experience for consumers.

As a website owner you need to replicate the items that are critical to a successful sale offline and combine these with what works in an Internet Store.

It is difficult to develop an online relationship based on trust when consumers do not get to meet or interact with a real person. Your website must stand up and communicate why the consumer should trust you and your business.

Here’s how…firstly, look at developing items that represent trust. These could be graphics displaying any physical premises or real people, badges representing New Zealand owned or operated, quality guarantees or money back guarantees. Once items like these are clearly communicated to the consumer they will feel more comfortable that they can indeed overcome the trust barrier of the Internet and trust your online business.

Secondly, you need to offer sales support like a real person. Your website needs to address any questions or doubts the consumer might have as they journey along the sales continuum. During the consumers search phase you need to supply them with the right level of information about your product or service. Too much and they will struggle to make a decision or compare products, too little and they wont take action. The quality of the information is also very important. Ask what questions need answering before a consumer can purchase. What doubts must we address? Another idea is to place an extra incentive in the form of a call to purchase on the shopping cart page, which would help to reduce last minute attrition problems.

There are plenty of things you can do to streamline your website sales. Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer, build trust and give them what they want. If you can do this in a way that is unique from your competitors, you are on to something good.

Don’t forget successful business owners are always looking for ways to improve their business and they take action on ideas if they have merit.

Choosing you Domain Name

Choosing your domain name is a pretty important marketing decision, because the domain name that you choose will act as your brand online. This is what the consumer will associate with your online presence; this is what they will use to remember you exist online.

The following article is a no nonsense summary of how to choose a domain name.

Rule Number 1, Forget the Gaps

Whatever you do, forget about hyphens, underscores and dashes. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential visitor who is trying to get to your website by entering your domain name in a browser. If you have a hyphen or another complication which is beyond the obvious you are shooting yourself and your website in the foot and writing off a significant amount of people. They just won’t find you! Could a potential visitor guess your domain name? Do the test.

Rule Number 2, Don’t be Common

Avoid choosing a domain name which is a common name like using your words from your trade category for example. A shoe store in the real world doesn’t call itself “Shoe Store” for very obvious reasons. The owner knows that they need a unique name that differentiates it from competitors and helps consumers with identification. This is even more important on the internet. There is no physical store or logo; instead a brand encapsulated in words. Getting this right is essential. So rule number 2 is think unique.

Rule Number 3, Combine Words

A good way to create a unique domain name is to combine words together. Take several word associations with your products or industry and try mixing and matching to see how they sound and read. You might be surprised.

Rule Number 4, Leave the Offline where it is

If you are developing an online store or stand alone internet brand then create something funky and new. Do not consider leveraging your existing offline brand. There are numerous cases where large organizations have fronted their online ventures with their offline brand and failed. Take Television New Zealand for example. They launched the highly successful NZoom.com and quickly flew to the forefront of New Zealand internet news. Masterly building an online brand supported by TVNZ television media. Now strangely they have decided to promote tvnz.co.nz which I am afraid to say just doesn’t cut it on the Internet; simply because the brand doesn’t translate to the Internet. TVNZ has too much baggage; it already means something to people offline. So keep it simple, if your thinking big then it’s either an Internet only brand or not, but definitely not both.

Rule Number 5, Medium or Business?

If you are using the Internet as a device to support your existing offline business then by all means use your offline name. If your business is called “Joes Plumbing” then register the domain name joesplumbing.co.nz.

Rule Number 6, Small is Good

Keep it as small as possible. The larger your domain name the more it is for a visitor to make an error when typing it into the browser.

Rule Number 7, Spelling

Choose a domain name which is easy to spell. Simple isn’t it. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Rule Number 8, Choosing your location

Do I .com or .co.nz? This is an interesting one isn’t it? If you are thinking international then definitely “.com” it. If you are strictly focused in New Zealand then use “.co.nz”. If you are not operating on a shoe string then preferably buy them both and spend less time worrying.

Rule Number 9, Know your Market

Know your customers. Search engines will find your website based on content and other considerations. If you have good content and online value then it comes down to having a domain name that people are going to remember and talk about. Choosing a domain name that is easy to remember is tough. A good approach is to use a person’s name. Another way might be to create a domain name with two words that start with the same letter like “gingerbreadgeorge.com”.

Choosing a domain name requires you to be diligent and creative, just like coming up with a new name for a product or company except you need to be a bit more silly and crazy in the approach. I hope that this article has given you a few ideas, if you have any comments I would love to hear them.

Email is a cost effective way to communicate with customers. It could be a product announcement, opportunity, news or knowledge. Whatever you have to say, you need to ensure that you follow a few basic procedures so that your email recipients have a positive experience.

How often will we email our customers?

An email newsletter will be best suited monthly. A good period of time relevant to gathering information and staying on top of mind without bombarding the customer. A special announcement or tie in with offline media will require special timing.

What will we say?

The key to email communications is that you send information that is relevant and contains value for the recipient. Spam has made many people sensitive to overtly commercial propositions via email. Just because you can send 1000 emails to all your customers doesn’t mean you should. Consider ways to appeal to customer differences or sub groups of customers via tweaked email messages so that you can create more relevancies.

Try to get away from sending email advertising. Is your message of enough value to be telling your customers personally via email? Many people receive so much email that low value email advertisements are considered intrusions. If you are sending “buy now” propositions they need to be high, high value

How do I create the email?

If you are talking about 50-100 email addresses you can potentially use conventional tools like Outlook to create and send your message. In this case keep it simple and create a predominantly text based message. Ensure that your recipients are in the BCC field. Break up the recipients into groups of 50 and send away.

Think very carefully about whether your email needs to be a graphically rich html based message. These are usually overkill for this predominantly text based medium. Not to mention the problems images in emails can cause with anti-spam checks. If you must then keep the image size really small ie 100 kb.

Any larger than 100 email addresses and you would be better suited to a more industrial emailing solution. World Cast is a good option for most. Try www.fairlogic.com. This type of solution can better manage the email creation and mailing process.

Getting through

Although you are a legit email sender it doesn’t mean you will make it through all the spam checks. Eliminate embedded and attached images; reduce linked images and hyperlinks in the message. Watch the words you use in your email.

Keeping friends

You may have people who don’t want to be on your list. Easy unsubscription is a must. The low tech option is to write at the bottom of the email: To unsubscribe from the “ “ Mailing List please reply to this email and enter unsubscribe in the subject field.

High tech option is to create a page online and link to it in your email. Either the page recognizes a unique code and un-subscribes them automatically on visit, or they have to enter their email address into this unsubscribe page online. Usually this process occurs because there are multiple entry points to unsubscribe. I.e. webpage and email prompts.

Must do’s

1. Send your email to yourself first to check it looks and reads as you intended.
2. Remove unsubscribed addresses from your list or face the consequences.
3. Only send emails to people that expect to receive an email from you.
4. Don’t buy email mailing lists!
5. Tell people how they may have got on your list.

Now I bet that all seemed like a lot to swallow and it is. Although it’s just the icing on the cake of a very large topic area. If you have any doubts about sending emails to your customers then I strongly suggest you get help sooner rather than later.

The business to business market has probably the most to gain from using the Internet in international interactions. A potential international client has limited access to information about your organization from alternative sources. A professional online offering can facilitate stronger sales opportunities.

Unfortunately, many firms utilize one website for all of their needs, combining stakeholder objectives and reducing overall coherency. For example, the information and proposition delivered to consumers will be very different to the information required on a day to day basis by intermediaries or channel partners. Being clear on website objectives is one way to overcome this problem and a well planned site can satisfy the needs of different target markets.

New Zealand firms have always had a geographic disadvantage. Compared to our international competitors we are relatively removed from our export markets. A website can help overcome geographic barriers and the Internet can be used in conjunction with email and other communications to supply overseas businesses with in-depth information that they can source at their own pace.

Your website can be customized according to the needs of different international markets; large firms usually make the most of this opportunity for customization. Creating websites with foreign language options and with localized content is one way to present local know how to an overseas market. This does require you to have local know-how if you are going to pull it off. Research is required before embarking on any sort of international adventures using the Internet to ensure that you are truly addressing the needs of your overseas market.

If you are operating in an international business to consumer marketplace, the Internet is extremely competitive. If you are thinking about launching a business with its primary markets abroad make sure that you conduct a diligent competitor analysis.

Knowing international consumers is the key to success. There is a huge amount of publicly available information on different countries consumer internet purchasing behaviors. You would be very surprised how behavior varies from country to country.

Finally, fulfillment becomes increasingly more challenging when targeting overseas markets. Take China for example. You may be able to make all sorts of delivery promises locally but internationally you are often at the mercy of local distribution systems. This is where a local bricks and mortar partner becomes necessary in many cases; and beneficial for local intelligence.

In conclusion, the Internet is a revolution in international Marketing. Get clear on how you are going to use it, research your overseas markets thoroughly and you will be closer to establishing a successful export strategy online.

Welcome to the second installment of Internet Marketing Secrets. As you know, the internet is an evolving thing. There are website owners and managers just like you throughout the world. They each have one thing on their mind. Guess what that is, yes its no secret; they want the number one spot on Google for your top search phrases.

So what are you going to do about it? Well in this second installment of Internet Marketing Secrets, I will discuss with you some of the methods used by the best to get the best results.

Secret 6: Don’t sell the family jewels to make a quick buck

Have you stopped to look at the state of the Internet lately? Man there is really some crap out there. Consumers don’t want to be bombarded by advertising, or led to believe that something is free and then told at the last minute there is a hidden fee. Use advertisements wisely, so that they do not detract from your content or you will find your potential customers will never come back. Frustrated developers and entrepreneurs end up with a lot of advertising on their websites usually because their projects have failed to make money. If this is where you are heading start thinking about how to turn it around.

Secret 7: New Content is Key

We touched on this in the first installment. Search engines will compare websites and their rate of changing content. Identify an area on each of your webpage’s that you can change frequently and set a schedule. This could be every day, once a week or even a month. You can use news, event calendars, new products, advice columns and more to create new content. Think carefully before using outside content though. It’s a growing trend for websites to use RSS feeds, and news and media content from other sites. If you can do it, so can your competitors. Unless you really think your customers want this it’s only taking up extra space on your site.

Secret 8: Choose the weapons that get results

Your internet Marketing Strategy should consist of your most appropriate tools. So what are the options? The tools available consist of both website design changes and external marketing. Using keyword analysis review and optimize the text content on your site. Change the design to also improve effectiveness. Externally you can use one or more of “pay for placement campaigns” search engine submission, or work on link popularity through networking with other sites. Your competitors will also be using one or more of these tools. So if you have been concentrating on pay for placement and results are starting to ease off try more networking and vice versa.

Secret 9: Do what you do and do it well.

You cannot be all things to all people on the Internet. It’s just so easy to find someone else who is more specialized somewhere else in the world. Why does your site exist? Is it for commerce, to make money from advertising; to provide information; to create a community of people; to earn money off paid subscriptions or to facilitate brokerage of products or information. This is what you must determine as early as possible. Then every effort can be directed to supporting the purpose of your site.

As you know its great fun to tinker but if you don’t focus, before you know it, you’ve spent thousands of dollars or even years of your life creating a really nifty one minute piece of entertainment for half a dozen people over the age of 80.

The Internet has become the definitive way for tourism providers to interact and transact with the consumer market. The discerning traveler can now search, build an intenaray, and book accommodation and activities for their holiday online.

The challenge is how to be competitive using the online medium. You need to be able to reach you potential customers and get exposure in relevant search results, and your website must present a compelling proposition which is more appealing than your competitors.

You build exposure by presenting your product to as many online consumers as possible. This can be achieved by firstly submitting to the major search engines, listing with online tourism directories used by your consumers, and through online advertising. The better you can define the characteristics of the consumers you would like to attract the more efficient you will be at gaining relevant exposure to your market online. This consumer definition and proposition should form the basis of your website design.

Tourists will consider several factors before making a decision to purchase online. They will look for products that match their price points and budget within their ideal itinerary. Once potentials are identified they can then compare the features of one product to another, looking for a key advantage that will lead them to a greater visitor experience and better value for money.

Like any product online, you must build trust and clearly communicate your visitor experience. The visual design and ease of use of your website will effect its overall appeal and a consumers decision to book with you or a competitor. If your website looks amateurish and outdated this will be the image of your business and potential experience you present to your customers.

Welcome to the first instalment of Internet Marketing Secrets. I hope you find something of value.

Secret 1, Know what you want

Internet Marketers generally use the word, “conversion” to refer to the successful transition of website visitor to purchaser, customer or some other outcome desired by the website manager. Websites that deliver results have a very good conversion rate (total completions divided by total unique visitors). Which in simple terms means, comparing the number of website visitors to the number who become “converted” into customers.

So the first thing you need, if you haven’t already done so, is to define what you conversion outcomes are going to be? What are you trying to do; what do you want your visitors to do?

Secret 2, Information is Power

In order to understand and improve website performance you need to have access to and understand website statistics and what they are telling you. Statistics are indicators or action signals that will give you hints as to how you are performing at a moment in time and over a period of time. You should get to understand your website statistics and what they mean so that you are able to identify where improvements can be made. You need to look for these indicators and train yourself to be able to identify them so that you can take the appropriate steps to benefit from what they are telling you.

Check what areas of your website are experiencing the fastest page view growth and the slowest. Compare these areas for any possible structural or content modifications and upgrade the slowest pages appropriately. It may mean that the content in the slower pages is having to compete more heavily with competitors and their websites for visitors. It may also mean that the content or structure of the web page just isn’t up to scratch and we will address this issue a bit later. There are many other things you should be paying attention to in this statistics section, which I will discuss in more detail in another article.

At this point you should take a measurement of the conversion ratio (total completions/total unique visitors) so that you can measure the difference at a later date after you implement a whole bunch of changes to your website.

Secret 3, Create web pages that are rich in text and are relevant to specific search queries

Here we are going to apply the “Single Minded Proposition” Concept to Internet Marketing. Marketing professionals use the idea of the “single minded proposition” as a basis for defining the focus and meaning of advertising communications. It is created using words or phrases that you see appearing as powerful slogans. Nokia use the slogan “Human Technology” as their single minded proposition to ensure that their advertising messages present the same consistent message throughout a campaign across mediums.

Now how does this apply to your website? Well search engines are an excellent judge of relevancy. Their role is to deliver the most relevant suggestions to a searcher and thereby make the search process more efficient and generally a more pleasurable experience.

You can think of your website as a basket of apples sitting in a fruit stall. Consumers or searchers enter the stall area looking for something specific to them. They could choose pears, bananas or apples. Now if you have a stall that is a good example of apples; that is, its looks like a good bunch of apples more than other apple stalls then the consumer is going to choose your stall over others, if they wanted apples in the first place. You don’t care about the consumers who want bananas and pears anyway. Search engines consider your website ranking according to the content in the individual pages and the rankings of the other websites that link to you.

Now the individual apples in your stall can be thought of the web pages in your site. Consumers pick and choose the best apples because they are a better representation of what they think an apple is supposed to be. In the case of the Internet, the search engine is doing some of this comparison for consumers because it would be an impossible task to find and compare this information. When a search query is entered into a search engine it will go take a good look at the blue print of your individual page that it has stored and decide whether it is a better representation or more relevant compared to other pages it has stored.

So here is the secret again “create web pages that are definitive to your potential consumers search queries”. Ok so it sounds logical, but you would be very surprised how many websites don’t do this.

Secret 4, Know your Customers and your Competition

You will need to be smart here and really find out what words your target visitors are likely to use in their searches. You will also be competing with other websites, so you will need to be a step ahead of each one, in order to get a higher ranking position. This means spending a considerable amount of time reviewing your competitors’ website for reasons why they are getting a higher ranking in a search query than you. Learn from your competitors’ success and the reasons for the success, and then implement them in your own website.

Then once you have this search definitive content you need to present this content in a way that is attractive to search engines. This means using text and link placement that is search engine friendly, but I will talk about that in more detail at a later point.

Secret 5, Get in it for the long term and be in a position to continually Evolve

What holds most people back in getting the results they want from the Internet is their ability to make the modifications over time that they need to improve their website performance. You have to come to grips with the fact that this is not a brochure or a magazine. Once it’s done it can be changed and should be changed if it improves performance. So you may have to hold something in reserve at development time so that you do have the capacity to implement the breakthroughs that come to you later on. Find a web developer who is in it for the long term and are excited about developing your project further on a variety of occasions.

Well this was the first of a series of articles that we plan to bring you this year. We hope you enjoyed it and wish you all the best for improving the performance of your websites. If you have further questions or are looking for more personalized guidance then please get in touch. If you have any feedback then please don’t hesitate to drop us an email. Otherwise visit us next month for the next article. We look forward to sharing more insights with you.