Landing Pages Are Crucial for Your Marketing Strategy
Secure the attention of your potential customers with a good first impression on your website.
When doing business online, every aspect of your online presence needs to be carefully aligned to your overall marketing strategy. To gain leads and ultimately make conversions, you will need effective landing pages.
Although there are many aspects of your marketing effort that work to boost traffic and generate leads, there is sometimes too much emphasis placed in some areas, such as paid advertising, while other critical areas are overlooked. You could have the best advertising in the world, but if you don’t have the landing page that persuades and obtains buy-in, then you’re not going to see results.
At Blackstone Agency, we work with you to create compelling landing pages that can help grow your business.
Gain Attention with Eye-Catching Headlines
Your headline will determine whether your audience stays engaged or moves along to the competition. Are your headlines working for you, and are they eye-catching and relevant enough to keep your audience interested? A powerful headline will immediately draw a reader into your content. It will be to the point, relevant to what you’re offering, and convincing enough to persuade readers to learn more.
What Is Your Value Proposition?
If you’ve pulled the reader in with a compelling headline, then you need to continue delivering content that is of interest and offers something your reader needs. Whatever your niche is, you’re in business to serve wants and needs.
You must position your offering in a way that empathizes with what the audience is experiencing while offering satisfaction for something they desire or a solution to a problem they have.
Relating to your audience is essential. Building rapport through your content will help them determine that you understand their needs, and you’re the authority when it comes to satisfying those needs. This means you will never talk ‘at’ your audience; instead, you will converse with them naturally.
Testimonials, a short list of benefits and interesting case studies are all examples of ways you can relate to your audience and help develop a mutual understanding of the problem or desire while establishing trust in your brand.
Your Content Is Essential
A landing page needs to provide enough information to obtain buy-in but should not overload the reader with unnecessary information. Your marketing strategy should, therefore, have an emphasis on quality content. You should take great care to ensure that every word has meaning, the information is accurate, and there is no unnecessary fluff that adds nothing of value to your reader.
Taking the time to develop effective content, whether you do it yourself or engage with content marketing professionals, will help you to increase lead and conversion rates.
The Right Way to Use Images
Images can add visual appeal, but from a marketing standpoint, the information they provide is limited. Make sure you select images carefully and have a good balance of images and text on your landing page.
Images can be used for branding but also showcase what you’re trying to offer. If you’re offering a service rather than a product, then infographics are a great way to create visual impact while also providing valuable information.
Your Call to Action
You’ve developed strong content and a landing page with visual impact. Your readers like what they’re reading, and they see your value proposition as compelling.
How do you take this opportunity and have the reader opt-in to the next stage? With a strong call to action, of course.
- Don’t underestimate the power of your opt-in button. It should be conspicuous, in contrast to the main copy, and clearly labeled. Text links or simple graphics are most effective.
- Relate back to the content in your call to action. Repeat the need or desire, reinforce why your offering is the best solution, and challenge the reader to take the next step by doing business with you.
Remember, by the time you reach your call to action, your reader should completely understand what it is that you have to offer and why it’s the best option on the market. Even with this, if you don’t challenge them to take action by clicking through, then all of your marketing strategies will go to waste.
Grow Your Revenue with Your Landing Pages
Don’t waste your time and financial investment by neglecting to develop effective landing pages. Your marketing strategy should be viewed holistically, with all of your advertising copy and content being designed to lead your audience to a sales funnel. A landing page is crunch time, where all of your efforts come together to bring in leads.
Highly informative, interesting, eye-catching and relevant landing pages are essential to ensure that you are able to increase revenue and grow your business.
Boost Online Visibility with Internet Search Engine Marketing Company
Optimizing your website for the major search engines like Google is really a necessity. And every internet search engine has its very own algorithm and rules to follow along with, making the job rather challenging. Choosing a good internet search engine marketing company to assist you to boost your web business is hard. However, make certain that our internet search engine marketing company includes status on the market otherwise you might finish up wasting a lot of your money and time. Before choosing an internet search engine marketing company, you have to identify your requirements and goals, which support the search engine optimization firm to know your expectation and frame an appropriate online marketing strategy for you personally.
The requirements may vary from business-to-business. Although some are searching for branding, others might be thinking about simple search engine optimization for enhancing search ratings. However, the best goal for just about any business is a great return on investment. Therefore, the first task is to determine which return on investment you’re expecting out of your internet search engine marketing company. To have an e-commerce site or sites that provide items (not always an e-commerce site), one should determine the need for each lead coming with the search engine optimization efforts to appraise the return on investment.
Similarly, sites which have most of the leads coming through someone calling, the aim is going to be a rise in the site’s traffic relevancy. Within this situation, one should discover the need for each click originating from their search engine optimization efforts and the number of total clicks monthly to appraise the Return on investment using their internet search engine marketing company. However, it’s not feasible for any internet search engine marketing company to supply results overnight. Thus, it’s suggested to judge year-over-year increases to look for the return on investment from search engine optimization efforts.
What To Expect From an SEO Marketing Company
Your internet search engine marketing company should have the ability to provide personalized services, according to your needs. Search engine optimization includes numerous online practices including market and keyword research and analysis, site or web pages structure optimization, backlink building, manual directory submission, article distribution, and content strategy and duplicate-writing. All these tasks have unique challenges and never always needed by all websites. For instance, the needs of the recently released website will vary from what high-quality site that lacks visible text and has technical challenges.
Traditional Marketing & What’s Trending
A great internet search engine marketing company will invariably blend traditional marketing practices using the latest trends to create your online marketing strategy effectively. Though social networking marketing and content distribution are attaining more recognition nowadays, it’s impossible to eliminate the significance of manual directory submission or any other traditional backlink building processes. Actually, manual directory submission plays a substantial role in building quality one-way links.
This, consequently, works well for enhancing search ratings too as with getting specific site visitors. The benefits of manual directory submission are manifold. You are able to directly tap your specific audience, as manual directory submission includes posting the website within the specific category where it’s most appropriate. Manual directory submission is among the best ways to achieve quality backlinks. Make certain your internet search engine marketing company tests and reviews you concerning the Internet Search Engine Friendliness from the sites where they’ve posted your website by hand.
Finally, it is crucial that the internet search engine marketing company maintain transparency while educating you along the way. This can also enable you to know how the internet search engine marketing company works and it’ll become simpler to get recommendations carried out to push the general internet marketing program forward.
Staying on Top of Google’s Algorithm
Keeping up with Google’s frequent changes to its search algorithm is challenging, but critical for your online presence. Nobody knows the exact weight Google applies to each factor it considers, but it is known that Google takes into account the quality of the website, the freshness of content, keywords used on the site, and hundreds of other factors.
Google explains on its website that “these ranking systems are made up of a series of algorithms that analyze what it is you are looking for and what information to return to you. And as we’ve evolved search to make it more useful, we’ve refined our algorithms to assess your searches and the results in finer detail to make our services work better for you.” But these refinements can certainly pose a conundrum for marketers. Here are some useful tips for tackling Google!
Use Algorithm Tracking Tools
There are many online tools available that will alert you to changes in the algorithm. Sign up for an email alert and be sure to adjust your SEO in a timely manner whenever an important alert comes through. There are also volatility indexes that can show the impact of whatever changes were made by Google. The higher the index, the more important it may be to look into the algorithm updates.
Monitor Google Itself
The Google Webmaster blog is a good place to start monitoring to stay in the know. Major updates are sometimes posted to the site, which is located at http://webmasters.googleblog.com Although this is a reliable source of major changes, Google often rolls through changes to their algorithm with no notice.
Google Changes to Have on Your Radar
In early February this year, Google rolled out a major update the SEO industry jokingly named “FRED.” The updated targeted link quality and is also believed to have made changes regarding content quality. Another change to look out for soon is mobile indexing. Mobile readiness should be a high priority for all companies. If your site is not mobile ready, the time to update is now. Ignoring the changes to come could negatively impact your business.
Hire an Expert
Keeping up to date on SEO is a full-time project, so if you are unable to dedicate someone full time to the process, outsource to someone who can. Hiring an SEO agency can help you focus on your core business competencies. At Blackstone Agency we are dedicated to your SEO success and always stay up to date on the latest SEO trends. Contact us at bmgcreative.net for more information on how we can improve your online presence.
Boosting Your Conversions with 5 Simple Website Strategy Tips
From setting goals to seeking feedback, how a successful website promotes a successful business.
Your website strategy will play a critical role in the success of your business. At Blackstone Agency we know exactly what it takes to drive traffic, engage with your audience and increase your conversion rate. Your marketing strategy will ultimately determine the success of your website and any business that you do online.
Effective digital marketing has to be grounded with a powerful website. Your website is your storefront for the modern age. It needs to be user friendly, organized and developed with clear purpose and goals in mind.
Whether you’ve been in business for a decade or you’re only starting to transition to the online marketplace, here are five strategies you can use to make your website more effective.
#1 Don’t Overthink The Web Design Process
In the earlier days of the internet and online business, website developers were notorious for prioritizing design over everything else. Flashy webpages attracted attention due to the relative novelty of the internet at the time. Today, the internet is a mainstream and necessary channel for conducting business. Your website doesn’t need to be flashy for it to be successful. Before you even think about design, clearly define your goals and answer some preliminary questions. What is the vision for your website? Who is your audience? How will you most effectively communicate with them?
#2 Organization Is Key
Setting goals gives you something to work towards. Asking yourself questions will also help you to keep things in perspective. Most online business models are relatively simple. Even if you offer a number of different products and services, they will usually fit into a particular niche and will be targeted towards specific demographics. Clutter has no place on a website. Your site needs to be well organized while only providing the information that is necessary. There are literally hundreds of distractions for your audience when they engage with you online. Don’t give them a reason to lose interest.
#3 Content Still Rules
You’ve probably heard that content is king. As cliché as it sounds, it remains true. Your content, whether it be text, images or other media, is what will ultimately influence your market and help them determine whether they want to do business with you. Every word is important. Every graphic must be selected for its impact and relevance. Developing strong content will increase your conversions, and it will also help to ensure your site remains ranked in search engines and relevant within your niche.
#4 User Experience Comes First
We mentioned that flashy web pages don’t necessarily translate to good web pages. An effective website strategy means creating pages where the user experience is the key motivation behind web design. Can the website be navigated without difficulty, is the information presented upfront, and can visitors find information and answers without navigating complex menus or reading through unnecessary text? The user experience will make the difference between conversions and lost opportunities, so make sure you always approach your marketing strategy with the end user in mind.
#5 Seek Feedback
One problem that you may have when creating a website is being able to objectively determine if the final result is representative of what you set out to achieve. As the creator and the business owner, you will see things differently from how your audience does. That’s why it is essential to test your site and seek feedback during development. Network with people who fit your target demographic, and invite them to take part in your website strategy. You could even use this to your advantage by extending exclusive offers to these testers, helping you to develop your reputation even before your site goes live.
How can you ensure your website has a return on investment?
Your website will often determine the difference between a successful online presence and a business that fails to meet its potential. If you want to generate leads and enjoy high conversion rates, then you will need powerful content based on an effective website strategy with modern web design that caters to your intended audience.
You Can’t Build A Business on A $300 Website
In a world gone digital, those with a secure foundation online succeed, and why building your house with hay won’t stand up to the competition.
In business there is a conversation that usually starts with, “I’ve been in business for a few years and I’m ready to take my business serious. I have money to invest and want to do it correctly because I know it’s going to cost to do it right and compete in my competitive market.” After a discussion with the customer about marketing and options, we usually send over a proposal that is well above the $300 mark. Three or four days usually pass and the email or phone call comes back with, “I’ve talked to a friend and he turned me onto a website that builds websites for under $300. I’m going to go that route instead of your agency.”
In this case, it is the customer’s right to look at the other options they have. But the bigger question is whether or not you were ever really serious about investing in your business. As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” It’s impossible to combine fast, professional and cheap when it comes to your website. You get what you pay for. Anyone who is actually serious in business will tell you that you cannot build a website for less than three hundred bucks. The reason is that there are actual expenses that affect the quality of the product you have.
I know that sounds like a rant, but really, it is a very profound principle that portrays how serious business owners or entrepreneurs are regarding their business. If you want to be successful, you must strive for perfection. I’m not saying you have to have an unlimited budget; I’m just saying do it right. My father always told me, do it right the first time; even if it costs you more money, it’ll save you headache, hassle and even more money in the end. The missing part of that is the lost revenue that is the result of poor marketing. Remember that first impressions are everything. Your first impression for a new client or customer only gets one shot, and you will never have a chance to get them again in most cases.
So what is the difference between a $300 website and a $3,000 website? Well, if you consider a small professional website takes over 30 hours to complete, you’re looking at the difference between a $10 an hour person and $100 an hour professional in a numbers perspective.
The Importance of Having a Professional Graphic Design
It takes time and costs money to create graphics for a website. You cannot simply copy and paste some images online and use them. This sets you up for a copyright complaint if you do. Additionally, if you use the free resources online, you are reusing images that won’t make your business stand out. Professional graphic design ensures that you have a visually stunning set of images that leaves a lasting impression with your customers when they visit your website. After all, would you rather have a plain website to do business with that is a jumbled mess with amateurish graphic design or one where the web design truly shines?
Strategic Calls to Action And Messaging
On a $300 website, you have no professional thought put into the website. There is no strategic planning, and all that has taken place is that a person threw together a website without any effort at all. That means while a basic $300 website can get you something assigned to a URL, you are left with nothing more than a hobby website when compared to the work of an actual professional.
In this case, think about a website you’ve been to for a business that looks like a high school student has thrown something together. It looks like a hobbyist created the space over a true professional, and in this case, that would be true. You’ll never find a true professional website for only $300.
Built Taking into Effect Search Engine Optimization
A website can be set up in a few hours. By the time it is done, you have the framework of what you need to successfully operate your website. The problem is that you aren’t going to have the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on the page. SEO is a complicated process that takes time, and your average $300 website builder won’t take the time to make sure your website uses the latest approved techniques while following the guidelines of Google through their Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird updates. A professional web designer can take your website and ensure that it is optimized so that you have real results the moment that your website goes live. All it takes is a few simple online adjustments to things like links and your web design.
Instead, for the $300 you have a bare-bones unprofessional looking website that won’t have any traction online.
Technically Sound And Secure
Realistically, the $300 website will be a simple WordPress that incorporates a few plugins. In most cases, they have done nothing more than quickly changed a template and require you to update your version frequently. Eventually, these templates stop being updated and new security issues arise. In 2016 and beyond, you need to take your website security seriously, otherwise your website will be taken down by hackers.
When you pay a professional company, you don’t have to worry about someone hacking into your website because firewalls and other prevention tools are already in place to protect you. That way, you have some peace of mind that the website for your business will always be up and running when you need it the most. A lot of the inexpensive websites out there are designed with the same set of templates. This makes them look like a copy and paste job of every other website out there. While this is fine if you don’t care about innovation and standing out, it won’t leave a lasting impression with your customers. It also will not look professional, and people will question if doing business with your company is safe. Instead, you want to take the time to ensure that your website stands out in the sea of competition and drives the customer to finalize a sale with you over doing business with anyone else. That depends on having a unique design that is easy to use while being visually stunning. This combination is something that can only be done when you work with a professional web designer.
Built for Your Business Not Just Another Template
As you can see, a $300 website is not a realistic approach for anyone who is serious about their business. It makes you look like a hobbyist who has just tossed something up and prevents your website from being taken seriously in an already competitive market. Instead, take the time to work with a professional company who will go the extra mile and ensure that your business has everything it needs to be successful online, with fewer threats, and be a website that people notice and feel comfortable with thanks to the quality web design it has.
