How To Achieve High Website Conversions

When it comes to e-commerce, driving high numbers of visitors to your company’s website is only half the battle. When the visitors have appeared, you need to use all the methods at your disposal to convert them into paying customers – otherwise all your SEO and online marketing efforts have come to naught. Whether you choose to do this yourself or hire a web marketing company to take advantage of their extensive knowledge, here are some of the most popular tips for achieving high conversion rates:


Easy Searches: If a potential customer visits your website looking for a certain product, they want to be able to find it easily. You may think that sending a client through a maze of related products will encourage them to buy more than they had originally intended, but in fact the result is more often that they will get bored and try another website. Make sure that every product or service you offer can be found easily from your home page.

Clear Content: In addition to making products easy to find, the descriptions of each item should be clear and concise, leaving clients in no doubt of what it does, what advantages it can bring them and what it will cost them. Also, be upfront about any shipping costs so the customer knows exactly how much they will have to pay before they start the payment process.

Speedy Checkout Process: Make sure that the process of buying products through your website is quick and simple. I’m sure we’ve all been in the position of trying to purchase something online, but it’s taken so long to go through that we’ve given up and gone elsewhere. And even if the client sticks with it and makes the payment, they won’t have had a particularly positive experience of visiting your online store and are unlikely therefore to give you that all-important repeat business.

Update Regularly: If your website doesn’t appear current, customers may be put off buying from you so make sure you update it as often as you can. Even if you don’t have any new products to add to your online range, you can keep things fresh with regular promotions, sales or even adding industry-specific articles to demonstrate your expertise in the sector you serve. If you appear to be knowledgeable in your field, potential customers visiting your website are much more likely to see you as a trusted supplier and spend their money accordingly.

Hire An Expert: If after the above you’re still having trouble achieving high conversion rates, it’s highly recommended that you employ the services of a web marketing company. They will be well aware of all the latest techniques for online marketing and will also be able to research what your competitors are doing and apply this to your own business. It is easy enough to learn the theory of web marketing, but sometimes implementing it practically can be an entirely different thing.

Online Marketing Pitfalls To Avoid

Online marketing can be a tricky business as there are so many different facets to consider. Hiring the temporary services of an online marketing consultant can be invaluable in helping you to implement the latest marketing tools, strategies and technologies, but there are still plenty of common mistakes that any company can fall foul of – particularly if you are just starting out. Here we look at some of the most common online marketing mistakes and how you can try to avoid them:


Ignoring Social Networking: Almost every online business now is using social networking in some form to broaden their contact and increase visitors to their websites – and yet some companies still persist in thinking this is a fad that will go away. If you’re ignoring social networking then you are losing a valuable (and free) opportunity to become a real online presence in your industry sector.

Being Unavailable: Every website should include a contact email address for the company, but some are not so scrupulous about replying to queries or comments and this is a big mistake. Your visitors need to feel that you are available in some way and it’s also important for you to listen to and respond to their feedback if you want to make improvements in the way you do business. If you don’t respond to emails, you can’t build up relationships and trust with clients and they won’t want to come back to your site.

Ignoring Marketing Trends: The world of online marketing changes very quickly and you need to keep an eye on the latest trends. Some companies, however, insist upon using outdated methods because they have worked for them in the past. Yes, it can be a difficult task to keep up with every development, but if you really find you have no time at all to do this I would recommend you bring in the services of an online marketing consultant from time to time to keep you up to date with the latest strategies and tools. Otherwise, you risk being left behind.

Over-Complicated Website: Another common mistake made by online companies is to try to cram too much information into their websites. If you have a confusing number of links and too many graphics it will be difficult for users to navigate and they may get bored before they find the product they are looking for and make a purchase. Keep it clean and simple to use, and you stand much more chance of getting higher conversion rates.

Ignoring The Competition: Some companies are so busy working out their own strategies that they forget to keep an eye on what their main competitors are doing – and this can be disastrous. Visit competitors’ websites to find out what they are doing, whether they are using any new marketing methods and whether these seem to be working for them. There is no shame in taking ideas you have learned from competitors and integrating them into your own marketing plan – indeed, this is part of what business is all about. Another useful thing to do is to visit online forums in which you or your competitors might be discussed and see what clients or other businesses are saying about your relative strengths and weaknesses.

How To Improve Your Website’s Visibility

If you conduct a lot of your business online then ensuring you maintain high search engine rankings should be a major priority for you. There are plenty of ways you can do this – indeed, sometimes the advice you can find online is overwhelming – so the key is to find a search engine marketing strategy that will work for you and is simple enough to maintain long-term. Here are some examples of some of the steps you can take:


Design Is Key: To begin with, please do make sure that the look of your website is clean, high-impact and that it is easy to navigate. It’s no good spending a lot of time driving traffic to your site, only for visitors to be put off by its content the second they arrive. This will not encourage them to recommend other visitors and your visibility will suffer as a result. Also, remember that SEO is not just about getting visitors to your site – it’s also about converting those visitors into clients.

Update Your Content: Your website rankings will quickly drop if you don’t update your content regularly. Not only this, but if your site does not contain fresh information it will seriously undermine your credibility with clients, who will not be encouraged to return. Make sure that you are updating it with something new at least once a week, whether that is a fresh product line, an industry-specific article or news items.

Hire An Expert: Many people are put off by the extra cost involved in hiring in an expert to develop their search engine marketing strategy. It really does pay off, however, as they will be able to do your market research for you and identify the keywords you need to incorporate in your content to get relevant visitors to your site. Not only this, but a person whose job it is to know all the latest online marketing strategies and technologies will be able to give you a much better chance of gaining higher search engine rankings than your competitors. They will, for example, be aware of all the latest analytical tools so they can check your stats and use them to make your future marketing campaigns more targeted and efficient.

Blogging And Networking: Become a blogger to show off your knowledge of your industry sector. If you build up a reputation as somebody who knows what they are talking about, your readers will want to click on the link to your website because they will feel you are somebody trustworthy with whom to do business. The same applies to social networking: go on Facebook or Twitter and get involved in discussions relating to your sector. This is a great and free way to gradually generate a buzz about your business.

How To Boost Your Online Sales

An online business, like any other business, is always going to experience sales peaks and troughs. Sometimes the down periods will be owing to market fluctuations beyond your control, but more often there are some simple areas you are neglecting or overlooking which, if rectified, could help to boost your sales immeasurably. Whether you choose to hire an SEO marketing consultant to develop your marketing strategy, take steps yourself to improve your website functionality or hold special promotions, there are plenty of things you can try:


Website Design: To convert visitors to your website into paying customers you need to give them a positive user experience. This means it needs to be designed in such a way that it is easy to navigate, isn’t too cluttered with unnecessary and confusing imagery, and has a quick and simple payment process. If you don’t have any of the above, you are unlikely to get repeat business and this is where most companies get the majority of their sales from.

Product Range: The list of products on your website should come with clear and simple information on aspects such as their specific features, whether they come in different variations and how much they cost. Also, it helps if your product range is focused on one specific area. If you try to offer too many different kinds of products it can be confusing for customers and may also cause problems when it comes to SEO.

SEO Content: There aren’t many online companies these days that won’t be using SEO in one way or another – and there is a good reason for this. Identifying the right keywords and using these to boost your search engine rankings is a proven way to increase traffic to your website and win new customers. If you are unsure how to implement an SEO strategy, hire an experienced SEO consultant who will be able to get you up to speed with the latest trends in SEO, research the market for you and generally get you on the right track.

Targeted Email Marketing: In addition to the above, you should never overlook the effectiveness of a well-planned email marketing campaign. You should always organise your mailing list into categories of clients so you can target emails with certain product promotions to those who are most likely to be interested. A good product promotion or online sale is useful for providing a quick sales spurt if you are going through a particularly slow time.

Pay-Per-Click: If handled correctly, pay-per-click advertising services, such as Google AdWords, are a great way of getting new customers to your site in a relatively short space of time. You have to be prepared to put a certain amount of your marketing budget into this (so work out how much you can afford to pay per click) but the results will often speak for themselves so it’s worth looking into if your sales team are having trouble generating new leads.

Using Google AdWords To Increase Sales

Google AdWords or pay-per-click advertising is now one of the most popular forms of online marketing. It can provide a great boost to your sales if used correctly, but bear in mind that it pays to really understand how it works before you start using it: if you jump straight in at the deep end you could just be throwing money away to no purpose.


So how can Google Adwords benefit your company? To begin with, it is a relatively cheap way of getting your company’s adverts displayed on search lists and relevant sites and can help drive a lot of new traffic to your website in a short time, compared to other marketing methods which are more slow-burning.

Google AdWords is fairly cost-effective because you only pay each time somebody clicks on your ad, meaning you can be sure that for each payment you will at least have one new visitor to your website. Also, because it is quite a targeted form of advertising (the ads tend to be displayed on relevant websites) these visitors are more likely to be converted to paying customers because they are probably already interested in the kinds of products or services you offer.

Of course, there are a lot of potential pitfalls to using Google Adwords and if you don’t know what you are doing you may be paying out for each click and getting little back in the way of conversion rates. Because of this, many companies choose to hire a Google AdWords consultant to help them get to grips with how it works and implement an effective strategy.

Some companies think it is easy to learn about pay-per-click online and then dive right into it, but learning the theory of how something should work and actually putting it into practice are two very different things. A Google AdWords consultant has to keep up with all the latest trends and strategies in this area – it’s their livelihood – whereas you as a business owner or sales manager will have many other different things to think about and will never have the time to follow every single development in what is very rapidly changing world.

A good consultant will provide essential services such as researching the market and identifying the right keywords for your ads, finding out what methods your key competitors are using and showing you exactly how to manage your AdWords account so that you know how to review your progress, analyse conversion rates and generally ensure that your advertising is working for you rather than sapping your marketing budget and giving you little in return.

Why Hire An Interim Marketing Director?

Marketing is an absolutely crucial part of any company’s activities, so if you are running a business you need to have somebody in place who understands how the world of marketing works. If your marketing director leaves, you are a start-up company with a limited budget or you simply want to boost flagging sales, one option for you is to consider hiring an interim marketing director to keep your marketing efforts on track and even bring in some fresh ideas.


Often companies simply hire in temporary marketing directors while they are looking for someone more permanent, but in fact one of the biggest advantages of hiring someone in is the fresh perspective they are able to bring to your company. They will be aware of the latest trends and will be able to train your sales and marketing team in the most effective ways to implement these. Therefore, even if you are not looking to hire a marketing manager full time, you may still want to consider bringing someone in on a temporary basis.

There are other good reasons for hiring outside your company: If you are having trouble generating new sales leads and decide to hire an internal employee to fill the role of marketing director, they may not have enough knowledge of the wider market context or awareness of what your competitors are doing. Sometimes what you need is an entirely new approach and somebody who has been immersed in your particular company culture for a long time, however capable they are, may not be able to provide this.

Hiring an interim marketing director is also much quicker if you need to fill the role in a hurry. For example, what if your current marketing director resigns suddenly and you have a very important promotion or event coming up? Going through the process of interviews to fill such an important role can take a long time as it’s crucial to get the right person. The great thing about interims is that they are used to working in a different way – they don’t need to take time to settle into a role so instead can grasp what needs to be done quickly and get things moving.

Lastly, when it comes to the end of their time with you, your interim director can be invaluable in helping your hire a more permanent head of marketing to carry their work further. They will be able to comment on a candidate’s experience and qualifications and will know the right questions to ask in interviews in order to measure their suitability for the role. Also, because somebody who specialises in fulfilling interim marketing positions will have no interest in the full-time role themselves, they can be completely impartial and offer you solid, objective advice.

How To Market Your Online Business

The world of e-commerce is moving so fast these days that if you don’t have a strong e-commerce marketing strategy your company not be able to keep up with the many competitors out there. In the days before the internet, it used to be much simpler to market your company, but now there are so many option open to you online it can be confusing. Here are just some of the online marketing strategies you can use to get your e-commerce business noticed and increase your sales:


Email Marketing: Make sure your website includes an email registration form where visitors can sign up for product information or special promotions, for example. Ensure the form asks for relevant information so you can categorise your clients according to their priorities and preferences. Then, when it comes to sending them marketing emails you can employ a targeted approach rather than sending the same emails to everyone on your list.

Blogging: Blogging on your website is a very cheap and easy way to promote your business online, as long as you are providing the reader with relevant and useful information. If you do this, you can become established as an authority on your market sector and, hence, a reliable supplier.

Pay-Per-Click: Pay-per-click advertising services, such as Google AdWords, are rapidly becoming one of the most popular forms of e-commerce marketing. You pay each time somebody clicks on your advert and is directed to your website, so it can be a very quick way to drum up some new business. There are other equally effective marketing methods which are more slow-burning, but if you are in a hurry – say, for example you have a limited product promotion – this could be for you.

Use Social Media: The majority of online companies also now recognise the benefits of using social media such as Facebook or Twitter to draw attention to their activities. The trick when doing this is not to advertise your products too belligerently – social media is about taking part in discussions and forums, and building up an online presence in a more gradual way. You can also use your posts on these forums to build back links.

Use SEO: Search engine optimisation is important for improving your search engine rankings. You need to use the correct keywords in your headers, categories, meta descriptions etc. to boost your online presence and increase traffic to your website. It may even be worth hiring in a specialised SEO consultant to do this job for you because it’s quite a skill but it’s a key part of your online marketing strategy.