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Internet Marketing Quick Tips - Read, Implement, Improve Results

Picture of Eric Pratt
Eric Pratt
9 min read
Denver Firm Digital Marketing Services

 

If you're wondering why your internet marketing efforts aren't producing the results you've been expecting then maybe it's time to take a closer look at what you're doing and how you're doing it.  I've put together a quick little reference guide designed to inspire better content, more consistent and focused efforts, and better results.  All I ask is that if you like what you see, share it.  There's no reason to be greedy :)

Here's some general tips for everything marketing whether it be social media campaigns, emails, or your website..

  1. Quit bashing them with coupons, it doesn't work.  Talk about things that interest people every once in a while and quite acting like people will only buy from you if you discount.

  2. Leverage the laws of attraction.  If you create things of value and share them visitors will share your message and engage.

  3. 91% of online adults use social media regularly *HubSpot Awesomely Proactive Stats

How about some content tips?  If you're not focused on creating exceptional content to bring your prospects in through the top of the funnel then you're missing the boat.  If you need help, call us.  Here's an example of what you could be doing...

eBooks are a great format for fresh content, when you create your eBook you should keep the following tips in mind. 

  1. 10% of eBook consumers read more than one per day so the people that read eBooks are constantly looking to find fresh content.

  2. eBooks should either be less than 5 pages or more than 100 pages to maximize reading.  People either want a short read or a big read, in between hurts your conversions.

  3. When your eBook is done, make sure it is found on Amazon!  Get it into Amazon store and get a lot more exposure to those that are looking for something new to read. 

  4. Email opens on Smart Phones and Tablets have increased 80% over the first six month's of 2012.  *Litmus

 

Now its time for a few Facebook tips, everybody's favorite.

  1. 20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw there!  *HubSpot Awesomly Proactive Stats

  2. You'll get much better interaction for weekend posts versus weekday posts.  The numbers are big, if you're staging content stage a little for the weekend and see what kind of response you get

  3. Much better to post late in the day instead of early, there are more eyeballs on computer screens and no one seems to want to work a full day anymore

  4. Photos get the most likes.  Then status updates, then video, then links. In that order.  Analysis?  Post more pictures, interesting updates and videos!

  5. Post counts should be short, keep them under 30 characters

  6. Be positive with your posts, keep it upbeat and people will want to hang out with you

  7.  It's ok to talk about yourself on Facebook, just don't over due it (it's different on Twitter though).  Top ranking material is positive and eduational

  8. 38% of people have recommended a brand the "LIKE" or follow on a social network *HubSpot Awesomely Proactive Stats

 

Next is Tips for using Twitter, easily one of the most powerful tools in inbound marketing strategy and often overlooked or under valued by the business world. 

  1. ReTweets are a goal of yours whether you know it or not 

  2. Share a lot of links with interesting content and you'll get more ReTweets (RTs) 

  3. Shoot for a 10% or higher RT rate, the higher the better.  Its an indicator of how relevant your tweets are to your followers and how apt they are to share them

  4. There's nothing wrong with asking for a RT, don't be shy and keep it classy.  "Please RT if you like this post"

  5. Most RTs happen from 4-5pm every day, scaled to each time zone

  6. Saturday and Sunday get slightly higher percentage of RTs than other days 

  7. Keep your titles short and use short links always

  8. Use link bait for SEO purposes

  9. The more tweets that point to your web pages, the more links.  Link back to your pages with your short links!

  10. If you create a lot of good content you have something to link to.  So share your content with Twitter and other mediums to creat links and looks.  Relevant traffic to your website is a good thing if you know how to harvest the leads

  11. Most linked title words:  sports, breaking, music, free, fashion

  12. Least linked title words: best, tips, new, photography, school, Android, corporate, iPhone, hotels, giveaway

Completely confused?  Don't feel bad this stuff is harder than it looks and that's probably why your efforts have been failing.  If you're ready to talk to a Denver Marketing Company we'd love to hear from you.

  

Next are a set of tips on blogging.  

  1. Publish your posts early to get picked up.  The blog articles that have the most links by hour of the day occured at 6am EST 

  2. You should be working towards a goal of one post per day

  3. When blogging, talk as yourself, not about yourself.  Do not say something like:  "At Revenue River we're the best and you should love us and give us money because we're so proud of ourselves"

  4. Give industry specific insight and analysis, opinion and commentary about the things going on around you

  5. Worst words to use in a blog:  franchise and episode

  6. Always include key words, meta data & descriptions, alt text, and tags to your blog posts

  7. Put one keyword in every blog title

  8. Always include an image (with alt text)

 

Now let's hit email marketing, one of the most effective and least glorious of all internet marketing tools.

  1. Be passionate in your email titles

  2. '&' symbol gets more clicks – means content heavy gets interest

  3. Using question marks is bad, who knew??

  4. Don’t use hashtag, people aren't impressed you know what Twitter is

  5. Don’t use parentheses, [square brackets better if you have to]

  6. Always use their first name in the subject field, and company name if possible

  7. The more links you put into your email, the more clicks you get. Tells the reader there is a lot of content and value in your message

  8. The more links you have, the less unsubscribers you'll have!

  9. The newer the subscriber is, the more click-throughs you'll get.  Best chance to hit them is when they first sign up

  10. The earlier you bounce back to them the better they convert

  11. Most will unsubscribe right away, or they will stay

  12. Max click-throughs are on Saturday and Sunday, earlier the better regardless of day

  13. The less you send the more they unsubscribe, believe it or not


Lead generation tips usually aren't included in articles like this, maybe because none of the social media marketing writers have any idea what to do with a lead or how to harvest them. 

Here's some bonus tips about the most important part of the funnel.... THE TOP.  This is for forms and calls to action all throughout your website and digital marketing assets.

  1. Conversion rates from highest to lowest success rates:  paid, email, social, referrals, organic, direct

  2. Consumer perceived value of content formats:  Kits, free trial, eBook, webinar, video, white paper.   Bad: demo

  3. FREE has a higher conversion rate than not so free.  Shocker

  4. Quote/price/request/services/contact/questions all have LOWER conversion rates for forms and buttons

  5. Create offers with value, who wants something of no value?  

  6. Highest conversion rate for forms with 3-4 fields, no more than 1 select box, no more than 1 comment box

  7. Never ask for someone's age on a form, no matter how bad you want it

  8. Never ask for street address - State is good, city is good

  9. No phone if possible, no call note if you want one

  10. Don't use SUBMIT for the button at the bottom…much lower conversion rate than other options

  11. Good button title options:  click here, go, sign up, send 

  12. Bad button title options: submit, download, register

 

Lastly, some Search Engine Optimization tips to help you get people to actually click-through to your site. 

  1. Search relevance leads to trustworthiness so if you don't rank, you don't matter.  You're just not an expert even if you are

  2. Organic rankings builds trust, PPC rankings do not

  3. In search results, the description is key, that’s what consumers read the most when choosing a site to visit

  4. 200 Million Americans have registered on the FTC’s "Do Not Call List"  *FTC

  5. If you're not on the first page of Google for your key services you're irrelevant, do something about it

I hope you find these tips and statistics of value and are able to improve your internet marketing execution because of them.  If you have anything that's working for you, please share it here as I'd love to hear from you.