ACT Smart Web

My Marketing Scrapbook

actsmartweb — Sat, 08 May 2010 16:32:17 +0000

As you know, we are continually marketing to keep business coming in. Especially in this economy, I truly believe that our marketing is what has kept our business alive and actually thriving!

Organizing all these different campaigns has not been my strong suite! Although I have folders in computer called 2008Marketing, 2009Marketing and 2010Marketing, I still have trouble finding past campaigns. Each yearly folder has internal folders by month so if the campaign has to do with Trick Or Treat (We actually did a Trick Or Treat campaign last year) I would look in October but what about the non-season specific campaign that we run?

Last week I got tired of search and search so I made myself a “scrap book” which is really just a 3 ring binder with empty page protectors. Now, when I finally find the item that I am looking for, or I save a new one, I print an extra copy and write the folder and document name across the top. I’m also doing this with brochures that we print out occasionally and with our Wordpress classes’ handbooks.

If I get industrious, I may just go through my files and print and label all past materials. Then, I could separate them by season. I can also use each page to keep track of the campaign’s success, or lack there of so we don’t repeat a loser.

But, I am getting ahead of myself and getting this organized is wishful thinking! Right now, I’m glad that, for a few items, I won’t have to search!

Email Marketing Facts

actsmartweb — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:50:41 +0000

A few months ago, we had a discussion at a Chamber meeting about “open rate” of Constant Contact emails.

The Chamber was disappointed that their open rate was only in the mid 30%, a rate that I said was very normal and acceptable. My open rate is also in that range.

Well, David Meerman Scott, a social media marketing genius, who spoke at our Boot Camp told us of a website that gives all sorts of facts about open rates and best day to send, etc. That site is mailermailer.com, a competitor of Constant Contact.

According to their 2009 report, overall unique open rates stand at 12.52%, down from 13.2% in early 2008. As you can see, my rate, and the Chamber’s are much better than the average by almost 3 times!

Best Days to Send? - Though weekends and the beginning of the week outperform the other days, Monday is the clear winner having both the highest open rate and click rate. This was a big surprise to me! I chose Monday morning as my delivery date because I thought the best use of my information to my readers would be on Monday morning – when thoughts of the week ahead and marketing would best be put to use! I had read a report a few years ago that Wednesdays at 4pm beat all other open date/times. That’s why our Tech Tip News written by David Snell is sent at that time. It has become a looked for email so we won’t be changing the delivery of it.

It’s such an inexpensive way to market that it’s crazy not to utilize it to “touch” your customers and clients on a regular basis!

Dave Crenshaw’s Myth of Multi-Tasking

actsmartweb — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:25:06 +0000

Dave Crenshaw is my new hero! As a presenter at our recent marketing Boot Camp, he changed my way of thinking about tasks and multi-tasking.

I’ve always considered myself a great multi-tasker. It was one of the first questions asked of me when I was interviewed for my job at the front desk at Dr. Brodil’s dental office. “How are you at multi-tasking?”

Well, now I realize that multi-tasking doubles the time for each task performed and Dave Crenshaw proved it to us. Dave had us write down the numbers from 1 – 27 and the sentence “Multitasking is worse than a lie” a 27 letter sentence and he timed us. My time was less than 30 seconds. He then had us repeat the exercise but alternate between numbers and letters 1M 2U 3L 4T 5I…. that took me 55 seconds, proving that trying to do 2 jobs at once can actually double the time needed.

For more interesting and life changing insights, Go to DaveCrenshaw.com and watch a few of his videos. I found myself “multi-tasking” while watching the first one and stopped short! I wasn’t paying attention enough to understand what was happening so I stopped, started the video over and watched without interruption. It was worth it!

As business owners, we have so little time. make the most of your time by concentrating on one task at a time and you’ll see the difference it makes!

Caught Up and Cruising

actsmartweb — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:49:01 +0000

I can actually say that I am caught up and cruising – hope I haven’t “jinxed” myself!

We got a lot done this week; sent out lots of proposals for new website and website redesigns as well as the usual design and updating work.

One tool that is making it easier to keep track of what we are doing: Tigerpaw. You ay remember that it’s our business management program that does everything but billing – it holds ALL client information including the usual account information, correspondence,marketing and much more – it issues numbered “tickets” when a client requests service or support. The Tech Department has been using this system successfully for months and George and I are now utilizing it more fully including starting to track our clients’ requests. The “Projects” aspect of the program is awesome and we spent a lot of time listing tasks that apply to our 5 phases of web design. Now, we won’t be able to forget a thing – everything is noted and checked off as completed. It’s a great help; you know how it is, you are just about to do something and you are interrupted… tasks get forgotten. Not any more! We’ve taken our customer service up a big notch! Maybe that’s why we were so busy this week – the positive vibes are in the air! Here is Website Redesign Tip #4 Testing and Tweaking After a website’s content is added, we go through a series of checks:

Spell check every page. If possible, have another human do it. We often ask Ellen in our office to do this.Henri is also a great source when he’s not too busy.
Test every form – is it going where its supposed to go, doing what it is supposed to do while gathering the correct (valid) information.
Navigation and all links are tested
If the website is a shopping cart – we test each button to be sure it’s correct.
With Wordpress, there are many extras that we call “Features.” We test the calendar, photo galleries, and all other extras.
Email addresses are tested
Website is checked in all the main browsers. George favors Firefox, I use Internet Explorer so we cross check and also check in Chrome.

Inability To Shift

actsmartweb — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:54:04 +0000

My high school psychology class called it “Inability to Shift.” I know I have it to some degree and have learned ways to combat it so I can do some of the things that I want to do. I don’t go home before a meeting or there’s a chance that I won’t go; once I take my shoes off, inertia takes over and I can think of lots of excuses to stay home. So, I leave from the office to resist that temptation.

Inertia is the enemy of every worthwhile goal. Or the reason you start, get busy… and then forget about it.

If you’re like me, you need to leave your shoes on and keep plugging away. We’re still working on our ACTSmartWeb.com website redesign and it’s getting exciting! George and I know that it will not only benefit us, it will benefit our clients so much that we are really motivated to finish it. Depending upon when you view the site in progress, you may see George’s humorous “content placeholder.” While I prefer “Lorem ipsum dolor sit...”, George uses “Blah, Blah Blah!” I’ve got to talk to him; I hope that’s not really what he thinks of my content!

Revitalizing Your Website #3 – Content Is King!

Since Wordpress is so search engine friendly, you need to give them content to search and report on; good keyword phrases written with the lay-person in mind.

I found this excellent article from Mark Jackson of Search Engine Watch

Well written content is important for three primary reasons:

Engages the reader
Increases search engine rankings and traffic
Promotes the likelihood of quality links from other sitesI’ve seen more than my share of companies who depend too heavily upon the weight and popularity of their brand to drive traffic to their site. Of course, it’s great that they have established their name or product in the minds of the public. But if you have one competitor who has done the same, and also provides quality written content on each page of their website, you’ve just lost a share of the market for no good reason. We see well established companies make this mistake often on product pages. It’s not enough to post quality photos, a small blurb, and the pricing. In order for your intended audience to find your products and read your page versus your competitor’s, you need every page of your site to be focused on providing detailed, useful information that a customer would search for in the process of making a purchase/conversion decision.Let’s take a brief look at each of the three primary benefits of quality content. Keep in mind that there are obviously other very important reasons (branding, for example) which we won’t have the room to cover here. I’ve chosen the three listed above because at the very least, your Web site needs to draw visitors through search engines, inform them of the amazing benefits you have to offer, and to encourage other webmasters and site content managers to consider your site to be an authority on a given subject. With search, attention to detail, and word of mouth, you have the beginnings of a successful Web presence through copywriting.
Engage the Reader Traditional marketers and copywriters frequently criticize search engine optimization companies for focusing so intently upon the keyword research and placement within the text that they sacrifice the art of truly engaging content. Granted, it can be delicate balance at times, but our ultimate goal with every written page is to entertain, inform, and entice the reader. All the top search engine rankings in the world cannot make up for a page so hideous that no one stops to read or continue visiting the site. Basic copywriting classes and workshops are excellent places to get tips on how to keep the reader as the center of your focus and your writing. If copywriting doesn’t come naturally to you and outsourcing isn’t an option, visit CopyBlogger on the Web for copywriting tips or enroll in a local copywriting class or workshop (check your local community colleges and writer’s guilds).
Increase Search Engine Rankings and Traffic Though there are plenty of phrases people still don’t search for, your chances of receiving organic search traffic increase exponentially, based upon the quality of your copy. For the interactive marketing company, it can feel like pulling teeth to convince some companies to seriously consider copy changes or additions to their site. Perhaps we, as an industry, need to do a better job of communicating the necessity, because quality content is absolutely critical to achieving top rankings for competitive phrases. Pictures and graphics don’t equate into words, unless you’ve added the appropriate HTML tags to them. Even then, tags are no substitute for actual text in the body of your site. Think of this way: each search engine is programmed and designed to crawl each site in a manner similar to a human. Information is stored and viewed as more or less important based upon what a human is most likely to consider important. You can have the best META tags in the world, but search engines reward Web pages where the tags match up with the page’s copy. Promote the Likelihood of Quality Links It’s a well known fact that quality links to your Web site are one of the most influential factors in determining search engine rank. The search engine knows to rank any of your pages as extremely important if many authoritative pages externally (and within your site) link to it. Quality content affects both the quality and amount of inbound links. With the rise of social media sites including Facebook and Twitter, your site content is more important than ever. Your readers have the power to submit excerpts of your copy to these sites with links back to your page for all to see. This is especially powerful for companies with the foresight to regularly produce articles, blogs, and press releases. This fresh content not only contributes to the optimization of your site, it also provides opportunities for exposure to (potentially) millions of readers on various social media sites.
Some companies plan entire campaigns around the bursts of traffic received from social media links.
As always, I strongly recommend keyword research at the beginning of any copywriting endeavor for the Web. Know what words and phrases your intended readers are searching with, and craft well-written copy for each page. If your terminology is relevant and your style is easy to follow, you have achieved the most important, yet often overlooked foundational task of organic search optimization and marketing.

Revitalizing Our Websites

actsmartweb — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:01:23 +0000

In December, we redesigned our GoAmerican.com website in Wordpress which got us a 94% Search Engine rating from WebsiteGrader.com. Now, it’s my ACTSmartWeb.com website’s turn. Like the cobbler’s children, it has been neglected and needs to become a shinning example of our work and a resource for our clients. Like you, I have little time for this – I’m busy taking care of our clients. So, I thought this would be a great opportunity to work on this together; to take our revitalization step by step and you can watch the progress. Following our process, each step will take an hour or less, taking everything in “small bites.”

We’ll be incorporating Wordpress so we’ll get all the benefits of that technology especially the benefit of being super search engine friendly.

And, in the coming weeks if you’d ready to follow along and have us REVITALIZE your website, we’ll be happy to oblige!

Revitalizing Your Website #1 Research & Framework

Since we build the structure before we populate the pages, George and I surfed the web to find website designs and features that we want. Like the GoAmerican.com website, we have decided to be saturated with color to make our website examples “pop.” Since our office colors are black, cranberry and blue,my first choice in backgrounds is a deep cranberry color.
We listed the pages that we need:
- Portfolio
- Services
  - ECommerce
  - Search Engine Optimization
- Updating
- Redesign
- Contact Us
- Blog
- Home (Of course)
  - Testimonials
  - Subscribe to Newsletter (Monday’s Marketing Minute)
  - Social Media Links
  - Blog posting

Write a short description of your business using laymen’s terms. (20 – 30 words)
Make a list of 10 phrases that you would use to find a business like yours using Google. You can repeat words that are common to many phrases. For us, words like website, hosting and web design will be common in these phrases. I’ve left them blank for you.

1. ____________________ 2. ____________________

2. ____________________ 4. ____________________ 5. ____________________ 6. ____________________ 7. ____________________ 8. ____________________ 9. ____________________ 10. ____________________

Facebook Fan Page

actsmartweb — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:57:52 +0000

David and I met on Friday to develop a “Fan Page” on Facebook. Debbie Matthews of Matthews Electric uses this to such great advantage! Beth Griffin made a Boys & Girls Club Fan page recently and is posting Silent and Live Auction items for our March 6th Gala up to peak interest – and it’s doing just that! (If you haven’t bought tickets, there is still time – go to the B&G Club website and buy them right online. It’s a FUN night full of surprises!

A Fan Page makes so much more sense that having a Facebook account in your business name like I did initially.There’s no confusion between personal and business: and your business clients won’t see how many bunnies you have in Farmville.

And, it’s FREE! What better price for marketing is there? You can use it to post information, increase sales and keep your fans up to date with new products or services. If you avoided Facebook as a time waster, now’s the time to give it a second look. It took me about 20 minutes to make the page, upload photos, add our mission and upload the site. Take a look and please, become a fan!

George and I met again this morning about our ACTSmartWeb.com website. Last week, we decided on it’s look, colors and pages. This week, we decided what would be on the home page:

Description of our services using keyword phrases to help with search engine optimization
9 of our client’s websites will be featured – this will help them with inbound links as well as feature our work
Testimonials – answers Question #2 (See article below)
Social Media links (Our new fan page)
Sign up for this newsletter
Link to my blog
Basic contact information (Question #3)
Client Support Portal – a direct link to our “ticketing” system so you can upload your updates to us directly – no more “lost in email!”

Revitalizing Your Website #2 – Your Home Page

Using the information that we gathered last week (Short description of our business and our 10 keyword phrases) write a statement for your home page of your business and it’s benefits to your customers / clients using words from your 10 keyword phrases.
There are 3 questions that every visitor asks:

Am I at the right site? If they know you, they should recognize that they are at the right place through “branding;” use of color and logos that are familiar to them.
Can I trust them? Testimonials, industry affiliations, awards, Better Business Bureau insignia all help develop trust.
How do I contact them? There’s nothing worse than having to hunt for contact information – it should be easily visible on EVERY page. Don’t give them an opportunity to leave or become frustrated!

Be sure that your navigation is easy to use and understand, especially if it differs on your home page from inner pages
Wordpress has such great features, be sure to include all that will benefit you on the home page and through out the site (Calendar, Social Media Links, Search, Comments, etc…)

2010 Kick in the A..

actsmartweb — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:01:56 +0000

You’ve all read about Robin Robins, our mentor for marketing our business. She has made such a difference in our success and I often quote her or one of her speakers here in Monday’s Marketing Minute. Well, when I read one of her blog articles, I knew that it had the impact that you may be needing right now as you look towards 2010. It was her day after Thanksgiving article and spotlighted the reason that she is invaluable to us – she gets us to do something! Working with her is hard – yes, I say that all the time. And, it’s been worth it! I hope her words motivate you as well as they have motivated us. Here’s her article:

“The thing I’m MOST grateful for in business is OPL or “other peoples’ laziness.” You heard me right…I’m really grateful that most people are completely and utterly lazy. And if you are a “get-r-done” kinda person like me, you know exactly what I’m talking about. When you cut out all the whining and complaining, it really isn’t all that difficult to be successful. I actually think in the LONG run, it’s a heck of a lot more difficult to be unsuccessful or mediocre. All it really takes to be ahead of the crowd is setting a clear goal and then taking consistent and persistent action towards achieving it. Maybe that’s a bit simplified, but I don’t think so. I truly believe that most people know EXACTLY what they need to do to be more successful, eliminate problems in their lives, overcome their biggest challenges, etc.; but most don’t like what they have in mind so they go in search of a faster, easier way because they’re too afraid or too lazy to do what they already know they should be doing. That’s both good news AND bad news. Good news if you’re in a crowded marketplace. Most of your competitors and going to be too lazy to consistently, continually and pro-actively grow and market their business. Bad news if you is one of them. Just remember that the biggest crowd is at the bottom, clumped together by their inaction. Of course, they never CALL it LAZINESS…they’re more sophisticated than that. They blame their inaction on being too busy or not having enough money or not knowing how. They’ll look around and say, “Well geeze…I’m not doing that bad. After all, everyone ELSE is suffering with the same problems too.” Or they’ll simply get angry and blame their circumstances for their inability to get to the next level. Or worse yet…they’ll simply give up the hope of ever really achieving anything great because they secretly believe they’re not smart enough, cool enough, or whatever enough to pull it off (that’s the biggest shame of all). All excuses. So what’s the point to all of this? First, as an entrepreneur, you have to learn how to pull yourself out of comfortable inaction. You get to be your own boss; therefore, you have to figure out how to self-impose deadlines, urgency and accountability. No one will do it for you. Those in the top 20% do — those in the bottom 80%, don’t. Second, being successful is as much about what you do (or say yes to) as to what you DON’T do. Learning new things is not easy. It’s much easier to sit at home, stay the course, keep the money you have in your pocket, and not venture out into the wild. But no new breakthroughs can come of it. Personally, I live like a hermit. If the city of Franklin would let me, I’d have a moat of alligators surrounding the house. I hate to fly, hate crowds, hate hotels and hate trying to make polite conversation with strangers. BUT, I force myself to go out to seminars, industry events, master mind groups and the like at least once a month because that’s where I learn the most…from pulling my head out of the hole and looking around. And like you, I could think of a million reasons why I should stay home; but I force myself because I know it’s good for me. Third, you have to discipline yourself NOT to get bored with the basics, thinking you “got” it. No one does. I’ve listened to the same Zig Ziglar tape on selling so many times that I can finish his sentences. But every time I listen, I get something new. Mastering the basics is NOT something the bottom 80% of the success pyramid do. They’re always on to the new thing…the new guru, the shiny new object.”

Robin’s closing comment was that she was grateful for all her clients, those people who believe in her and have helped her attain her success. We are also grateful for all our clients! You have made 2009 a wonderful year! Thank you for your confidence in us and your support!

We’re ready to take on 2010! We have written goals for 2010 and have an action plan to follow. We’ve had actual written goals for several months and one of the guys here in our office said “We should have made goals a long time ago – I can’t believe how we’re attaining them!” We’re excited about 2010 and I hope that you take Robin’s message to heart and follow your own goals for a happy, healthy, PROSPEROUS New Year! It only takes a minute to get a new marketing idea so..

Let’s Get Business!

Last Minute Marketing = YOU!

actsmartweb — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:33:19 +0000

It’s up to YOU, now, to be the marketing for your business if your business has anything to do with Christmas or retail. It’s too late to get an ad in the paper, to optimize your website or to run a new promotion. If you are dealing with the public – YOU are your best marketing feature this week. Put on a smile, be genuinely thankful for the customers and give it your best because your attitude can make or break the sale, the season, your business. I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know – I’m reminding you of something that may have been pushed aside in the busy-ness of the time. As an entrepreneur, you are also the example-setting leader of your business.so, if you are having fun, so are your employees. Don’t forget those bag stuffers and other offers to bring people back next year. Make that great impression and then tempt them back. From David and me and our whole team at ACTSmart, Inc, we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanza! TEASER: Be sure to read next Monday’s Marketing Minute! It will be sure to jump-start 2010 for you! It only takes a minute to get a new marketing idea so.. Let’s Get Business!

RePurposing a Blog

actsmartweb — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:45:32 +0000

As I was reviewing a website for a redesign proposal the other day, I was going to suggest that the client add a blog to their website.

I know, I rolled my eyes too! Not another blog lecture! In the case of blogs, I’m a “do as I say, not as I do” gal because I haven’t updated my blog in months! All it gets is spam replies and it’s not pulling it’s weight. What’s worse – this very column could be an excellent blog post and I wouldn’t have to do anything but copy and paste it in!

Well, I had a revelation that EVERY client could take advantage of and it would benefit their website greatly: Don’t think BLOG, think ANNOUNCEMENTS!

How often have you wanted to post a quick message on your website? Just a few lines or maybe more:

“We are closed today for the holiday”

“Please welcome Jane to our team! Her extension is 209 and she’s happy to help you!”

“The winner of this week’s trivia contest is…”

“This week only – SALE! All Christmas ornaments half price!”

And, remember that they search engines love a blog – your postings could attract more activity to your site!

In another vein, don’t think BLOG, think CALENDAR! You can have a self updated calendar added to your website using Wordpress technology! Simple, efficient and all yours!

Think of all the uses that would fit your business! Give us a call, tell us what you’d like. For most websites, it will only cost $95! It only takes a minute to get a new marketing idea so..

Let’s Get Business!