As we look ahead, we’ve spotted six things that anyone involved in digital marketing should take note of… here goes:

1. Mobile Finally Delivers

It is common to get premature in excitement over new technologies. For example: the dot-com bubble was burst on the delay between the promise of the eCommerce revolution (2000/2001) to the actual fulfillment of that promise (from 2004 incrementally to today and beyond).

The same is true of mobile – yes, we’ve all replacing our old titchy ‘just call and text’ handsets with funky new smartphones for the last 3 years or so, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s an immediate payoff.

Expensive data plans, clunky interfaces, steep learning curves and lack of confidence in security has meant that many have not used these devices to their fuller potential. Now, that has changed. The devices are better, the pricing is much more competitive, the user-experience is tight (and not just the Apple iOS platform any more) and social media is driving increase in use.

Here are some stats for you to consider. By the end of 2011 these were the stand out numbers:

• Over 30% of emails are now opened on smartphones / tablets, over 50% at weekends (evenings)
• Over 40% of posts to Facebook are from mobile devices
• When incorporating tablets into ‘portable PCs’, Apple will become the world’s biggest portable PC supplier (volume and turnover)

If you have not planned for the mobile revolution then make sure you do this year. Ideally this quarter!

2. Bing Comes Second… A Good Second!

And that’s no bad thing when position one is secured by Google. You can be sure that Microsoft are going to be pressing hard to increase market share but their merger (read: takeover) of Yahoo! Search and Search Marketing, plus their ‘relationship’ with Facebook means that Bing has got a bright future and enough traction to take an increasing share of the advertisers’ buck.

3. The Social Backlash

There is no doubt that Social Media continues to gather steam – growth, use, time on site – whatever metric you want to use, it wins.

There is no doubt that IF you want to engage, speak with, understand better, relate to you customers and prospects, then Social Media is an excellent place.

However, where there IS doubt is how brands, products, services and companies can make this work to their advantage for two main reasons:

• Lack of imagination: we don’t know how many businesses do this, but many have the ‘Field of Dreams’ approach to their Pages (‘build it, and they will come’). Er – no they won’t… build it, put no creativity thought into it, and they won’t come. And for the few that do will leave. This is a social media, you need to think socially
• Narrow focus: you cannot treat social media like direct marketing and measure response and revenue out of it. If you do it this way you will fail for too many reason to mention in this article (TBC at a later date!)

At the same time, these principles need to be accepted: a ‘Like’ is worthless unless it becomes a ‘do’, impressions on your social pages are worth less than impressions on your own website, social media advertising is patchy at best (particularly LinkedIn) and the true cost of social media is the time spent managing it.

So the social backlash will mainly consist of businesses who thought (or were persuaded into) that either it would be self-fulfilling, or that it’s a straight marketing tool. Or, it may be that you have outsourced it to incompetents.

4. Companies Will Work Even Harder to Ringfence and Reward their Clients

It has always surprised us how little SMEs work to support their existing client base and reward them for their loyalty. Given that we can expect another challenging year, the competitive business will work as hard as possible on their existing contacts and make sure that they retain custom from as many as possible.

The smarter ones will also use techniques to use their existing customers to leverage further opportunity.

This will be the opportunity for true CRM – the management of actual customer relationships through a combination of media, not CRM as Salesforce describe it (sales channel – CRM with a silent ‘relationship’).

5. Limitations of Automation Will be Revealed

We get approached by many agencies purporting to have automated various things – from pay per click performance, to email response. All offering, for a monthly fee, to make our lives easier.

For the buyer this is serious compelling as the more automation, the cheaper and more scalable the services are. So, if it works then quickly, with little staff resource needed, then the benefits are clear.

However, the main question is: ‘is it better?’ And we believe that for marketing – the answer is a firm ‘no’. The main reason being that strong marketing needs two things: creativity and market knowledge. Give us a strong ad copywriter any day over an automaton: better copy, better click through, better quality score, lower spend, improved performance.

So, if you buy into automation, be very careful and test against a ‘human managed’ (ideally experienced) alternative. You may find that the only thing you’ll be scaling is your losses.

6. Performance of Apps Will Come Under Scrutiny

We’ve always maintained, when approached by clients wanting apps, that this is no gravy train… in fact, far from it, it’s more like a Ponzi / Pyramid / MLM scheme where the winners are deliberately PR’d to create the illusion of success. Yet, Apps are a thin layer of great success, covering a very deep ocean of failure.

Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon will court you, create a convention just for you, present bold plans to you, bring you into their carefully controlled circle and, if you’re very lucky, even get you a signed Zuckerburg t-shirt.

What you have to remember is that they’re taking about 40% of everything – and every app ties your users into them (as much as you, of course). So, the more apps they have, the better their reward and, actually, it doesn’t really matter which ones make it.

So, you can see why focusing on Rovio (developers of Angry Birds) and not the 100,000+ other games that die a death hides the true picture. Recent research suggests that the average Game in the Apple App Store takes £4,000 in total revenue to the developer, and games is supposed to be the most successful category.

So, we wish you all the best for 2012 and if you want any advice or help, then please call 01962 605 000 – we’re more than happy to have a chat.

All we can say is: the end can’t come soon enough. The clunky interface was delivered late and was dated even before it was birthed. Little was done to improve it, and as Google evolved and Microsoft entered the market, there it stood, stuck in time.

However, that was just about bearable as long as the performance worked. But, as the months went by the slide continued… 20%, 15%, 10% … now about 5% of Google’s reach.

Yet, this article is not about that… What has become increasingly unbearable is the active encouragement of click misbehaviour on Yahoo’s part. We won’t use the word ‘fraud’ for fear of litigation – but let’s call it click ‘flawed’.

We give you a tale of increasing desperation which has led to the final insult as Yahoo! enters it’s last days.

‘Off Site’ Advertising

It all started with the ‘Content Network’. The aim was simple – a search engine only has a certain amount of traffic, but by allowing other sites to carry pay per click advertising then there was more opportunity to earn.

Both Google and Yahoo created ‘content networks’ (Google’s was renamed ‘Display Network’ a couple of years back) where website owners could carry their adverts and earn from clicks out from visitors to their sites.

Naturally, the traffic from these sites wasn’t as valued (or as valuable) as clicks from search and therefore both Google and Yahoo! (and subsequently Bing) enabled advertisers to set a different bid level for Content Network clicks.

Everyone’s a winner, aren’t they… ?

The Start of the Slide

However, it wasn’t really fair. Google with a larger market share, better advertising technology and more marketing muscle (and brains) was soon able to offer third party sites much easier integration, more transparent reporting and, ultimately, better returns.

Few sites remained in the Yahoo! content network. So, Yahoo! did what seemed to be the honourable thing – they shut the network.

Well, no, they didn’t really. They just closed ‘that which they call the content network’. And then they expanded their Search network to include ‘partners’. But didn’t inform advertisers – after all, a search partner is still a search supplier, aren’t they?

And advertisers wouldn’t really know the difference…

And Google was doing it, weren’t they?

When is a ‘Search Partner’ Really a Search Partner?

Well, Google does have ‘Search Partners’, BUT there are a few important points to make about the Google Search Partner Program and what it means for advertisers:

1. You can choose whether or not to advertise on search partners in any Google campaign
2. You can easily split out and report on performance of search partners with Google
3. You can easily list those partner sites which are not working and delist your advertising on them
4. Google police their search partners very carefully and only deal directly with the partner site themselves

However, whether under-resourced, or underhand, Yahoo! didn’t really do any of these things. If you advertise on Yahoo! search, you get search partners and can’t choose not to advertise on search partner websites. The reporting of the search partner performance is difficult to split out and compare, listing the different sites is awkward and then you have to de-list them one-by-one.

And, the final straw, they didn’t police. At all. In fact, they did the opposite they aggressively promoted themselves to try to build their network. Not just directly to sites, but also through third-parties.

How do we know? Because we’ve been approached by many intermediaries who re-sell Yahoo! search partner status and then target whatever phrase you want – or rather, whatever phrase they want you to carry (for maximum revenue).

Watch Your Yahoo! Spend Closely

Suffice to say, as the final termination approaches, they have become more and more lax and Yahoo! is in a mess. We’ve had two clients who have been hit by sudden surges of clicks with absolutely no reward or positive outcome.

So, watch your campaigns closely, particularly any in which you’re bidding a decent amount. If you see sudden spikes or sustained surges in traffic, please investigate thoroughly… and if this article has tipped you off, please share it: others need to be wary.

We all want competition to Google, we want a competitive marketplace, but for months Yahoo! has been playing a dangerous game – biting the hand that feeds it: the advertisers. We will not forget.

And, because of recent experiences, as one of the last agencies with advertisers on Yahoo!, we’re more than happy to switch the lights out. In fact, they’re going out early.

1. If the adverts in the search results were less relevant to the search term, then the search engine itself would seem to be less accurate
2. If the advertising network gets paid on click-through, then to allow poor performing adverts to dominate because they’re willing to spend more means that lower revenue would be realised

So, Quality Score was Google’s smart balancing act. The premise was that if you worked hard making sure that your keyword, ad copy (in Google) and website landing page were more relevant and compelling to the reader, then you would be able to bid less for a keyword because your advert was better.

What Google SAY Quality Score Is

“The AdWords system calculates a Quality Score for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query. A keyword’s Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).”

You can read further details on the Google Adwords Help Pages. The factors include (again from the Google page):

• The historical clickthrough rate (CTR) of the keyword
• Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
• The historical CTR of the display URLs in the ad group
• The quality of your landing page
• The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
• The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query
• Your account’s performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown
• Other relevance factors

Now, whilst that all seems legitimate and helpful, there’s a lot that can happen behind the scenes… after all, who is to say which of these factors has much or little influence? And, just give further freedom to Google, ‘other’ is a very broad term!

What Quality Score REALLY Is

So there is a lot that can actually be changed ‘under the hood’ without any perceptible change, or even any need for Google to change it’s bullet list. What we can reveal is this: that Quality Score has changed substantially recently and these are the things you need to know

Of high importance are:

• Historical click through rate of the keyword
• Historical click through rate of the display URLs

Of low importance are:

• Account history
• Quality of landing page
• Relevance of keyword to the ads in the ad group
• Relevance of keyword to the search query
• Accounts performance in geographical region (a small enhancement of overall CTR performance)

Of unknown importance are:

• Other relevance factors

Because ‘other’ cannot really be defined.

How do we KNOW This?

Recently, we setup a test campaign for a specific service – ‘telemarketing‘. We used all the normal relevance factors: great optimised landing page on a very relevant well established site promoting telemarketing, relevant advert copy specifically promoting the telemarketing service, and a suite of well-filtered very relevant keywords promoting specifically telemarketing services. In fact, we called our Google Account Manager and they said ‘there’s nothing more you can do’.

It was pretty surprising, therefore, with all this attention to detail, when we saw that most keywords in the ad group had a Quality Score of 3. That’s right… 3 out of 10.

What it tells us really clearly, is that you can do all you can to make all the elements of the campaign and website relevant, but ultimately 70% of the score is about the Click Through Rate.

Why is this IMPORTANT for Advertisers?

The reason why this is critical is that there’s a problem here that few are aware of. The Quality Score Formula was supposed to balance spend based around click through rate.

It was not supposed to be driven by click through rate. But now, it is another name for click through rate. If you have a high click through rate, you have a good quality score, if you don’t, then they will hammer your quality score.

The problem with this is two-fold:

1. The encouragement is for adverts which drive clicks, however most successful PPC campaigns are about getting high quality traffic in – these two objectives can be, in many campaigns, incompatible
2. The message to advertisers from Google has changed from being about relevance, to being about SPEND – about revenue to Google

WHY Has it Changed?

We don’t know for sure the reason, but this is our best guess. Until recently Quality Score was to help competition for places – so that the small guys could compete with deeper pockets and if they were smart enough, then they would benefit from investing more energy and time into their campaigns and websites.

However, now that virtually any search has at least 2-3 adverts, most have many, and (we estimate) about 50% of searches are full of adverts, there is no longer the need to be generous. So, they’re starting to turn the screw – after all, shareholder value must be met.

Which is why they are also looking at limiting the amount of adverts on a page by removing the right hand column of adverts. We call it ‘search engine optimisation‘ not of positions, but of revenues.

What’s the REAL Message

So, that’s why Quality Score is no more – it is there, in name. But it is no longer what it was and certainly we would challenge their assertion in the final line of their description of quality score:

“In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).”

It is not a measure of quality of keyword, advert, or landing page (or website). It is now merely a stick to beat you with to make you cough up more.

Spread the Word / Find Out More

If this post has helped you, then please spread the word on Twitter / LinkedIn / Facebook / Google+ below. If you’d like to find out more about how you can combat this unwelcome development, now that we’ve identified the problem, just get in touch – contact us, or send us a mention to discuss @johnnymb.

Worse, you may never discover that a little attention could double your performance. So here are our five ways…

1. Make it obvious what is wanted

Too many forms suffer from not making it clear which information is mandatory – the common symbol for a mandatory fields is an asterisk (*). However you can now apply ticks (or crosses), field colour highlights or even tooltips (friendly text prompts) to assist with a form fill, like this one:

Can you see how, with this simple prompt, you avoid user frustration and increase conversion?

Also, make sure your descriptions are easy to understand. You may know what you want with a phrase like ‘Confidential Address’ – but is that business, home, email?

2. Make it inviting

Many forms also suffer from being bland or, in extreme cases, seemingly disinterested.

If you would genuinely like someone to contact you, then say it! There’s no reason just to put a stack of fields and nothing else.

Moreover, we recommend you actually make sure that the person knows what they will get out of it. You need to answer the ‘what’s in it for me?’ if you want someone to share their personal details with you.

Finally, make sure they know what they’re opting into, or not.

If you don’t rent or sell your list, then make it clear that you don’t. If you plan to send emails out, then give them the option to untick the ‘further contact’ box. Again, be polite about it.

3. Trim the fields

If a field is non-essential, remove it. The fewer fields there are the more likely a form will be completed.

For example, if you’re following up leads anyway, then don’t ask for the full details in the form – just enough to contact that person and then complete their details over the phone.

4. Never trust your developer to get it right

Most developers and designers only care about making sure a form functions. They won’t consider the user-experience, they won’t care about conversion rates. You need to make sure that you specify the form fields needed, the field descriptions, and then test it.

Here’s an example of how it goes wrong. It’s a search field, but the ‘save as’ and ‘save search’ are in the wrong place meaning that the search button (which is the main action button) is not triggered properly when the ‘Enter’ key is pressed:

Not only that, but what is the ‘View All’? And why is it next to the Search button? This form is from a large email marketing business who should know better!

5. Use Your Forms

Go on, try your own form or, if you’re too familiar with it, get someone you trust to take a look at it.

Ask them these questions:

• Was it easy to use?
• Did you understand what information was requested?
• Did you understand what you would get out of filling out the form?
• If you made a mistake on the form, did it guide you to what you needed to change?

Bonus Point…

We always like to offer a ‘bonus’ – here’s a tip: measure your forms! Find out what proportion of visitors to a specific page then go on to complete your form. Make some changes (based on the above) and see how it affects your conversions – you’ll find that you will get more opportunities and be more successful as a result.

If you’d like this kind of thinking applied not just to your forms, but to all of your site, then please take a look at our form – we believe it stands up to scrutiny – fill it out and we’ll be in touch with you.

If you liked this article, please share the love… Just choose your favourite social network below….

‘It’s even better and it saves you time’ goes the Google Inc. mantra, yet we’re not convinced. Not really that sure at all.

At best it’s a ‘because we can’ approach to generating a little more publicity (if Google did, indeed, need that) and differentiation from the competition – because from what we can see, the only thing it does successfully is to distract as you type!

But, as always, we need to be careful not to pre-judge. Google has the sleight of hand of a magician – as you watch the bunch of flowers, the other hand is doing something a lot more interesting.

The ‘billion dollar’ question is:

“How does it affect Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click marketing?”

In the short term, on sites we work for, there is little effect on traffic. Levels are about the same as they were.

This doesn’t mean, however that there is no impact. We need to recognise that only a proportion of searchers are using it (you need to be logged into your Google account and be using Google in the browser window, not from the toolbar), and it will take time for those using it to adapt to how it operates.

Our view for what it’s worth is that it is mainly a defensive manoeuvre from Google because of two areas of weakness.

Firstly, whilst the top 3-4 results on a page have traditionally been strong, the rest is increasingly being filled with makeweight sites who are strong in SEO practices, but weak in valued content.

Secondly, because the web is placing more emphasis on recency of content and social networking, Google is also trying to set the ground for a more immediate experience.

Google is also setting the scene for what we’re confident is a tightening on Pay Per Click. They have been generous in offering a ‘long tail’ for a period of time, but all this means is that the yield is on average lower from the page as less valuable adverts are clicked.

Expect them to start shortening the list of advert results and also by encouraging searchers not to finish long-tail searches, they also are hoping that users will click on the more competitive, higher-traffic terms.

Let’s see how the rest of the year pans out. Will Google make all searches Instant? If they can, almost certainly they will!

For most, the above page is a dull footnote in the ocean of Google blog posts, but for those using Adwords, this is exactly what we were expecting (and hoping) for.

What Was the Problem

A few years ago, brand owners threatened Google by arguing that they were using their trademarks unlawfully by allowing businesses to use their brands in keywords and adverts.

Brand owners thereby forced Google to let them approve which advertisers could, or could not, use their brand.

If this had been done properly, all well and good, but in our experience what this meant was that brand owners decided that those who offered the best discounts, or special terms, or even import of branded good were effectively barred.

Whilst those who towed the corporate line were given ‘special dispensation’.

… Cracks Started to Appear…

However, Google’s first counter to this was to allow advertisers to advertise against branded keywords as long as they didn’t use the branded term in the advert. So, for example, anyone could advertise to searches for ‘Adidas Trainers’ just as long as they didn’t use ‘Adidas’ in their advert.

… It Then Got Ugly…

The upshot of this was, however, ‘ugly’ adverts. For example on ‘Adidas’ trainers then the advertisers would misspell Adidas – Addas, Ad1das, and so on. So, for example, the advert could look like this:

Cheap Ad1das Trainers

From only £29.99 buy Ad1das trainers
With free delivery.

It was soon realised that whilst Adidas could take out further brand protection with Google, they would have to cater for all misspells and then they’d still be dealing with ads which are well written but don’t mention the brand at all.

… Which Brings us to Today…

So, finally the post from Google which has just been announced for the UK: essentially any legitimate store or advertiser of branded goods can use the trademark on Google.

Sense has prevailed at last. But if you think that Google just did it for us, then think again. More brand advertisers is undoubtedly a good thing for advertising revenues. They may be backing ‘the little guys’, but you can be sure that they’re confident it will be worth their while.

After all, it is by increasing the number of advertisers that the big G’s pockets are filled!

An Addendum…

As usual, Yahoo! and MSN are some way behind Google. Just had an email in from one of the two telling me that they were stopping me advertising on a brand name… ah well… give it 6 months to a year and they’ll catch up at the back!

Real World Learning No.1 – Your Website IS Your ‘Store’

We are often asked by clients to ‘fix’ their Pay Per Click campaign, or to get more traffic to their website and yet when we visit the site, it’s clear that the site needs attention first.

Why Put the Site First?

Simply, your site is like a ‘change’ machine and your marketing is like sliding a £10 note into it… you put the money in (marketing) and you wait for your return.

Income < Expenditure?

A site that returns in less than £10 in change to you tells you a very simple message: your site is not optimised and you will lose money if you don’t sort it out.

Therefore your action is not to drive more traffic to it, but to scrutinise your website and work out WHY your site is not performing for you. Look in these places first:

1. Are visitors finding the ‘product’ easily (this can be an actual product, or a service, or a contact form)?
2. Are you charging enough for the product?
3. Do you have the right range of offerings?
4. What are your competitors promoting / offering?

Income = Expenditure?

So, you suddenly start to break even, and for every £10 plugged in, you’re getting £10 out. You’re OK, aren’t you?

Sadly, no, you are not OK. In many respects this is a worse situation to be in than losing money. Why? Because at this level there is a danger you will persevere with your marketing without still addressing your website.

Your action should still be to develop and improve your website. In our opinion every website could do with improvement – so don’t settle too early for ‘mediocre’ – expect more!

Income > Expenditure

OK… now it’s clearing profit and so you think, “this is where I spend more heavily on marketing”. True, it should be BUT the question is HOW. The two observations on marketing spend we would offer to you are these:

• Spending more in Pay Per Click, and other online bid-managed advertising, generally reduces margin. So if your gross profit margin is tight, then don’t go upping spend too much, there is normally a threshold where profit starts reducing so make sure you don’t overbalance when it comes to being more aggressive
• Diversify when increasing spend. Don’t just stick with a narrow range of sites or marketing media, find other routes to market and other means of placing your offers

Not only that, but don’t forget your site. It’s too easy to sit back and believe that you’ve got it made once there is some profit. Continue to work on your site, improve, fine tune and tweak – squeeze as much performance out of it as you can get.

It is like the real world in that respect. Shop, catalogue and direct mail all measure the performance of their marketing and their main focus is first on the proposition and how it monetises interest and potential customers: scrutnising conversion rate and spend.

You’ve got to look at your website in a similar way!

The Hustle

‘Search Marketing Agency X’ contacts you and says to you that they can get you ‘top of Google’ for only £100 a month.

They tell you that if you spend this with them, then they will guarantee that you will be top for a select number of relevant keywords.

However, if you stop paying them, then your positions will be removed.

If you commit to working with them, usually on 6 months plus of contract so they tie you in, then they will send you a list of keywords and you will indeed be on the first page of Google for those keywords from the start of the contract.

And all this for less than you’d pay most search marketing agencies to run a campaign for you: sounds great, doesn’t it?

The Trick

You may have been told by the agency in question any one of these reasons:

• They have a special relationship with Google
• They have a specific technology which gives them this advantage
• They are just very good at what they do…

And only the last of these is true – yes, they are very good at what they do – hustling you! They also will rarely talk about these being the paid adverts on Google, as they want to blur the boundaries between Search Engine Optimisation (listings appearing in the main part of the page) and Pay Per Click (Google Advertising), and also because they don’t want you to become too informed.

The Sleight of Hand

So, if it is a trick, how does it work?After all, they will seem to deliver on their promises…

Let’s say you’re a security business based in Luton, they send you a list of keyword phrases, for example:

CCTV Luton, Alarms Luton, Locksmiths Luton, Locksmith Luton, CCTV installation Luton, CCTV Bedford, Alarms Bedford, Locksmiths Bedford, Locksmith Bedford, CCTV installation Bedford, Security systems Luton, Home security Luton, Security systems Bedford, Home security Bedford, Security systems in Luton

Very specific keyword phrases which all look good, but deliberately chosen to be low volume in terms of traffic – in laymans terms: not searched for much, and this is the key to the con.

The Numbers

Exact matches on the keyword list above will receive, in all likelihood, fewer than 2,500 impressions in a month. Of those matches, about a maximum of 1% will actually click on the advert. And a rough estimate of the cost to be on the first page of Google for that advert will be about 20p per click.

Therefore the total estimated cost to you will be:

Impressions * conversion rate * cost per click… which is:

2,500 * 0.01 * 0.20 = £5.00

Making their profit on the deal: 2,000%

Making your estimated cost per click (25 clicks): £4.00 (paying c. 20 times more than the competition)

So, you can see why this ‘great’ offer is not so brilliant after the numbers are done. Two recommendations for you:

Google Keyword Tool – gives you the estimated number of monthly searches for a phrase

Google Analytics – so you can actually measure the amount of traffic being generated for you

With both of these in use, then you can be sure you’re really getting value. If you want any more tips, then get in touch with us…

Yet few businesses spend much attention on improving conversion rates through optimisation of their website and therefore they lose the one single area where they could generate an immediate improvement to their profitability.

So, here are some simple tips to get started on… things you can take away with you and evaluate your website:

1. Fewer Words, Bigger Messages

People don’t read long sentences and paragraphs. Or even long words. Keep the text short and make sure what you’re saying SELLS. Good copy is worth every penny. And PLEASE don’t write it yourself, unless you’re a copywriter!

2. Measure Impact

Don’t trust your instincts! If you make changes then use analytics to ensure you know that changes have a positive effect. Visitors don’t always do what you expect them to do, and changes often have unexpected knock on effects. If you are changing a really critical page, then consider performing an ‘A/B’ test – to compare your currnet

3. Use Landing Pages

Got a specific campaign going? Then make sure you have a landing page which covers this particular offer / promotion. Don’t expect website visitors to like ‘re-finding’ offers when they land on your homepage. If they’re not obvious, then they’ll move on.

4. Don’t Finish on a Whimper

The end of a page is a crucial point. If you don’t finish with a call to action, or an invitation to continue reading / browsing… then don’t be surprised if the visitor finishes with your site. Draw people in.

5. Chase the Ambulance

OK – not literally, but if there is something interesting and relevant happening in the news or your business sector – respond positively to it. You can raise awareness quickly… act on the activity you see around you!

Useful stuff, I hope. If you’re looking seriously at your website, then I’d recommend talking to us. We’re experts in driving traffic and getting results. Sure you can optimise your website yourself – but we’d probably do it better, and get to the best solution more quickly. [Call to Action]

So, call us on 01962 605 000 / send us a message. [Response Device]