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The 3 Key Steps to Getting More Business from the Internet

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For any business looking to conquer the digital realm, you need three things: visibility, user experience and you. That’s all. It’s not rocket science. Visibility + User Experience + You = Conversions. Anybody can figure out that equation! It’s a winning formula and just having parts of the three pieces probably won’t net you much success on their own.

Step 1 – How To Get Found

Visibility is your internet marketing. Well, it could be traditional marketing channels, too. Whatever gets people to your website really. People need to see something that leads them to your website in order to find your website. Otherwise, your website will never get seen! Pretty obvious, right? Well then, how do you gain visibility?

Paid Search: The easiest way to gain visibility is paid search through Google. You’ll be at the top of search queries with little effort, you just have to fork over some cash in exchange. Just be sure you have some compelling ad copy and make use of ad extensions because it’s extra screen real estate on the search page for for free! Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter also have paid advertising options which can be beneficial. Choosing between Google and one of the social sites depends on the goal of your marketing strategy. Google ads take you directly to your website which brings the consumer way closer to actionable items. Ads on social media sites aren’t always the same. Some of them will bring you to the brand page for your business; This can be better for you if the goal is to build brand awareness. Here’s an example of how one of our new clients, House’s Services, is gaining visibility for their new business by grabbing the top spot using paid search.

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Social: Building a presence on social media is another popular way to get your website in front of people’s faces. It requires knowing exactly who your target audience is and how to connect with them. Having a group of loyal brand followers who enjoy your content and spread it around to others is where your visibility comes from on social. Plus with social power there’s always the possibility of your content going viral! Internet virality is possibly the fastest way for content to grow in popularity but is insanely hard to pull off or even control if it happens. Sometimes its completely random what catches on. Even without virality, slowly gaining a social following has huge upsides.

 

Search Engine Optimization: The preferred method to gain visibility by many is good ole’ SEO. With good SEO, you gain visibility by being near the top of search results without paying a dime AND you get a bunch of links from other websites pointing to your website telling people that is awesome. It also shows that those websites linking to you think that you are knowledgeable and have something to offer. It’s hard to beat that value. SEO probably requires the most research, effort and time to pull off but the payoff is amazing. D&R plumbing, another Mavidea client, is the number one non-paid spot in the search query from diligent work on their SEO.

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Remember, you don’t have to limit yourself to one of these marketing strategies. They work best together!

Step 2 – Convert Your Visitors

You Have Them In The Door, Let The Site Take It From There

User Experience, in the context we are speaking, is a user’s attitude and emotions about the practicality and design of your website. You want to make sure that your site’s aesthetic is appealing to the eye. It doesn’t need to be flashy, but it needs to look like the website can provide value to the visitor. On top of that, it needs to be easy to navigate around so they can find information they need and it needs to be obvious how the visitor can take action(buy, subscribe, contact by e-mail, sign-up, whatever). If you have a lackluster website, users are just going to click the back button right away and continue searching for a better source of information.

Here’s some of our clients that we’ve helped provide a better user experience for their visitors:

Before and After: BitAML

Before and After: John’s Paint & Body

Before and After: Dillman Brothers

Step 3 – Putting It All Together

Visibility gets a potential customer in the door. It’s the website’s job to get leads. It’s your job to close. That’s why our web design team, internet marketing team and clients work so closely together. The synergy needs to be there. If you have a fantastic website with no visibility, no one is going to see it. If you have great SEO rankings and a bunch of Facebook and Twitter followers with an outdated website, people are going to take one look, click the back button, and move on to the next site. Either way, you miss out on opportunity for conversions.

Keep in mind: after a visitor fills in a contact form, or calls, or sends an e-mail it doesn’t necessarily end there. Good customer service or salespeople will help finish off the process. Make sure you have someone able to answer calls and respond to emails in a timely manner. If you leave leads hanging for too long or just don’t have someone that can close, you can lose them.

Let’s take a look at someone with the whole picture together. We already showed that House’s Services is doing a great job with their visibility. The top spot on search queries will get a ton of action. With their newly built website, they certainly won’t be driving any visitors away once they get the click.

Here’s a glance at what a visitor will see when they enter. If you want to check out the full site, click here:

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It has all the elements of user experience that we want. It’s a clean design, there’s valuable information readily available(pricing on page, navigation menu to details on services visible at the top), and there’s a clear call-to-action right in front of the visitor. Not only that, but the ability to schedule an appointment through a widget on the website provides a ton of utility that not many other local service businesses can match.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re awesome. If you think you’re lacking in one area or another, take the steps to fix it. If you need some visibility, start an AdWords campaign, do some keyword research and improve your SEO, or connect with more people on social media. If your website is lacking, write some new content, create a clear call-to-action or redesign your website.

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