Picture this: You are shopping on Amazon for a product and encounter two virtually identical options. How do you decide? If you are like 67 percent of consumers, online reviews would likely impact your final purchasing decision. Similarly, although word-of-mouth is still a powerful form of marketing, 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as […]
Imagine you have a fancy new website with striking design, spot-on SEO and all the bells and whistles. Now what? Your gut is telling you to leave the site alone … it’s working perfectly, right? Wrong! Not doing anything to your site after it launches is one of the biggest mistakes a website owner can […]
When analyzing your website's goals, it is tempting to use traffic as an indicator of success. If your site has thousands or even hundreds of thousands of visitors each month, it must be successful, right? Wrong. Traffic includes all the visits to your site, many of which will never turn into business. So which metric […]
It’s a new year and many of you may be setting personal goals. Don’t forget about your website! Goals are also critical to the success of your site. Maybe your website isn’t looking to lose weight or carve out more time for a hobby but you may be surprised how it can benefit from some […]
Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide by John Jantsch My rating: 5 of 5 stars This guide is bursting with small business marketing strategy and tactics. It’s well-written and practical, based on extensive firsthand experience. The system advocates an expanded version of the marketing funnel, content marketing, digital marketing, and […]
Businesses often make incorrect assumptions about their websites that hurt their online success, and in turn, hurt their business. I'm reading the book Duct Tape Marketing (an excellent marketing guide for small businesses), and it has a list of common assumptions that I recognize from my conversations with businesses. Let's look at these assumptions and why they're […]
Is WordPress the right choice for your business website? In most cases, yes! (Without knowing your business, I can't say for sure). Let's look at the reasons why. WordPress is the world's most popular content management system. WordPress sites currently make up over 23% of the web, and over 60% of CMS sites! Its popularity brings many of its […]
Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This content strategy primer has both theory and application. It explains the problem, how to perform discovery, how to form strategy, and how to implement the strategy. It's well-organized and well-written, with just enough humor for this type of book. The […]
Are you making mistakes with your small business website? Business websites exist to sell, directly or indirectly. Small businesses often lose sight of that, and make mistakes with the content, design, marketing, and technical aspects of their sites. Learn how to fix these mistakes so your site delivers business results. I gave this presentation, Website […]
Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even If You Hate Marketing and Selling by Michael Port My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is one of the best sales and marketing books for service professionals that I've read. It walks you through how […]
How do you come up with content for your website? Whether you're creating a new website or revising your current one, the content (text, images, video, etc.) is the most important part. People visit your website for the content, not for the design or functionality. In working with our clients, we've found that this process works […]
Do It! Marketing: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Boost Sales, Maximize Profits, and Crush Your Competition by David Newman My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an actionable, motivating guide to small business marketing. It instantly became one of my favorite marketing books. I agree with Newman’s approach; it fits the way I like to […]
