My business coach sent me an article that he thought I would be interested in – it’s about “neuromarketing”. So, I’d like to share it with you!

The article is about improving Email Newsletters so that the folks you send it to will actually read it! Any of us who work on blog posts and email newsletters know that it’s a good amount of time dedicated to the project and most often we don’t hear a peep from any of our readers (which can be really discouraging). Although I do have to say that a few days ago someone told me they really liked my blog posts – that made me feel good. He said they were very informative and I was glad to hear that SOMEONE was reading it and more than that, actually getting some good information from them. After all, what’s the point?

Anyway, I can stray (as you all know!) so, let’s get back to this article.

The focus of the article is on neuromarketing which is basically identifying what the Internet user is looking at and clicking on when they come to a website or blog post or anything that’s online, including email newsletters.

Jakob Nielsen (a renowned web usability consultant) conducted an eyetracking study of email newsletters. He was looking to see where do people look when they read an email newsletter. What he found was not much different (if at all) from the eyetracking studies of websites. Basically, the majority of people read the left hand side and the top masthead section of the page. What they’re really doing is scanning, looking for bolded keywords, titles, bullet statements.

He also noted that the readers spend an average of 51 seconds on a newsletter. So, to capture your audience and relay whatever information you have, you’ve basically got 51 seconds to do that!

There is no doubt in my mind that whether you write an email newsletter or a blog post or add information to your website, that all the effort is worth it. I get clients who found me from an article I wrote 4 years ago! So, it’s simply worth it. The key is to create a system for yourself so that the process doesn’t take up too much time. (Easier said than done, I know!)

Put Neuromarketing To Work For You

The article went on to give 5 suggestions on writing an email newsletter that will be more effective, for you and your audience. Below is what they said:

1. Keep it short. If you learn nothing else, remember this: keep your newsletter short–three articles at most, all of which are short. Otherwise, you are basically wasting your time writing stuff that no one will read. Therefore, you really need to focus on publishing information that your readers will find useful and interesting. Case in point: My favorite newsletter arrives once a week, and it contains one short article that is always worth reading.

2. Skip the intro. Intros to newsletters are basically little previews of the newsletter, right? Well, if your newsletter is short anyway, your readers don’t need you to tell them what to expect. As the above stats show, they’re going to skim the headlines anyway. It’s far better to just focus on the headlines and content.

3. Focus on headlines. If you want to grab your readers’ attention and actually tempt them to read something in the newsletter, write the most compelling headlines possible: quick tips, a numbered list of top whatever, must-haves/can’t miss lists, etc.

4. Keep best info up top. Put your most interesting or useful article at the top of the newsletter so it will be more likely to get read. If you want your readers to take action on something, like signing up for a webinar, definitely put that information at the beginning. Keep more general industry news at the bottom.

5. Include images. Readers are always drawn to images, especially of people, which you can see by looking at the heatmap. Just include high-quality images that are related to what you are writing about and not for the sake of visual interest alone.

It was inevitable that a great idea like Groupon would not be considered by the giant Google. Well, they’ve begun their beta testing. In Portland, Oregon. (Yet another great reason to live in Portland!)

Google’s Small Business Blog gives the details.

Let’s see how it progresses and how Groupon responds!

A Top SEO Technique is the use of Keyword Themes

I know that if you’ve been reading about Internet marketing you have a grasp on the concept that it’s all about the keywords. The words that you have on your website pages will make or break the success of the marketing campaign. I mean if you set up a website page to market a phrase that not many people are using, then the reality is that you’re going to get very little (if any) traffic. How can the search engines match the words on your website page with the words people are typing in if you don’t have the words people are typing in on your website page?

What I want to tell you about today is an SEO technique that has been around for many, many, many years. It’s been called many different things, silo, hierarchy, pyramid, etc. Just know that it’s basically the idea of getting ONE main keyword phrase, creating a page for it on the website and then creating OTHER pages for the semantic phrases to support this ONE main keyword phrase. It’s sort of like creating a chapter on your website JUST for this keyword phrase. I’ll give you an example of how it evolves.

Getting the Main Keyword Phrase

Just yesterday I was consulting with an Internet copywriter who was writing an article for a podiatrist. The podiatrist wanted to market the phrase “intoeing in children”. I didn’t know what that was so I typed it into the Google Adwords keyword tool and the more common term came up, which is “pigeon toed”. Of course, there were other variations but I bet as soon as you saw “pigeon toed” you knew what I was talking about – at least more than when I wrote “intoeing…”

This is a VERY common mistake. Professionals (like the doctor here) knows what the correct terms are and he’s been using those terms for so long, he’s forgotten that the typical guy on the Internet does NOT know that term. So, for the Internet copywriter, the important factor is to market the phrase that is most popular, which in this case was “pigeon toes in toddlers”.

Getting the Semantic Keyword Phrases

So now that you have the MAIN keyword phrase, you can create a website page JUST to market that keyword phrase. But, to help that one page get up in the search engines you will need other pages supporting it. These other pages are pages marketing semantic phrases.

What are semantic phrases? These are keyword phrases that the search engines believe are similar or involved with the main keyword phrase. It’s their way of helping to identify exactly what websites to bring up for your search. The important thing to remember is that the search engines want to bring up the best possible search results for the Internet user, the webmaster’s job is to create the website in such a way so that the search engines can identify this.

Well, enough of that. Here’s how you find semantic keyword phrases:

• Go to Google (just the regular Google search page)
• Type in your main phrase (the entire phrase)
• On the left hand side you’ll see a line of text that says “Show search tools” (click on that). If you don’t see that line you might see a list of “Any time” and “All results”. You want to click on the line of text that reads “Related searches”.
• You’ll then be taken to a page that has some columns of keyword phrases on top. It can be one column, two or three columns, it just depends on how many semantic phrases there are.
• These columns of keyword phrases ARE the semantic phrases.
• Jot them down somewhere.
• Now do the same exact thing except this time with the main portion of the keyword phrase – for example: Our phrase was “pigeon toes in toddlers” – so first I typed in the entire phrase and made a note of the semantic phrases. Then I typed in “pigeon toes” and again, made a note of these semantic phrases.
• From this list of semantic phrases – you want to use as many as you possibly can to create ONE additional page on your website to support your main page which is about “pigeon toes in toddlers”.
• Of course, don’t forget to hyperlink the pages together.

So, you can see now how a website can grow and grow and grow! Now, if the search engines scan your website, what they will see is a page about “pigeon toes in toddlers” but they will also see that you have pages about “intoeing” and “pigeon toes in infants” and “pigeon toe symptoms” and “metatarsus adductus”. There will be no doubt in the “eyes” of the search engine that this website has the information that is relevant for that Internet user.

So get to it, make your website as relevant as possible!

We’re trying hard, here at Eckweb, to give all our clients what they want and more important, what they need.  But, as is always the case when dealing with humans, we fail with some.  It’s impossible to please everyone.

But, I don’t want to stray – SO – in our efforts to improve our services we’ve been sending out a survey lately to all our clients.  Mind you, we have over 100.  That means we’re managing domain registrations, website hosting, website maintenance, ppc marketing, social media marketing and internet marketing services.  Now, some clients only use us for domain registration, others just for website hosting, some have combinations of services, it’s a huge variance.  Just in case you were thinking that we’re marketing over 100 clients!  We’re not.

So, with all that being said – the survey – since these are all anonymous I have no way of knowing who has given me the answers but one response that I got gave me the inspiration to write this post.  I could “hear” in the client’s answers that he/she was angry and unhappy – no business owner likes an unhappy client – so I thought maybe I could post my thoughts and see if that would help.

You Are The Expert

The basic “gist” of my client’s responses was that “…I’m the expert…” on Internet marketing and he/she is relying on me to get clients for them through the website.

Of course, that’s true for any Internet marketing company or really any advertising or marketing company.  The client is relying on the marketer to bring in the traffic.  So, whether it’s a billboard or a website, it doesn’t matter, the desired end result for the client is more traffic.

I couldn’t possibly agree more but what does that REALLY mean?  At least on the Internet?  Let’s see if I can explain it how I see it – of course you can let me know what your thoughts are.

1) At it’s most basic core, Internet marketing is about exposing your knowledge, your products, your services, etc.  What I mean by “exposing” is having written pages on the website.

2) When a billboard is created – the traffic that it brings is due to at least 2 main factors:

• The design and subject matter on the billboard itself.
• The location of the billboard.

3) When a website is created – the traffic that it brings is due to at least 2 main factors:

• It must have the information that the Internet audience is looking for.
• It must be easy to maneuver through.

4) Of course, there are multiple factors for both scenarios but, in my humble opinion, these are the main issues that influence the success and/or failure of the marketing project.

5) As an “Internet marketing expert” – what I know is the Internet.  I know what people are typing in, I know the amount of competition for certain phrases, I know where to put the words on the website so that the pages of the website answer the queries being typed in.

6) Included in the monthly reports we provide our clients are recommendations on how to improve the website as well as new keyword phrases to bring in more traffic.  We don’t give that information lightly.  It’s meant to help our clients to compete online.

7) I know the whole “Internet Marketing” thing is daunting and exhausting.  It seems as if it simply never ends.  I mean, you go to an advertising agency, they create a billboard, they display it, you get traffic.  That’s that.  But with Internet marketing – the process simply never stops.  The reason is that the traffic online changes much quicker than the traffic on the highway.    There are at least 5 million new websites coming online every day – that changes the landscape.  If there were 5 million new billboards popping up on the same highway that your billboard is on – do you think you would get good results?

Believe me, I know, more than most how frustrating the field of Internet marketing can be.  But I also know that it works.  I know that because I have clients who are successful.  Not just because of me, of course.  They’re successful because of several factors,

• They participate in the Internet marketing by continuously changing and updating their sites and the information they provide online.
• They follow through with their online clients by using their websites to accomodate their clients by using surveys, making their sites as interactive as possible, etc.
• They follow the trends.  If there was ever any marketing medium that responded so well to trends, fads and fetishes – it’s Internet marketing!  So, use it!

I hope these insights helped.

In case you’re not aware – your “view” of the Internet can be skewed by the type of browser you use.  So, if you use the browser Internet Explorer (IE) you may see websites differently than if you use the website browsers Firefox or Google Chrome.

It’s been many years since I’ve used IE as my default browser simply because it hasn’t been able to keep up with the new coding that’s available for web designers.  This new coding isn’t just for looks, it helps to make websites load faster, which in the long run, is good for customer conversions.  I mean really, when was the last time you clicked on a website and waited 30 seconds for it to load?

Anyway – I’m bringing this up because I just spent 2 hours working on a client’s website trying to get some simple columns to look the same on IE as they do on Firefox and Google Chrome.

My results…

Yeah, I know, it’s fricking frustrating!!!!

So, my question is, why would anyone use Internet Explorer?

And this is why IE is losing customers left and right.  It simply isn’t able to show us what’s really there.

The majority of the businesses that Eckweb deals with as far as Internet Marketing services are local types of businesses.  And because of the fact that they are local we don’t do much in the way of “global” advertising.  What I mean is we don’t market the company in other countries.

But, if you’re a local business owner – you may want to re-consider and begin thinking about how you can “go global”.

Worldwide Internet Traffic Increasing To One Zettabyte Per Year by 2015

I’m reading an article on Mashable about Global Internet traffic and how it’s expected to quadruple by 2015 to one zettabyte.  (I didn’t even know there was a zettabyte!)  Anyway the article does a great job of showcasing what type of traffic and the regions that are expected to grow.  According to the article, the areas with the least amount of growth will be North America.  Obviously that caught my eye since all my clients are in that geography!

So, it got me thinking that if the majority of Internet traffic will be from other countries, how can a local business tap into that?  Should they even try?  Would it be worth it?

Well, I had some thoughts…

1) Every business knows that you can’t survive without expansion.  I don’t mean expanding the size of the staff – I mean expanding what the company offers.  These days, you can’t keep offering the same service or product year after year and expect to do well (or even the same).  It’s important to keep up with the trends of your audience.

So, in this regard, it would be the right thing to do to try to expand to other countries.

2) But, having said that – how?  If you’re an accountant living in Baltimore, MD your services are of course local.  How can an accountant in the USA help someone in Australia?

The only thing that I can think of is Information.  The number one reason people use the Internet is for Information.  If you can be the source that they find (the answers to their questions) then you become the “hub” of your industry.

3) But is that enough?  I mean putting up some videos or articles answering questions concerning your industry – that’s it?  That’s all you have to do?  Hmmm – no.  I mean, there’s alot of competition so you have to stand out.  You can do this by…

a) create constant information.  In other words you don’t just write ONE article and then step back and wait for the traffic to come.  You keep writing, writing, writing, writing.  You answer each and every question with ONE article.  You go into as much detail as you can.  You offer resources, links, etc.

b) create entertaining videos.  There are many clever videos out there talking about the most mundane of subjects but the creative types have put a spin on them by making them entertaining.  Here are some:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAAeiCI1OVE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIAEy4fshOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyoHILAqqqE

I’m sure you could find many more – but you get the idea.

4) So, what kind of “return” would be expected?

Well, first you have to know that it’s not going to be overnight.  I mean, like any other marketing – it takes time, of course.  And you also should know that not every single idea is going to “take off”.  How many times have you launched an advertising campaign and gotten nothing from it?  There are going to be ups and downs, like anything but the overall concept is to expose your company, expose your services because in this Global era – you never know who knows who.

There are direct customers and there are indirect customers.  Every business has them.

Direct customers are those that will find you online when they search for your service or product.

Indirect customers are those that find you online via a recommendation from someone, via an information source (like Wikipedia or article website), via a link on someone’s website.

So, if the world Internet traffic is going to quadruple in 4 years time – what can you do to capture some of that?  Think about it.  Let me know.

According to a Pew Research Center study released yesterday (Wednesday – June 1st 2011) – 13% of online Americans use Twitter.  That doesn’t seem like much, but that’s a 5% increase from November 2010.  And, the demographics that pushed this up is younger adults (ages 25 – 34).

If this trend continues, basically, every 7 months there will be a 5% increase in Twitter users.  Again, that may not seem like much but in 14 months, about 25% of Internet users will be on Twitter.  That’s getting into some numbers!

The article on Mashable breaks down who uses Twitter – it may give you an insight to learn if your target audience can be found on Twitter.

So, don’t discount tweeting as a marketing tool.  Here are some tips on how to use Twitter for marketing your small business.

1) Tweet about your industry, new events, everyday events, etc.  In other words – keep the talk conversational – don’t sell.

2) Respond to tweets and try to be consistent – don’t just tweet when you feel like it.  Make it a point to check your twitter twice a day – spend 10 minutes – it’ll be worth it.

3) Use twitter to monitor your company, your industry, your brand, your name.  Simply go to http://search.twitter.com and conduct a search just like you would on Google.  You’ll find every mention.  You’ll be able to respond to positive and/or negative – it’s the responsible thing to do.

If you get monthly marketing reports from Eckweb then you know that we’ve been advising you to create videos.  Whether they’re videos of you talking, how-to type of videos, entertaining videos, whatever – aim the topic to what your audience is looking for and YouTube it!

An article from Mashable that I just read reports that “More than 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.”  Youtube is only 6 years old.  But the ease of use of its program coupled with the smart phone explosion has created the easiest method for anyone to put themselves “out there” on the Internet.

You may be thinking that with so many videos getting uploaded how can I possibly compete?  Who would want to see MY video?  Well, that’s why we always recommend to target the content of the video to what your audience is searching for.  The more niche, the better.  Get the keyword list of what is being typed in to the Internet from your SEO webmaster (or do it yourself if you know how) and get cracking!  (Well, get filming.)

Think you have to be a Spielberg prodigy to create a film?  Uh – not quite.  If you’re one of the few who don’t visit Youtube daily (youtube reports 3 billion views per day) and you’re not familiar with what’s on there here’s a little sampling for you to test out…

1) search your favourite hobby (anything from stamp collecting to bungy jumping)

2) search your favourite actor/actress/singer/entertainer

3) search anything with the word “funny” attached (i.e. – funny cats, funny cars, funny dances)

4) search for what’s on the news (i.e. – obama, palin, voting, egypt)

5) search for anything you’re wanting to know “how to do” (i.e. – how to paint cabinets, how to change the oil in a car, how to dance the tango)

You may be surprised at what you find.  The GREAT majority of Youtube videos are NOT professionally produced, meaning they are scripted, lighted, choreographed and filmed by an amateur, usually the person(s) you see on the video.  I’m sure once you see what Youtube has to offer, you will NOT be nervous about putting yourself on a video and begin to use the power that this search engine has gained in it’s 6 years of existence!

I look forward to seeing you there!

You know, there are SO MANY new programs and websites coming out online daily that it’s not just difficult to keep up with them but you also have to consider the time it takes to “learn” them.  At least how to use them.

Personally, I find it difficult to find the time (as I’m sure you do as well) so I’m always asking anyone I speak to, if they’ve “learned it” – could they share what they know?  Of course, they rarely have the time to do that!

So, I found a great alternative.  Grovo.com.

It’s a new site that is FREE and it gives you tutorials on many different programs some of which are Amazon, eBay, Basecamp, Facebook, Firefox, Google Apps, LinkedIn, Skype, Mint, Meetup, Yelp and many more.  They’re all video tutorials and simple enough to follow.

It’s a great idea – check it out.

One of my favorite online reads is SEODesignSolutions.com – the articles they publish are so “to the point” and pragmatic that it’s refreshing! Anyway, Jeffrey Smith put together a great article on 20 SEO Tips You Either Forgot or Didn’t Know.
I thought this would be a great article to share with you.

Some of the “tips” on his list are…

#3 – After settling on the primary keyword, structure a hierarchy with the most competitive phrases (1-3MM competing pages in search engines) comprising the primary navigation and the more popular keywords (less than 1MM competing pages functioning as categories) and augmented by supporting articles (less than 100,000 competing pages).

#7 – Primary pages should have 750 words or more (preferably with unique content free of excessive stop words).

#14 – Use server side includes or custom navigation (depending on the page you are on and its function to the whole). For example, the category pages and supporting articles should NOT have the same navigation (as each has its own unique function within the site).Some pages are meant to rank, others to help other pages rank, those that are designed to augment others should have less links leaving them and seek to have inbound links that also support them.

#19 – Make sure each page that is intended to rank has 3-5 backlinks to (a) increase the likelihood of indexation and (b) sprout page rank or page level authority.

If you’re not familiar with the work that goes into SEO marketing – this article will give you an idea of what you’re paying your SEO webmaster for.  If you are familiar with SEO work then you may get some great satisfaction in knowing you are doing the right thing (either for yourself or your clients).

Hope you like it.