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By Neptune Moon, July 9, 2010 5:18 pm

Google Social Media + Lead Generation and you’ll find a wide variety of opinions on this topic. I’d like to suggest that can social media generate leads, is not even the best question to ask. A better question is how can we use social media to best support our business/organization and our customers?

There is an interesting article on just this topic over at the American Express OPEN Technology Forum “Is Social Media Failing to Produce Business Leads?” – read it here. In it, the author suggests that perhaps social media’s “job” isn’t so much to produce leads, but to allow companies to better or more strongly engage with their customers.

I tend to agree with this premise. I think there is an almost involuntary urge to try to make every technology fit in to an old school box about how to use it and what it does. That kind of thinking is a mistake. While those of you who have read posts here before know that I do believe selling is still about putting the right offer in front of the right person at the right time - with social media, we have a whole host of new tools to help accomplish this task.

Social media can do a lot of things, but expecting to setup a Twitter account, a Facebook business page and/or even a LinkedIn profile and then just have the leads flowing in, is a completely unrealistic view of how these tools work. In order to get benefit from them, you have to actively use them. And not just to post your sales information or press releases, but to actually talk to your customers and potential customers.

Social media has opened up brand new ways for people and businesses to communicate and engage with each other, it’s true. But it is important to understand what these tools can and cannot do and how to make them work for you.

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By Neptune Moon, February 15, 2010 6:38 pm

Conversion – it’s been a buzzword in SEO and SEM for the past few years, but with the sluggish economy, it seems to have taken on new vigor lately. It is, in many ways, the holy grail of web site creation and internet marketing.

So, how do you convert web site visitors into customers? How do you get the people who are ready to buy what you’re selling onto your site and then close the deal?

Here are the top web customer conversion factors I recommend focusing on:

1. Be Relevant. If you work hard to be indexed for a particular product or service, make sure you can actually offer that specific product or service. Nothing drives visitors off of your site quicker than feeling like they have been mislead.
2. Be Direct. Search engine optimize your site properly so that when a user finds a link to your site, they will go to a page that is specific to what they are interested in finding. This is especially true with PPC placements! Do not send all traffic to your home page and make them figure it out from there.
3. Ease Pain. From your web site, within a nanosecond a visitor can exit your site and move on to option two, three or four. Make sure that your site clearly spells out exactly what it is you have to offer and why it will make the visitor’s life better.
4. Offer Value. Chances are, you are not the only game in town. What makes working with you or buying from you better? Special expertise or experience? Free shipping? Giveaway products with purchase? Free consultation or report? Offer something!

I often tell clients, think about your own behavior when it comes to interacting with web sites. If something annoys YOU as a user, chances are it will annoy a potential customer. Design and optimize your site with THEM in mind and you’ll be amazed at the results!

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By Neptune Moon, December 28, 2009 11:27 am

Here we are, hurtling toward the end of the year and the beginning of the new year. For many organizations that can mean only one thing – it’s budget time! This year it is even less fun that years past, what with 2009 being such an awful year and all.

How do you go about setting realistic budgets for web work in 2010? It is not as difficult as it seems at first… Before you can establish budgetary ranges for the next year, you first need to figure out the scope of the work you will want or need. Easier said than done, but you can at least pull together a broad list of projects as a starting point, for example:

• Web Site Redesign: if it has been more than 3 years since your last design, it is definitely time to at least take a serious look at your web site
• Adding Functionalities to Your Web Site: time to start using ecommerce to sell products or process donations, add an interactive calendar, etc.
• Search Engine Optimization: if you’d like to capture more search traffic for your products or services, it simply won’t happen without conscious SEO
• Web Site or Internet Marketing: if you build it, they will come is not a sound business practice – you need a plan to promote awareness of your site
• Email Campaigns: email has enjoyed a revival and when a campaign is properly constructed, the results can be quite extraordinary

So how do you assign dollar ranges to these types of projects? There are a number of ways to do this. If you have a well defined project scope, you could seek proposals from trusted vendors. If you don’t have well defined project scopes, you may want to consider hiring a web professional to act as a consultant to help you develop your budget.

I know spending money on the budget process might seem a little counterintuitive at first, but it really makes sense. What better way to make sure that the budget figures in your upcoming budget will actually cover the projects you’d like to complete in the coming year than by asking a trusted provider?

It may seem like having a vendor help you develop the budget is a sure fire way to end up spending way more than you would have otherwise, without opening up the process to them. But, if that is how you feel about your vendors, you should really find some new vendors!

I run into situations all the time with clients who have great ideas and who want the sun, the moon and the stars but have only budgeted $2,000 for the project. It puts everyone at a disadvantage when unrealistic budget amounts are already in place. We try to do what we can to help clients in this type of situation figure out how to break their desired project into phases, but if they had had a more realistic budget range to begin with, we’d be starting work and not agonizing over how to get the foundation built without having enough money to do so properly.

It is worth investing at least some time, if not some dollars, to make sure your budget will match your projected work in the coming year. And remember, there is always someone willing to complete your project at any price point – realistic or not. But, you get what you pay for, so proceed carefully. A little planning and a real world budget will make for a better outcome for your future web projects!

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By Neptune Moon, September 4, 2009 5:11 pm

Ready to head into the holiday weekend and I’ve got some new articles available over on NeptuneMoon.com.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & the Art of Getting Found
Search engine optimization (SEO) is vitally important … for some businesses. Not, however, for all businesses. This may sound heretical, especially in light of hundreds of marketers all touting that if your web site isn’t search engine optimized, your business will be bankrupt within a year.

So You’re Ready to Dive into Web 2.0
So you’ve made a business decision to join Twitter, start a blog, join Facebook … now what? When you think you’re ready to go for it, here’s what you should have in place.

What Do You Want Your Web Site to Do for You?
The fact that you need a web site nowadays is well-established. But it’s important to go beyond the simple “Yes, I need a web site” to ask yourself “Why do I need a web site? What do I want my web site to do for me?” This takes you into the realm of purpose, direction, goals, and strategy.

When Your Site Needs a Redesign
You have a web site, but it’s looking its age. You’re ready for a change, but where do you begin? Here are some important tips for how to organize your web site redesign project and choose a web provider.

Enjoy!

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By Neptune Moon, August 26, 2009 8:36 am

I’ve got an article on this topic over on NeptuneMoon.com, but I thought it was worth mentioning here too. Times are tough – this isn’t exactly a news flash… Everyone, it seems, it looking to do more with less. And while we can certainly relate to that sentiment, taken too far, it can have the exact opposite effect.

How, you might ask, can that be? Isn’t looking for the lowest price always the best course of action – especially in slow times? For groceries, gas and cell phone service, sure. For your business’ web site and marketing initiaves, most definitely not.

Look, I’m not suggesting that price isn’t a factor – it is always a factor. I am saying that now really is a great time to make an investment in your business. When times get tough, most organizations immediately pull back on everything, with marketing being among the first items to get slashed from the budget. It’s an easy place to cut, but doing so is short-sighted.

Think about it – if all or most of your competitors are slashing their marketing budgets and efforts, doesn’t that make this the perfect time to get your message out more, not less? If they’ve gone radio silent and you’re still on the air, who will likely gain new business?

It can be a bit of a tough sell and more than a little scary to pony up dollars for marketing in a soft economy – but the risk of not doing it is a lot scarier!

Think about doing SEO if you haven’t already. Take a hard, honest and critical look at your web site from your customers’ perspective and make changes to make your web site more useful to them. Start an e-communication program – leverage your knowledge and add value for your customers and potential customers.

The right mix varies by situation – get out there and start revving up your business now! You’ll be glad you did.

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