Seattle Web Design Talk – Free Websites vs. Custom Designs
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on June 19, 2014
If you’re a business owner considering putting up a website for your business then chances are you’ve already done a fair amount of research into what it’s going to take. You might already realize that you have multiple options for both free and paid websites, and you may have already decided which CRM you want, if you want an open source one. That aside, you might not know whether or not you want to pay for a website or just use a theme. As a business owner, there are several things that greatly impact your decision, and you should consider them carefully before you go out and hire a Seattle web designer that you don’t really need.
Are You Going to Profit From Your Website?
First things first, the driving source behind any industry is money and no matter what your business is, it should be all about profit. Unless, of course, you’re running a non-profit. If you are not making anything off of the website, then it is a poor business decision to spend money on it. Consider what the website will be doing, try doing a little bit of keyword research, and consider the online market for your business. If the estimated ROI looks like it will at least cover the costs of a professional web designer then a professional custom website is the way to go. If you’re looking at $30 a month in revenue from it, you might want to stick with a low-cost theme until you figure out how to boost your revenue. While a custom site is more likely to engender trust in the user, you can’t justify spending money on something that isn’t ever going to make money
Do You Need Custom Web Design?
Another big thing to consider is whether or not you actually need a custom design for your website. The vast majority of websites are one or two page information pages that ask the customer to contact them without really providing any other information, or requiring any custom services. In this case, it would be a waste of your money to pay for a custom page. You don’t need it. On the other hand, if you want your website to have a custom menu that allows users to sort through dishes available at your restaurant, check pricing, and check ingredients, then you might want a pro designer. Essentially, if you want a basic website with no real features then web design is not necessary, but otherwise, a web designer gives you a great deal of flexibility, and allows you to offer real, unique value to your site.
There are a number of reasons that custom web design is more popular for businesses than templates, starting with uniqueness, Google search impact, and ensuring that the customer doesn’t immediately associate the site with another business they know who uses the theme. Having unique graphics and a unique web page tailored to meet your needs is invaluable, if you are going to be profiting from the site.
Four Things to Ask A Seattle SEO Company if You’re Looking for Small Business SEO
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on June 13, 2014
As a Seattle business owner, you probably hear about SEO all the time. In fact, you’ve probably heard that it’s incredibly important for your business to have localized SEO on your web pages if you want to come up in search. But, if you’re looking for a Seattle SEO company to optimize your pages, then hopefully you’ve heard a few other things as well. For example, that the quality of your SEO is actually more important than having optimization in the first place, because poorly optimized pages can hurt your traffic. While there are dozens of companies that offer SEO in the Seattle area, not all of them are created equal. With that in mind, here are four important things to ask before you hire a Seattle company that specializes in SEO.
How Do You Keep Up to Date with Google Algorithm Changes
Google is not the only search engine that you have to optimize for, but it is an important one. Because Google frequently updates their algorithm in order to provide less spammy results, it is important to hire a company that stays up to date with the changes. For example, if you hire an SEO company that is still using tactics from 2013 like guest blogging, then you’re not going to catapult to the top of search, but instead, you might have your site blacklisted until you make changes. Ask the company how they stay on top of algorithm changes before you hire them.
Is a Site Analysis Included With Your Services?
Any good SEO company can and should offer you an overall analysis of your site along with recommendations for improvement when they get started. For example, while you might go into SEO thinking that you need keyword optimization on your pages, the truth is that you might need a great deal more back end work to fix internal linking, coding, and internal navigation for search engines. An analysis allows you to get services that you need, rather than that you think you want.
How Do You Measure Results?
If you ask an SEO company how they measure results and their response is in traffic or impressions, then you might not be talking to the right people. The best way to monitor ‘results’ for you as a business is in generated leads and generated ROI. ROI or Return on Investment is your direct income from what you spend, and it’s the most important thing to keep track of in any type of internet advertising campaign.
How Do You Create SEO Strategies For Your Clients?
One of the worst types of SEO company is the one that tries to fit every small business into the same SEO strategy that they wrote up and try to use on everyone. If you want real success with your SEO strategy, then you need something tailored to your business, written around your strengths and weaknesses, and specifically targeting your market areas.
Want to know more about SEO for small business? Get in touch with us today to find out what we can do for you.
Seattle Social Media Management in Small Business: What You Need to Know
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing on June 6, 2014
Social media managers are becoming increasingly necessary for businesses who want to profit from Seattle’s busy social industry, but while big business corporations are already jumping on the bandwagon (and have already been profiting from social for years), the majority of small and medium sized businesses typically are not. In fact, many think that they do not have the budget, the time, or the need for a professional social team or manager. If you’re one of these smaller business owners, here are a few reasons you might be wrong.
Benefits of Social Media Management for Small Business
If you’re running a small or medium size business in the Seattle area, then a local Seattle social media management team or manager can do wonders for your revenue. Any good social media strategy can and will improve sales, increase hype, and help with your customer satisfaction. With the right training, you might be able to do all of that yourself, if you have the time for training and for the social media itself, but the thrush is that it is a lot of work, and it is easy to steer your pages in the wrong direction if you are not familiar with the market.
What a social media manager really brings to the table includes the following, and more:
Proven Results – You won’t waste time or money pursuing things that don’t work. Professionals know what and what doesn’t make money.
Consistency – Inconsistent social branding is one of the most common problems on small business social media, but when you bring in a professional manager, you can make sure that yours stays consistent so that you convert and keep more leads.
Save Time – Managing a good social media campaign can take hours per day, especially if you are not familiar with local social trends like hashtags, popular groups, or marketing trends. Professional social media managers are aware of, and stay on top of, all of these issues, so that you can save time, and still get the best results.
Outsourcing
While it might be beneficial for your company to bring in an in-house social media manager, the truth is that unless your social media is turning over at least twice what they are making per year, it’s not really worth it for you. Instead, consider what some of the top companies in the U.S. are doing, which is outsourcing. If you need a single social media strategy but don’t have the budget for a full-time employee, then an outsourced team has several advantages, starting with affordability. You get every advantage of a social media team, while paying less than you would with hiring a single person. You also get to work with a company that has guaranteed professionalism, and a history of working with other clients.
Creating a Plan
The most important part of hiring any social media manager, in or out of Seattle, is to sit down and create an outline of what you want to achieve with your social media. While you could just go to a social marketer and tell them to increase your traffic and sales, you are much better off sitting down, discussing expectations, and discussing what you can achieve within your budget. This is a great time to discuss other items that tie into planning, such as expected ROI, an expected timeline, and any other specific details that you, or the marketer, think are relevant to your situation.
Hiring a Seattle social media manager can and will make you money, even if you aren’t quite a Fortune 500 company.
Build Your Web Presence With These Localized Seattle Marketing Tips
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing on May 23, 2014
Whether you’re a startup, or a tried and true business growing your roots and expanding to the web, getting out there can be tough. The process of building a website, establishing a web presence, and building followers across social sites can not only be intimidating, it can be near impossible if you don’t know what you’re doing. In fact, you can waste hours of your valuable time pursuing outdated and irrelevant strategies that are often still quoted as the ‘best thing’, on various websites. While your specific strategies should vary depending on your business type and budget, here are a few quick tips to get you started developing your web presence in Seattle.
Get a Website
A website is the best way to establish yourself as a professional online. Even if you don’t know what to do with a website, you should have one. Websites inspire trust, allow consumers to learn more about you on the web, and might even allow you to make sales directly from the internet depending on your business module. While you can use a free theme or a professional custom CMS design, your site should load in 3 seconds or less, offer users easy access to everything on the site, and be mobile friendly.
Utilize SEO
Once you have a website, it’s important to utilize localized SEO so that you come up in search to people in the Seattle area. You can choose to pay for a Seattle SEO campaign, or do it yourself. The process involves optimizing your website for search engines with sitemaps, create a healthy link structure inside of the site, and then research the keywords, and search terms for your site. Make sure you familiarize yourself with current SEO standards, as they change frequently, before attempting to do this on your own. Keep in mind that if you want your generated traffic to stick around, the content has to be awesome for readers as well as search
Pick Three Social Platforms and Stick to Them
If you’re doing social media on your own, then it is a mistake to try to tackle too many platforms at once. Instead, try outlining the three social platforms that offer the most value to your business, establishing a presence on them, and sticking to them. You should be posting at minimum twice daily on any social platform you use.
Create a Strategy
A marketing strategy is an essential part of business success, and this is also true with the web. Unfortunately, you don’t and cannot outline exactly how you will reach your goals because social media is constantly changing. Instead, outline goals, assign amounts of time per day to get there, and then strategize how to get there.
Hire Professionals
Finally, many business owners should stick with what they do best, running their business, and leave the web marketing to the professionals. If you have a budget for marketing, then web marketing can and will produce a return on investment for you if it is being handled by professionals.
Putting Together Your Seattle Search Engine Marketing Team
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing on May 16, 2014
If you’re getting ready to set up a Seattle search engine marketing team, then you have a lot to consider. Not only do you have to settle on a type of team, but also on foundational skills, attitude, and budget. While the process is complex, you can use these quick tips to help make up your mind.
Team Type
The first decision you have to make about your marketing team is whether you want them to be in-house or outsourced. In-House marketing teams are best for companies with a large budget for paying a team of one or more people full time, plus benefits. Hiring an outsourced company is the cheaper option, because it allows you to get the marketing you need without paying the full-time rates. For the majority of businesses, this is the way to. On the other hand, if you can generate enough revenue with search engine marketing to pay for a full-time team, then by all means go that route.
DNA Traits
The best way to choose team members or a company offering Seattle search engine marketing is to look at their DNA traits and yours. DNA traits are the root company traits by which you operate (such as Creativity, Honesty, Intelligence, etc.). The best advice is to make a list of your own traits, and then look for companies or team members with at least three of those traits, so that your company traits reflect in your marketing and online presence. Nelly Yusupova of Webgrrrls International suggests that this is the most important factor to consider when you’re hiring a new team member for your company.
Skills
Second, you don’t want to hire just anyone to establish your web presence. Look for companies based in Seattle, with a local knowledge of Seattle’s marketing and SEO trends, someone with the SEO, linkbuilding, internal optimization, and web development skills you need to create your online presence, and someone who is established enough in marketing to make things happen. After all, if you want to spend money, you want to see results.
Budget
Any good Seattle marketing team should be able to work out a budget with you based on the potential ROI and returns that they feel they can make for you. If you consult with a team and they can’t directly estimate a budget after asking you questions, then you probably don’t want to hire the team, because they aren’t sure they can get you ROI. You can talk with a couple of different companies first, and if you don’t already know the max you can spend, ask them about working out a quick estimated budget before you proceed with the hire. Of course, this doesn’t quite apply the same to bringing in in-house teams, which are a little more complex, as you’ll have to pay them regardless of your budget.
Want to know more about what search engine marketing can make for you? Contact us today to schedule a meeting, or talk about your search marketing needs.
What Can a Local Seattle Social Media Marketing Team Do For You?
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing, Social Networking on May 9, 2014
Social media is so common these days that you might brush it off as a trend, but, unfortunately for the non-social savvy, it’s quickly becoming an integral part of marketing. With the ability to generate nearly limitless revenue for the right kinds of companies, the capability to connect and bring businesses closer to their customers, and the easiest way to regulate and control brand web presence, social media is hard to ignore. If you live in the Puget Sound area, then a local Seattle social media marketing team is the only way to go, and here’s why.
Utilize Local Knowledge of Seattle Customers
The first and best thing that you get when you choose a localized Social Media team is local knowledge. Each area has its own social media trends and attitudes, and tapping into that helps with your social campaigns. For example, someone from New York would have no real way of knowing what hashtags local consumers use, what products or pages are currently doing well on the Seattle market, or which stories and content have gone viral on Seattle’s social media scene in the past. By hiring a localized marketing team, you tap into all of that, and take advantage of local knowledge for your company. From hyper-localized marketing trends, to a knowledge of competitors, to a knowledge of hashtags and hot content, localized means in-the-know about what’s happening in Seattle.
Easy to Get in Touch
Another great thing about working with a local marketing team right here in Seattle is that you won’t have to worry about not being able to get in touch whenever you want. Many businesses can and do outsource their social media management to the cheapest marketing team, often overseas, but this means complicated business hours, and probably emailing rather than visiting an office or picking up the phone.
Integrated Marketing
What’s better than a social media plan that works around localized trends and media? A social media plan that works around your localized marketing as well. By working with a local team, you ensure that they have access to your other marketing team (or if you’re hiring Rory Martin we also do SEO, and other promotion), to offer you integrated marketing strategies that plan in traffic, sales, and social trends based on your marketing, promotion, and even include your offers to clients.
The best thing about hiring a local marketing team is that they understand the local market, so you can benefit from their knowledge, rather than having to tell them what you need. In our opinion, that’s what a marketing team should do. Best of all, if you have any questions, it’s easy to pick up the phone and make a call,
Want to know more about our localized Seattle social media marketing services? Contact Rory Martin today to talk to us about your marketing needs.
Seattle Web Development – Setting a Budget for Mobile
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on May 2, 2014
Mobile friendly is the web trend of 2014, mainly because web visits from mobile devices have skyrocketed up to nearly 50 percent. With that in mind, half of your potential web traffic could be from a mobile device, meaning that if your website isn’t loading quickly for phone and tablet users, you are loosing viable sales and leads by the handful. Unfortunately, you might not have any real idea of what to spend on your website upgrades for making your site mobile friendly. If that sounds like you, keep reading these tips from your Seattle web development team to find out how you can settle on a budget.
Consider Your ROI
The first thing to consider is how much you can afford to spend for your mobile budget. Sure, you could say ‘nothing’, and that is the easiest answer, but try taking a look at your web analytics. Google Analytics is fine. How many of your visitors are from mobile? How many of them turn into sales? How high is your exit rate (people leaving within 3 seconds?), and how high is your conversion rate for computer users? If you have a 0.03% conversion rate with a low number like 1,000 browser visits a day, and 30% of your visits are from a mobile, but they’re all exiting fairly quickly, your looking at one extra sale a day from your mobile users. That’s not taking into account that mobile users are usually looking to make a purchase, or that most websites have an average conversion rate of 2-3%, and sometimes more like 10%. With those statistics in mind, you could be looking at an extra 9 sales per day, rather than 1. If you’re selling low budget items that earn you a median of $3 per, that’s still an extra $27 a day, and if you’re earning more like $10, that’s up to an additional $90 a day, or an extra $21,000 a year if you’re sales are consistent. You may be driving more or less traffic, but you can probably see how you can use your current data to estimate a basic ROI.
Use that ROI
Once you have your estimated ROI in hand, you can use it to set your budget. First, you can’t rely on your estimated ROI to be static. For example, you may or may not drive the same number of sales every day, your sales may go up, and you might change products. There are a lot of variables, so you cannot rely on earning that specific amount of money. Instead, use it as a generalization. Usually, it’s best to hedge your bets and go on the safe side by spending less than you would earn in a 6 month period. So, for example, if you were making an extra $300 a month with mobile sales, you could estimate that if you spend $1200 on making your website mobile friendly, you’re still around $600 under what you could potentially earn with your estimated ROI.
Want to know more? Contact us at Rory Martin to find out how our Seattle web development team can get you ready for mobile traffic.
How to Get Started with Localized Internet Marketing in the Seattle Area
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing on April 25, 2014
If you’re marketing a local business here in Seattle, then Internet marketing can actually do more for you than you might think. While many people think of the Internet as an all or nothing worldwide marketing venture, it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of local outlets, websites, and tactics for locally marketing your business on the web. While it does start with social marketing, there are a number of different internet marketing tactics you can use.
Blog Marketing
If you have a produce then you can get blogs to cover your product. Usually the process isn’t free because you will have to offer them your product to review or write about, but if those blogs have a following then you can get customers from it. Great places to try include neighborhood newspapers, and local blogs that cover your niche. For example, if you want to promote a restaurant, you would want to look for local food blogs with a following, local social pages and groups about food, and local newspapers with a food column. In this case, by offering a free meal to the blogger or reviewer in exchange for coverage, you get increased hype and hopefully customers as well. The trick is that the person in question has to be impressed in order to write something good about you.
Content
Content marketing is the single best way to promote your topics to the world wide web, but if you want to keep things in the Seattle market then you will have to create selective content. Find out what local people want to know about your niche, and then create content that helps them with that. User created content like videos, reviews, and comments also help with local content marketing and help to boost your local SEO, so try encouraging user created content whenever possible.
Localization
Localization is a huge deal if you’re marketing to a specific area. While you can just include your address and a few localized keywords on your website, you can also localize in a few other ways. You can create blogs and posts based towards specific areas and neighborhoods. You can also set yourself up on Google Local and Google Places to come up better for localized search. Finally, set up your page with a location on Facebook so that you come up under Graph searches for content in your area.
Social Pages
Social pages are very important for almost any type of business, but the smaller your business, the more people want to see an active social page before they’re going to want to buy from you. The key here is to encourage your clients and customers to review you on your social pages so that new customers will see positive hype about you as soon as they go on the page. While you won’t always be able to make this happen, it will definitely help.
If you need help with your localized Seattle internet marketing then try contacting Rory Martin for advice. We’ve worked with dozens of companies, and we can help you too.
How to Boost Your Social Media With Referrals & Reviews – Seattle SMM Tips
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing on April 18, 2014
In today’s digital world, social shares and customer referrals are still among the best ways to get new customers, especially if you have a small business. Because the majority of consumers now do research online and on social media before purchasing products, getting your customers to recommend and refer customers to you can be hugely beneficial to your business.
Ask
The easiest way to get reviews on your social pages is to quite simply ask. If you have regular customers then take a few minutes to tell them how good reviews on your social sites (Facebook, Yelp, Google Plus) will help you to get new customers. Just take a few minutes for each customer, be genuine, and ask them to leave a review. Many of them will respond, especially if they know you relatively well.
Incitements
For newer customers, you may have to offer incitements to review. In some cases you can offer something simple like a 10 or 15% discount. You don’t want to go too high, but if you make the discount too low then they might not want to leave the review. On the other hand, if you usually offer incitements to get customers to return, then you can offer a slightly higher discount for the review. Alternatively, you can offer small prizes or something for free to people who leave a review. However, you do not want to ask them to leave you a good review, just an honest one.
Offer Referral Bonuses
Referrals are another great way to get customers, and you can offer referral bonuses, even if you don’t have any sort of online sales. Instead, you can track the referrals from each person using a business card with their name on it, and when they get to a certain amount of referrals, offer them a discount or a bonus. Usually a great way to create this sort of referral bonus is to offer a 10% discount to the person being referred and then a $5-$10 discount per referral to the person doing the referrals. That way, everyone wins. Some people try to use this sort of program to get likes on their social pages, but this is most likely a waste of time as likes on a page aren’t necessarily profitable.
You should keep in mind that while reviews can do a great deal for your page, you do want them to be natural. Fake or paid reviews tend to stand out, and if all of your reviews are the same then clients will notice. Keep the reviews and referrals on your page genuine, and your consumers will respond. Usually the best way to get great reviews is to offer great service, and then ask for the review.
Do you want to know more about localized Seattle social marketing for your business? We can help you by putting together a professional marketing scheme that will get you the reviews, referrals, and hype that you need to grow your consumer base and make more money.
Seattle Social Media Marketing – Google Plus
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on April 11, 2014
If you’re like the majority of business owners then you have a Facebook and probably a Twitter, and if you’re on top of things, then you might even have an Instagram. Despite that, only around 5 million businesses worldwide use Google Plus. That may sound like a lot but statistics show that there are over 23 million small businesses in the U.S. alone. That means that less than 1/4 of the United States small businesses are using Google Plus, without even considering big businesses and corporations. Unfortunately, that could be a mistake on their part. Google Plus can be a huge part of your Seattle social media marketing, and you don’t want to miss out.
Google Local
Google Local is a powerful tool that Google offers to Google Plus businesses with a Page. Google Local essentially puts your business on the map in Google Search when you verify your address, sign up for Google Places, and make your page public. So, if you had a coffee shop in downtown Seattle, you would show up as a dot on the map whenever someone searched for coffee shops in the area.
Reviews
Google Pages allow users to review the pages, and these reviews show up in search. If you’re running a quality establishment and you encourage happy customers to go and leave you a review, you could build your potential new customers by increasing user based trust. Reviews show up in the form of stars next to search pages with Google Plus Pages, and you can be sure that this does increase click-through rates.
Hangouts
If you have any sort of product reviews, interviews, chats with customers, or similar that you would like to share on the web, the Google Hangouts give you the opportunity to do so. Hangouts on Air are live video chats that can include up to ten people with a single host, and then afterwards, they are saved onto the host’s page. They also show up in search, so you can continue to benefit long after the Hangout is over. Google Plus also integrates YouTube videos uploaded with the same account onto the same page.
Local Communities
On Google Plus, you can join and build local Communities by joining Communities, Groups, and Events. You can also create any of these that you choose and allow local people to join. Creating events allows you to promote specific items and have them show up on Google Calendar. Creating a community allows you to follow and track discussions, start conversations, and build hype around your business. Creating or joining groups gives you a place to share and promote your content with like minded people
There are dozens of reasons to join Google Plus and best of all, most of your competitors wont’ be on it. However, you can’t expect to join and get hundreds of followers. You’ll have to interact with your fan base, use hashtags, and promote it to your in-store customers if you want it to take off and truly benefit your business. If that sounds like too much work, consider hiring a professional Seattle social media manager to get the job done for you.
Recent Comments