A common misconception small business owners have is that if they rank well organically in the search engine results, they do not need to allocate additional budget to a paid ad strategy. This may seem logical on the surface, but let’s face it, organic traffic is not free—you have to dedicate resources to ensuring that your website content is strong and organized, you have to invest in an effective backlink strategy, you have to do extensive keyword research, and you have to monitor and analyze your results and make continual changes. For many small businesses, this means hiring a firm specializing in search engine optimization (SEO). Not free!

Even if you have a successful organic strategy—and before assuming that SEO is all you need to promote your website—here are five quick questions to ask yourself when assessing the use of paid ads:

1. What keywords do you have top ranking for?

   When we ask clients this question, they typically respond with their business name. Most businesses with quality websites rank well for their business name, but what about other keywords? Although you may rank #1 for “Joe’s Plumbing,” how do you rank for keywords that would drive new customers to your business who have never heard of you? It’s important that you not only rank well for “Joe’s Plumbing,” but that you also rank for purchase-ready buyer terms such as “plumbing repairs,” “emergency plumber,” and “sink replacement.” Depending on the competitiveness of those terms, it may take months to rank well . . . or you may never achieve adequate ranking. With the right budget and bidding strategy, supplementing your organic strategy with paid ads can produce immediate placement and results.

2. What would you do with 20% more traffic to your website?

   You may be asking yourself, “Why should I pay for clicks if I am already appearing for free?” A frequent budgetary concern is that paid ads cannibalize organic clicks. Not so! According to Google, websites appearing in both the organic and paid sections of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) achieve 20% more traffic. The goal here is to displace your competitors by taking up as much real estate on the SERP as you can.



3. Where do your customers click on the Search Engine Results Page?

   As a well-known adage reminds us, the most important thing in real estate is “location, location, location.” The same holds true for search engines. While most users focus on the left-hand side of the page (80%+ of us), almost 90% never make it to page two of the SERP. If you’re relying on organic ranking but aren’t on page one, you’re missing out on almost all of the traffic! Your paid search ad will allow you to compete for keywords that you rank low for organically.

4. Do you run seasonal offers or special promotions?

   Let’s say you already rank well for your most desired keywords. How do you fare, though, when you create a new landing page to promote a special offer or seasonal discount or launch a new product line? Depending on your time frame, you will likely not gain organic placement quickly enough to promote your offer—in fact, you may not gain good placement until well after your promotion has ended. In these cases, the fastest way to drive traffic to your promotion is through a paid ad.

5. Are you happy with the content in your organic results?

   Organic results automatically show content from your website. Chances are, the search engines don’t pull the exact text that you would if you had control. With paid ads, however, you control the content of the ad as well as determine the specific landing page to drive the ad to. Since you write the text, your paid ad allows you to focus on purchase-ready buyers by:

   • Focusing on specific products and services: “July Savings on Water Heaters”
   • Including call-to-action text: “Save 15% Online” or “Call for Free Estimate”
   • Focusing on your geographical client base: “Serving the Tri-State Area”

In sum, an organic strategy is necessary, but paid ads enhance your ability to attract the right customers at the right time. While you’re building your organic rankings, the use of paid ads will supplement your traffic and allow you to attract your target customer. Your organic placement may adjust slowly over time, but your paid ads are instant and completely flexible.

As always, track the results of your paid ads to ensure they are effective, and continue to monitor and optimize them. Once you have achieved strong organic placement for your favored keywords, maintain your paid ads to promote new product lines quickly, advertise seasonal specials efficiently, and gain that extra 20% in traffic.

Why Do I Need a Paid Search Ad If I Rank Well Organically? is a post from Web.com | Blog

I’m not usually a big impulse shopper, but when something catches my eye, I’ll stop and look at it more closely—whether it’s a wacky cereal box, crazy nail polish color, or my dog, Ada.

Because online shopping is the only shopping I like to do, that was naturally the way I found Ada. I didn’t get her from a breeder, but from a website that features unwanted animals from shelters across the U.S. And just like with pay-per-click (PPC) ads, when you search that pet adoption site, you see results with a very short description, which includes the location, breed, size, and age of each dog.

Unlike most PPC ads on Google, however, the short descriptions were accompanied by a picture.* While I was searching, I only clicked on the dogs that instantly caught my eye—because that’s how I shop. With my strategy, however, I could have missed out on a great dog. Who knows . . . one of them could have known how to cook dinner, locate large sums of money, or run the vacuum.

The point is, I didn’t spend time clicking each ad to learn more because many of the descriptions and pictures just weren’t that interesting. I have plenty of other things to do with my time than read a ton of lengthy copy. And the reality is, my online shopping mentality—from clothes to dogs—is the same as typical Google users who are searching for their next purchase.

The moral of the story? It’s crucial that your PPC ad quickly grabs the attention of your potential customers.

In PPC, your ad is sandwiched between other ads. Is yours interesting enough to make someone click? Although you might have an amazing product—and an even better deal—if you can’t get customers to your page, they’ll never know about it. As a PPC Manager, I spend a great deal of time making sure that I use the 130 characters wisely—because if my ad isn’t eye-catching within a few seconds, those 130 characters will mean nothing.

If you have ads in your PPC campaigns that have low clickthrough rates or poor overall performance, it’s probably time to take a look at your ad copy. Assuming that your keywords and ads are relevant, creating more persuasive, targeted ads might just be the way to teach an old dog some new tricks.

*Please note: This ad format is available with product extensions.

What My Dog Taught Me About PPC is a post from Web.com | Blog

You see it all the time. Hipsters, businesspeople, and grandparents alike are embarking on a new and useful trend: shopping on cell phones.

Smartphones—including Androids, BlackBerrys, and iPhones—have become all the rage among various age groups because of easy Internet navigation and numerous applications available for download. So as more and more people start shopping mobile, it’s clear that more and more Internet marketers will be embracing the trend.

A recent article on ClickZ notes the high adoption rate of smartphones and the increasing number of mobile-only households. As a result of these developments, research firm Forrester forecasts that “over 75 percent of marketers plan to include mobile in their marketing mix.”

So what does this mean for the pay-per-click (PPC) world?

PPC specialists should begin to expand their accounts slowly, taking their best-performing eCommerce campaigns and targeting them specifically to mobile devices. It’s easy to do through both Google AdWords and the Microsoft adCenter (which encompasses both Yahoo! Search PPC and Bing PPC).

In AdWords, for example, select a strong campaign that’s targeting only desktop and laptop computers, and then create a new campaign that targets only mobile devices. From there, you should:

• Copy the keywords, ad groups, and ads from the selected campaign and add them to the new mobile campaign. Then keep a close eye on it, just as you would any other new marketing strategy.

• Keep a low daily budget at first, as mobile-targeted campaigns can spend quickly, like many desktop and laptop campaigns can.

• Tweak the ad copy to read something like “Shop by Phone Today” or “Order Easily from Your Fingertips!”

I’m lucky to have several clients for whom creating mobile campaigns seemed to be a no-brainer. Here are two examples:

• One of my clients sells college clothing and merchandise—a perfect fit for college kids and recent graduates who are shopping “on the fly.”

• Another client, QualityShells.com, saw a $200 return on a mobile-targeted campaign that it spent only $1 on! I’ve recently helped to expand the account by marketing the store’s crafty and decorative starfish and sand dollars to mobile users. As a result, the client recognized the importance of mobile marketing and recently signed up for a newly designed website just for mobile shoppers.

  Here’s another important point: During the busy 2010 holiday season, QualityShells.com received a number of phone orders from customers who were shopping on their smartphones. Now, those same shoppers can just as easily order from the new mobile website, which has been developed specifically for cell phone screens.

A word of caution: Because mobile marketing is a relatively new way to promote products, don’t go crazy in the beginning by placing really high daily budgets on campaigns. In the two examples I’ve provided, I began by targeting low-spending trademark campaigns (which include company names and domain names) for mobile devices. Once I started to see some success, then I expanded the efforts with additional mobile campaigns.

Here are a couple more tips for creating winning PPC campaigns:

• Separate desktop and laptop campaigns from mobile and content network campaigns so that the results can be judged based on the related device and network targeting.

• Enable “phone extensions” (located under the Ad Extensions tab in AdWords) on a mobile-targeted campaign. Why? Because it allows customers who are browsing from their cell phones to call your store directly from the strategically placed PPC ad—and you pay the same amount that you would for a standard click. In addition, phone extensions in a mobile campaign allow for “click-to-call” ordering, which is becoming very popular.

  It’s also important to note that a limited number of U.S. advertisers are able to set up special phone numbers that can be traced back to the PPC ad that the user clicked, making it even easier to track conversions and leads. Here’s more help on implementing Google AdWords phone extensions.

So now that you’re a bit more versed on the ins and outs of mobile marketing, you can begin experimenting with some mobile-targeted campaigns that can expand your store’s reach to new—and returning—customers.

Good luck with your efforts!

Mobile Marketing: Tips for Targeted PPC Campaigns is a post from Web.com | Blog

Telephones have come a long way—especially when it comes to mobile devices—since Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder was released in 1954. In a recent OnStar® commercial, for example, a car owner’s boyfriend was able to unlock and start the car for his locked-out girlfriend—all from a cell phone. Need I say more?

And just as the main character in the famous Hitchcock thriller needed a strategy to help him try to inherit his wife’s fortune, as a small business owner today, you need to find ways to tap into the growing mobile marketing industry and generate revenue for your business.

Let’s start by looking at some of the trends in mobile usage:

• Almost half of mobile phone users made a purchase via a mobile site or mobile app, according to an August 2010 survey by Lightspeed Research.

• U.S. mobile advertising for 2010 is estimated to reach $790 million, which is up $300 million from last year, according to a forecast by BIA/Kelsey.

• For teens and college-aged students, using the Internet on mobile devices is the norm, not the exception. And that trend is gradually expanding to the general mobile user population as well.

When it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns for mobile marketing, there are a number of steps you can take to maximize your results—whether you’re marketing via a traditional website or a mobile one. Please note: Although you don’t need a mobile website to get involved with PPC mobile marketing, having one can help boost your overall results.

So if you’re ready to dial “M” for mobile, check out these marketing must-dos for PPC:

• Separate mobile targeting from desktop/laptop targeting. To do this, turn off mobile targeting in your regular campaigns, and then create separate mobile campaigns that have desktop/laptop targeting disabled.

• Tailor your ads:

  • Use copy that speaks to the mobile user (e.g., “Shop Easily from Your Cell Phone”).

  • Utilize “mobile ads,” which are specifically formatted for non-smartphones.

  • Offer a dedicated coupon code for mobile users (e.g., “Code MOBILE”).

  • Provide your phone number and encourage users to call for more information.

• Test the Google AdWords “click-to-call” feature within Ad Extensions>Phone Extensions.

• Study mobile device activity within your analytics to see which keywords are driving sales from mobile devices, and then add those keywords to your mobile-targeted campaigns.

• Explore AdWords Call Metrics. This limited-availability feature has recently been expanded to more advertisers, and it works on desktops as well as high-end mobile devices. AdWords Call Metrics provides a free phone number that’s automatically inserted in your ads and is directly linked to your business phone number.

  The beauty of this feature is that it allows you to track the activity of a user who sees your ad, but then calls in to get more information or place an order, rather than complete the order online.

• Set up a separate PPC conversion tracking code (if you’re working with a mobile site), and install the code on the backend of your mobile store.

Dial “M” for Mobile: Marketing Must-Dos for PPC is a post from Web.com | Blog

Connections . . . isn’t that what the world is all about? We’re on a continual quest to discover the places we fit into and the people we’ll reach out to.

Online marketing is no different. With hundreds of millions of eCommerce websites out there in cyberspace, you need to connect with your potential customers, and you need to do it often. There’s simply no time to let your brand slip from their minds, and email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media are just the marketing initiatives you need to make your brand sticky in your customers’ minds.

Because imagination is key when it comes to discovering creative ways for email marketing, SEO, and social media to complement each other, we’re here to share some tried-and-true examples to get those creative juices flowing!

Spread the value. Before you can even spread the wealth, you first need to show your social media base just how interesting your email newsletters are. Include newsletter sign-up links and forms in your social media profiles to make it as easy as possible for people to fill in their address. Include tidbits on the type of content they can discover inside your newsletter, and tease parts of your newsletter in your Twitter and Facebook posts. The more you can convince your social media base that there is indeed interesting content and promotions inside your newsletters, the more likely they’ll hit the subscribe button.

A link can be more than just a link. If you’ve been reading the Web.com blog, you know link building is all about the quality of the links pointing to your website, versus the sheer quantity of links you have. Securing a link on a well-known, established site not only gives you SEO value, but it’ll likely send traffic (and potentially sales!) your way too. Hundreds of millions of blogs exist online, so there’s a good chance at least a few of your newsletter subscribers have an active blog that receives a decent amount of traffic and has a solid reputation. Here are two possibilities for you to consider:

• You can send a newsletter out asking bloggers to review your products. You’ll send them a free product if they’ll review one of yours on their blog or use it as a giveaway prize, and then include a link to your site in their post (and possibly blogroll).
• The same goes for any subscribers who have a noncompeting link. Ask if they’ll review a product (that you’ll provide for free) in exchange for giving you a mention (and a link!) on their website.

Stay current. Your favorite news stories likely aren’t the short 10-sentence articles that only state the facts. You like the facts, but you also want to hear an educated opinion on the story. So do the same with your newsletter. Post your expert opinion about a current news story related to your industry on your blog or website, and then include a snippet of it in your newsletter, directing your readers to the more lengthy post to read more. Ask your readers to comment with their own opinions, and to help you spread the word by sharing your post on other websites and social media profiles.

We love to be recognized. With so many websites out there, taking the time to pluck out a few favorites related to your industry and posting a Top 10 award list of them on your blog is another way to gain links. In addition to contacting the award “winners” to let them know you selected them (they’ll likely link to you!), include a snippet about the winners in your next newsletter. There’s a good chance readers will link to your post from their own blogs and social media presences.

Give to get. Although eCommerce businesses don’t necessarily have a lot of extra cash to give out these days, giving to a charitable cause not only helps to cast your business in a good light, but it also helps you get some press out of the effort. Here are three promotions you can hold to spread goodwill and promote your brand:

• Once you reach a certain number of Facebook fans, donate a portion of the proceeds from a sitewide sale to a cause related to your industry.
• For each new Facebook fan you get within a specific time frame, donate $1 to a charitable organization.
• Ask your Twitter followers to retweet a message about a cause you’ll be donating to, and then randomly select one of the retweeters as the winner of a prize from your online store.

You can add a post on your blog about the initiatives you’re involved in, and you can send out a newsletter (with a link to the post) that describes what the activities mean to you and your business. Ask your newsletter readers to share your blog post to help you spread the word and make your mission even more successful.

So . . . once you’ve conjured up and implemented your ideas, be sure to track the statistics related to each effort, which can include:

• Number of click-throughs (and sales!) resulting from your email newsletter.
• Number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers you generated.
• Amount of traffic to your website and blog that comes from Facebook and Twitter.
• Number and quality of backlinks that point to your website and blog.

From there, you can determine the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts. And remember, it often takes a few tries to really capture people’s attention, so stick with your plan and keep generating those creative ideas!

Have other ideas to share about connecting email marketing, SEO, and social media to maximize your online success? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Connecting Email Marketing, SEO, and Social Media for Online Success is a post from Web.com | Blog

We’ve all been there. Yes, I’m talking about the dreaded rejected link request. You did everything right: you offered value, showed relevancy, and pitched the blogger properly. But it didn’t make a difference. Tons of emails, lots of writing, and a whole lot of hope later, you’re still linkless.

But when you find yourself stuck in the link-building mode, don’t think you’re limited to writing link request emails and pitches. In fact, there are plenty of other ways to get links back to your website. All it takes is a little creativity.

Let’s look at five link-building strategies that can help you get noticed:

1. Help a Reporter Out
   Literally. Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is a free service that connects companies and industry experts with journalists who are looking for sources for their news stories. If you have something to share about your industry, you should sign up for an account. Once you do, you’ll receive a daily list of queries from journalists. When you find one that’s appropriate for your expertise, you can send a response to the reporter that includes your name, your credentials, and a link to your website.

   If your response suits the story, you may get a mention and, possibly, a link to your website. Granted, the link may be a nofollow, but it’s still a touchpoint that allows people to link back to your site. Plus, showing that you have industry knowledge helps you build trust in your brand.

2. Be Someone’s Guest
   Guest blogging is another great way to score a link on someone else’s site, and if you get lucky enough to post on a blog that’s popular, that can mean a huge surge in traffic to your site. When you’re researching your guest-blogging efforts, be sure to identify blogs that are within your niche.

   Once you do, get to know the blogger and what kind of posts he or she likes or links to. Then, draft a pitch (or an actual post) and send it to the blogger. Be clear and concise. Talk about your expertise and what you have to offer. If you get a spot on the blog as a guest, you’ll either get a link somewhere in the article (yeah, for choosing anchor text!) or in your byline.

   Want more tips on becoming a guest blogger? Check out these awesome resources:

   10 Proven Steps to Snag a Guest Post on an A-List Blog
   How to Guest Post to Promote Your Blog

3. Show Off Your Design Skills
   If you have some awesome graphic design skills (or just a really great in-house designer), you can create something that’s visually interesting, and that gets you links. Infographics are becoming increasingly popular, and the ones that are well done often get shared virally. Post the infographic on your blog or Facebook page and encourage others to share the link to it. Cool stuff can spread fast.

4. Tell Your Experience
   Testimonials on other sites can be a great way for you to get a link. Reach out to your business partners, vendors, or other organizations that you’ve worked with and ask if you can provide a testimonial. In the byline of your response, be sure to include a link back to your site. Much like a mention in the press, your link will probably be a nofollow, but again, it’s another touchpoint.

5. Share a Badge
   Customers tend to tout the brands they trust most, so why not give them an easier way to share the love? Creating a widget or badge that can be shared or reposted on a customer’s website can be a great way to get a link back to your site. Plus, it also helps to increase the exposure for your site. Create a badge that looks visually appealing and offers something unique; then, make it easy to share.

So . . . the next time you’re stuck with multiple link request rejections, don’t lose hope. Instead, think about branching out into something a little different. Granted, not all of these tactics will work for your business, but there’s no harm in giving them a try and seeing which ones stick.

What other link-building techniques are you using? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Want to learn more? Join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

5 Link-Building Strategies That Get You Noticed is a post from Web.com | Blog

With the holiday season fast approaching, small business owners are ramping up their efforts to increase revenue during the last quarter of 2010. And because holiday shoppers love to save money, one of the easiest ways to bring in new customers is by offering a coupon or discount. Whether you operate an online store, a physical establishment, or both, promoting with coupons and other discounts can help you build customer loyalty and increase sales.

So what types of promotions should you consider? Let’s take a look at some of the tried-and-true ones:

• Free Shipping
  Customers love to get free shipping when they’re shopping online. To help you offset any concerns about absorbing the shipping costs, you can set a minimum order amount for your promotion. That way, you help to ensure that the purchase is profitable for your business—and it might encourage your customers to buy a few extra items to qualify for the savings.
• Special Gift with Purchase
  The holiday season is a great time to offer special gifts with purchases from your store. When you’re selecting the items to offer as special gifts, keep in mind that they’re often indulgences (i.e., incentives) that the buyers will keep for themselves.
• Percentage Discounts
  Percentage discounts are one of the most popular forms of promotion. By offering a flat 10%, 20%, or more off one item or a total purchase, you’re appealing to shoppers who are looking to save on the specific items on their list.
• Coupon Websites
  Coupon websites offer a great way to put your coupons in front of a large group of consumers who are searching for discounts. Services like RetailMeNot.com and CouponCabin.com offer free submission into their databases with just a few clicks. RetailMeNot.com also offers the ability to post printable coupons for local shoppers.

What promotions are you using this holiday season? Have any success stories you’d like to share? Please leave us a comment.

The original version of this article appeared in The Buzz newsletter from Web.com.

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Boost Your Holiday Sales by Offering Coupons and Discounts is a post from Web.com | Blog

Unless you’ve been hibernating during the past several months, you know that Yahoo!® and Bing™ are joining forces for search. What you may not realize, however, is that this change affects both sponsored results and natural, or organic, rankings.

Ultimately, Bing will be feeding all of the search results to Bing.com as well as to Yahoo.com. Yahoo!, however, will have control over how the search results appear and what is and is not filtered. You won’t be able to designate results to be shown on one engine or the other; results will automatically feed to both.

Testing is already in progress for both paid and organic search results. The organic search transition began in mid-August and is expected to be complete by the end of September. The paid search transition has been under way since mid-July and is expected to be complete by the end of October.

The combined search audience will account for approximately 30% of the search market share, or approximately 561 million worldwide users.*

The following links are official resources for the partnership:

• Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance
• Yahoo! Transition Center
• Microsoft Transition Center

The following lists outline important things to know about the transition in terms of sponsored ads and organic rankings. For full details, be sure to visit the links above.

Sponsored Ads (Pay-Per-Click, or PPC)

• All accounts will be served on the Microsoft adCenter platform. All Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts will be decommissioned. If you don’t already have a Microsoft adCenter account, you’ll need one.
• Your account history will not transfer from Yahoo! Search Marketing to Microsoft adCenter, but your conversion tracking should.
• The adCenter system offers three keyword match types, which are similar to Google (broad, phrase, and exact), but unlike Yahoo! (standard and advanced).
• When you’re pausing match types on the adCenter, you can’t pause just one match type; if you pause one, you pause them all.
• The adCenter system will allow thousands of excluded (or negative) keywords, which is hundreds more than Yahoo! did.
• Ads on the adCenter system have a title character limit of 25 and a description character limit of 70, so you may need to make some adjustments to your ads. (Yahoo!’s title character limit is 40.)
• Budgets for the adCenter can be daily or monthly; the latter can be set to spend until depleted or to spend across the entire month.
• If you’re managing your PPC account on your own, you’ll soon be able to utilize a transition tool within the Yahoo! Search Marketing interface to migrate your account.
• If you’re working with Web.com or any of its brands (such as Solid Cactus, LEADS.com, and Web.com Search Agency), your PPC team will handle all of the transition activities for you.

Organic (or Natural) Rankings

• Site owners should utilize Bing Webmaster Tools and optimize accordingly.
• Yahoo! Site Explorer will be decommissioned during the partnership.
• With respect to indexing, there shouldn’t be a significant change in organic rankings.

Will the joint effort be an everlasting honeymoon? Time will tell . . . so I’d hold off buying that engraved picture frame right now.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, March 2010.

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Yahoo! Marries Bing: Just Googly Eyes, or Will Google Still Take First Prize? is a post from Web.com | Blog

Achieving relevance in your email marketing efforts should be your number one priority. Why? Because email marketing is no longer a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s apples vs. oranges, hot dogs vs. hamburgers, and puppies vs. kittens. Your customers have needs and interests, and they want you to communicate with them based on those preferences.

For example, when you know that your customer Mary prefers oranges, is a vegetarian, and loves baby beagles, you can send Mary personalized messages based on what she wants to hear. That way, you increase the opportunity of engaging with her—and you decrease the possibility that she’ll hit the unsubscribe link.

And that’s where list segmentation comes in, which means that you’re organizing—or personalizing—your email messaging based on cues from your customers. Whether you want them to make a purchase, read a blog article, or download a white paper, your goal is to engage them by sending a targeted, relevant email message.

So how do you personalize your emails so that your customers will open, read, and act upon them? The answer is easier than you might think. . . .

Let’s look at three types of data you already have at your fingertips that can help you segment your email lists effectively:

1. Email Behavior
   After you review the email activity from a recent cosmetics campaign, you see that some recipients clicked on “lip gloss” and “hand lotion,” but passed on “perfume” and “lipsticks.” Based on this information, you can deduce what those recipients are most interested in, and you can target their interests more specifically in your next email.

   And if the recipients didn’t make a purchase after opening your first message, you can segment them into an “opened only” category and follow up with a compelling subject line to help drive an immediate purchase: Buy One Get One Free Lip Gloss on Sale Today Only! Your targeted response can mean the difference between capturing a purchase and missing an opportunity.

2. Purchasing Behavior
   Based on the purchases your customers have made in the past, you can deduce what kinds of products they’ll be purchasing in the future. For example, some of your customers recently purchased a 60-day supply of one-a-day vitamins. So what does that mean? In 45 days, you should send them an email that reminds them their supply is getting low and they’ll want to reorder now to avoid running out.

   And don’t forget the power of the upsell. If a customer recently purchased a pair of ballet shoes, you can suggest a leotard and a skirt to complete the outfit. Here’s one subject line that can help you incentivize: Order Any of the Featured Products in This Message and Receive 10% Off Each Item! A little savings can go a long way to increasing the value of the order and clinching that next sale.

3. Demographics
   Even without acquiring additional information about your customers through custom Web forms and surveys (which are, by the way, a great way to acquire more detailed profile information), just knowing their shipping states or ZIP codes can help you target the right recipients with the right products.

   Let’s consider the upcoming campaign that will be advertising your newest line of snow boots. Although you wouldn’t want to send your email message to your surfboard customers in California and Florida, it would be the perfect promotion for your outdoor enthusiasts in Vermont and New Hampshire. When you target your customers based on their demographics, you’re showing them that you’re paying attention to their individual needs.

As you can see from these examples, segmentation doesn’t need to be complicated. By leveraging the data that you’ve collected from your email marketing activities and by using some creative strategies, you can design email campaigns that have greater relevance, and thus the potential for greater response. Once your customers see that you’re tuned in to their needs and interests, they’re more likely to engage with your email messaging and help you achieve the ROI you’re looking for.

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Improving Email Engagement with List Segmentation is a post from Web.com | Blog

The Christmas buying season starts November 1, and if you’re not making plans today for the Christmas season, it may already be too late! Keep in mind: During the 2009 Christmas season, a record-breaking $27 billion was sold online—a 5% increase over 2008.*

For many large companies, the holiday buying season never stops. Orders are negotiated and placed with suppliers year-round for the next season in hopes of keeping margins low while anticipating what shoppers may be looking for during this 2-month buying frenzy.

Over the years, we’ve noticed that many small businesses don’t start thinking about Christmas until the season actually begins. Unfortunately, their efforts are usually too little too late because their more savvy competitors started working on their seasonal marketing efforts much earlier in the year. As a result, many businesses find themselves at a competitive disadvantage as they try to catch up to their competitors.

Considering that November 1 is only 3 months away, now is the time to begin preparing your website for the Christmas season . . . before it’s too late. So how can you start preparing? Let’s look at four ways:

1. Perform a self-check of your website. Are you happy with the natural rankings that you’ve achieved on the big three search engines: Google, Bing™, and Yahoo!®? More specifically, are you happy with the keyword ranking for your offerings that you want to sell during the Christmas season? Given that it takes time for natural search results to change rankings, now is the time to ensure that your site is optimized to gain the highest possible ranking for your seasonal keywords. Here are five things to consider:

Content: As we’ve mentioned in other blog posts, content rules the search engine world. It’s important that your content is well written, offers the user good information, and is oriented to the specific offering that you want to market.

Page titles: It’s also important that every page title be consistent with the content that’s on the page, which includes the on-page keywords. Plus, each page must have its own unique page title.

Meta description: While the description doesn’t play a role in the ranking of your website, it does play a role in prompting searchers to click on your website link, rather than your competitors’.

Hosting: The hosting of your site is another factor that can affect your ranking. Make sure that your site download time is acceptable and is not affecting your rankings, especially with Google.

Settings: You should also ensure that there are no settings that would prevent search engines from crawling your site. One wrong “permission” setting could keep a search engine from crawling the critical pages on your site, and thus keep you from ranking for a critical keyword.

2. Examine the links to your website. Websites that have links that point to your website have a major and positive impact on your rankings. Google interprets these external links, or backlinks, as a vote of confidence in your website by others, and they will generally boost your keyword ranking as a result.

   There are several methods for acquiring quality backlinks that can assist your rankings dramatically. Links from sites that relate to the same business you are in are desirable, as are links from very popular sites that have a lot of visitors and a high page ranking.

   By contrast, there are also a few methods that will not help your rankings and that should be avoided, such as purchasing links from sites that sell links. When in doubt, consult a reputable search engine marketing organization.

3. Fine-tune your estore. If you have an estore, now is the time to fine-tune such elements as your product descriptions and seasonal photographs. Depending on the nature and number of items in your product line, it may take some time to gather or create seasonal photos, which tend to resonate better with online shoppers who are in the seasonal buying spirit.

   If you don’t have an estore, consider setting one up now. Many service-oriented businesses, such as hair salons and restaurants, sell gift cards or gift certificates online during the holiday season.

4. Start a paid campaign. If you’re not currently running a paid advertising campaign, now may be a good time to learn how these programs work. With a paid campaign, advertisers “bid” on the keywords associated with their website. The highest bid will gain the number one paid ad position, which in turn helps to generate traffic to the site. The search engines furnish reports that indicate how much traffic a keyword generates, which you can then use to calculate a rate of return on your advertising budget.

   Additionally, searchers tend to favor clicking on search results when the website appears in both the natural search results and the paid advertising column. Appearing in both places tends to reinforce that a company is a bona fide and serious Web-based business.

   Because the marketplace bid process determines the per-click price that you pay, popular seasonal keywords generally cost more during the height of the advertising season. Therefore, it may be wise to test those waters now while costs may be lower. That way, you can evaluate which keyword ads work best for your business and where you can best spend your advertising budget when the season is in full swing.

If you’d like some help getting your website strategy in place for the holiday buying season, just give us a ring at 1-800-GET-SITE.

*Source: comScore press release, December 30, 2009.

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