Complete Website Optimization Blog

Optimizing Email Marketing Message to Increase Open Rates

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:40:00 GMT

I just wanted to pass along a few quick things I had learned directly from Constant Contact at a seminar they did recently:

1. They suggested addressing the email "from" a real person - someone who will be the spokesperson for the organization... people are more apt to open an email from a person vs. a company because people buy from people NOT companies. :)

2. The subject line is one of the most critical parts of the email... they say that in the first 3-5 words someone is going to decide whether they open the email and so you have to give them a headline that makes the email interesting to them and if possible stresses some sense of urgency to open the email now... People get inundated with email and so they pick and choose which to open. Give them a reason to open yours now. If they put it off until later, they probably won't ever open it.

3. The day of week and time of day of course is very important and can vary from one customer base to another. So test different days of the week and different times to see if this makes a difference. I normally suggest sending at 10am or 2pm... once your customers have cleared the morning deluge of email... and I don't like to send on Monday morning or Friday at all...

4. Make sure the email has some type of call to action - what are you wanting the recipient to do up on receiving the email. And most likely the action you want them to take would be something they should do at your website. In other words, in your email marketing, blogs, etc, you want to continuously drive them back to your website. And of course the website needs to have the same focus to get them to take some action... all of this can be done effectively without being too "pushy" or "salesy"... but if they do want to participate, make it super easy for them to...

5. Testing - I suggest changing one thing at a time and testing to see how it affects your open rates.

Keep in mind that the typical response in the old snail mail days was a 1-3% response. If you get a 15 - 25% open rate consistently, you are doing good. If you are getting higher, then let us know your tips and tricks!

--

Patrick Steil

infraNET Complete Website Optimization

Mobile: 940-391-9250

Fax: 972-692-7620

Optimize your LinkedIn Profile to Build Trust

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:37:00 GMT

I always review the LinkedIn profile of people I am meeting / networking with, doing business with, etc. The things I look for are a sense of who is working at the company, do they have good recommendations, do they have a trustworthy background, etc. In other words a LinkedIn profile can be a great way for me to determine how well I "trust" the person I am dealing with.

Conversely, your LinkedIn profile gives YOU a great opportunity to try and build trust quickly with the people that want to do business with YOU!

So here are my recommendations for optimizing your LinkedIn profile:

1. Have everyone in your company create a profile and link them to the company.

2. Solicit recommendations from all your clients from within LinkedIn

3. Make sure your title accurate and "client friendly"

4. Always use a professional photo of a person, NOT a logo!

5. List the 4-5 bullet points as to what makes this person a great asset to the company and how he/she can help clients working with you.
6. Get a professional executive resume writer to optimize the content of your profile. I HIGHLY recommend Holly Reslink at EmpowerLink. She optimized mine! http://linkedin.com/in/pmsteil

Also, here are 8 more LinkedIn Optimizations to look at from the Social Examiner:

Patrick Steil

infraNET Complete Website Optimization

Do you want to Link In or Branch Out? Facebook for your Business Contacts!

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:43:00 GMT

I have been telling clients for several years, that LinkedIn needs to incorporate their social media platform into Facebook before someone else does.

In other words, I dreamed about a way to connect with my business associates on Facebook that was separate from my own group of "friends and family". I prefer to keep all my business contacts on LinkedIn and only have personal friends and family on my Facebook friends list.

Well, there is a now a way to do this and its called BranchOut. Once I connected to their Facebook app, I had imported my professional LinkedIn profile within 1 minute. I am then able to "invite" friends to become part of my network just like on LinkedIn.

I am still playing around with this, but it looks like my dreams may have come true, and it could mean BAD things for LinkedIn in a few years. LinkedIn has the momentum and the market share, but we all know in these days, market share can shift QUICKLY from one company to another.

And hey, I will keep my LinkedIn profile, so you can connect with me there or sign up for BranchOut and then search for my name and add me - Patrick Steil ! :)

By the way, I found out about BranchOut from this article on Fast Company about it that I found while checking the latest news on my new EVO using a very cool news reader called Pulse.

Replacing the XHTML deprecated <a target="_blank"> tag

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:55:00 GMT

The <a target=_blank> tag was deprecated in the XHTML specs and some validators will complain if you include this tag in your HTML. Here is a great way to

open the link in a new window (for users with javascript enabled)
allow opening the link with the keyboard (spacebar) (for users with javascript enabled)
open the link in the same window for non-javascript users (so we still fallback to a working link)
passing XHTML validation

Old Method Sample Link

<a href="http://www.infranet.com" target="_blank">Old Method Sample Code</a>

New Method Sample Link

<a href="http://www.infranet.com"
onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;"
onkeypress="window.open(this.href); return false;">New Method Sample Link</a>

Google Webmaster Adds Per Page Search Keywords!

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 13:02:00 GMT

Webmaster Tools’ Holiday Update

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:43 PM PST

Webmaster Level: All

Just in time for the holidays the Webmaster Tools team has updated the "Search queries" and "Links to your site" features.

Search queries with top pages:
Throughout the past year we’ve made some significant changes to the search queries feature in Webmaster Tools. We've received lots of feedback about this tremendously popular feature. One frequent request we heard was that people wanted to be able to see search queries data for their site’s individual pages. Well we totally agreed that this would be useful and promptly set out to add this functionality to search queries. The fruits of our effort have finally ripened enough on the vine and are ready for you to enjoy. Now when you visit the search queries feature in Webmaster Tools you'll see a new tab titled "Top Pages". The "Top Pages" tab lists impression, click, and position data for the top pages on your site based on their performance in Google's search results.

If you click on one of the individual pages listed you’ll see a list of the queries driving traffic to that page along with impressions and number of clicks for each query.

Just like in the "Top queries" view, you can click on a specific query to see more detailed data and evaluate how the query is performing across the whole site.

To make filtering in search queries even easier, we've added pie charts to show visually the proportions of search type, location and traffic. Also in the "Top queries" view, you can now specify “containing” or “not containing” when filtering queries.

Links to your site with intermediate links:
Links to your site now shows when a particular URL redirects. If there's a link to your site that links to URL1 which then redirects to URL2, we are now showing the link from URL1 to URL2 as an intermediate link. We also added a "Download all links" option to all the tables in the links to your site feature.

Now that you know about these updates, please take a few minutes to check them out for your site. We hope it will provide you with a little bit of extra joy this holiday season. Let us know what you think by submitting a comment here or posting in our Webmaster Help Forum. Happy Holidays from the Webmaster Tools team!

Posted by Jonathan Simon, Webmaster Trends Analyst

FREE Websites! FREE Hosting! FREE FREE FREE!

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:44:00 GMT

Ok, we see these "pitches" all the time... Get your website design hosted for FREE! Sorry folks, but like your grandmother told you, "nothin's FREE in this world!" There is a three tiered value scale you MUST use when considering the purchase of a website or really any software service (web design, web hosting, web application development).

Fast
Cheap
Good

Which of these do you want for your website, hosting, development service?

"ALL THREE!"

Of course, I thought you would say that! We all want all three, but the reality is you cannot have all three, you can only choose two!

Option 1: You can have it Fast and Cheap, but it won't be as good.

Option 2: You can have it Cheap and Good, but it won't be done very fast.

Option 3: You can have it Good and Fast, but it won't be cheap.

There are web site solutions for all three of these. If you want to find out the best solution for each option, just ask me, or join our newsletter (see subscribe form at bottom of page)!

infraNET strives to give you the best of all three options, but we really try to lean you towards doing things the right way (Good) and trying to strike a good balance between "fast" and "cheap". Good HAS to be the most important priority for you, or you are just wasting your time and money. We are only interested in solutions that are going to produce the results you are looking for. You can sign up for FREE websites all day long, but if they don't give you the functionality you need to support your BUSINESS, then why waste valuable time and money?

In another blog post I'll discuss the Top 10 things you need to look for in any web design / web site design / web site hosting solution!

Until then,

Peace, Joy and Love!

Patrick Steil

Small Business Blog Tip #4: Start an Email Newsletter!

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:09:00 GMT

Happy New Year to All! Are you excited about 2010??! We are here at infraNET. Our New Years Resolution? To GIVE MORE! We want to help Small Businesses all over North Texas, grow and become more successful than ever!

So last week we talked about the power of "making it personal"... hope you are starting to think about how best to do that! Also, we discussed strategies for generating leads using Facebook.
Business and Technology Tip of the WeekToday's Tip is related to our last one: "making it personal" and is both a business strategy and technology tip!

Do you have an email newsletter? An email newsletter is your #1 way to keep the conversation going with your prospective, new and existing clients! We have discussed networking being such a powerful tool for the small business owner, but the fact is that if we meet someone who NEEDS our services, but doesn't NEED them "right now", and we don't continually follow up with them, we may lose their business when they are ready. Your email newsletter will keep you in front of them so that when they are ready to purchase, they will remember to contact you!

A few newsletter tips:

IMPORTANT: Don't add anyone to your email list that won't reasonably expect to get an email from you. Otherwise it is just spam.
Send the email from YOU or someone in your organization that will be the "face" of the company... people like to buy from people, not businesses.
Make the subject line instill a sense of "urgency" so that they will open it "today" and not put it off.
Use a professional email management service like Constant Contact (I personally recommend them) to ensure your emails are delivered and not reported as SPAM by receiving email servers. (If you want to receive a 60 day free trial and a bonus $30 credit with Constant Contact, you can click here to sign up with them).
Make sure your email newsletter content is also being created as content on your website via a blog, or adding it as an article on your site. These newsletters are being posted to our NEW website that will be launched later this month!
Plan out your newsletters in advance. Constant Contact will allow you to schedule the sending of your emails in advance.
Contact me if you need help getting this started! :)

That's your small business technology TIP for the week... take action today before you forget!
Wishing you Peace, Joy and Love in 2010!
Patrick Steil

Small Business Blog Tip #7: Build your TEAM! Use LinkedIn to find consultants, contractors, employees!

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT

Last Tip:

Last week I told you about adding lots of "pre-selling" type of content to your website. This helps you gain the loyalty and trust of prospects and helps them want to do business with you. If you need help getting started on this, email me and we can discuss a plan for your business at no cost to you!

Business and Technology Tip of the Week

This week, I want to discuss the idea of "leverage"... Leverage in business is utilizing other people's time, money and experience to enable you and your business to do more! There are many ways you can use this idea in your business. Perhaps you need to hire an expert to help you with marketing, sales (or a website expert - shameless plug... :). Rather than spending the time, energy, money and cost of lost opportunities, build yourself a TEAM - find an expert, hire them as a contractor or employee and leverage their experience and time to allow you and your business to do MORE...

So, how do you use the Internet to make it EASY to find these "team members"? Two great ways I have used...

1.  LinkedIn is a website I have mentioned in a previous tip (you ARE a member of LinkedIn aren't you??) to allow you to manage and make contacts... but the flipside is that it is an invaluable way to find the experts you need... and you can find them in your hometown, or anywhere in the World!   So just go into LinkedIn and search for what you are looking for... when you find someone that can help, send a request to become their "friend" and let them know what you need help with.

2.  Twitter just so happens to be a great way to find the experts you need also... you can search on the areas of expertise you are looking for and chances are you can find an expert. This works best if you are not concerned about the geographic location of the team member you are seeking.

3.  Google for a discussion board or BLOG related to the expertise you are looking for... this allows you to "see them in action" and determine if they are the right fit for what you need even before you contact them.

That's your update for the week... take action today before you forget!

Wishing you Peace, Joy and Love!
Patrick Steil

Small Business Blog Tip #8: List your Business in Google for LOCAL Search Results

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:58:00 GMT

Last week I told you how to build your business by hiring consultants, contractors, employees by finding them on LinkedIn.com.

Business and Technology Tip of the Week

Google allows you to register your business directly through the Google L o c a l B u s i n e s s C e n t e r. Once you register your business here, your business will show up on Google Maps when people are searching for businesses there. It also means Google has very specific information about your business that it can use to provide enhanced search results when someone is searching in the normal Google Search! This is a great search engine optimization tip for local search results!

The best part is that it is FREE and easy to register your business here! Just click over to the Google Local Business Centerand this NOW!

That's your tip for the week... take action today before you forget!

Wishing you Peace, Joy and Love!
Patrick Steil

Small Business Tech Tips #9: Yelp.com and TransferBigFiles.com

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:58:00 GMT

Yelp.com and TransferBigFiles.com

Business and Technology Tip of the Week

Yelp is gaining traction for listing LOCAL businesses and having people from the LOCAL area participate in reviews of those businesses. If you are a retail / consumer type business, you may need to encourage your best clients to submit a review for your Business on Yelp.

The second website is brand new FREE tool that can help you when you need to send very LARGE attachments to someone. The website is TransferBigFiles.com and works great. You simply attach the file, put in the target users' email address and it takes care of the rest giving the recipient a download link to allow them to download the file.

Enjoy your tips for this week... take action today before you forget!

Wishing you Peace, Joy and Love!
Patrick Steil

Small Business Tech Tips #10: Design Your Business with an Organization Chart - Cogmap.com

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:57:00 GMT

Business and Technology Tip of the Week

Have you DESIGNED your business to NEXT LEVEL? Stuart Miller, a local business coach spoke on how to do this through the use of an Organization Chart at last Month's Business Owners Network of DFW (BOND) meeting.

You can view a video of this at the BOND Community website. This was a very powerful lesson in how take your business to the NEXT LEVEL.

We have found a great little FREE tool for helping you BUILD this Organization chart at Cogmap.com. This website allows you to build out your Org Chart so you can begin to envision the business you will need to fulfill your personal and strategic objectives as Stuart mentioned last month.

Small Business Tech Tips #11: Gmail - Why your Business MUST use it

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:55:00 GMT

Top 10 Reasons why Gmail is THE perfect small business email system

It's FREE!
It's always up
It's super fast to send/receive and manage emails
Conversations
Labels and Filters
Archives ALL emails
Anti-SPAM is superb
POP/IMAP for old accounts
Check Mail on any computer or smartphone
Contacts - sync with Blackberry, iPhone and more
Calendars - sync with Blackberry, iPhone and more
Documents - replaces MS Office
Built in Text and Video Chat
Over 7GB space per user
All email is encrypted for security
Keyboard Shortcuts
Google Labs
You can have ALL OF THE ABOVE for your OWN DOMAIN! CONTACT US to set this up for your BUSINESS!

Sorry, I couldn't help myself... these are the Top 18 Reasons Why we love Gmail for the Small Business Person's email system... there are many more reasons also! Learn more about these features by watching the videos below created by other individuals who love Gmail also!

Video #1-Intro Video - Setup, Sending Emails, Managing Contacts

Video #2 - Retrieve email from other POP3/IMAP accounts , Using Gmail Filters and Labels, Gmail Conversations, Archiving Emails, Managing Spam

Note: DO NOT SET YOUR PASSWORDS to "password" as the author of this Video suggests :)

Video #3 - Gmail Search and some Power Settings

Gmail Advanced Search Help Page

Also, I would recommend adding your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.com URL's to your signature line if you have these and they are appropriate for your Gmail email address. In other words, if this is your WORK email, only include work related Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.com URL's.

Video #4: Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts - work even faster!

And remember, as Reason #18 specified, we can help you set all this up for your own BUSINESS DOMAIN. Google has a service called Google Apps for Domains that allows you to set this up for your OWN domain. Now the technical aspects of this can get a little tricky, so feel free to ask for HELP and we would be willing to set this up for YOUR business without cost! Just fill out the CONTACT US form and mention this blog article to get it for free!

Wishing you Peace, Joy and Love,
Patrick Steil

Small Business Blog Tip #6: Measuring Website Traffic for FREE with Google Analytics

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:42:00 GMT

Last Tip: In our last Small Business Technology Tip we discussed the idea of "pre-selling" and how to add lots of HELPFUL content to your website to help build up trust with your clients. So keep adding more content every day or at least every week. Bonus: If you do this, the search engines will reward you with more targeted traffic as well as better rankings for having changing content!

Small Business Technology Tip of the Week

Ok, so as I mentioned above, if you are adding plenty of content to your website, over time you will begin to see more and more traffic on your website. How will you KNOW if you are getting more traffic? Well contact your hosting provider to find out how you can view the traffic coming to your site. But if your web host doesn't provide this, you can use another FREE tool from Google called "Google Analytics". This tool will measure the traffic for your website and let you know how much total traffic you receive, how many page views, the average page views per visitor, how many new visitors and where the traffic is coming from. If the traffic is search engine traffic, it will tell you exactly what keywords are being used to find your website. This is information you cannot do without! You need to understand your traffic patterns and how your site is doing over time. Even if you have access to some reporting information on your website, I would suggest using this tool as with all things Google, it offers lots of ways to integrate with other tools and is continually updated with new features.

To get started setting this up, access the Google Analytics Getting Started Guide.

Small Business Blog Tip #5: Turn those Website Visitors into Leads with Pre-Selling Content

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:41:00 GMT

Well, have you started up that newsletter yet? Get motivated and get that going... you need a "system" in place to help you convert leads into customers. How many people do you meet and you just know they need what you have to offer, but they don't buy... maybe the timing just isn't right? So your newsletter allows you to continue the conversation with them and to help make sure they don't forget about you! :)

Our technology tip for today is related to this... there is a powerful tool that many of us over look... that is the power of "pre-selling".

Business and Technology Tip of the Week

Pre-Selling is what you do to take a website "visitor" (a prospect) to being someone who wants to learn more directly from you (a lead) and gives you their contact information to allow this.

In other words, people like to buy from people they KNOW and TRUST. Your website can be used to truly share with them your goals, experience and knowledge so that they will become comfortable speaking with you further.

So how do you do this? You add PLENTY of content on your website that is all aimed at HELPING this "interested" person.

This could be advice, this could be sharing with them proven methods for using your products and services, it can be testimonials, it can be a frequently asked questions page, it can be VIDEO (very powerful tool). In other words, don't necessarily focus on the direct hard sell - or you will come off as that cold calling salesman that interrupts your dinner! Show them you have a heart for helping them and that the product or service you have to offer is of value... and then continually ask them to join your newsletter to find out more!

When you get the notification that they signed up for your newsletter, you have successfully converted that "visitor" who is simply interested, to a "lead" that you can then continue the conversation with. SUCCESS!

That's your Small Business Tip for the week... take action today before you forget!

Wishing you Peace, Joy and Love!
Patrick Steil

Small Business Tip #3: Networking in 2010 and Facebook.com

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:34:00 GMT

My last tip talked about the MUST read book: "The E-Myth" hope you have had a chance to start reading this... it has changed my life and will change the look of infraNET forever!

Business Tip of the Week

In this month's Tip, I want to discuss the power of making it "personal"... from your website, to your newsletter, your blog... do your clients KNOW and TRUST you? Maybe that's what is keeping them from buying your products or services. People buy from people they trust. They can gain that trust by a referral of a good friend, by personally knowing you through networking or simply by reading everything there is to know about your company on your website. So the question is... are you making yourself AVAILABLE? Are you networking? Does your website and blog give them good information so that they will trust you know what you are talking about? Does your newsletter come directly from YOU, or is addressed "From: sales@yourcompany.com"... people want to buy from YOU... or you can spend $10 million a year in branding so they will trust your COMPANY! :)

Technology Tip of the Week

Did you realize there are many ways to generate leads using Facebook (still not sure what FB is... click here: Facebook Explained)? Now, I am of the strong opinion that you should use Facebook for maintaining your personal, one on one relationships with close friends and family. So, you should NEVER do any blatant "marketing and sales" speak on your FB account... but IF your business deals directly with consumers, here are some things you CAN do:

Create a Facebook FAN page - so that people can become Fans of your company (note: this only works for companies that deal directly with consumers). You can use this page to market special events, promotions, news, etc. Learn how here...
Create a text/banner "Ad" on Facebook. How to Create a FB Ad. And you can also consult the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on Facebook Advertising...
And if you have a "widget" to sell, here are 5 ways to Sell on FaceBook...
Create a Facebook "application" that can creatively spread the word about your company through Viral Marketing....
If you want more detail on these, let me know and I'll do another "tip" on the subject... :)
Overall, the Facebook strategy should be one of brand awareness and lead generation, NOT direct sales in most cases. The more "personal" your business is (products/services geared towards individual consumers, families, kids) the more you should be on FaceBook... if your business is B2B, I would probably spend my valuable time elsewhere... :)

That's your update for the week... take action today before you forget!
Wishing you Peace, Joy and Love!

Patrick Steil