Marketing Tips

Websites that Work vs. Sites that Don’t

Why Many Websites Don’t Work
There are a host of reasons that websites underperform for businesses that have them, even if they enter the website design process with the best of effort and intentions. Here are some of our thoughts on why websites don’t generate the business that company’s hope for:

1) They don’t understand their own target market. It’s one thing to know your business and another entirely to know who is your “sweet spot” with respect to your target market. Without that, your web developer will be guessing when he creates the site, particularly if they don’t ask good questions
2) They don’t consider other marketing options other than a website. Believe it or not, websites are competitive. There is only one top spot on Google, and you either have it or you don’t. Often times—in fact most times, it takes work to achieve a top spot either through search engine optimization (SEO) or pay per click services. This is the most overlooked and underbudgeted issue with respect to website design.
3) Web designers don’t do their job. We’ve seen some terrible work over the years with the basics in website design completely violated. Believe it or not, there’s a definite psychology to converting a viewer of a site to a client, there are SEO basics that must be done, and even colors and style matter tremendously in getting a client to call or fill out a form. This is also a real problem with site design– the basics aren’t even done because many web developers don’t know what they’re doing.
4) And lastly– Business owners treat their websites with an “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” Attitude. They think that having a site is enough to generate business, when that’s not nearly enough in most situations. Believe it or not, most websites have expiration dates. What? You say? Yes, they do. Technology changes and so should websites. This past week we had a client who was irritated when his website didn’t support Internet Explorer, a platform that Microsoft, who created it, hasn’t supported since 2016. We also don’t support Netscape and other antique browsers. The same is true of your website– you can have a “Model T” for a website. Just because you have one, doesn’t mean that you’re able to drive on the highway. Design changes quickly, as does technology. You’d be amazed how many websites are out there that are still not mobile friendly, which means that their sites are devalued in Google, not to mention hard to surf on a mobile device. Realize that your site should be updated every 2-3 years in order to stay current.

As always Make It Loud is always available to help you with your digital marketing.  Assessments of your digital marketing footprint are always free, and we can help you craft a winning strategy that drives business to you. Call anytime–  678.325.4007

Websites that Drive Traffic to Your Business

Many of the people who have websites don’t know exactly how much they can serve you and can drive you business.  When websites were new, it was easy to just create a website and get found. In 1992, there were only 10 websites on the world wide web.  When Make It Loud Web Results entered the market in 2004, there were only 51 Million.  Now, we are approaching 2 billion sites on the net, and the number of websites online continues to increase by the second, literally.

That being said, when our owner, John, built his first website for his first paying client (and by the way, almost 15 years later that person is still a client!) in mid November.  By the time the middle of December came around, the client had local rankings on page one of Google and she had clients in the door who had found her on the web.  Those days are gone, and I mean really gone.

In an environment of limited competition it’s still possible to get a result like that, but for the rest of us, google results need to be worked. 

There are a couple of ways to go about it. 

• You can start a pay per click campaign. Pay per click can be a great add for clients who want calls, but it needs to be researched.  For some it would work great.  For some, it would be a trainwreck.  We’ve also found that clients who use tools like Google Adwords Express are paying for clicks they shouldn’t be paying for, so word to the wise, watch out if you use that tool, or you could be spending tons more on PPC with no results.
• Start an SEO Campaign. Normally, this requires help.  Make It Loud provides those campaigns and it’s a lot of work.  Are the results good? 
• Facebook Ad Campaigns. Facebook is a wonderful thing, particularly for a business owner.  I tell the people who are on Facebook all the time–  “You are not Facebook’s client.  Their advertisers are.”  So if you own a business and want to advertise, the good news is that FB has been extorting information out of their sheep for a decade now, and they know exactly how to put you in front of your target market.  It can be quite affordable, and is really a proactive marketing endeavor. 

You may be thinking, “Well what can I do to help myself?”  Perhaps the best thing you can do for yourself is to blog.  Research shows that businesses where people blog on their websites consistently outperform those that don’t.  Fact.  On top of that, you’re adding new content to your site all the time, which the big G loves. 

As always Make It Loud is always available to help you with your digital marketing.  Assessments of your digital marketing footprint are always free, and we can help you craft a winning strategy that drives business to you. Call anytime–  678.325.4007

Sit Back And Watch What Happens or Chase It?  It’s Up To You.

When it comes to digital marketing, you may not have had it described like the title suggests, “Proactive vs. Reactive” marketing, but when you’re trying to reach your target audience, both are important.  Let’s dig in. 

Reactive Marketing requires something specific–  it requires the potential client to be looking for you already.  Reactive marketing clients already understand their need for your product or services.  Not only that, but they are searching for you already.  You put the marketing in place, like Search Engine Optimization, or Pay Per Click, and they react–  or respond to it. 

Proactive Marketing is different.  Proactive marketing helps unearth potential clients who may not even know they have a need for your services at the moment. I’ll give you an example:  A year or so ago I was using Facebook, and there was this ad and video for something called a Nato Mount.  It’s basically a magnetic car mount for your telephone for your car, which is now a necessity in the State of Georgia because apparently we can be trusted to hold a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a large drink in our hands while driving our cars, but we can’t be trusted to hold onto our phones–  but I digress.  In any event, I didn’t really think I needed one of these things, or I would have bought one years ago.  The seat or the cupholder was a fine place for my phone, or so I thought.  I wasn’t  looking for a phone mount.  If I was, I’d have googled it or amazon’d it.

Then entered Facebook.

I saw this pic and this vid of the thing, and thought, “that might work in my car.”  I drive an old car and it has some unique features–  like no heating or AC vents on the dash–  so lots of mounts wouldn’t work.  It looked great, so I ordered.  In fact, they had such a great upsell deal on them, I got 8 of them, really cheap–  and they work AWESOME.  I’d buy one again, and will likely in the days ahead. But I didn’t know I needed one.  It took the FB ad to even generate the idea.  Nato Mounts stuck this awesome piece of advertising in front of me, that advertising generated the idea in my head, and then I bought.  It’s kind of like a road sign stuck in my face as I drive down Hwy 20–  “Wow there’s a McDonalds.  I hadn’t thought about it, but now that I see  the sign–  I’m hungry!”  That’s proactive marketing.  You stick your advertising in front of people who don’t even know they really need your services, and your ad generates the desire and the idea.  Facebook and social media in general, does that well.   Email marketing can do this well too, however the hardest thing there is the absolute glut of information that comes through an inbox–  it’s so hard to get through that to get someone to open the email.

So what about you?  Is your marketing proactive or reactive?  Primarily one or the other?  The truth is, you need both.  There are people out there who don’t even have an idea about you.  They need the idea.  Then there are others who are already looking for you.  Your advertising needs to be their response. 

Make It Loud

Search Engine Optimization | Sugar Hill | Duluth GA | Suwanee | Buford

There are changes to Google’s algorithm all the time.  Some of the changes are so big they name them–  usually after an animal, like “Panda.”  They’re also making minor adjustments to their algorithm constantly, in order to keep search, “pure”–  which is to keep it unmanipulated.  That being said, there are search engine optimizers all over the planet who strive to rank websites for clients all the time. We’re an agency like that, where we take a site, work it through our process, and rank websites for clients all the time—which gets them business.

One of the things we’ve been made aware of that is going to significantly impact the web and rankings in Google is the new HTTP vs. HTTPS issue. You may notice in Google Chrome, as with other browsers, that they verify whether or night a website is secured with an SSL certificate.  Up until now, most websites weren’t secured with an SSL, with the exception of ecommerce stores–  security is a necessity for those.  If you go to a site that is not secured, you will not see a secure sign in the top left URL bar, and if you do see one, it will say “Secured” and be green (again to the left of the URL bar). 

The new catch is that Google is moving to an environment where they want sites that are secure now in order to rank them. These SSL certificates will figure significantly in the days ahead in ranking a website.  If your site was created prior to now, you likely don’t have one on your site.  Even the sites we’ve done over the years, again with the exception of ecommerce sites, weren’t secured with an SSL certificate.  Now they’re going to need to be, whether you have an ecommerce site or not. 

If you’re a client of ours on our Sitebuilder system–  the good news is that the Sitebuilder folks have adjusted their platform already to accommodate this change, and all of our sites on this platform have already been updated with SSL.  However, if you have a WordPress or other website, these SSL certificates need to be purchased at the hosting level, so that your site can be secured.  We recommend checking with your web developer to make sure that your site is secure, or come August, when Google rolls out this new change–  you may find yourself falling from page one of Google, or dropping in rankings significantly.  This can truly affect your business.  So make sure you take care of this now, in preparation for the upcoming change.

Digital Marketing Services in Atlanta | Lawrenceville | Suwanee | Buford

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s easy to turn a blind eye to it.  Many of the clients we’ve seen (in fact most!) have had a bad experience with a digital marketer–  and why not, marketing is a roll of the dice anyways, right?  That may be so, as some marketing is more effective than others, and add to that the uniqueness of industry to a marketing endeavor and you have a grand roll of the dice. 

There was a day when it wasn’t quite like that. The Yellow Pages ruled, and it was the magic bullet, the gamechanger for most who wanted to start a business.  Then the internet entered the equation, and websites became the new magic marketing bullet.

In the past 15 years with the rise and fall of search engines and social media platforms, it could never be more confusing to navigate your way through the digital marketing world—from websites to Facebook, LinkedIn, Pay Per Click Services in Suwanee and the Atlanta metro area–  to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and what remains of traditional marketing.

If you need a trusted advisor in the marketing world, Make It Loud can help.  Not only are we the providers of all of these services–  we can help you learn to manage your own, or to be your outsourced digital marketing agency.  From coaching to consulting, to actually doing the work, we can assist.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Services in Atlanta

Several local business owners are taking part in this quick and easy to track advertising platform and have doubled their business in a matter of months! Pay per click allows businesses the chance to get to the top of Google and gain clicks while they are pursuing their organic SEO, as long as the math makes sense.

The discovery process for this platform is half the battle.  To start of the process Business owners or marketing managers will need to complete four easy steps:

1. Identify Top Performing Keywords
2. Use Keyword Data to identify monthly budget
3. Determine what an avg. new client is worth to them
4. Calculate ROI

After the business owner determines that this makes sense for them, they can choose to either set up using the AdWords Express outlet or the full AdWords account.

I will tell you benefits and drawbacks to each and let you decide.

AdWords Express benefits include an easy to use interface that automatically adds keywords for you based on the landing page and website information you enter and the primary keywords you enter at the beginning of setup.

The dashboard shows how much of your budget has been spent, how many conversions so far, and your list of keywords.

A few key drawbacks and major problems with AdWords express would be that the keywords cannot be edited and are very broad and a lot of times unrelated to what your company does.

I have used this previously for one of our clients and quickly realized that it was not the most efficient or accurate method. AdWords express had the keyword “plumber Chicago” listed even though I had specified the company only services the Atlanta, GA area. This presented a serious problem paying and bidding for keywords that had absolutely no use whatsoever to my client.

A full AdWords account has a wealth of information right at your fingertips and the ability to change nearly anything you would like to in the interface and draw data you did not even know was available. The drawback to this powerful tool is that it is not intuitive. If you are interested in using AdWords it is going to take you some time to get up to speed with using the interface, but this aspect of marketing can be very lucrative for your business, but we also understand that learning how to manage it all can feel like your drinking from the fire hose. Give us a call to explore whether AdWords is right for marketing your business.

If you need a consultation about SEO or Web Design, our company, Make It Loud, can at the very least help you to discover if SEO or a good website fits into your budget.  It doesn’t cost anything to find out and we’d be honored to serve you, face to face when geographically possible.  Feel free to contact us by email at:  info@makeitloud.net, visit our website at: www.makeitloud.net, or call us at: 678.325.4007.  Even if you’re not local to Gwinnett or Atlanta, we’d be happy to do an assessment.