WordPress, WordPress, WordPress – convert your site or install it now!

Really not much else to say, but let me walk you through the reasons.

We have been building websites exclusively on WordPress for 2 years now.

Why?

I can’t even count all the reasons but let’s start with a few.

1. Search Engine Friendly – Google LOVES WordPress. That in itself should be reason enough, right? WordPress is a dynamic blog platform that automates many of the SEO functions necessary for achieving front page Google results. WordPress comes with self ping feature. This feature sends pings to different search engines every time the blog is updated calling search engine robots to your site like an invading army.

2. Fully integrates with all social media applications. When you have your WordPress site fine tuned it runs like a well oiled machine, humming along on it’s gears like it is supposed to.

3. Built in RSS feed – incredibly useful for marketing.

4. It’s a platform for interaction. With the comments section, you can interact with your prospective customers right on your website.

5. The power of plugins. Plugins are basically individual software routines that install on WordPress that can do all sorts of things for you. SEO plugins, Message board plugins, popup plugins, plugins for the easy addition of images and videos – the list is endless, providing you a way to customize your website for your needs.

6. Ease of use. Once you site is finished you can update it yourself. No more need to waste money on website designers and paying them outrageous fees for any little change you need made. WordPress comes with a built in WYSIWYG editor that makes it simple for you do do changes in a heartbeat, add new posts/pages, etc.

You can view a few of our clients websites here and you will quickly see WordPress lends itself to any design you might desire:

Clover Island Inn
Dr. Kim Chi Vu
Chick Lingo Signs
Shelly Lynott, Online Life Coach
Mental Golf Confidence

As you can see….they don’t necessarily have to look like a blog, there are thousands of themes available, although we recommend and use Thesis.

So what next?

First and foremost, you need to research your market and define your website objectives.

How will people search for you online? Are people even looking for your business type online?

You can learn more about keywords here on our ROI Page

Once you have identified your keywords, you need to define the objectives for your website.

Is it:

1. Informational only
2. A lead generator
3. Actually selling products online

At our firm, we believe #1 is old school. You simply must, at a minimum, be generating leads and building a mailing list from your website. We believe in building marketing machines in our neck of the woods. So should you!

Once you’ve defined your objectives, it’s time to get started.

How To SEO Your WordPress Site (or any website).

SEO is not an art, and is only about 10% of the puzzle to be on the front page of Google. What really counts is what we do best – the Search Engine Marketing.

But everything else being equal, proper SEO will gain you the advantage over your competition.

Here are 7 tips to help you SEO your own website. It is critical for proper SEO to make sure you use your keywords so Google knows what your website is about.

This will get you started.

1. Keywords in Title (the title shows in your browser and is in your source code in the “title” tags.

2. Make sure your keywords are in your main headline on your page, and make sure you are using H1 tags for your headline, this tells Google these are important keywords for your site.

3. Use your Keywords in the first paragraph of your website copy

4. Use your Keywords in your sub-headlines and use the H2 tags.

5. Use your Keywords in 2% of your body copy, but write for people, don’t write for the search engines. Make it sound conversational and use your keywords naturally.

6. Use your Keywords in the alt tags of your images.

7. Use your Keywords in the last sentence of your last paragraph.

Copy Is Still King

The most critical part of your site is your copy. This is where people make a critical error. If you website begins with something like this:

Hi, Welcome to our website. Here at XYZ company, we have the most qualified staff available….etc.

YOU CAN COUNT YOUR VISITOR GONE, a.k.a. Website Abandonment.

Believe it or not, people ARE NOT on your website to learn about you (at least not at first).

There are there looking for a solution to a problem or need, and you must address that need immediately by connecting with them emotionally.

People buy everything from services to products based on emotion, and nothing else.

Let me give you a few examples.

People don’t just put themselves under the knife of a plastic surgeon because they enjoy it. They spend large sums of money because they want to recapture their youth, look better, regain self confidence and self worth and look great in a bikini again.

People don’t find a good accountant to just fill out tax forms, they could do that themselves. They find a good accountant so they can save money on taxes and have more for their family and themselves, to do with as they please.

People don’t hire a landscaper just to put in a yard. They hire a landscaper in order to have a relaxing, restful and beautiful sanctuary to escape to and spend time with their family.

See all the emotions that can be addressed and played upon in those scenarios?

The problem with most websites is they scream about the business and do not speak to the emotions and needs of the visitor.

When people first visit your website, they don’t care who YOU are, they care about what’s in it for them. They need their needs addressed, need to know you understand those needs, and you need to address those needs or that visitor is gone forever.

Are you doing this with your site?

It’s imperative that you do.

Need some help? Let us ignite your internet marketing and make you a dominant force in your neighborhood.

Is Your Website Doomed Right From The Launch?

I see it everyday…

business owners wasting their money on websites that are doomed from the beginning.

Why?

Because they suffer from one of these seven deadly sins.

Before we get into the seven deadly sins of websites, let me share some things with you first.

You have less than 10 seconds to attract and keep your website visitor. That’s right, your visitor is making a judgment about your business in less time than it takes to say hello and shake hands.

How does your website say hello?

How are you grabbing their hand and keeping your visitors?

Did you know only 1 in 10 websites ever make a sale, did you know only 10% of websites get this right?

It still amazes me so many business owners get it wrong.

You need to understand this, and learn it well. Your visitor is stopping by to see you because they are looking for a solution to their problem. That’s it – period.

They are not coming to make friends, they are not coming to hear about you, they are coming because they have a problem they need solved, and if your website doesn’t make it immediately clear you have the solution to their problem – you can kiss them goodbye.

We live in a fast paced, satisfy me now world. People looking for solutions want them fast, and it’s your job to make sure you wave the solution in their face and keep them reading.

So here’s a list for you:

If your website has, does, or doesn’t do these things, you may as well take it outside and shoot it – for it’s dead anyway.

1. Is the first thing your visitor sees a big, full page flash presentation spouting the amazing things about your company?

If so, you can count your visitor gone almost instantly. Again, your visitor is not coming to hear about you, they don’t care about you, they care about a solution to their problem.

They care about one thing.

What’s In It For Me? – and that’s it!

2. Lousy Copy.

Does the copy for your website start off something like this?

“Welcome to XYZ Company.

XYX has been in business for over 20 years. We have a team of professionals, a highly trained staff…blah, blah, blah.”

Wave bye-bye to your visi-poo.

They don’t care how long you’ve been in business. You aren’t addressing their problem.

I was looking at a local bathroom site the other day. They had that exact headline as well as pretty much everything else exact….as do most businesses.

Listen, if your headline doesn’t grab people they won’t stay.

Instead of “Welcome to XYZ Bath”, how about something like this instead?

You Can Dance Naked Under a Warm Tropical Rain Everyday In Your New Custom Bath Designed Especially For You!

Tell me, which website would you stay on and read? Are you starting to see the point?

Copy is King – Your Headline and Lead In are what keeps people on your site.

Remember this simple copywriting formula. AIDA – Attention (Headline) + Interest (Lead In) + Desire (sell benefits, create emotion) + Action (Ask for order, ask for email, tell people what YOU want them to do next).

This is the formula for success in a nutshell – with any copy. Website copy, advertising copy – any copy. Now go change your website.

3. You sell features instead of benefits.

People don’t want to know the features of your product, they want to know how those features benefit them. Does your product save them time, money, make life more convenient, give them an advantage – what does it do? How does it make their life easier? How does it solve their problem?

Everything in selling evolves around creating emotion.

Did you know every buying decision is triggered by emotion?

Now you may say – Oh No – everything I buy is a logical decision. WRONG!

Everything you buy is an emotional decision whether you know it or not.

Did you know scientific studies prove it?

That’s right, scientists have discovered that people who have severe brain injuries damaging or destroying the emotional center are incapable of making a decision of any type. They can’t even decide to tie their shoes, get dressed, what to eat or when to shower. Without help, they would wander aimlessly, completely unable to care for themselves.

What does that really say? It says that decisions are triggered by emotions. That is how the brain works. People must “feel” the need or want or desire for something, then they make the decision to buy.

Sell the “benefits” first which creates the emotions, then the visitor will justify the purchase based on the “features” of your product or service.

If your copy does not evoke emotion by selling benefits your website is toast – well, actually burnt toast!

You need to crawl inside your visitors skin, feel the emotions they feel, get inside their brain. When you do your sales will go through the roof.

4. Your copy is technical versus conversational.

Huge mistake. You should write like you are talking to your best friend or someone you’ve just met in a bar. Does your copy question… lead, guide, hop… skip and  JUMP – and ask for a simple decision? Does it have personality? Is it warm?

Listen, and again – some of this goes back to number 2.

When people come into your store, do you run up to them and say – Welcome to XYZ Company – We’ve been in business 20 years, we have a staff of highly trained professionals…blah, blah, blah?

No, of course not, your customer would look at you like you were crazy and run, not walk, out the door.

You walk up to them and say something like – Hi, I’m Mary, How can I help you?

What are you looking for?

In other words – “What’s Your Problem and How Can I Offer You a Solution?”

Now, why do you do things differently on your website than you do in your store?

Why do you go from something that works, to something that doesn’t?

Quit trying to sound so high falutin’ and “professional”.

People want to be talked to like people.

People want to know what you can do for THEM!

5. I, We, Me, My, Our vs. – YOU!

Dump the personal pronouns – they don’t want to read about I, We, Me, My, Our or anything the quintiplets of doomed websites have to say. They want to know what’s in it for them, remember?

Speak to your visitor often using “You”. “You” is one of the most powerful 3 letter words in marketing, because “You” speaks directly to your customer, creating emotion by specifically addressing their problem personally.

Use “You” often in your headlines, in your copy and in your call to action. It creates desire, it creates emotion and when you make the call to action, they will answer it.

6. Try and write at a simple 4th grade level.

KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid – right up there with AIDA.

The easier it is to read, the better. After all, it’s how we all learned.

Remember these?

See Dick Run, See Dick and Jane Run, See Dick and Jane run after Spot.

Remember… ?

Keep your copy simple, and use lots of verbs. Active copy vs. passive. Did you know the greatest copywriters in the world actually do a test on their copy, counting adjectives vs. verbs? Active copy outsells 2-1 or more. The greatest ad campaigns in history used verbs at the rate of 25-30%. It engages readers, it causes them to take action.

Get rid of “that”.

Did you know that you can remove the “that” and leave the meaning the same most of the time?

Watch.

Did you know you can remove…

… see?

Get rid of unnecessary words and sentences. Clean up your copy before putting it out to the masses. After you write it, go back and simplify it. If you can replace a 6 letter word with a 4 letter word, do it.

Write in short sentences.

Use no more than 2, and at the most 3, sentences per paragraph.

Simplify and succeed!

7. WARNNG – YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ THE TWO MOST DEADLY SINS OF ALL!

Wait, you say!

Michael, you said there were 7 – but I just read number 6 – so that means there are 8 deadly sins.

Well, aren’t you clever? Actually, there are at least 42 deadly sins, but I didn’t feel like publishing a book and besides, you aren’t ready for the TRUTH.

The other part boils down to marketing. 7 sells, 8 doesn’t. People are familiar with the famous “7 Deadly Sins”, not 8 or 42. Consider it a bonus.

Here they are…

No Call to Action and No Automated Client Acquisition System.

Think about it. You finally figure out how to get traffic to your site, and have no call to action, which boils down to not having a purpose for your website at all.

What do you want your visitor to do when they land on your page?

You must tell them. They are waiting for you to tell them. They want you to tell them.

They want you to justify their emotion and give them the nudge they are waiting for -  just like you would do in your store.

Now why are we spending money to market? There is only one reason, and I am going to break it down to the ridiculous.

The only reason to market is to get a name and contact information.

Orders and Sales can only happen after you have those two primary things. As a business, those two primary things are the purpose for your being – profound!

If you are not collecting a name and email in a fully automated client acquistion system, you may as well close down your website. Depending on how good your “bribe” is, 10-70% of your visitors will give you their information.

Then your “system” follows up with them automatically, while you sleep, to sell your products or services.

And that is just the beginning. Properly automated back-end systems can automatically sell, upsell and downsale, do special self expiring one time offers, and a host of other things.

If your website isn’t harnessing the power of automation, you are not only losing money on your marketing, but also leaving thousands and thousands of dollars on the table in potential sales to people that have already told you they are interested in your product or service.

Until Next Time… To Your Success!

MichaelB

Website Designer or Internet Marketer? Which Should Be In Your Corner?

I have a friend…

…a successful business owner.

He called me one day several years ago to brag about his newly hired salesperson.

In fact, he demanded I come into his office and meet her.

Why?

Because she was jaw-dropping beautiful.

In fact, she was beyond gorgeous. A real drop dead beauty…the Venus De Milo in the flesh.

She was the type of woman you couldn’t help but stare at – one of those rare ones even other women would stare out.

Now whether that was out of admiration or jealousy, who knows?

But to say this woman was a living, breathing, walking, fantasy come-to-life is not a stretch.

In fact, I would walk into my friend’s office and he would be sitting at his desk just looking at her, totally under a spell.

However, after a couple of months, my friend noticed a slight problem.

It became apparent all of Beauty’s good genes were deposited in her “good looks” bank. There weren’t any good genes placed inside her “brain bank”.

Her gray matter was horribly lacking, and to say she was standing at the end of the line when that particular body part was passed out is putting it mildly.

In other words, after the initial excitement over her appearance wore off, he discovered that she wasn’t very bright, and the bottom line was she couldn’t sell squat.

In fact, this rare beauty couldn’t sell a shovel to a hole digger if her life depended on it.

She had a difficult time interacting with customers and building relationships with them, and my friend began receiving complaints.

Sadly, after her first 90 days, my friend had to send her strolling down the road as he watched in sadness and wondered how he could live without this lovely vision dancing around his office everyday.

So, what does this have to do with websites?

Absolutely Everything.

You see, website designers typically know nothing about marketing, selling or customer acquistion strategies.

They are from the “artistic” arena…and while they may build you a beautiful website, you must remember why you are building a website in the first place or you will end up just like my friend.

You’ll have something beautiful to look at that can’t do the job for you.

You will have a beautiful website that doesn’t market, sell or attract new customers.

I look around and see this everyday. People put their money into fancy design and fancy high priced graphics and forget the very reason they should have a website in the first place.

Remember this and remember it well.

A website is nothing more than your salesman in print. It is meant to be your online marketing machine and acquire customers for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – automatically.

Yet the majority of website designers know nothing of this because they are not trained in marketing – only in beautiful design. They think if a website looks nice, it will attract customers for you.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

People do not visit your website to look at pretty pictures, they visit your website to get a solution to their problem.

When you make it obvious to people you can provide a solution to their problem, they will become your customer.

But most websites don’t do this, most websites beat around the bush, most websites have no interactivity, most websites do not build a customer list for you on autopilot, most websites do not make it easy for people to get to know who YOU are, most websites do not make it easy for people to sample their services before making the major purchase because website designers don’t know they are supposed to.

So, who do you want in your corner?

Someone who can paint a pretty picture, or someone who can turn your website into what it is supposed to be, a supercharged selling machine?

Having trouble with your website?

Is it time to dump the beautiful woman and hire a real salesperson? Need help?

Get in touch with me, let’s turn your website into a profit center for your company and make it do what it’s supposed to do.

Until Next Time,

MichaelB