Online Marketing: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

 

I love old Clint Eastwood western movies.  They were always on TV when I was growing up and I would instantly get sucked into a ~3 hour movie, along with all those commercials.  Hey, I figure there were worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I've probably watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly about 10 times by now.  To be honest I can't always tell which one of Clint's movies I'm watching until they reintroduce it after a commercial.  They all include gunfights, signature one liners from Clint, and some timely, precision tobacco spitting.  My kind of movie. :)

Even if you haven't watched the movie, you can probably guess there's a good guy, a bad guy, and an ugly guy.  I'll spare you the details and jump right into how this relates to online marketing.  In my experience, online marketing plays all 3 of those roles: Good, Bad, and Ugly.

 

 

The Good

 

The good is usually what draws businesses to online marketing in the first place: It's affordable.  In some cases, it's downright free.  For example, any business looking for local customers can set up and optimize a Google+ Local page and within about a month get free exposure in Google's local business results.  No upfront fees.  No ongoing fees.  No fancy software to learn.  Just free exposure when local customers are searching for you.  Hard to beat free when it comes to driving new business!

Even advertising is usually more affordable online versus offline.  With Google AdWords you only pay per click so there is no big upfront investment like there is with TV, print or radio ads.

Of course, affordability isn't the only reason online marketing is good, but I think that gets the point across just fine.  Now let's look at the bad...

The Bad

The bad news is that online marketing is always changing!  Just when you think you've mastered search engine optimization (SEO), Google will go and change their algorithm.  Or just when you've built up a hefty Facebook audience, Zuckerberg decides to tweak their EdgeRank algorithm so you have to pay to get your posts in front of your prospects and customers.

Scroll through this list of Google algorithm changes to see just how frequently the search engine landscape changes.  Trust me, it's nearly impossible to keep up, and I do this for a living.  There's just no way a business owner can stay on top of all the trends and best practices without help.

And Google is just the tip of the iceberg... Have you looked at all the options available with online marketing?  Talk about overwhelming.  There's SEO, local SEO, search advertising, display advertising, Facebook advertising, email marketing, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, press release services, website conversion optimization, tracking and website analytics.  I could go on and on but you get the point.

Now, let's turn to the ugly side of online marketing...

The Ugly

First, there's the glut of information available.  There are books, blogs, articles, videos, and podcasts published online daily.  Some of it is sound advice.  Some of it is applicable for certain types of businesses.  And some of it outdated, or simply inaccurate.  Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible for a business owner to know who or what to pay attention to, which leads to poor marketing decisions.

Second, there are many low quality (and even unethical in my opinion) online marketing providers.  For example, I've talked to many business owners who paid and lost thousands to an SEO company that guaranteed #1 rankings.   My spam folder is full of these prospecting emails so I know how tempting it can be for businesses.  However, the reality is that no one can guarantee #1 rankings. As soon as you see or hear that phrase, run away, hang up, or click delete. That's a red flag that you're not dealing with a reputable company.

7 Ideas to Generate More Leads From Your Website

If you’re looking for ideas to generate more leads from your website, then you’ve come to the right place.  In this article, I’ll walk through 7 tactics that nearly every business can use that will convert your website from a passive brochure into a 24/7 lead generating machine.

Before we get into the tactics, it’s important to understand there are two very different types of website visitors:

    Buyers – Buyers are visiting your website to learn more about your product or service in order to make a buying decision in the near future.  They know what they’re looking for and are are ready to pull the trigger as long as your product or service fits their criteria.

    Browsers – Browsers are visiting your website to learn more about your product or service, but they aren’t ready to buy.  They are interested, but don’t know if they really need what you’re offering.

Of course we all want more buyers, but the reality at any given time is that the vast majority of your website visitors are browsers.  This is a key insight that leads us to one of the most important jobs of your website, which is to capture contact information from as many visitors as possible.  That way you can follow up with both buyers and browsers until they are finally ready to buy.

With this in mind, let’s dive into the tactics to capture more of your visitors’ contact information.  We’ll start with the basic tactics and move our way to the more advanced tactics at the end.

1. Add a General Contact Form

This may come as a surprise, but I still see websites that don’t have a general contact form.  I guarantee these websites are missing out on potential sales from visitors that would have submitted the contact form with basic buying questions.

For example, many people do research during non-business hours when calling is not an option.  In this case, it’s easier to complete a website contact form to get an answer to a question that could ultimately lead to a purchase.

If you do not have a general contact form, then this is one of the easiest ways to start generating more leads from your website.


2. Add Product or Service Specific Forms

The next step once you have your general contact form set up is to create product or service specific forms.  For example, on your product or service description page, add a “request a quote” or “request a demo” or “schedule an appointment” form to capture the contact information from buyers interested in that particular product or service.

The leads from these more specific forms will tend to be higher quality and further along the buying process compared to leads from your general contact form.


3. Add a Lead Magnet

Once you have the first two types of forms installed on your website, then it’s time to switch gears and focus on capturing contact information from all of those browsers.  Again, browsers aren’t ready to buy right now so they are not likely going to request a quote or ask a buying question on your general contact form.

Therefore, we need to take a different approach by using what’s called a “lead magnet.”  A lead magnet is something valuable (information, coupons, access to a tool) that you can offer on your website for free, in exchange for contact information.  For example, our homepage lead magnet is the Internet Marketing Survival Guide.  Plus, we offer other free tools like an SEO checklist and an AdWords checklist.

As you can see in these examples, the key is to offer something relevant and valuable to your target market in exchange for at least an email address so you can follow up.


4. Use a 2-Step Checkout Process

If you have an e-commerce website, then this is a great way to start generating more leads immediately.

As you probably know, every e-commerce website suffers from shopping cart abandonment, which is when buyers go through the process of adding products to their shopping cart, but don’t end up completing the order.  On many e-commerce websites, the order form is the last step and it’s also the only form that collects the customer’s contact information.  Therefore, when shoppers abandon their carts, you have no contact information to follow up. That is the case, unless you use a 2-step checkout process.

Simply add a step right before the final checkout page to collect a little information like name and email address.  Then after the 1st step is complete, the customer is redirected to the final checkout page to complete the order.  If the customer does not complete the final form, then you can use the contact information you collected on the 1st step to follow up and close the sale.


5. Add Online Chat

I’m sure everyone is familiar with online chat.  There are two types of chat that you can use: Live and Automated.  Live chat is obviously when a live person is chatting with the website visitor.  Automated chat is pre-programmed to answer frequently asked questions from visitors, which can save you time and money (but also can frustrate visitors that have more unique questions).

Generally, I recommend businesses test out live chat during regular business hours as yet another way to capture contact information from leads.


6. Add an Exit Popup

Have you ever tried to leave a website and you were quickly presented with a popup window explaining a special offer?  That’s an exit popup.

Exit popups are a last ditch effort to capture contact information from a visitor about to leave your website (possibly forever).  For example, you can use a lead magnet exit popup to present a free offer or a special coupon, you can offer live chat to get the visitor’s questions answered, or you can offer a free quote or demo.


7. Add a Lightbox

The final tactic is to use what’s called a “lightbox.”  A lightbox is the more user friendly version of the old pop-up window.  With a lightbox, the form is presented on top of the webpage the visitor was reading.  This is a more advanced tactic because you need to be careful about where you use the lightbox and how frequently the lightbox appears for visitors.  Obviously it’s important to balance the pros of capturing contact information versus the cons of annoying potential buyers.