MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Some Tips For Making Contact Forms Easier
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I accept that it is easier for me to experiment with contact forms than most people simply because of my experience. A lot of people I speak to simply say “I know a bit of HTML but don’t know how to do forms” or something similar.

This is a shame really because inevitably, it means that it gets done instead by someone who might not be the person who sees the leads coming in. Consequently, the contact forms very often are quirky and don’t offer a particularly good user experience.

So let me make a couple of suggestions.

First Suggestion : There now exist lots of scripts and solutions that make it easier than ever to make contact forms and you can have all the buttons and drop-downs and data-checking that you ever want.

You won’t need to know any code as they’re “drag n drop” and are a breeze to use.

I personally still write my own but that’s simply more from habit than anything else. My suggestion would be to simply type in the phrases “Contact Form” into Google and see which companies are offering the quickest, cheapest and easiest solutions.

Ironically, Google itself can help you here. If you checkout the spreadsheet component of Google Docs at http://docs.google.com you will see that you can make a simple(or complicated) form within minutes and the results are neatly tabulated making for easy review.

Simply Click “New” then “Form” and you’re away. You can display the results online or have them emailed to you. Talking of email, you can of course include a form made like this within an email and Google will do it all for you.

Second Suggestion : Offer the questions in Bite-Sized Chunks. Naturally, this only really applies to a questionnaire on a website rather than an email but you get what I mean.

I have personally noticed a marked increase in my own conversion rate when I use multiple pages to ask all the questions I need answered, rather than having them all on one page.

T here’s a couple of reasons for this (I believe). Firstly, when someone sees half a dozen questions instead of (say) thirty all in one go, they’re a lot less daunted.

Secondly, when someone has completed half a dozen questions, they’ve made a commitment. It’s a lot easier to get someone to finish something they’ve already started than to get them to start something in the first place!

So, my suggestion is that as a general rule, get the very basic contact information first so that if you do experience user-abandonment, you can contact them later if you want to – either with an autoresponder or simply calling them up on the phone.

Anyway, it is essential that you do have the ability to change and tweak your contact form because this is the very point at which people interact with your website and represents a huge opportunity to increase your sales and leads by optimising it for conversion.

Loads of times I see a great website that looks a though it has cost a fortune yet which has lost the ball at the last minute by using an inappropriate form. Waste!

If you’d like some more help in this or any other area, checkout my quick-consultancy service.

It’s a very inexpensive way to see how to rapidly boost your leads and sales.

Checkout http://www.mklink.com/getstarted today or call 01454 852414

’till Next Time,

Mike Knight.
Internet Marketing Advice & Training
for Businesses since 1998.

Show Your Face!
Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips

Increasing Your Conversion Rate with Personal “Stuff”

Ok – I admit it. I’m not exactly God’s gift and I don’t suppose I’ll win any awards for my looks any time soon. But I DO have a picture of me on my website, near the call to action. And no, it’s not supposed to scare people off!

Why do I do this?
Because people buy from people. Studies have shown that having an image on your website of the person or people that the visitor is likely to deal with can help with increasing the conversion rate.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t get loads of women calling me and asking me out on a date but it has increased my conversion rate and so it’s staying put – just like the ‘annoying’ hover ad.

I’m also playing around with Youtube as well although I have to admit it’s more of a challenge to make me look anything human

What OTHER people do.
Back in the old days before I knew better, I simply had a generic looking website with library pictures and the usual “guff” about my business.

And yes, it looked great and professional – certainly much better than the current site.

But it didn’t work.
Because my business isn’t generic. And neither is yours. And neither are your customers.

Your business is made of people and it’s the people that MAKE the business.

When people visit your website, do they see who they’ll be dealing with or do they have to imagine what you’re like?

All things being equal, who would you rather buy from…
Someone you “know” or someone you don’t know?

Now I could always be wrong of course. If you really don’t want pictures of yourself or your staff on your website or it’s really not appropriate for whatever reason then that’s entirely up to you.

And it may be that in some cases it doesn’t actually benefit your conversion rate, although I think you should still test it and make sure.

But like I said, people buy from people. This is why I’m writing this email to you from me.

It’s not generic. I haven’t used silly language and tried to make it sound like I had a team of copywriters working on it. I have staff and could easily outsource this to them. But I want this email to come from ME to YOU – simple as that.

And yes, I make mistakes and typos and all sorts of mistakes and I probably could make it look more professional.

But then I’d never get around to it and you’d never get these tips.

So, what am I trying to say?
Make your website speak to people directly and not basically try and be a technical manual written for people in the third person. Show people who you are and who they’re dealing with and let them know that your business is run by people.

I’m pretty confident that there will be a backlash soon against companies with telephone switchboards and “press 1 for this” or “press 7 for that”.

Imagine this. Ringing up your bank or insurance company or broadband provider or whatever and knowing you’d speak directly to a person and not only that, you’d know their name and what they look like BEFORE you spoke to them.

Wouldn’t YOU prefer that rather than getting automated or generic garbage service?

So that’s what I’m suggesting you do for your website and internet marketing.
And more than likely, you’ll get more people contacting you.

Test it and if I’m wrong and it doesn’t work for your particular business then what have you lost?

If you’d like more information about anything, simply call 01454 852414 or try our internet marketing training system here at http://www.mklink.com/freetrial

’till next time,

Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Traffic, Conversion and Retention
Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/
for more internet marketing tips

Breaking Down Your Sales Process

Whenever I speak to someone about their website or their internet marketing, it helps me to know which part of the marketing we’re talking about, so I can instantly think of suitable strategies and techniques.

Just a like a decent golfer knows exactly which club to use for a certain shot, I have certain ‘tools’ which I know can be used in certain situations.

The reason I say this is because most people don’t really understand it all and so it all seems a bit of a blur and consequently confusing.

So, I apologise in advance if this next bit sounds bit silly and simplistic but I think there will be a few people that have an “Aha” moment.

Let’s imagine that your job for the week is to catch butterflies and put them in a big jar. At the end of the week, the amount of butterflies you’ll have collected will be related to how many you caught in your net, how many escaped from your net and how many stayed put in the keep jar.

If you’re hunting butterflies in a field where few butter files are to be found, you’ll struggle. Conversely, if you’re in a field with lots of flowers and things that they like – in the summer, you should have plenty of them. This is the metaphor for visitor traffic.

You can run around all day swiping at butter files but if the holes in the net are too big, most will slip through. This is the same as your conversion rate. (Most people spend a fortune swiping butter files only to let them slip through the net)

Lastly, you need to have a look at the butterflies in your jar. If you have left the lid off, a number will escape, making the whole process futile. This is equivalent to your retention process.

Like I said, baby talk it may be but it does at least illustrate the three areas that every business needs to address to be successful, although most don’t simply because they only focus on one or at best two areas and then waste their time and money because it’s not a combined effort.

Increasing traffic - this can be done by SEO, PPC, Affiliation, Article writing, banners, microsites, advertising, viral marketing, social media – you name it.

Increasing conversion. This can be done with web analytics, trial & error, usability testing & focus groups & good old fashioned good design.

Increasing retention : Upselling, cross selling, regular communication, loyalty initiatives, customer feedback and so on.

So you see, when you break your marketing down into these three areas and put together a plan for working on each, and measuring the results over a period of time, you’ll catch more butterflies (customers). And you’ll sell more to them and retain them for longer.

Like I keep saying, it’s not complicated. You simply need to learn it and apply it consistently.

If you’d like more information about anything, simply call 01454 852414 or try our internet marketing training system here at
http://www.mklink.com/freetrial

’till next time,

Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Commenting on Blogs and Forums
Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips

A Great Way to Make Yourself Part of the Community.
I often get asked by people what they should put on their blog.

By the way – if you haven’t got a blog then get one!
Contact us at http://www.mklink.com/contact2.php if you need help.

Anyway, the simple answer is to do some research first. Find out what other people are doing. Given that the internet is a big place and there are lots of people blogging away, try and find a niche about your products and services that you can write about on a continual basis via your blog or Twitter or whatever.

That’s yet another reason I mentioned recently it’s a good idea to focus on niches.

Whilst you’re in your ‘research’ phase and looking at other peoples’ blogs, you can start to see who the real players are. Blog Search Engines like technorati.com help you to find the categories of blogs that you’re looking for.

Commenting on other blogs.

After a while, it’s a good idea to start commenting on other people’s blogs.
When I say commenting, I mean adding comments or questions of value – not simply trying to get links back to your own site or blog as often there’s a no-follow tag anyway.

The idea is that in the ‘blogosphere’ life is usually less formal than on regular business websites. This means bloggers are more receptive to linking and helping each other out.

This policy of adding value to other people’s blog in your industry will be repaid when you have your on blog and you know other bloggers that would want to link to your blog because you are giving information that will be beneficial to their visitors as well.

Most people do all of this the other way round. They have a business selling mortgages or business loans or office equipment and all they do is blog about their stuff – a complete waste of time for the most part as there’s no leverage.

Far better to be king of the blogs in a small niche and then be an integral part of the blogging community and so gain the leverage of other people’s information and networking.

Leverage Benefits of Blog Research

Of course, the additional benefit of researching other people’s blogs and commenting on them and in turn updating your own blog is that you’ll have plenty of material pre-written for your email communications and also fuel for article directories if that’s part of your strategy as well.

You can make huge improvements to your web marketing simply by getting the right advice.

Here’s a challenge for you.

Here’s how you can instantly and dramatically improve your web profits for less than the cost of a tank of petrol in your average car.

See how at http://www.mklink.com/intro.php today.

’till next time,

Mike Knight.
MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips