Category : Web/Agency Communication
How Mind Mapping Helps Smart Solutions’ Clients
For awhile now, our team has utilized Mind Mapping, from the tools from a great client, Mindjet. Mind Mapping has assisted in organizing client’s site architecture while easily and quickly highlighting areas of weaknesses for content structure. Recently, KM World Magazine interviewed Smart Solutions and posted an article, titled Enriching Web Sites and Engage Customers Better.
Excerpt:
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Firms that rely on advanced Internet services for their marketing, customer relations and other business processes are turning to knowledge management solutions that measure customer response to Web sites, in order to improve traffic and to identify customer preferences so they can retain them and boost sales.
Smart Solutions, a software and Web development company, was working with a local nonprofit firm that wanted to redevelop its Web site to gain new members and achieve higher attendance at events, many of them fundraisers.
“The non-profit wanted to drive traffic to the site, then have visitors engaged in a meaningful way,” says Smart Solutions President Mark Knowles. Smart Solutions was using MindManager 8 from Mindjet for meetings and to collect relevant information from the Internet and other resources. A feature of the software enabled Knowles to map the existing structure of the nonprofit organization’s Web site.
“By exporting the navigation structure of the site into MindManager, we were able to see the relationships between different [pages and elements],” Knowles says. MindManager displayed the navigation structure as different branches from the same tree, and it was easy to see that some branches weren’t grouped together properly, according to Knowles. That meant that it was difficult for users to navigate.
“The site was static. That tends to happen because Web sites are built organically, a page at a time. After a while, they become disorganized,” he says. “People would come there, but they would leave quickly.”
That’s if they found the site at all. According to Knowles, part of the organization’s problem was branding. People could find the site if they knew what to look for, but they would likely miss it if their search was less specific.
Google, Yahoo and similar services use site navigation as part of their search parameters, according to Knowles. “That’s part of the SEO [search engine optimization] puzzle,” he says.
Once the site was revamped, it was much more intuitive and easier to use, with the nonprofit organization benefiting as a result. Some wording was changed as well, helping to catch the attention of the search engines.
As a result, the site has seen a 25 percent increase in traffic and a 40 percent increase in conversions (memberships and attendance at events), Knowles says.
Full Article
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Mind Mapping, as well as the other products we use and love, help our team deliver client solutions for increased web traffic and conversions on their web sites.
Choosing the Right Business Name – from an Internet Marketing Perspective
What’s in a name? Frankly, a LOT. Any marketing and branding agency can go through the important details of naming a new business or one that is renaming from a brand perspective. It’s fascinating how business naming research is performed, tested and consumer analysis is created – in fact I totally respect it. However (and this is important), it is essential that this research is embodied from an Internet Marketing perspective.
Here’s how to protect yourself from online blindness when naming your business:
#1 – Make sure the domain name is available or easy to acquire ahead of time. Domain names, i.e. www.yourbusiness.com are the life force of branding online. Your domain availability should include these principles:
- You can “see it, spell it.” In other words, it’s simple
enough to resonate without a lot of possibility for misspellings. - Determine that most or all extensions are available. Everyone thinks of the ‘.com’ but it’s important to grab the important extensions (.net, .org, .us, etc.). If you’re a larger organization – grab as many as you can. Brand hijacking – by your competition buying those domains is not a pleasant situation to find yourself in.
- Misspellings are available. If there is a possibility of misspelling your domain name, grab all the necessary misspellings too. A random example would be: www.smithswarehouse.com – be sure to grab www.smithwarehouse.com and www.smithswearhouse.com
- Moderate length. We get the question, “Is my domain too long?” quite a bit actually. With domain names at a premium these days, it’s more important to “see it, spell it” than it is to keep it short. Moderate length of the domain is okay as long as it’s not overwhelming.
- Domain names (i.e. business names) with search specific keywords have a double advantage. Although sometimes this is not practical, it is helpful.
#2 – Evaluate the competitive landscape of your business name online. If it’s competitive, be prepared to have the resources necessary (time and money) to effectively launch an SEO campaign early. Here are some basic things to check when evaluating the competitiveness of your keyword phrases:
- Review the total number of Google results for your prospective business name. (As a very general rule of thumb – If it’s less than a total 250,000 results, and incorporate SEO from the beginning, you’ll be golden). Any words results over 1 Million – plan ahead for potentially robust ongoing SEO resources.
- Review PPC bids for your phrase, amount of PPC ads. You can use Google’s AdWords tool to evaluate the average bid amount for your business name. Anywhere over $1.00 per click mark may get expensive and is an indicator for the need of a moderately or severely competitive SEO marketplace.
- Evaluate the number of links/number of pages indexed of top results for your keyword phrases using tools such as the: Bruce Clay Toolbar, SEO Book , Yahoo Site Explorer. Plan on acquiring the same amount of links and pages of content indexed as the other top 10 listings. If this will take significant effort, that may be an indicator for a competitive marketplace.
- Evaluate whether you business name of choice has associations outside of your category. For example, a recent organization named their business the same name as a popular TV show – their rankings were buried at onset outside of local specific searches.
#3 – Check to see if your Social Media profiles are available. Social media is essential for business marketing in most all cases, so double check to see if your profiles/usernames are available. The big three would be Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – but that’s just a start. Social media profiles, such as: www.facebook.com/smartsolutions or www.twitter.com/smartsolutions are just as powerful, and just as limited, as domain names. Check profiles using www.knowem.com.
As you can see, there are many factors to determining a valid, compelling business name at the onset. Along with your branding, marketing research efforts – don’t shoot yourself in the foot before you get out of the gate by not reviewing the online marketplace of your potential business name F-I-R-S-T.
We welcome comments on example stories – please post!
By: Wendy Roe
Twitter Background Design Concepts
So, you’re a business and have taken the leap to setup Twitter account, congratulations! One element that often gets overlooked when using Twitter for business is creating a custom background image that speaks to your business objectives. (See our Smart Solutions Twitter Background…heck, follow us as well!) If you have questions on the information below or would like us to create a Twitter background for you, just give us a call, we’d be happy to assist!
Consistent with your main marketing brand and messages, your Twitter background should include:
1) Your logo/brand mark (typically set vertically)
2) Your tagline/brand message
3) Main contact information
4) Call to Action
5) Visual Image(s) that connect to your brand and are appealing
Image Considerations:
1) The national standard screen resolution is still 1024 x 768 – develop your image to meet that requirement and beyond (we recommend 1600 x 1200 pixels)
2) For a 1024 x 768 resolution, you have approximately 120 pixels on the left to work with your message (otherwise Twitter window will overlay on top).
3) For your avatar, use a 73 x 73 pixel image
4) Twitter limits background image size to 800k (although for speed, you want to stay away from the upper end of that)
How to implement a Twitter Background
5 Steps to Edit Twitter Background
A Reputable Twitter Example….
Zappos CEO on Twitter
Tips For Launching a New Website While Keeping SEO In Mind
We have potential clients call frequently with the intent of retooling their web site. The redesign is brought on typically by a multitude of reasons: “The design is old.”; “We have a new brand.” ; “We want to get found by more prospects.” Businesses and organizations that come with a goal of creating a successful balance of creative, search and content are the ones we know are serious.
Before moving or launching your new site, read the tips below and take note:
1) Define your goals
A redesign should focus on ways to impact your business, not just look pretty. What that means is every decision, from design layout, site architecture and SEO should be focused on your goals. Determine your goals in two ways:
The first is to determine what kind of traffic you would like to drive to your site.
Keyword research applies here.
Second, determine what you would like your visitor to do when they land on your site.
Conversion planning applies here. Conversion planning is a guide to the hierarchy of your site so that you guide your visitor to the conversion point (be it a page to read, a product to purchase, a form filled out, a phone call, etc.) and take them through a preplanned path to meet your goal – more leads coming through the door.
2) SEO Assest Inventory
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in launching a new site is to not protect your previous and current marketing efforts that have brought you awareness and conversions to date. In other words: great content, keywords you’re ranking with, inbound links to designated landing pages (and all important pages), successful conversion paths. This is SOOO important.
Many web design experts miss this when the design focus is more important than internet marketing. Discuss with your web designer and developer a plan to setup 301 redirects from your previous indexed URLs (the pages Google and other engines know about) to your new site structure.
3) Setup your Site Architecture To Match The Needs of Your Audience (both Human and Spider)
I’ve heard the saying that “spiders are like 4 year olds with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).” With the growing statistic, even of your human audience, of having a total of 7 seconds to make your first impression online, you can see that both site visitors need the ability to consume information quickly. A spider needs to see keyword directed content in the HTML of your page (like meta data for each page and content of the page as close to the top as possible, lean-mean code basically) – a human needs to quickly navigate and consume content specific to their interest. Setting up the site to create strategic landing pages, then drill down to topic specific pages through links (i.e. siloing) is a helpful advantage to delivering clean, clear content to both audiences.
4) Plan for an Ongoing Content Strategy
One of the best ways to grow awareness and traffic to your site and convert visitors is to develop a strategy for ongoing development for content. Quality, UNIQUE content (i.e. do not copy/paste from other sites) is king to attracting your audience (both human and engine spider) and keep them coming back for more. Build content, build your business faster.
Blogs have the history for frequently updated content, and spiders know it….a blog on your website is good. Not a blog as your website…I said a blog on your website. (future post)
5) Have Web Analytics In Place; Monitor Results
The only way to know whether you are satisfying your goal (and delivering results to your business to make up for the investment!) is to track and monitor your increase in visitors and conversions. As a general rule, if your end result is too design focused, you’ll see fewer leads; If it’s too search focused, you’ll see fewer conversions. With balance in mind, results you will have…your boss will thank you for it! Read more on Analytics
6) Test, Test and Test
“Oh testing, how we love thee.” What a way to determine what’s working and what’s not? Become friends with Google Website Optimizer. Testing is like a focus group, a controlled science experiment (9th grade science comes to mind). Testing demonstrates whether the influence your agency, design firm, neighbor or web developer offered is good advice. Let your visitors tell you what works best for them…then adapt 
Bend Oregon SmartGroup Adds Valuable Insights to Website Success
SmartGroup is a local usergroup setup for our Smart Solutions clients and prospective clients. We’ve covered monthly topics such as: SEO Basics, Newsletter Best Practices, Everything Images, Local Search, etc. Throughout the presentations, now offered in a both a day and evening session, we offer insights to best practices and tips and tricks to help our customers succeed.
Although our clients get the benefit of using the advice within our system, truly the SmartGroup is valuable to anyone in Bend, Oregon looking for some additional information about building successful websites and is open to come to a presentation. SmartGroups are free and beverages and snacks are provided!
Since we are on the phone daily answering client’s questions for best practices, we decided to bring education into a group setting and have the opportunity for our clients to learn from each other and discuss various web topics.
So, join us for the SmartGroup (the last Tuesday of every month) and position your business at the forefront of your competition. Signup now or view upcoming topics online!
The Dance of Finding an Internet Marketing Partner
For most companies, small and large, Internet Marketing (typically referred to as Search Engine Marketing or SEM) has become the most important aspect of their marketing plan and of their business livelihood in general.
So how do you ensure you’ve got the right agency on your side? Besides the most obvious; check references, here are a few guidelines that will help you find the right dance…uh…Internet Marketing partner:
1) Check out their moves. The partner you choose should have all the moves, and be able to dance to a variety of music. They should have a working knowledge of all components of Search Engine Marketing, including organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-per-Click (PPC), link building, Social Media Marketing (SMM), and conversion (sale or lead) enhancement experience.
There is so much interplay between the various disciplines of SEM that if you choose an agency that is not well-rounded and well-versed in all the components, you run the risk of being inefficient with your dollars and missing out on many cross-functional opportunities. For example, if your agency is only focusing on your PPC campaign, then you miss out on all the long-term effects of Search Engine Optimization and ranking organically in the top search engine results.
The latest trends in user behavior suggest that most people searching online do their research through organic search listings, but then make an actual purchase through PPC. If you are only engaged in one of these channels, you may be losing out on a great deal of sales.
2) Daily practice ensures a great performance. Dedication turns a social hip hopper into a competitive pro. Look for an agency that is dedicated to Search Engine Marketing. Dedication means that the agency has committed expert resources to this service offering and that the people working on your project will be focused on your overall business, marketing, and sales goals.
Internet Marketing is a constantly changing field, with new research and market modifications monthly, if not weekly. Ask if they have a dedicated Internet Marketing team. What do they do to stay on top of the industry changes? Why do they think Internet Marketing is important?
3) They can optimize, but can they tango? They may have some decent moves, but when it comes down to it, do they know the dance? How much do they know outside of SEM? Do they have experience effectively tying Internet Marketing strategies and methods into a web site that meets your business goals?
Learn about the agency’s experience working with web designers and developers. Do they understand how to interact with your developer or internal IT team, or your marketing department? Are their recommendations in step with web development best practices and usability trends? Best case scenario – your agency will have all of these disciplines in house; offering you the best in single source marketing methods.
4) An intimate dance builds the fire. You want a trust worthy partner that will dance close and build the heat. Meet with the agency in person, or at the very least converse on the phone. Do they explain things in a way that makes sense to you and helps you truly understand what their services offer? Are they excited to help you learn about Internet marketing? Do they make an effort to get to know your company and your industry? Will they be there when you need it?
5) Back that thang up – the bottom line. They may know how to get down and “drop it like it’s hot”; but will they really deliver in the end? As you are getting to know the agency, make sure they’re focused on your business goals. Are they interested in learning about other aspects of your business? Be wary of any agency that talks only about “getting you a #1 ranking”. While it’s great to rank well on the search engines, no one can guarantee a position, and there is much more to succeeding online than a top search ranking.
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