We handle
email marketing for quite a few clients here at Designer Websites - this involves designing each individual campaign and, once the client has signed off on our design, converting and sending the mailer to that client's customer base.
Having done this every week for several years, we now have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't when it comes to email marketing campaigns. Here are some top tips from our professional web design team:
- Keep your prime content above the fold. People get a lot of emails nowadays, and if your customers have to scroll down to find out why you're emailing them...well, they won't. They'll delete your message and move on to the next one. That doesn't mean you can't put anything under the fold, but you should definitely put the 'meat' of your mailer right at the top if possible.
- Brand strongly and consistently. You want to make sure that the recipients of your email know who it's coming from. You also want to make sure that, if they click through to your site, the transition from email to web page is as smooth as possible. Consistent branding is essential for both of these goals - make sure your company name and logo are exactly the same in your mailers as on your website, and make sure that they're prominently displayed in both places too.
- Use your best images. If you're promoting products in your mailer, make sure you've got decent photos of them. Images are what make people click, and the better your images are, the better your CTR (click-through rate) will be.
- Don't go overboard. There's always the temptation to cram as many different products and offers into a mailer as possible, but with this sort of thing, less is almost always more. A single clearly-stated, well-presented promotion will elicit a better response from your customers than a confusing, overcrowded jumble.
- Check your landing pages. What page(s) are you linking to from your mailer? Is the content of your email campaign an accurate reflection of the corresponding content on your website? If not, you'll probably see a lot of people clicking through to your site and then leaving right away because they couldn't find what the email promised them.
- Put some thought into your subject line. The subject line is the single most important element of any email marketing campaign - after all, if nobody's interested in your subject line, they won't even bother to open your email and see what you've sent them. Do your best to write something that will grab the attention of your customers without looking too much like spam. Oh, and be sure to triple-check your spelling - nothing will kill the recipient's trust more quickly than a typo in the subject line!
Would you like our professional web design team to handle your email campaigns for you? Click here to request a quote, or give us a call on 01446 339050!
PPC simply stands for Pay Per Click, a form of internet marketing that you only pay for when one of your ads is clicked. It's a great way of attracting potential customers or service users to your website instead of waiting to be found amongst the millions of organic search engine results.
There are many different types of PPC around these days. It is most commonly seen on large search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo; however, it has more recently spread to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. While social media PPC takes a different format, the fundamentals are the same: you only pay for the ad when somebody clicks on it.
For the purpose of this blog post, we're going to look at the basics of search engine PPC. Search engine pay-per-click advertising essentially allows you to bid for your ads to appear at the top of Google's results page so that, when someone types in a search query that is relevant to your service or products, your ads will be triggered.
For example, if you need to buy a sash for your friend's hen night, you might head to google.co.uk and enter the phrase hen night sash.
After entering the search query, you will be taken to the search results page, and this is where you will find adverts and organic listings for companies who are trying to solve your problem. As you can see from above, the first three listings (framed in red) are adverts, with Google Shopping results on the top right and more adverts underneath them.
Note: The results framed in green are Google's organic listings - this is where our SEO team will help you to appear!
At this point, you spot an advert from a company (
Henstuff) selling
Hen Night Sashes from £0.75. When you click on this advert, you will be taken to that company's website, and they will have to pay a small charge to Google.
A lot goes into building a successful AdWords campaign. First, you must research the keywords that are most relevant to your business; then, you must select the right keywords for your campaign (ideally, you want to target cheap keywords that will attract lots of customers to the right stage of the buying process). After that, you must organise these keywords into relevant ad groups and create landing pages on your website that are properly optimised to drive conversions. If done properly, all of this work won't go unrewarded - a carefully-targeted campaign will see you pay less every time your adverts are clicked, meaning higher profits for your company.
Would you like to try pay-per-click advertising for your company? Here at Designer Websites, we have a team of PPC experts who will help you to get the best possible results from Google AdWords and other platforms. Get in touch today!
Google once again shocked the internet world by releasing its +1 button which features as a part of its paid and organic search results. Following in the footsteps of the Facebook Like button, Google’s +1 button is incorporates user sentiment into the search results, but many question the thinking and intent behind this addition to the search results.
How does the Google +1 Button Work?
The thinking is that people respect the opinion of friends and colleagues over and above strangers or marketers – hence word of mouth has worked well for decades. Now Google want to cash in on this trend by allowing your friends and contacts to recommend websites and content in the search results by adding a +1 to that site. So, if you are signed into a Google account you will be able to see all the sites your contacts have +1’d and likewise they will be able to see those sites you +1.
Where does the button feature?
The Google +1 button features on both organic and paid search results. Google have also produced a +1 button that can be placed within your website’s pages which allows visitors to recommend your site without having to leave it. At Designer Websites we have already begun implementing this button into a number of website designs making it much easier for our client’s customers to share products, news and special offers.
How will this effect SEO?
The best indication we have so far as to how this new button effects search results comes from the following statement from Google, “We’ll also start to look at +1’s as one of the many signals we use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, including social signals from other services. For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality over time.” Those sceptical about this new development cite the opportunity for the button to be manipulated through false Google accounts to distort rankings. No doubt Google have thought hard on this and will be monitoring such behaviour closely.
For additional information and details on Google’s +1 button visit Google’s Webmaster Blog.
Here are designer Website’s top 5 onsite conversion tips:
1. Focus on your call to action – firstly, make sure you have a call to action; any webpage that leaves the customer thinking ‘now what?’ has failed and is costing you sales. Make sure every page has a crystal clear call to action, or even better, make sure the call to action is visible even as the visitor scrolls down your page. Test the wording of your call to action; would ‘send me information’ work better than ‘send query’? Use different call to actions based on the stage the visitor is at in their buying journey; someone who clicks ‘send me information’ will only just be starting out on their buying journey, whereas someone who clicks ‘request call-back’ is ready to buy.
2. Un-clutter your message – is there too much noise on your page, is your message being drowned? Ask yourself, what is the purpose of this page and what do I want those who visit it to do? Now make it as easy and clear as possible for visitors to complete that action. If you place too much information or too many options in front of people they will freeze or get lost.
3. Make use of images – images can be incredibly powerful for instantly conveying your message. Images can be highly emotive and help position your service or product in the visitor’s mind. Test where you place the image and what image you use. People connect with images of other people better than inanimate objects.
4. Match intent with content – potential customers will have found your page for a reason; they want something and expect your page to provide it. If your marketing funnels are set up correctly, those people landing on your product page will expect to see information relating to that product, so ensure all content on that page speaks to the visitor’s need, if it doesn’t then remove it.
5. Make no assumptions, test everything – this is the key to onsite conversions; whatever you decide to do test it first. Testing is the key to onsite conversions. Just as you would test new PPC ads against a control ad you must test one call to action against another to see which performs best. Once you have a winner come up with another version and try to beat it.
Improving your onsite conversions is an ongoing and timely process but if you are serious about making it big through the web, it’s an essential part of your online marketing package. Here at Designer-Websites.co.uk we can provide you with a head start as all our website designs take into account proven onsite conversions factors, ensuring your new website instantly outperforms the competition.
