So you’re doing paid search marketing—that’s very well and good. At a time when the competition for views and interaction with potential and existing customers is at its all-time high, getting a boost where it matters most is the clear way to go. Truth be told, your efforts on pay-per-click (PPC) is often only as good as your landing page. Without the latter, you may be spending on clicks that will never bring conversion or any solid return for your company or brand.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a standalone page—meaning it can be separate from your website—that users “land on” once they click on your ads. Its main purpose is to gather your potential customers’ information or entice them to perform a specific action that’s beneficial to you. Here are some specific reasons they are crucial to your paid search campaign:

1. It helps convert potential into paying customers. When users click on an ad offering a 50% discount on shoes, they do so because they want to obtain the perk you are giving away. They want something from you. If your ad led them to your website, users would most likely end up confused at all the extra details. By using a landing page, you can focus their attention on how they can convert into actual customers. Do you want them to leave you their email address? Do you want them to click on something? The call-to-action on your landing page will say so clearly, so your potential customers know exactly what to do.

2. It helps you gather leads. You can incorporate into your landing page specific information fields that would allow you to capture details about users, whether it’s their name, telephone number, or email address, among other pertinent details.

You can use these details to interact with them through targeted emails, newsletters, and promotions, to name a few. What makes landing pages better than many lead-generation strategies, such as cold calling, is that users’ actions are entirely voluntary.

They wanted something you offered so they gave you their details wholeheartedly. They were not surprised or tricked into doing so. If they do not convert immediately, then you can nurture them so they become actual customers later on.

3. It delivers the information your customers need. Imagine yourself clicking on an ad that promises huge discounts in three easy steps, only to find yourself in a page detailing the company’s history, their advantages over their competition, and a list of all their products. Such an experience would definitely leave you feeling frustrated and a little betrayed. This is how your potential customers would feel if you led to your site once they click on your ad. A landing page will allow you to filter out unnecessary information so that users see only those they need. This way, they are not overwhelmed and are instead focused on what you want them to do.

4. It lets you get to know your market better. Paid search and landing pages can also be used as tools for market research. Testing is one of the most crucial steps in any online marketing effort and by creating variations in the content of both your ads and your landing page, you can ascertain how users respond to specific messages, offers, and even elements of your campaign.

By gauging their response or how well they receive your landing page, you can obtain answers for questions relevant to your business. Do users want more discounts? Do they want other products to go on sale, too? Compared to more proactive methods of research, such as surveys and questionnaires, testing through your landing page gathers organic data because your respondents go to you not to answer your questions, but because they need something from you. What you get is a raw insight into your market’s behavior and tendencies.

5. It lets you determine if your efforts are working. In the world of online marketing, there is no such thing as a single solution for all problems. It is for this reason that you need to test if your methods are working or if you need to tweak them further. By gauging how users behave in your landing pages, you will know if your entire campaign is working as intended.

Are you generating enough traffic? Are you converting enough people? You will also know which parts of the page or which ad copy is generating engagement. Does “Buy Now!” work better than “Purchase Now!” in getting clicks? Does short content work better than long ones? With the right tools connected to your landing page, you can obtain a lot of insights into how effective your campaign is.

6. It allows a better understanding of the funnel. When you have a full grasp of your market’s journey, you can take steps to optimize their experience. By creating different variations of your PPC ads and their corresponding landing page, you can gauge where your customers are in the sales funnel.

You can fashion your landing pages’ content to address your users’ needs, whether they are searching for products or validating their options. By studying how they behave in your landing pages, you’d have a better idea of how you can make their journey easier and more productive for you.

7. It can be used to boost other online endeavors. All factors considered, landing pages can become indispensable tools in any online marketing effort. Whatever insights you learn can be applied to ensure that your next campaigns are more attuned to the needs and nature of your market.

Needless to say, this doesn’t mean you’ll discover everything you need the first time, but as you go through your own journey as a marketer, you will gain an even clearer understanding of your market through your landing pages, among others.

Your landing page is a great way to ensure that users are being converted into actual customers through your PPC ads, but it can be a lot more than that. Used properly, it can be a vital tool in creating winning online marketing campaigns that benefit not just you and your brand, but also your prospective and existing customers.

Need help creating landing pages?

If you could do one thing to drastically improve your lead generation efforts, it would be to use landing pages on your website. Make the task easier for you. Get a free quote by calling us at 480-970-4688 or by filling out our online form.

Call tracking: An Overview

Are you baffled by the low numbers on your digital advertisements, but your balance sheet says you are actually bringing in more business than ever before? One of the common challenges digital marketers face is that they are unable to pinpoint exactly where each conversion comes from. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Google Adwords, display ads, social media ads, and even other forms of digital advertising may give you an idea where the conversion is coming from. However, the results can be inconclusive particularly when offline factors are added in the equation. For instance, how many sales did you actually make when someone called your phone number and asked for your services?

All this can change with call tracking.

Defining call tracking

If you want to boost your online ranking and get better SEO traction, you are probably running several advertising campaigns that each target different keywords. Doing so will help you find out what keywords your target audience is searching for, and will, therefore, help you customize your campaigns to respond to this need. You will also determine which ads are not working for you, and you can terminate them easily without investing more money in it.

Why Call Tracking Matters

The same goes for call tracking. It is the act of assigning a specific phone number to a single ad — for example, a different phone number per keyword — which will help you find out exactly where the business is coming from. You would no longer have to ask callers “Hi, where did you hear about us?” since you would know immediately which advertisement led them to call your landline. You would, therefore, have a more concrete, more holistic idea of exactly how profitable each advertisement is for your company.

This works for the simple reason that today’s consumers are heavy mobile users. They search for businesses on the web or on social media, and if they are intrigued by something, they call that number. This often happens even though there is a digital equivalent to a salesperson — that is, customers can put items they want in a cart and just pay when they have completed the transaction. If they want clarification, they are more likely to call a number instead of using the built-in help assistant.

Call Tracking in the Hospitality Industry

If you are still not convinced, take a look at the hospitality industry. While most hotels have online bookings and have competitive prices thanks to websites that can compare their rates, the reality is that most customers would still use the phone to confirm their bookings. If you rely solely on digital advertising to determine where your leads and conversions are coming from, then you would lose the actual figures you should have when you factor in the phone conversions.

How it works

When companies decide to use call tracking to generate leads and get better insight regarding their digital campaigns, they normally tap firms that offer call tracking systems. These systems enable companies to instantly create local or toll-free numbers that they can then associate with each campaign. These numbers are assigned labels, nicknames, and tags so that they can be easily tracked.

The 360-Degree View Process

What happens next gives digital marketers a unique 360 view of the entire conversion. The numbers are assigned to specific advertisements – for example, social media ads, radio ads, and even print ads – and when a caller uses a specific number to inquire, then the number would report to the system. This then gives you a good idea of which ad source works the best. What’s more, you can optimize the system so that your metrics can include call time, so you can determine which phone calls actually led to a sale, and geolocation report, so that you would know where your customers are.

Cost-Effectiveness and Implementation

What makes this even more intriguing is that purchasing multiple numbers is actually very affordable. You also do not need different landlines for each number – all can be routed to a central number, the only difference is that the calls would be coming from different sources.

The benefits of call tracking

Here are some of the more notable benefits of using a call tracking system:

• It saves you money.

How many times have you run an ad for a time, only to find out that it is not earning you anything? With call tracking, you would be able to pinpoint exactly which ad is working and which one is not – thereby giving you the flexibility to cancel the ads that are not working and to focus on the ones that are actually bringing you in money. You don’t have to wait for a long time to be able to say that the ad campaign is effective – you would have real-time data to base your decision on.

• It helps you understand the entire customer journey.

When you rely on digital ads alone, you would have no idea of the customer’s thought process prior to them clicking or engaging with your ad. With call tracking, you would be able to monitor the entire journey. You’ll know what prodded the customer to call your business, the length of wait time, the duration, and other pertinent behavior. For example, if a caller tells you that they called because they wanted more information and they were intrigued by one of your ads, then you would know to customize your succeeding ads the same way.

• Improve your website and SEO performance.

Aside from understanding the entire customer journey and customizing your future ads based on what the customer said was effective, you can also apply these things to your website and therefore improve your SEO performance. You can appropriately set the tone on your social media channels and your website based on what the customer responds to. You can also apply this tone to your website. As a result, your overall messaging would then be a unified front that talks exactly to your customer the way that they understand. Essentially, when you find out what works through the phone calls, you can implement them across the board for a more holistic, more competitive campaign.

Do you want to learn more about Call tracking and how it can help your online marketing campaigns? Give us a call or just send us a quick message!

Have you been operating a thriving business for years without a website? Have you been wondering whether you do indeed need a website? You might think that with all these years of business success, who needs it? Whether you are operating a small or a large scale business without a website, there are a few good reasons why you need one. You might think that just because you are not exactly techy or are hardly online, that the rest of the world is the same way. Nothing can be farther from the truth. There are tons of reasons why your business needs a website. Here are thirteen:

1. Sell your products/services online

It goes without saying that the best reason for having a website is to be able to sell your products and services online. If you only had a brick and mortar store in the past, having an online store/website helps you sell more, without having to face the customer and convincing them to buy. It makes buying your goods easier for both your customers and simplifies selling for your staff.

2. It Helps Identify Your Customers

There are tools you can use online that will help identify what your customers like, how they found you and their behavior on your site. This helps you be able to adapt your business to them and maximize site purchases. You can also tweak your site to be much more appealing to your customers. 

3. It Is Expected

These days, everyone has a website. All your current and future customers are going to assume you have one. As a matter of fact, if you don’t have a website you might turn off more than a few potential customers since that would be highly unusual in their eyes for any business not to have a site. In fact, it may seem a bit suspicious to them.

4. On Par With The Big Leagues

When you have a website, you immediately become on par with bigger businesses that have websites as well. For example, if you are just starting your own store online, the moment your website is up and running, you will immediately be able to compete with all the sites that have been online for years. Having a website levels the playing field.

5. You Are Always Available

Basically, when you have a website you are always available. Your business will then be running all year round, twenty-four hours, seven days a week. There won’t be a need to lock the physical door or supervise every inquiry. In essence, being online all the time gives you and your customers the convenience of being available and noticed at all times of the day or night. When all you have is a physical store with no website, your shop closes at the end of the day, which puts limits on your exposure. A website will get you more and it will look like your store is always open.

6. Grow Influence and Keep Your Customers Informed

When you have a site that shows your products in front of thousands of people searching for what you have to offer at a drop of a hat, this is an effective method of maximum exposure for minimum effort. You can also announce upcoming events, special promotions and new products or services that you offer immediately on your website.

7. Potential Clients Increase

You will be missing out on all the potential clients you might otherwise have when you don’t have a site. There are billions of people online every day and ninety percent of those people are buying something online. When you join the online crowd, you can make more sales.  Add to that the possibility of getting customers from all over the world – remember, your website can be viewed not just in your local area, but international too. They don’t call it the world wide web for nothing.

8. It’s Your Online Brochure

When you own a website, you can create an online business brochure to reach unlimited audiences around the world. This will be lower in cost than actually printing out millions of paper brochures. 

9. Save Money and Time

It will take less time and money to provide your customers and potential clients with the information they need through your website. Rather than having to print out brochures, answer every email, talk on the phone or entertain customers face-to-face, a website will be able to do it all.  You might feel that spending to maintain a website for a small business will cost more, but the opposite is true as this saves you time and money in the long run.

10. Credibility Matters

Believe it or not, your business becomes more credible when you have a website. You might argue that you have been successful for years without a site. Well, you will soon find out firsthand how much more successful you will be when you actually have a website. After all, the point of your business is to sell a product or a service, right? Adding a website will build your credibility in leaps and bounds, translating to ever-valuable sales.

11. It Promotes Your Brick and Mortar Shop

When you have an actual shop in town, your website can contain the contact information and directions on how to get to your shop. This will enable customers to come to visit your actual shop without having to search too hard for where to find your telephone number or store location.

12. Staffing

When you need to hire new staff, you can advertise online and potential employees can apply online as well. This makes it so much more convenient than actually having to do the application process in person.

13. Your Location Is Constant

When you need to move your brick and mortar shop to a different location, your website remains constant. This means that if you have to sacrifice your brick and mortar business and delay opening day, your website store stays open no matter what.

Need help setting up a website for your business?

Putting off building a website hurts your business in so many ways.  If you need help in setting up your website or you don’t know where to get started, PrimeView can help you plan it from scratch and create a strategy to maximize your online visibility. Call us today 480-970-4688 or fill out our online form

Photo by Jens Kreuter &  rawpixel.com on Unsplash

These days, we can see a lot of websites that make use of the live chat tool because it can aid to the customers’ needs and wants immediately. If you happen to have a business website, and you want more people to engage with it, then a live chat is definitely one of the best tools to have.

1. It Can Save on Costs

First up, it can help you save up on costs. Most businesses would outsource call centers or would invest in plenty of company phones that the customer service representatives use to engage with the customers. With a live chat tool, you can cut costs on phones since you only have to pay for the software. With this, your customer service team can just engage with the customers using their computers.

2. It can Improve Your Customer Service

Of course, one of the main functions of a live chat software is to improve customer service. Your potential customers can just immediately chat with a customer service representative, instead of looking for the customer service email or the hotline on your website. This provides ease as well as convenience to customers who need help right away.

3. It Can Boost Your Sales

Aside from customer service, a live chat tool may also be used to upsell to customers. For example, a first time visitor looks around your website. A live chat option may automatically send an instant message to the visitor offering a certain product or service that the website sells. Add this with some good customer relations messages, and you can help your business boost some sales. For this, you would need to train your customer service representatives also to know how to upsell using the live chat software. Do this with the right customer engagement strategy, and you will get higher conversion rates.

4. It Helps You Gain Feedback Easily

Another thing that a live chat tool does is that it can be the perfect medium where you can get feedback from customers easily. Feedback is crucial to every business because it gives you an idea on what parts or aspects of your business operations have to be improved. While you engage with your customers, you may ask them about their website and shopping experience and what things can still be improved. Doing this would elicit personal connection to your customers, making them feel like their opinion matters. One thing that you must know is that trust and loyalty are related, and they can be achieved through the proper medium and personal connection.

5. It Gives Visitors a Good First Impression on the Website

Aside from its functionality, a live chat software can also act as a marketing tool for the website. A website that has a live chat tool is often viewed as a site that cares deeply for its visitors as it gives them an easier time with their inquiries, complaints, or feedback. Visitors value good service from businesses, and a live chat feature will give an impression that your business goes out of its way to give good service to its customers.

6. It Can Deepen Your Relationship With Your Visitors/Customers

Since you can directly engage with your website’s visitors, you can reach the people at a deeper and more emotional level. You can answer all of their questions comprehensively through the chat system without looking like you sent a robotic reply from a spiel. This would deepen your relationship with your customers because it enables you to talk to them one on one at real time. This will also make your customers feel special, giving them the impression that you always try your best to cater their inquiries and concerns.

7. It Offers Chat Transcripts That Can be Used for Analysis

Another thing that a live chat can do for you is that it offers chat transcripts and chat history that you can use later on for your market analysis and study. With the platform, you’ll be able to look back at the chat messages that your customer service representatives have with your customers or visitors. You can then use the data for your analysis to know what works and what does not.

8. It Allows You to Give 24/7 Service

With a live chat system, you can go 24/7 to enhance and provide the best customer service. The good thing about operating a 24/7 service live chat system is that you can access it from a computer. This makes things so much easier for both the customers and the representatives. The customers can contact the representatives at the comfort of their homes any time of the day. This also allows you to attend to your customers’ needs promptly, thus, boosting your customer engagement.

9. It May Act as an Analytics Tool

Aside from letting you have a medium to engage with your customers or visitors, it can also serve as an analytics tool. The records found in the live chat system will tell you how many customers visited your website, how many used the chat support feature, which messages were responded to by the customer service agents, and which messages were ignored.

10. It Gives You An Edge Over Competition

Lastly, it will give you an edge over all of your other competitors because not all businesses have this feature on their websites. If you have this feature coupled with your personalized welcome messages, then you’ll be able to cater to your customers like no other.

These are some of the ways that a live chat tool can be able to help your business. In a world where technology has taken over, personal touch and face-to-face interactions have become limited. This is specifically true when it comes to sales and customer service since these can be done through email nowadays. Live chat tools enable you to give your customers an easy time accessing information. It also gives them the personalized touch that they are looking for. In fact, it can be a big asset to your business, and can even gain you an upper hand when you are up against your competitors.

Need a chat tool on your website?

Some prospects prefer an immediate response compared to waiting for emails. Don’t miss out on a potential client by installing a live chat tool on your website. Call us at 480-970-4688 today.

eBooks are one of the most powerful lead generation strategies there is. They help attract potential customers and persuade them to register to a mailing list, making eBooks an extremely useful lead generation resource.

What exactly are eBooks?

eBooks are long-form pieces of content, a digital book per say, that goes into detail about a specific topic. They are accessible through desktops, tablets or smartphones, so the ideal format is a PDF, slideshow, or app.

The structure of an eBook is inherently like a book. However, it’s much shorter and visually appealing with images, graphs, diagrams, lists, and so on. Though shorter in length, the content is still as in-depth and extensive as a 500-word hardbound. But as we have short attention spans, the design and layout are prioritized just as much as the actual content since it helps readers absorb the content with ease.

How do eBooks work as a lead generator?

Think of your last trip to the grocery store; you will always come across stands that offer product samples to try, huge discounts, or bundled goodies. Little do you know that those are marketing tactics intended to persuade customers into making a purchase.

Taste tests and lower prices are ways to gain customer trust. By offering products at a discounted rate, brands convey that they have valuable goods to offer and are willing to give freebies and slash off prices just to prove it. Whether you’re selling products or services, you can use the same strategy by utilizing eBooks as a sample of your wares, or as a gateway entry into what you really have to offer.

How do eBooks help your business?

Not only can businesses control the information shared in their eBooks, but they can also define the tone. People are overwhelmed by online advertisements these days, and the traditional lead generation resources seem to be delivering less return on investment. Customers resist hard selling, especially when they feel like it’s too prowling. eBooks offer perceptive marketing that essentially allows clients to find you, instead of you finding them.

How eBooks generate leads

You spend weeks and possibly months creating an eBook. You slaved over the copy and gave the design your all. You upload it to your website, yet no one downloads it. What gives?

If you’re using eBooks to generate leads, here is how you can see results:

1. Identify your audience

You would be surprised to know as to how many businesses have a seemingly clear vision of their brand without determining their target audience. If you don’t know who your target audience is, then how did write an entire book for them? The solution is to create a buyer persona. Your buyer persona will list everything there is to know about your ideal market, and it will typically include demographics, goals and challenges, hobbies and interests, objectives, and keywords.

2. Promote, promote, promote

Failing to promote your eBook is the biggest mistake you can make. If you expect people to just stumble upon your eBook without giving it the promotion it needs, then you may as well scratch your eBook and look for other lead generation tactics.

Like the developing process, you need to exert the same or double the amount of effort into promoting your eBook. Most people immediately think of social media, emailing, blogging, and paid amplification, but after you’ve exhausted your usual promotional strategies, what do you do for further, more effective promotions? The solution is to do outreach for your eBook.

An efficient outreach strategy is the next step towards maximizing your eBook’s online visibility. Outreach is focused on utilizing different channels and working with influencers within your industry to help you give your content the push it needs. This can include:

• Publishing on an eBook marketing platform
• Sending out a press release
• Writing guest posts for high-traffic bloggers
• Working with influencers who write about similar subjects to share the eBook

It’s crucial that you only target influencers who have the same audience as you. Platforms such as BuzzSumo are effective in helping you search, analyze, and connect with the right influencers who can help you promote your eBook.

3. Ensure that your landing page is easy to find

The landing page is the vital gateway to your eBook and the reason why you’re generating leads in the first place. So you need to make sure that (1) people can find it, (2) it’s enticing enough for people to fill out their details.

Optimizing your landing page is an essential step in making sure that you have everything prepared for a guaranteed download. Following these critical tips are some of the surefire ways to make it easier to optimize your eBook’s landing page:

• Use the keywords of your eBook in the headline, meta description, URL, and in the intro copy.
• Write a brief summary of the contents of your eBook.
• Attach an image or two of your eBook.
• Add bullets and lists to highlight your eBook’s benefits.
• Avoid using too many links and remove the navigation bar.
• Avoid asking for more contact information than you actually need in the form.

Once you’ve properly optimized your landing page, your audience can omit the need to search high and low to find what they need. And by highlighting all of the benefits, readers are given a compelling feeling to download your eBook.

While other companies are wasting money on spam-laden marketing schemes, your business can get ahead by providing an informational product that, if correctly used to one’s advantage, guarantees leads. Customers are bound to have more faith in your expertise, and your competitors will be busy trying to revive their exhausted tactics.

Generate more leads today

Leads mean more revenue, and revenue means more profit. If you need help generating leads to your business, let PrimeView provide the necessary internet marketing services you need to expand your reach. Call us at 480-970-4688 to request a free quote.

Should you scrap keyword research altogether?

Well, not really. Keyword research is still essential in internet marketing, as they can be helpful in topic discovery and tailoring content according to what your target audience usually searches for. However, insisting on using exact keyword matches no longer bears so much weight on where you’ll land on the SERPs.

READ: SEO Practices of the Past that You Need to Stop Doing Today

Here’s how keyword research come into play today. For instance, you want to rank for the keyword best hotel in Arizona. In the past, you need to include that exact phrase in the title of your article and about three to four times within the body. But now, you don’t need to stress over how to weave in exact keyword matches in your content, because search engines has the capability to gauge whether your content answers or relates to those search terms or not. So as long as you stick to the topic and provide substantial information related to it, you’re fine. In fact there are cases when you unconsciously get to use certain variations of a particular keyword, because they just come out naturally as you tailor content.

Now that we’ve put keywords exact match aside, what should you pay more attention to when creating an internet marketing strategy? Here are four elements that you should prioritize.

1. User Experience

Throughout the years, Google has done a great job of tailoring its algorithm to generate search results that are most beneficial to users. Thanks to that, manipulative techniques are now the bane of SEO and internet marketing.

So, if you want to rank, reach more people, and increase your conversions, you need to be more user-oriented and provide them an excellent experience in your website. So how do you do that?

• Easy navigation – When people go to your site, they are looking for information. But information, no matter how good, will all be for nothing if people can’t find it. Make sure that your website is easy to navigate so that people can see what they’re looking for

• Functional design and layout – Your website should have a clean look and every button, section, link, and element should have a purpose. Don’t put something there just for the sake of “design”. People are more compelled to stay in a functional and uncluttered

• Informative content – Content comes in many forms—from articles, infographics to videos. Provide variety to people, but make sure that each content, regardless of what form, should not just be relevant, but also original. Sure, you will have to gather information from different sources, but what will make it standout is your unique touch or voice, which is what users will not find elsewhere.

2. Provide Something of Value to Customers

Today, it’s no longer about telling people what they should know. It’s more of providing information that they want to know or see. So on top of excellent web design and well-crafted content, consider providing the following:

• Mobile app – A report shows that 30% of e-commerce conversions are generated through mobile, with smartphones leading the pack. Furthermore, app conversion rates are 120 percent higher than conversions coming from mobile and desktop browsers. Meanwhile, estimates show that smartphone users are expected to grow by 2.6 billion in 2016. Now that’s a lot of people you can reach, and developing a mobile app can help you do exactly that.

• Freebies – You have a business and your goal is to increase revenue. That’s why you do internet marketing, right? However, giving people something of value without asking for any fee shows that you’re really keen on helping them. That’s how you build relationship and trust. Examples of freebies are downloadable e-books, free trials, coupons, discounts, or perks.

3. Conversion Rates

Sometimes, people need a little nudge in order to convert or perform an action that you want them to take. Here are some of the ways that you can compel them to do so:

• Increase click-through-rates – You can optimize your meta tags to increase click-through rates in SERPs listings. Meta tags are basically text embedded within your HTML code, title and description. Keywords in your meta tags should coincide with your content, so that search engines will recognize relevance with your site and niche.

• Call-to-actions – Place call-to-actions in different parts of the site. However you present your call-to-actions, make sure that you craft them accordingly so that they will standout and can be easily seen.

• Forms – Make sure all forms are functional and optimized for mobile use. Keep them short and avoid unnecessary fields.

4. Online Presence

Having a website is essential, but it’s not enough if you want to have a strong online presence. If you want to send people buzzing about you, here are some of the ways that can help you become remarkable in the realm of online platforms.

• Social Media – Regular postings is essential, but social media is not just for that. It’s also for establishing relationship with users, other influencers, potential clients, and like-minded entities and individuals within your niche. This is how you build your network, which will lead to a boost in your reach, reputation, and ultimately, ranking.

• Social Link Building – Forums and Q&As are great for link building, but you shouldn’t just focus on that when participating in these platforms. You can also maximize them by building a reputation in the community and encouraging others to check out your website or brand, which will pave way for conversion opportunities.

• E-mail Marketing – In some cases, it would also pay to go directly to your subscribers. Deliver the latest news about the company, articles in the blog, and new promotions straight to their inbox. It’s a personal approach that lets people know that you remember them and that they matter to you.

Today, internet marketing revolves around value and relevance. When you live by those principles in crafting and implementing your strategy, half of your battle for success is already won.

Online shopping has never been so convenient as it is nowadays. As a shopper, you can buy almost anything without having to physically drive to a store to purchase the item you want. As an e-commerce business owner, the idea of not having to work in an office environment as well as not being stuck to an 8-hour shift five days a week because your business can be run through the internet is such a rewarding thought.

The ease of online shopping has paved the way for multiple e-commerce sites to open and make themselves available to the millions of consumers ready to spend their budgets on products that satisfy both their wants and their needs.

Build on Trust, Turn Visitors into Customers

One of the best ways of boosting a site’s credibility is by investing in site seals, which works by placing a seal on a particular e-commerce site to inform visitors that a third-party web verification company has found the site to be reliable and trustworthy for web browsing, has ample security measures for secure online transactions, and is a legitimate business with no history of complaints.

One particular web research agency, called Baymard Institute, conducted a survey this year that tried to take on a very critical task, which is to determine which among the top site seals are the most trusted by consumers.This action was prompted by their previous research, which found out that majority of the web users have limited knowledge regarding the technical details of website security, which means that they rely mostly on their observations and gut feelings.

Visual clues such as security seals inform shoppers that whatever personal information they provide a website will remain confidential at all times. According to the survey, which obtained answers from 2,510 individuals from January 9-11, 2013, tested eight most popular website seals, namely:

• McAfee Secure
• Norton
• TrustE
• BBB
• thawte
• Trustwave
• GeoTrust
• COMODO

The survey respondents, who were adults currently residing in the U.S., were asked to choose which among those mentioned above gives them “the best sense of trust when paying online?” The question highlighted online payment because their focus is on checkout usability, so Baymard provided respondents with an online payment scenario.

The results were not surprising, as Norton got the highest vote, getting 35.56% of the respondents’ votes. Next in line is McAfee (22.87%), followed by TRUSTe (13.24%). In fourth place is BBB Accredited with 13.16% of votes, while Thawte got the 5th position at 6.03%. At the end are TrustWave (3.21%), GeoTrust (3.09%), COMODO (2.84%) with 6th, 7th, and 8th places.

Decoding the Results

So what does this mean for business owners and customers alike? Well it seems that majority of the survey respondents chose known internet security companies such as McAfee and Norton as their first choice, primarily because they are wary of fraudulent sites. By investing around as low as $30 to as much as $300 monthly for McAfee Secure and around $80 to $400 for Norton.

Next in line is TRUSTe, which deals with privacy management, which explains why a significant number of individuals chose this over the others, because they want personal details to remain private and secure even after they make a purchase. The good news about getting a TRUSTe seal is that it only costs almost $6 monthly to $70 a year.

BBB, on the other hand, came in at second place as well. This is because more and more businesses are finding this independent, non-profit organization very dependable in terms of informing consumers about scams and bad businesses. In 2011, a Louisville, Kentucky business with three employees is required to pay around $34 a month under the monthly pay plan plus a one-time membership fee of $50 dollars.

Despite having to pay annual dues for a BBB certification, businesses can get them back through the added revenue brought about by the influx of new customers influenced by the BBB seal of approval.

Companies that came in at fifth to eighth, as per the respondents’ perceived security, are Thawte, Trustwave, GeoTrust, and COMODO. Both Thawte and Trustwave cost around $4 to $50 a month while GeoTrust and COMODO’s prices start at more or less $8 a month or around $90 to $100 a year.

Ultimately, what businesses need to know is that majority of customers or would-be buyers choose site seals based on their perceived security. So in this case, the survey tried to discover which particular seal made consumers more confident about a site, and not to actually gauge which among the seals provided the most accurate representation of a website’s credibility.

If you consider yourself as one of those perpetual online shoppers, then you know how much impact a website trust seal has on convincing you to buy from a certain online shopping store. When all is said and done, no amount of design or layout can match the amount of credibility a site seal can give a website.

On the other hand, if you’re the business owner who is planning to set up a shopping site to sell your products or feature other brands, then it is crucial for you to ensure that your site is not only providing visitors with outstanding user experience, but also getting the right amount of conversions within a specific timeframe.

One of the biggest considerations of online businesses is building and maintaining credibility, not only of their brand, but also of their website. This is particularly the case when it comes to e-commerce sites with hundreds, if not thousands, of products to sell. Why, you ask? This is because online shoppers will hesitate to purchase a product when they see that the website does not have any form credibility, even if they like the item being offered.

What Exactly is a Trust Seal?

A trust seal is a type of recognition granted by a web verification company to a particular website or business, in the form of a seal, that is meant to be displayed or “stamped” on a website for visitors to see. It acknowledges three main aspects of a brand or company’s credibility, which are the following:

• Privacy – A privacy seal basically informs site visitors that a particular website responsibly employs exceptional privacy practices.
• Business Identity – A business verification seal or a verified existence seal among other names, serves as a reliable, third-party verification of a business’ existence and legitimacy. It gauges a company’s credibility through various parameters, which includes primary business information, number of complaints, management details, and more.
• Security – A security seal, on the other hand, make up the most of trust seals. There are two types:
  • One that verifies the server on which the site operates , usually performing regular scans of the host server so make sure that the site is well-protected and can withstand security attacks.
  • And the other verifying the site, ensuring the domain is owned by the business and that customers are protected from common website security vulnerabilities.

The requirements vary depending on the company providing the trust seal, but mostly concerns strict privacy policies, safe and secure methods, and legitimate use of business and/or product name/s. Trust seals are sold to online businesses for a certain fee, which will be discussed later on. These are then validated after creation and will be effective for a limited period of time, which has to be re-validated once expired.

Businesses Need Trust Seals More Than They Realize

Many of the seasoned internet buyers and bargain hunters are likely to bail out from their orders if they find out that a website is either suspicious, or has incomplete contact details. Sites without trust seals or those that make use of their own checkout process are more likely to lose potential customers than those with verified website trust seals.

This is particularly why the demand for trust seals among web companies is steadily increasing.

More and more have fallen prey to internet fraud, with over tens of thousands of websites being created by hackers every week. It is easy to get fooled by sites that claim to be legitimate banks when they are indeed clones. Some also pretend to be e-commerce sites that are affiliated with Western Union and eBay.

Despite the continuous efforts of search engines to remove these fraudulent sites, these hackers remain steadfast in deceiving innocent consumers. The only solution that business owners can take advantage of is by utilizing website trust seals to further establish site credibility.

Consumers are getting wiser, learning from past mistakes and beginning to recognize fake websites and seeing beyond overindulgent marketing campaigns that tend to fool many. With a trust seal, web shoppers can now determine whether a website is worth investing their time and money on. Not only will business owners see an increase in sales and conversions, but they can also protect their customers’ assets.

A third party stamp of approval is much more reliable and trustworthy than a company’s own assertions of quality and dependability. Even client testimonials won’t work as effectively to influence a buyer from actually purchasing a product as much as a website trust seal.

Entrepreneurs who have spent so much time growing and cultivating their e-commerce business would greatly benefit from a site seal, as it has become the modern-day and web version of a first impression. If you want to send a firm, honorable handshake to your would-be clients the moment they land on your homepage, a trust seal is your best option.

They say it takes years to build a reputation and only seconds to destroy it, so it would make a lot of sense for business owners to invest in the best marketing strategies and credibility boosters that are available for them. Once you have convinced visitors that you are indeed trustworthy, then they are more likely to become new customers. There is, after all, no such thing as too much trust.

•  Keep your site simple. Do not use too much colors especially the ones that make your content unreadable. Avoid using several programs (like Flash and Java) and graphical images. They slow down page load that results to lower search engine ranking and fewer site visitors.

•  Use keywords to increase your site’s chances of being crawled by spiders.  To make your website search engine-friendly, do not clutter it with lots of keywords though. Robots are smart enough to realize that you are trying to “deceive” them through your website design. Instead of placing you higher in search engine results pages, you will not even be seen in the top ten. Tough luck, huh?!

•  Use Meta Tags (Title and Description) in your content. Make sure, however, that you use different keywords in each web page.

•  Make your website easy to navigate. Structure it in such a way that search engine crawlers, as well as customers, can easily find the information that they want to see.

•  Do not just place images. You should also use alternative text or Alt Text to go with it. This makes way for the search engine crawlers to find and index the website that will result to search engine ranking.

•  Use internal links and backlinks. Google and other search engines think that a website that has connections to other sites covers interesting and relevant information; hence, it is a possibility that you will rank higher in results pages. You may request backlinks from sites related to your business. Internal links, on the other hand, let your visitors move from one web page to another. This activity contributes to a higher page ranking.

•  Be where most of your customers are. Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks are where people are—especially your target customers. Create your own Facebook and Twitter accounts and link them to your site. Remember to do regular updates, like posting status, placing comments and publishing images.

It will take you a lot of time to study and do all these—especially if you lack knowledge in web designing. But what if you cannot afford to wait before you are able to implement changes in your website? Here is the solution: hire a company that will do an effective website design for you.