It’s a tall order — get thousands of small businesses online and help them all succeed.

Today, hundreds of small business owners and representatives from across New York are getting together for the first of two trainings in the state aimed at helping them break into the online world.

Almost all Americans search for local products and services online, but more than half of small businesses in New York don’t have a website, according to Google.

The company is teaming up with Intuit Websites and a couple dozen business development groups from around the state to offer companies a three-page website, domain name and website hosting free for a year (along with free email support for 30 days).

Companies will also get a walk-through for claiming their Google Places listing as part of New York Get Your Business Online.

If it’s free, how do you calculate ROI?

Here at IntelliSites, we think this a great idea. But if you attended this event (or even if you missed it) there are some things you might want to think about down the road, if not much sooner, for improving your “free” Google website.

Unlike a brochure that’s printed and can’t change, the best part about a website is that it can. Most of the people who set up their site through this Google program will never touch it again once it’s live. Just like having a store, no one will come back if things don’t change from time to time. Additional products and improvements incentivize people to return to your site.

You need a plan for your site and beyond.

Here at IntelliSites, a division of Burst Marketing, we have created a unique Blueprint process that allows us to know the client and brainstorm the best ways to cultivate leads and bring in business.

Your site needs to have a clear strategy so someone coming to your site knows exactly what to do when they get there.

Speaking of getting there, how will anyone know you exist on the web? Google is not promising to highly rank your site just for using their service. Just ask our search engine marketing clients about our proven results.

Taking the free route

If you do decide to take the free route, even for now, here is some advice: Think about your audience.

The typical business does not spend enough time thinking from the perspective of their customers. You start this process by asking who your customers are. How does your website (and other marketing materials while you’re at it) help turn members of those specific groups into leads and sales?

If you’re not sure, perhaps you’d like to have a conversation?

Sure, template sites allow you to claim real estate on the web, but when it comes to return on your investment, remember you usually get what you pay for.

The program’s advice that “getting online is now easy, free, and fast” is great for now, but when you’re ready to step up your online presence with proven results, let the experts at IntelliSites and Burst Marketing help.

Filed under: Lead Capture, Marketing Your Site, Web Design
Tags: Google, marketing your website, new york businesses, promoting your website, troy, websites
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A majority of companies say they plan to focus on increasing their web traffic in 2012, according to a recent report by MarketingSherpa.
The drivers for this are two main objectives: generating leads and ROI.

The authors point out that given the slowing down of the sales cycle, companies have to keep a strong flow of leads they can nurture and eventually turn into sales.

It’s interesting how little emphasis companies placed on improving public relations. Only six percent of businesses polled said this was an objective for the next 12 months.

Increasing lead generation was the most important pay-per-click objective for businesses serving other businesses.

More than 70 percent of companies who handle consumer sales said increasing online sales revenue was their top objective for PPC programs in the next year. That was not the case for B2B websites surveyed.

Pay per click remains incredibly popular.

As we told you back in 2010, “You write ads, identify the relevant keywords, and wait patiently for people to type the keywords into Google. When someone does, your ad will pop up on the side of his screen – and you pay nothing unless he clicks on it.” Read more about pay per click here.

Increasing web traffic, lead generation, ROI, etc. are all measurable elements that a majority of companies said they want. But what only about a quarter of those polled said they cared to do about it is come up with a plan to execute. Perhaps they have already invested in creating a plan and are just executing. Or maybe they don’t see the value in a strategic marketing plan to execute on all fronts. If you’re in that group, read this before you set your opinion in stone.

If you do have a solid plan you’re ready to execute to achieve more web traffic and increase your inbound leads and ROI, let the web design experts at IntelliSites help!

Filed under: Lead Capture
Tags: Lead Capture, pay-per-click, site traffic, web traffic
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As a follow-up to last week’s post, we’ll be dissecting a recent study that breaks down Facebook best practices.

The group, Buddy Media, analyzed the posts of companies in a wide-range of industries and concluded things like the best time to post, the best lengths of posts and more.

The take-away from their study is basically to follow the KISS rule (Keep it simple, stupid) – aka don’t make your customers think too much. Keep your posts short, simple and to the point.

When to post

More people will engage with your Facebook posts if they’re made between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., according to the study.

Wednesdays had the highest response rate with weekends having the lowest.

What and how often to post

Simplicity is king on Facebook.

Companies that had the best results made two or fewer posts per day and had posts with 80 characters or fewer. The difference in response to posts under 80 characters compared to those over 80 was 66 percent higher.

And when it comes to discounts, “‘$ OFF’ offers receive twice the engagement of ‘% OFF’ offers,” according to Buddy Media. That keeps potential customers from having to do math.

Need some help getting into the Facebook world or just improving your day-to-day posting? Let IntelliSites’ Albany web design team help.

Filed under: Lead Capture, Social Media, Web Tips and How-tos
Tags: Facebook, marketing, Social Media
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Some people actually spend a lot of time scoping the internet for free stuff.  And there’s plenty of it out there. With its coupons and free samples and freeware, the internet can provide hours of entertainment for people looking for complimentary goodies.

Everybody Else is Doing It…

One way to increase traffic to your site and make your email list grow is to join the crowd and offer something for free. If it’s something super cool, the freebie alone might be enough to lure people to your site. A really cool screensaver or some wallpaper, for instance, can attract a party if it’s unique enough.

If you can’t come up with something earth-shattering, there’s nothing wrong with something tried and true. Good content packaged in a list or an e-book might not cause a mad rush to your website, but it may help you to collect the email addresses of people who do visit. If you have information and visitors to your site need it, volunteering their email addresses is usually no big deal. (Just make sure not to collect that email address as part of a complicated 28-question form…you want them to get what they want without feeling hassled.)

Look at it this way…people go to the trouble of taking cars and cabs and buses to go places that offer free stuff or even discounts…and they can visit websites that do the same without even leaving the comfort of their homes.  If you were doing some online browsing, wouldn’t you appreciate getting something for free?

Filed under: Lead Capture
Tags: Content, e-mail addresses, free stuff, freebies, screensaver, site traffic, wallpaper
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We’ve talked before about how e-marketing campaigns can help drive traffic to your site.  But the reverse is true, too.  Your website can also include a short form that collects email addresses, which can build up your email list.  And when you have a strong list of email contacts, you have the potential for a lot of repeat visitors to your site – not to mention repeat business.

Of course, having a form on your website isn’t going to do much unless you can get people to enter info into the form.  And, truthfully, there just aren’t a lot of people out there who spend time browsing the web and generously inserting their contact information into forms out of the goodness of their hearts.  So if you want the form on your website to collect a lot of information, you have to give it a little incentive power.

People Will Do Anything for a Reward

Since people aren’t likely to volunteer their e-mail address for no reason, it helps if you give them a little reward for providing their contact information. 

There’s a huge difference between asking for someone’s email address and asking for someone’s email address so that you can send him a coupon.  Restaurants and department stores already use this technique to entice their patrons to fork over their email addresses, so go ahead and jump on the bandwagon.  And if your form-filler-outer uses the coupon, you not only have his email address, but you’ve also actually made a sale.

Besides a discount or coupon, another “reward” is good content, packaged in the form of an e-book or secret members-only article archives.  If someone has come to your site in search of information, the person might be willing to give out his or her email address as long as it opens the vault of information.  Of course, there are benefits to providing free information, too, so you might not want to hide away all of your factoids under lock and key.  But for businesses in some industries, reserving some information for members will get you new entries in your contact list.

Keep the Circle Spinning

Both your email list and your website are awesome tools that help the internet bring business to you.  So use your website to collect email addresses.  And use your email contacts to bring visitors to your site.  And as this cycle continues, you’ll find your business spinning its way to more clients – and higher profits.

Filed under: Lead Capture
Tags: e-mail list, e-marketing, email, email campaigns, email marketing, forms, marketing your web site
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