Executionists - We Get Web Done

If you are paying for clicks, you must ensure that the landing page where consumers end up post-click can convert. Impressions count more than ever when it comes to PPC landing page design so let’s review what sites are doing right (and wrong) and perhaps even find some inspiration for our own PPC campaigns and the landing page designs they feature.

When you want to analyze what works best in PPC landing page design, you want to start with the most competitive terms. We took a look at ten landing page designs (only nine are featured as one was was ultimately just a parked page) to determine similarities and differences that the design concepts have. You might end up applying some of the techniques on your own site, but before settling on one, remember that testing is the only sure fire way to ensure that the right elements are available to convert your specific audience of consumers into buyers.

The keyword in focus (and of course the landing pages that result) are under the keyword “ringtone”. Clearly our choice of keyword will influence the type of landing page designs that resulted. Expect the sites that bid on those terms to focus on acquiring a younger, more socially-connected, technology savvy audience.

There are a few core trends which revealed themselves by comparing multiple PPC landing pages. The sites listed below are in the order in which they were found on the results pages. Once we can determine what’s going on with landing page design, we’re able to make informed decisions and perhaps even understand how to influence the quality score of those individual listings.

Trend One: Limited Paths For Users
Common among the first five listings are the limited paths users can take when arriving on the landing page. Ovi Store by Nokia (which occupied the first position during our review) had just three options: register, login, and a call for developers. FreeRingToneLocker, CellWare and ThumbPlay took a similar “less is more” approach (see trend four for additional information).

Trend Two: Prominent Images
The next trend is the prominent use of large images. In fact, on the landing pages of the first two listings this was the core design element. CellWare (within the third position) took the use of a prominent visual a step further by including a video of a young attractive woman presenting information on the offer.

Trend Three: Strong Call To Action
Several of the top five listings (Ovi Store excluded) had a clear value proposition presented that was coupled with a compelling call to action. For example, ThumbPlay’s “Join Today, Get Ringtones” is a straightforward statement, leaving no doubt in the mind of the user what they need to do to get what they came for. Tonefor.Me is using dynamic keyword insertion on their landing pages coupled with a static call to action.

Trend Four and Five: Data Collection, Content Teasing or Registration
We’ve decided to combine trends four and give into one, but it’s the most important of the group. The sites we reviewed leverage three very different conversion tactics. While some required registration to proceed, others either focused on a basic data collection (name and email) or what I refer to as content teasing.

What I find fascinating about conducting a review of this nature is the insights that a basic study such as this might reveal about quality score. What other design trends do you see on these sites and how do you think this influences quality score?

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The Evolution of Internet Marketing
Social media is the latest step in the evolution of online marketing. There are over 200 million active Facebook users, 8 million Twitter users and other social media platforms account for millions more. By strategically using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, you have the potential build your online business presence immensely.

Inform customers of your products and services
If you sell a product online, chances are that a good portion of your customers are on Twitter or Facebook, sharing opinions, asking for advice on which new products to buy, and complaining about brands they dislike. If you are in the professional services industry, your clients are probably online, letting their Twitter followers and Facebook friends know how you’ve exercised your practice to assist their needs. Now you have the opportunity to engage and reach your target audience wherever they gather.

Utilize communities to engage, listen, and respond to your customers
Rather than constantly selling and blasting product releases, we recommend that you provide free tips and resources that allow your customers to appreciate you for your knowledge and experience. Social media can help you build long-term relationships, credibility and customer loyalty.

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As Twitter continues to sweep the Internet, it only makes sense that users are adding more and more followers each day. And while services like TweetDeck can help manage all those incoming tweets, not everyone is using them. That presents a problem for those using Twitter to market their brands. How do you stand out amidst all the noise?

Twitter is an excellent tool for finding breaking news. As such, many users scan their Twitter accounts quickly to find something of interest. Pay attention to how you scan Twitter, and you might find yourself looking at users’ images more than the actual list of tweets. That’s because as you become accustomed to the value of a particular user’s tweets, you look for them specifically. It’s much easier to pick out an image of value rather than the entire tweet. Therefore, it’s important, as a brand, to have an image that is instantly recognizable - one that stands out. That way when users are scanning a long list of tweets, the chances increase that they will stop and read yours. That all depends, of course, on the value you are providing with each and every tweet associated with your image.  Check out Executionists on Twitter!

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LivePerson is a cool concept. They claim “30,000 experts ready to chat”. The business model is that “LivePerson is an online destination, community and marketplace where individuals can chat live with experts in a broad range of categories”. Experts can get paid by users for their advice. I signed up as a “Web Design Expert” in order to see if it could help our business. This morning I got an email from LivePerson that there was a question on Web Design so I went online to provide my opinion on the issue. See the entire image of the question and the “expert” responses by clicking for “More” below. As my first experience with this system here are my thoughts:

• The expert responses (in this case) are not giving useful advice
• The experts did not spend anytime thinking about the holistic aspects of the request
• The experts did not do any research into the request
• I’m guessing the majority of the experts are offshore web development mills

The talismanclick.com website that the individual wanted to duplicate is not a good solution in my experience and it is a shame that these experts are going after a quick sale rather than promoting a better solution.  Click “More” below to see my response. This is not to say that LivePerson cannot help people with questions but in this situation I’ll let you be the judge.

Richard Parr
CEO Executionists, Inc.

(more…)

1) Organic Traffic: With their Universal Search protocol, Google has started showing press releases in organic search results. If your press release is well-optimized, it can rank for two to three days in Google organic results. The press release can also get traffic from Google News and other news aggregator websites.

2) Link Building: You can use your important keywords as anchor text and link them to relevant pages on your website. When the press release is distributed these links will be picked up by distribution partners. Links from many of these sites will not be counted, but some of them will.  No matter how big or small your business, link building within your website is a great way to get aggressive on the web.

3) Reputation Management: If someone has criticized your company, one sure way to get the criticism off the first page of Google Blog Search or Google search results is to issue multiple press releases. Of course, if you want to do a professional job, then you need to get external links to your press releases and bookmark and tag these releases.

4) Bloggers and Web 2.0 Audience: Many bloggers subscribe to online press release distribution services like PRWeb. If your press release interests them, they might blog about it and give a link to your press release or your website. If you consistently reach out to this audience, you can get significant links, traffic and sales from them.

5) Traffic from Traditional Media: If your press release interests journalists, they will follow up with you and write a story about your business.This will most certainly lead to a short term boost in your website traffic and sales.

By: Milind Mody

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1. They insist on copying Apple’s interface and ignore your alternate (more appropriate) design options.

2. They want their site search to be “simple - like Google’s” and within their budget of $500.

3. They think their “tiny edits” should only “take a few minutes”.

4. They think you can “slap together a social networking site” in a week.

5. They think you can control how fast their new site will be indexed by the search engines.

6. They think they can get to the top of Google by paying an SEO company $69.95 a month

7. They think that calling you every 5 minutes will get their project done quicker.

8. They think you have a development team ready and waiting for their “rush” project.

9. They think you can figure out their server and application setup without giving you the access or an IT person who gives a damn.

10. They dismiss the value of a project planning phase as a “waste of time and money”.

11. They want their website to work in ALL browsers, even Opera and IE 6.

12. They think if they “build it” people will flock to it even without a business plan or marketing strategy.

13. They think the world will implode if their logo is 1 pixel too far to the right.

14. They think they can write their own compelling site content even though they have no background in copy writing.

15. They are comparing your development services to their cousin Melvin who built a MySpace page for his band.

16. They want you to just “you know, come up with some copy” that sells their product even though you’re the designer.

17. They want everything on the page to “pop” more.

18. They want the buttons to have that “gel look,” even if the rest of the site has a different feel.

19. They want you to find that perfect photo for their site from stock photography.

20. Their only direction is, “They’ll know it when they see it.”

*Note: These examples do represent actual clients (although we will deny it if they confront us).  Feel free to comment with examples of your own “The Client is Always Right When…” experiences.

Times are tough.  Business owners are trimming expenses wherever possible.  But now, more than ever, it is important to have a quality website that accurately portrays your product or service.  Statistics prove that companies that focus on their marketing during tough economic times do much better than companies that reduce their marketing efforts. Your website should be an integral part of your marketing strategy.

Don’t Lose Customers!

When visitors find to your website, they have already done a majority of the work for you.  They are seeking what you have to offer and if your website doesn’t paint a clear and compelling image of your product, then you have lost what could have been a potential customer.  Your home is the most important because the visitor makes a decision within seconds about the value of your brand, product or service.  The cost investment of redesigning an underperforming website is well worth it when you analyze the high “bounce rate” (the percentage of visitors who arrive to your homepage then immediately exit) because your website doesn’t properly promote your business.

A well-crafted website acts like another salesperson within your business.  You should make it easy for your visitors to navigate your site and gather the information they want to make well-informed decisions.  If it’s difficult for the visitor to find what they’re looking for they will quickly be discouraged and jump to the website of your competition.

Experience Equals Quality

Don’t underestimate the value of a well designed website to market your business.  With over 15 years of experience we know how to work with you to build customized (not templated) sites that will deliver your business’ message clearly.  We can also implement search engine optimization strategies, online marketing solutions and create social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in order to maximize your online marketing goals and push your business through the tough economy.

Call us for a FREE CONSULTATION about your website: 310.754.3807 or check out our Design Portfolio.

by: Jeanelle Rabadam
Executionists Marketing Team
email: jeanelle@executionists.com

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Heard of search engine spiders?  These are automated scrips that visit pages and copy the source codes for later processing and indexing by search engines.  They don’t always enter a site from the home page.  In fact, every page is a possible entry from across search engines.  With this being said, here are some important strategies to make sure every page on your website is being crawled by these search engine spiders:

1. Each page should have a link to an HTML or XML sitemap.

2. Links have priority over text in the body of a page.  Sidebar text and links are given less priority compared to the main body content.

3. Instead of manual submissions, it’s best to get pages crawled.  Use inbound and outbound links and get listed in directories.

4. Keep page sizes under 100 KB.  MSN live and Ask will not index body text above 102 KB.

5. Put header tags and content near the top of the site pages.

6. Use CSS to feed the spiders links, text and images strategically.  List your text link navigation and keyword rich text at the top of your source codes.

Remember the search engine spiders crawl behind the scenes of your website and only see the text and code in the rendered pages!  Start thinking like a search engine spider!

By: SEO Corner

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GREAT JOB to Executionists Team!! Graphic Design USA just awarded Executionists 3 Corporate Logo Design Awards for clients Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Drum Channel and Operation USA.

Check out our Design Portfolio for other customized logos!

Call us at 310.754.3807 for your on how we can help you with your logo design or website.

Being a recent college graduate many of my closest friends have been dispersed throughout the world… literally.  As a result, we have resorted to email blasting one another on a weekly basis to catch-up on the ever-surmounting events of our lives.  One week we got on a particular topic, a passion which all of us share.  One of my friends suggested that we should start a blog, which as everyone knows has skyrocketed to be quite the social craze.

The reality is that these days millions of people are blogging on everything you can imagine. I am blogging about blogging!  The important question is, however, can a blog bring you more business?

The answer is “YES!” if this can be accomplished with good content, strategy and commitment.  If a blog has intrigued you one time or another, perhaps the following benefits can help boost your confidence to invest in a blog:

•    The opportunity to offer expert advice about your service or product.   Give advice or your opinion about the latest events within your industry.  By doing this, you appear authoritative and are more likely to create interest from new clients and customers.

•    Blogs allow you to directly communicate and educate your customers of your businesses’ news.  Whether you blog about a new product, up-and-coming service, or latest offer, it can potentially capture your visitors and lead to direct sales.  In today’s tough economic times, why not differentiate your company from the competition by creating a personal connection with your audience?

•    Websites with blogs rank higher in search engines than those that don’t have them.   Having a blog allows the opportunity for hundreds of keywords that will be picked up by search engines.  Blogs with frequently updated content are more likely to be promoted by engines.

•    A blog allows your prospective clients and customers an inner perspective on your company.  Viewers will learn your opinions and practices on a more personal level.  This will build a level of trust and they will be more apt to visit your website and purchase your product or service.

•    A low cost and easy way to build a web presence.  User-friendly blogging tools such as Typepad or Wordpress make it simple and fast to access and manage your posts.  Once you get your blog up and running, it’s not difficult to keep your blog updated with fresh content.

•    Blogs are an open source for you to reach a greater audience.  You can easily connect with interesting people from all around the world, creating new business contacts which you may not have had with a normal website.

Here are a few blogs we have customized for our clients either used as websites or simply a customized section to broadcast news:

http://www.minutemanparking.com/

http://richardsonmiddleschool.org/

http://www.salomonlawcorp.com/

Now that you’ve heard the benefits of a business blog, get blogging!  Contact Executionists at 310.754.3807 for a free consultation on how we can help jumpstart your website!

By Jeanelle Rabadam
Executionists Marketing Team
email: jeanelle@executionists.com