If, like me, you have spent the last few years running your own business then I am sure that you will recognise that it is a rollercoaster ride – not only with your business’s successes but with your emotions – one day everything is looking rosy the next day you are struggling to make ends meet, especially in the early days.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t swap running my own business for anything – other than running another business. But recently I stumbled on a book that I wish I had read years ago – it was scarily accurate in its description of the experiences I had as well as giving me a whole new insight into what a typical business owner is like.

It may surprise you to know but most business owners are not cut and thrust entrepreneurs always looking for the next great business deal – think Duncan Bannatyne who would fit into this category. Most business owners are actually people who are very good at what they do and so have set up a business based on that – they are technicians, bakers, hairdresser, printers, painter and decoraters, florists, graphic designers – even web site designers who have picked up a skill and now what to earn a living by being their own boss. The problem is that the skills you need to be a good baker is very different to the skills you need to run your own business.

What you need to do as a business owner is to find ways to control your business and make it work for you, without it necessarily needing you. Think of your business as a franchise operation, how would you set up your business so it could be franchised – even if you have no intention of ever franchising it! If you can do that then it can run without you while at the same time allowing providing a consistent high quality service for your clients.

The book I am refering to is E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber.(E-Myth stands for Entreprenerial Myth) At the time of writing the book is less that £6 – and I would say it is one of the best books of its type that I have read. Follow the link below if you would like more information from Amazon

E-myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It

This is not only an really eye opening book for anyone who runs or is thinking about running a business but it is an entertaining read.

E-myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It

When you are creating your Internet Marketing campaign you have to think where you are going to direct customers to this end goal.

Having hundreds of pages of content means a visitor could land anywhere on your site (called a point of entry or landing page) and it is important to optimise these pages as a user may enter a page and think it is not relevant to them and go back to the search results page. We don’t want that do we?

If you are bringing visitors to your website you will need to direct them to a well thought out web page. If you are paying a search engine to bring visits to your site (pay per click) you need them to convert into customers by making the pages relevant and with lots of call to actions (CTA’s).

When you’ve decided on this you need to address the answers to these questions and create a web page based upon these principals;

1. Does the page you directed them to have information on that was conveyed in the advert or link? Remember relevancy is key and your web page must grab the reader’s attention or of they are not presented with information they will hit the back button.

2. In a PPC campaign you can decide what page an ad links through therefore you have the opportunity to give a potential customer exactly what they were looking for – make sure the page gives them what they are looking for.

3. Users go through a cycle of searching for information, gathering information and then commit to buying so you should ensure your keywords are with intent and you are not wasting money on clicks from people who have come to browse for information and are not far ahead in the buying cycle. Targeting with intent means it is more likely to convert rather than be people looking for reviews.

4. Are you targeting locally or nationally – would changing the text/location on your ad encourage users to click through?

If you follow through the 4 points above you should end up converting many more of the visitors to your website site into excellent sales leads and will lead to an excellent internet marketing strategy.

How often do you see entries in the search engine results pages (SERPS) from companies who, for a princely sum, will submit your website to over 200 search engines. Yes, that’s very nice but what are these 200+ search engines and are they really important.

The majority of people you speak with will name up to three search engines; Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Some of us who’ve been kicking around this space for a little longer will remember the likes of HotBot, Excite, Netscape and Alta Vista.

Air Guitar Suppliers

What these other companies fail to mention is that getting your website indexed is only the first step, the smallest step, in getting your web pages to display in the SERPS. What these companies are failing to mention is that, if your site is properly structured and includes the necessary links and pages, the search engine crawlers will visit your site and index it themselves, usually within the 48 hours promised by these “submission companies”.

Learn SEO in 48 Hours, only £9.99

So SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is easy right? You’ve read the book but you still don’t know which way to turn or how to get started. Looks like the book hasn’t quite lived up to its own hype.

It’s fairly easy to explain SEO. It’s another matter altogether implementing a good, effective strategy. If you’re investing in SEO then you’re in for the long haul. There is no magic out there that can guarantee to get you to the top of the search results pages despite the claims made by many SEO companies

Retrieve, Sort, Show

The three main steps involved in being “discovered” by qualified traffic (i.e. real people searching for the products and services you provide) require the search engines to:

1. Retrieve information from your website, about what you do and what you offer

2. They sort the information, index the data ready to provide links to relative searches within its engine

3. They show links to your website when the search query is relative to the content within your site

So, if you spent this years marketing budget getting your website indexed on a plethora of search engines that nobody has heard of, let alone uses, then you’re all set to not realise your dreams.

If you want to do SEO properly, you need to invest the time reviewing a keyword strategy. Take a look at the competition and the keywords they’re targeting. Use your analytics software to discover the keywords people are using to find your site. Create landing pages geared around long-tail search queries. Optimise the content on your existing site.

Your site needs to have a proper structure. The code “behind the scenes” needs to follow a format that helps guide the search engines towards the most important content and keywords. While search engines are well travelled, it’s in your interests to guide them through your site to make sure that the content that is indexed is going to be relative to the searches performed by your potential customers.

It’s a minefield out there. It’s easy to be taken in by the scammers. At Mancala we encourage long term relationships with our customers. Some of our best customers started by “trying the waters” with us – they invested only a small amount of money in marketing and when they saw the results for themselves, the confidence in the relationship grew.

We like to show you all of the options available to your business and there are plenty of options to choose from. What you need to understand is what each option is, how effective it’s likely to be and how each option suits your budget. By sitting down to discuss your plans and objectives we’re able to help you develop a strategy that suits your business and growth. None of the options we discuss are set in stone and we’re able to adjust the work we’re doing to react to the various situations that are often thrown at us.

Keep control, be wary of those companies promising results that they can’t deliver. Dip your toe in the water to start with if you’re not convinced. A long journey begins with a few steps.

When you spend so much time dedicated to your business  and putting your heart and sole into something you want to be catching everyone with your Internet Hook.

Read on below on how to Mussel in on the action.

How to Reel your Visitors in

Scenario 1: Imagine the scene, you are set up at a well known fishing spot that’s famed for the big catch and you begin by casting your line and wait.

Scenario 2: Imagine the scene, you have a well known resource that’s famed for making people money and you launch a website and wait.

Nothing happens in both circumstances…what about the Bait….

Bait for the first scenario would obviously be worms and in the second scenario it would be a catchy headline on a sponsored ad or a well crafted email in the first instance, or through search results pages if you had more patience. So now we’re getting them to the line or the site… What now? What happens when you get a bite?

Are you going to let the fish get away without it even making it to your net (or checkout). This is where some skill with a net would come in or some clear calls to actions and guiding the fish, sorry I mean visitor, to your desired action.

You need Kelp

What happens if you don’t land your prize fish or turn them into a paying customer /give them a reason to act? Are you going to let your fish go and let the guy fishing next to you land it or your visitor hit the back button and go to your competitor’s site?

Once you land the fish, are you going to be satisfied then or are you going to continue to catch more and repeat what you know to be successful.

If you are fishing in a place where you have to return the fish to the water – what happens next? Do you give up for the day or do you go about trying to reel the same fish again and turn it into a real returning customer?

I’ve haddock nuff of this

So I may have laboured the point above but whichever way you look at it, it is just like Internet marketing. You have to continually get traffic to your site, give your customers a reason to act and encourage them back when they are ready to make a purchase again. It all boils down to good Internet Marketing.

Don’t make the same missed-hake ever again, contact Mancala for Internet Marketing Advice and seal of approval on your Internet Marketing strategy.

Why am I getting no sales and what can I do about it?

Firstly, is your website receiving traffic? Do you have the tools to measure the traffic?

Traffic to your website can be measured simply and for free. Installing Google Analytics will provide you with all of the information you need about how people are finding your website, how they’re using it and how they’re not.

Once you’ve established that people are visiting your website it’s important to regularly review how they’re using it and to enhance your website in the areas that the analytics show are not performing well.

Okay, I’m getting plenty of traffic but no sales. What are the options?

Are you getting the right traffic? If you’re selling socks and your visitors were looking for cheese then these are not qualified visitors. You need to be attracting those people with an interest in the products or services that you’re offering.

Is your content optimised for your target audience? Take a look at your homepage. Does it speak clearly about your products and services? Does it use the key phrases that people looking for your website would enter into a search engine? Is it clear to navigate? Can I find products quickly and easily?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process of optimising your existing content for search engines. When a search engine indexes your site you need to make sure that it’s picking up the correct information, that it understands the content and that it’ll be able to make the association between your content and relative searches. It’s not rocket science but it takes time and work to get it right. Even then, this is going to be an ongoing process and the goals you set need to be longer term. SEO is not for those seeking quick returns, it’s for the longer term investor.

Pay per Click (PPC) advertising is used for quick returns. In return for a budget (that you control), you’re able to create targeted adverts that appear in search engine results pages (SERPS). The benefit of this model is that, with a carefully managed PPC campaign, you’re able to target your real customers, those looking for your products and services. From the PPC advert you’re able to direct them straight to the product page, removing the need for them to trawl your site to find what they’re looking for.

Email Marketing is an excellent way to speak with your clients if you’ve already built up a customer database. A good email marketing campaign will avoid being spammed, will appear clearly to all of your recipients and will provide good, interesting, click-provoking content to drive qualified traffic into your website. Many people speak of being able to do this but not many can do it properly.

So, the qualified traffic is landing on my site but still no sales. Is my marketing wrong?

If you’re receiving qualified traffic then the likelihood is that your marketing campaign is doing its job. What you need to do is review what people are doing when they get to your site. Using your analytics software you need to understand how people are entering your site and where they’re existing.

If a large percentage of the traffic is leaving your site at a particular page then you need to review that page and understand why it’s causing your visitors to abort. If they’re leaving the site from a product page is the pricing competitive, does it provide the information that the visitor requries, does the “buy now” button work?

If the visitors are largely aborting at the cart page then look at the functionality of the cart, the breakdown of the order charges (products, VAT, shipping, gift wrap).

Is your site secure? Have you installed a security certificate? Many people are now aware of what to look for when buying online. If your website doesn’t tick some or all of the secure boxes – valid security certificate, extended verification, recognised payment gateway provider – they’re likely to be discouraged from buying from you.

If you’ve installed Google Analytics you’ll be able to set up goals within your account to monitor certain processes. A goal might be set up to measure the pages within your checkout. Analytics reports on the progress made by your customers through the tunnel and makes it easy to identify where problems exist in the process. Sometimes the problem is minor, sometimes major. Whatever the severity of the problem, the likelihood is that it’s costing you money.

A website can’t simply be designed, built and then set out on the internet in the vain hope that it’ll make you money.

At Mancala we like and need to work with you. We have the expertise to build and market a website but you know your products and your customers. By working together we can understand your business, your objectives and help guide you through what can become a technical minefield in some cases.

Give us a call or drop us an email. We can offer you help and advice or can arrange a review of your existing website. Whether it’s web development, web design, content management, payment integration, ecommerce, email marketing, internet marketing, social media marketing or something else, you can guarantee we’ll be able to help.

Mancala Technology

email: emailus@mancala.co.uk
phone: 0191 241 6726