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Ultimate Secrets to Build a Successful Web Business Part 1

30/10/2020

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There are a few secrets that I'd like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of them, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how ultimate secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the first part of the 4 article series. ​Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing.
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All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.
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Ultimate Secret #1) Content is king.
Heard that before? I know I have. The thing I never knew was how to use content to my advantage. Content is useless unless it is optimized for search engines. It must also be optimized for your reader. You have two customers - readers and search engines. You must satisfy both with the same exact content. Content is only king if you have exact and highly specific keywords placed in the correct locations. ​​Unfortunately the hard part is determining what keywords to use.
A keyword can be a single word or a phrase.  It is the term that web surfers use to search for information. Place yourself in their shoes and try to discover what search terms they use. You must then evaluate the search term.  How many people search using that term? How many sites already deliver information on that search term? Simple demand and supply rules. The more demand with the less supply equals more profitability.
You have several options for determining keywords and their profit potential. Search for yourself, pay a company to search for you or have your hosting company do a complete keyword search for your niche or web business topic. If your hosting company does not offer this service I recommend you switch to a plan that does. This feature alone can make or break your business' future. If you would like my recommended hosting plan, please contact me.
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Without a proper keyword search and analysis you may as well forget about becoming successful with an Internet business.  Investing in this one secret is literally the start of planning your website.
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​Your next action step is to plan your site layout based on the 50-175 high-demand and low-supply keywords. Your site should be structured in three tiers. Tier one is your home page. Tier two is made of all of your main topics and also constitutes your navigation bar buttons. Tier three keywords are sub-topics of tier two pages. Organize your 50-175 keywords into three tiers. Doing this makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your site and it makes it easier for search engine spiders to find all of your pages.
Search engine spiders do not like to fish around for all of your pages and links. This is why many sites offer a ìsite mapî. A site map is one page that contains links to all of the content pages. This is a fine route to take; however, most people agree that pages with a lot of links on them are valued less than content pages that casually link to other content pages.

Using three tiers allows you to go from topic to sub-topic to sub-sub-topic all by natural in-content links.  For example, tier 1 is the homepage on a fitness site. Tier 2 is a page all about cardio activity and its benefits. A tier three page off of that tier 2 page is about different treadmill routines. Do you see how the site visitor would like this structure? They click on "Cardio" and are given links to more specific pages about cardio topics.  Search engine spiders like the three tier structure too. It means they do not have to dig through layers and levels of useless links.
​There is even more to content than finding profitable keywords and structuring your site into easy-to-navigate tiers. You must optimize each and every page on your website to perform well and rank high at search engines. Many people devote their working life to optimization secrets. A full length article just on optimizing is possible. Heck, a full length book is possible. My recommendation is to use a hosting company that ​automatically 
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teaches you how to optimize web pages for engines. Doing that will cause less headaches and frustration and it will keep you focused on building content.

A quick education in optimization: place your specific keywords in the file name, title, description and keyword section of your page.  Then sprinkle the keywords throughout the content.  Also provide a link using your specific keyword in the link text.  If all of this has you spinning your head, I recommend going to the hosting company I use.  They literally teach you to build a website using blocks.  Itís all simple and easier than you think.
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There is one last piece to content. It must effectively pre-sell your product or service and position you as the expert in your field. When your website has 50-175 optimized pages for your visitors to read through it will start to position you as the expert. Your site will become known as the place for information about (insert your niche).

When visitors find your site through search engines they are seeking information about a 
problem or question they have.  If they land on your site and you try to sell them something right away, one thing is sure - they click the back button and find another site that will give them information.  This is why pre-selling your product or service is paramount.  Give your visitors what they want.  Answer their questions and in the process let them know about your services and products.

All of this information develops rapport and trust with your site visitor. It positions you as an expert.  This will keep your visitors on your site longer since
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they are reading content. Search engines notice this and rank you better.  How well your site can keep visitors is known as "stickiness." Your site must attract and keep visitors for as long as possible.
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Provide content that pre-sells your products, positions you as the expert and focuses on highly profitable keywords. You cannot go wrong with your web business if you do those things. The secret to content is to satisfy both your visitor and search engines. Lose one or both and you are doomed. As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder. Contact me for further resources and information. Having a successful web business starts with effective content.  Stay tuned for parts 2-4!
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​Target Practice Pro is your go-to digital marketing solution for planting marketing seeds and boosting your business. Call us now for a free quote.
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4 Online Marketing Techniques To Drive More Traffic

23/10/2020

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The most popular question asked by many online marketers is how to drive more traffic to their websites. The answer to this question is easy: "Have your website exposed to as many internet surfers as possible, once people can find your website, there will be traffic flow into your website'. But to make your website successfully exposed to internet users is not an easy task. Efforts, strategies and techniques need to be put in place in order to make it a success. Below are 4 common online marketing techniques used by most online marketers to drive internet traffic to their websites: 
SEO techniques on computer screen
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Successful search engine optimization will greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your website. since over 60% of people who are looking for products and services use search engines to locate them. Now more than ever consumers are taking decisions based on information provided by search results. If your website is ranked high in the related keyword search by the search engines, you can increase free internet traffic to your website. 
One of the ways to optimize your website to be search engines friendly is by generating backlinks from other websites to your website. When websites provide a link to your site, the search engines deem your site as valuable and this affects your position in the listings.
Article Writing​
Articles are the greatest tool for online marketing. It helps in SEO by generating backlinks to your website and it also helps in getting exposure for your website through your articles' hyperlinks. 

By writing short articles on the topic related to your website, products or services, you can offer these articles for other website owners or newsletter publishers to use by submitting them to article directories, forums or blogs. 
New Post feature in blog
When publishers use your articles in their blogs or websites, they will retain your bio information which contains links to your website at the bottom of your articles, which means that the publishers will contribute their link from their websites to yours. The backlinks are counted in SEO. When their visitors who read your articles want to know more about your products or services, they may click the hyperlinks at the bottom of your articles to reach your website. ​
Adwords to attract website visitors
Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay Per Click is advertising provided by search engines (Google, Yahoo! and others) where you pay for top placement. Most search engines give top positions to the highest bidder. It's a quick way to have your ad on the first page of the keyword search as listed in the search engines. There is a catch: you have to pay for every click to your website. Make a budget and stick to it and make sure to monitor your account, those clicks add up fast. 
Affiliate Marketing
An affiliate program is another way to drive traffic to your website. Your affiliates are your commission-based sales people who make money when they sell your products. They drive traffic to your web site in exchange for commissions on sales. 
Affiliate marketing to drive web traffic
If you don't want to manage your affiliates yourself, you can subscribe to an affiliate network such as ClickBank if your products are digital items. ClickBank marketplace is able to expose your products to thousands of affiliates who are looking for products to sell online.
Any internet business will die without traffic streaming into their website. If you have already started your website, it's time for you to work out a marketing plan to flood it with traffic. The above 4 online marketing techniques are time-tested & proven methods to drive more traffic to a website. 
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Target Practice Pro is your go-to digital marketing solution for planting marketing seeds and boosting your business. Call us now for a free quote.
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3 Proven Techniques For Improving Your Website's Usability

16/10/2020

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The number one factor that makes or breaks your website is whether or not people can use it. This is typically referred to as your website's usability. It seems simple: if people can't do what you want them to do (buy things, subscribe to things, request a call, etc.), they won't do it. Yet, because websites are so easy to change, several companies just create websites, web applications, e-newsletters, etc., and hope that the changes will help their business.  
Website build considering user experience
What further confuses this is typically a lack of clear insight into your website's performance. For example, how well does your website convert visitors into buyers? What are the key decisions that visitors must make on your website?  Do you give them the information and tools necessary to make those decisions?
woman building website
This article will help you focus on 3 proven techniques for improving your website's performance: website analytics, usability testing, and personas. Exactly how you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to you. However, one thing is guaranteed: all three techniques help you get closer to the people who visit your website: their needs, their desires, and their behaviors. This information is critical if you plan to optimize your websiteís usability to achieve your goals.
Measure Progress with Website Analytics
Many companies mistakenly install a standard "website statistics" program and only get a group of standard reports. Typically, these reports do very little to help you judge the true effectiveness of your website.  ​Want to get a jumpstart on creating your own website analytics? Just follow these 3 simple steps:
1. Start with the end in mind: your objectives 
Define your website marketing strategy objectives (i.e. "Increase the number of qualified prospects coming from web search engines"), and what you want your website visitors to do to reach those objectives (i.e. "See our listing in the top 10 in Google and click on it"). It is very important to identify each objective and attach a "call to action" to it. The effort now has clear, measurable and trackable events.
Website analytics on computer
2. Get in touch with your visitors' behavior on your website
​Track how many unique visitors you get, and how long they stay on your site (including how many pages they view). You want all of these numbers to be going up, since that means youíre getting more visitors who are staying on the site longer. You are maximizing the odds that they will do what you want them to.
client and agency discussion over website analytics
3. Develop your conversion rate 
Track how many visitors do the key action you want them to do and compare this number to your total visitors. This will help you determine your conversion rate. For example, if 15 out of 100 visitors have requested more information from you (and that is one of your objectives), then your conversion rate for information requests is 15%. Once you have these key website analytics in place, you can start to evolve your tracking and look for trends to optimize for
Here are two examples:
  • Let's say you notice higher conversion rates on weekends. Then you might want to spend more on online advertising on weekends and reduce your spending during the week.  
  • Let's say you need more visitors and embark on a search engine optimization project to improve your rankings. Then you can track the increase or decrease in visitor flow from your project's activities.

Regardless of what you want to achieve, getting to website usability first starts with solid website analytics. Why? Because website analytics force you to identify those areas that matter most, and identify how well or poorly you are doing in them.  Once you know this, you are armed with key data that can help you focus your efforts and determine where things like usability testing can help the most.
Leverage Usability Testing
Usability testing is where you take people who would use your website, and actually watch them using it.  Typically, you ask the person to do things on the site, and you watch either over their shoulder, behind a one-way mirror, or via a second computer where you can see what's being recorded on the test computer.
It's amazing how many things you can make better on your website just by watching people use it. Yet, as you get into it, you may find that hiring a usability professional for a testing project can be unnecessarily expensive. Usability professionals are helpful, since they typically have substantial expertise in planning and conducting tests, as well as interpreting test results. However, usability testing does not have to be fancy or formal: people are going to give you their opinion whether you're sitting in a research company or at Starbucks.
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​So be careful when hiring a professional that seems to make the testing process complicated or costly.  When someone does this, it's usually only for their own financial gain.
To successfully conduct a usability test, just follow these 5 steps:
1. Define your objectives. Begin with the end in mind
What do you want to accomplish with this usability test? Do you have specific areas of your website that you want to improve? If so, this is a great way to get ideas on how to make those areas better. Are you planning on rolling out a new area of your website? A usability test is a great way to do a "trial run" before the big launch.

2. Recruit the participants
This will take the most time, and can be the most frustrating part of the test process. You have to find people to participate (which can be tough, particularly if you need to match specific demographic profiles), and then you need to schedule them. Then, some will cancel, some wonít show, and some will be great test participants.  The best way to get a feel for the person is to talk to them directly more than once over the phone.  TIP: Be sure to call the person the day of the test to remind them about it.  

3. Script the test 
Youíll want to have an intro script, the test script, and a post-test survey. The intro script serves as a checklist of things you want to be sure to cover with the person before you start the test. TIP: During the part, try to focus on making the person feel comfortable giving their opinion, and reiterate that any feedback is good feedback. The next part, the test script, is a checklist of the actual things you want the person to do.  This is followed by the post-test survey, which allows you to ask the person questions, and later compare those answers to what they said during the test.
Usability test taken by voluntary
4. Conduct the test
This is the fun part! You sit down with the person and walk them through the test scenario. Some tests benefit from close "hand holding", while others benefit from letting the person do whatever they think is right. It completely depends on the objectives, and the information you want to collect. In either case, the best thing to do is to record both the person and what they do on the computer.  TIP: Be sure to compensate the person for their time. 
5. Report the results
The best way to report the results is two-fold: First, do a quick, one-page or less recap of each session immediately after the test. That way, the information is still fresh in your mind. TIP: Include a picture of the user in your recap, since it will help make that person's feedback "come alive". Next, take the information collected during testing, and create 1 to 4 "personas": user profiles that explain the type of person, what they need from the website, what issues they encounter frequently on the site, and what can be changed to help them. This will help you explain the results to others, and you can reuse these personas later when you are adding or updating areas of your website.

How many people should I test?  
For most usability tests, you can learn the maximum amount by only testing ten people. Too many more and youíll start to see too many recurring patterns. If you go less than ten, you might miss things or not see enough of a pattern.
Develop Personas
Let's face it - no one reads a 20-page usability report from cover to cover. It just doesn't happen. Usually, key decision makers ask for "recap" presentations, and then "latch on" to one or two key points from the study, quoting that point over and over again. This presents a great opportunity: why not give those key decision makers something memorable? Enter personas. ​Personas are a way to get everyone involved thinking about the actual people who visit your website.
man with persona mask in usability testing
What Personas are:
  • Fake people based on real data
  • A practical tool to maintain focus on your target customers
  • A way to make your data come alive and be more memorable

What Personas are not:
  • Every possible customer profile
  • "Made up"; they are created from real data, like usability test results
  • A replacement for existing ways we design and build our website
Reporting user tests as personas is a great way to:
  • Get key decision makers on board with the persona concept
  • Communicate web site issues in the context of the people actually using your site 
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Creating personas from usability testing data is time-consuming, but very valuable.  Just look across the data for key trends: what common roles, goals, and actions do you see?  Can you group the feedback along those things?  You'll quickly start to evolve a handful of personas which can be refined over time.  Add a name and a few pictures of that "person" and you'll be on your way to creating a more user-focused website experience.
Again, exactly how you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to you.  Even small steps can make a big impact.  You don't have to have super-sophisticated website analytics, test your website with 100 users, or develop extremely detailed personas.  Every step you take in these three areas, no matter how big or how small, will help you get more from your website, and your website marketing strategy.
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Target Practice Pro is your go-to digital marketing solution for planting marketing seeds and boosting your business. Call us now for a free quote.
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3 Marketing Myths that are Stopping you Succeed!

9/10/2020

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These 3 marketing myths can cause you to lose sales if you base your marketing decisions on them. We've given you some marketing tips to blast each myth and boost your sales.

​​Myth 1: People buy a product at the cheapest price they can find.
People buy cheap products
Grocery stand with cheap products
That is not true - if it was then companies like Rolex and would not exist - Timex would have put them out of business a long time ago.  Despite the ease of research that the internet affords - buyers are generally lazy and don't undertake full research.  Even on eBay - where it is far easier to check the relative prices of a product - people often buy a product at a higher price than they can.  So what causes people to buy?  These are called buying triggers - the most common are:
  • Confidence in the seller
  • A high perceived value
  • Recommendations
  • Ease of purchase
Blasting Myth 1: 
  • Establish your credentials - for example we have over 20 years of business consultancy experience - so we know what works and what does not work in a business.
  • Find ways of enhancing the perceived value of your product or service by adding extras or clearly demonstrating the value of its purchase.
  • Ensure that you include some actual recommendations within your sales letter.
  • Make it easy to purchase and receive your product by not introducing any barriers to purchase such as extra forms, obscure or complex payment methods.
Myth 2: Offering your customers numerous different options will boost your sales
Too many options in ties can hinder sales instead of boosting them
Many options to buy from can make it hard for the consumer to decide
When confronted with several options, most customers have difficulty making a decision. They often react by procrastinating - and going to a seller who offers a clearer product.  Now by this we don't say add extras or upsells, just clearly state what's included in the product and don't offer options that not only confuse but making your selling and processing more difficult. The human mind works better when offered the two options "buy", "don't buy".

Blasting Myth 2: 
  • Only offer one product - or product package per page.  You can have a clear (and short) menu on each page to encourage multiple purchases.
  • If you have more than one option for a product or service - then give them different names and present them each separately.  For example you can call them "silver service", "gold service", "opal service" etc.  This is what we did with our various marketing services and it works quite well.
  • You should always aim for a small, easily understood product or service range.  You should be able to explain each of your products in one or two sentences.  If you can't do this - how do you expect your potential buyers to understand what they are buying?
Myth 3: Everybody Needs My Product or Service
Not everyone needs to buy a wax stamp
Just because you think your product is great, it doesn't mean everybody needs/wants it.
Unfortunately, most people don't believe that they do need a particular service of product.  Obviously with items such as iPods - your teenager will try and tell you they really, really, really need one, but this is peer pressure that has been built up with millions of dollars.  Much of this was spent on research into what their market wanted - and they got it right!

If you believe this myth then you also believe that you can succeed without doing much marketing or selling.  Unfortunately, despite what some marketers tell you - it does not happen that way.  Undoubtedly there are some very successful marketers around, but they will all admit that a great deal of market research, testing and reviewing of their offerings - happened before they became successful.

Building a successful business is hard work - most of it devoted to finding potential customers and then matching them with your products and services.  Even if most people can use your product or service, you still need a marketing strategy to reach them and a persuasive sales message to close sales - because you can bet your last dollar - that wherever there are lots of potential customers, there are just as many sellers.

Blasting Myth 3: 
  • Do your homework - find out where your potential customers are, what particular needs and desires they have and what they are seeking to solve these.
  • Look for a narrowly defined niche market where your product or service will solve a unique need of the customers.
  • Design your product or service to meet these needs.
  • Test, Change, Test, Refine, Test and obtain customer feedback.

Unless you are one of the millionaire marketers around - you will find many myths that you follow and potentially lose money on.  Hopefully the ones above have helped you. Lee Lister - Biz Guru
Boos your business with Target Practice Pro
Target Practice Pro is your go-to digital marketing solution for planting marketing seeds and boosting your business. Call us now for a free quote.
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An Internet Marketing Seed

2/10/2020

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​Dear Fellow Internet Marketer,

  It is vital to create a product that will allow you to eventually expand into other markets. The goal is for the people who initially buy your product to also buy your next products. Since you have proven that you can be trusted by delivering a product to your clients they love it should be much easier to obtain their business when your new item hits the online marketplace. We need to understand that a seed is truly important indeed. You need to see your first product as that seed.
Create a product that allows you to expand into other markets
You see this is about creating an Internet marketing kingdom, a virtual empire of products that all start with one tiny seed that is planted in the fertile soil of those hearts that are eager for your particular product. For example, I am in the process of creating a set of online videos where I teach students the various techniques needed to speak English. My area of expertise lies in the field of ESL (English as a second language) of which I have been blessed to have over 10 years of experience teaching to adult learners. My target market would be foreign adults who wish to learn English via video. I realize though that if I wish to branch out and sell different yet similar products later I will have to pick a product that these learners would also enjoy.
Social media can be used to expand a business
Start with one tiny seed and use digital marketing to build an empire
This led me to recall the great end of the semester food parties in the classes that I taught where both myself and my students brought in dishes from other countries that many enjoyed. Now I know that my second product launched will be an ESL cookbook with recipes submitted from actual students. The cookbook will be sold to other ESL students online. Branching out even further, a cooking forum would be established as well as an online cooking class with graduates of my esl video courses eventually teaching the course. It is amazing to see how all this began from the planting of one little seed. The online ESL video seed grew to become a cookbook, an online cooking school and a cooking forum. As we all know marketing is a numbers game and the bigger number of people you have on your marketing list the better your chance of survival and dominance.
Think about your online marketing seed before you plant it
​Think about your online marketing seed before you plant it. You want to plant something that will grow into something huge. When you look into the jungle you see an incredible array of trees. That is what you should want your seed to turn into. The trees in your Internet jungle will be represented by the vast number of names on your email list who want your first and additional products. The product you create should also appeal to as many people as possible. I know those who may not be interested in esl may be interested in cooking and vice versa. I could use the cooking bait to reel in the ESL fish and use the ESL bait to reel in those who love cooking. When your Internet marketing seed is sown you will reap the harvest of personal freedom. This translates into having the freedom to spend time doing what is really important. 
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​Even though I am blessed to be doing well working from home right now, my goal is to create an online marketing kingdom. I am the king, my wife is the queen and my daughter is the princess. I plan to give my little girl the choice to attend college or as the princess of the family become the boss while the queen and I enjoy our travels. It all starts with that tiny internet marketing seed. We have to have dreams, big dreams and seeing those dreams become realities is quite inspirational and shows that this Internet marketing thing is real. No one in your circle of naysayers can argue with your results unless they choose to be up against the truth of your success.
Hit the digital marketing target with TPPro
Target Practice Pro is your go-to digital marketing solution for planting marketing seeds and boosting your business. Call us now for a free quote.
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