So how do you identify a bargain keyword? Check out our smart keyword shopping tips below:

Go with geography – Target geographical region, suburb and street name and even landmarks or name of significant buildings that are close to your business. 

Product or service varieties - Target not only specific product or service names, but the varieties within your inventory. For example, if you sell pets, look beyond the obvious like “dogs” and “cats” but the specific breeds such as “Labrador” or “Poodle” too.

Keywords that describe value – Target suitable adjectives like “cheap”, “affordable”, “fast”, “popular” for online customers looking for bargains

Unique features – Target unique features like “Australian made”, “Melbourne Designed” or even “Italian” or “Japan” if the make and origin of your products is a unique selling point.

Seasonal - Target seasons, like spring or summer if your products go through those cycles.

To help you identify potential bargain keywords relevant to your business, Request a Search Marketing Consultation. Or call 1300 132 838. Who knows, you could find a bargain keyword that your competitors overlooked!

Useful links

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Pay-Per-Click
• Link submission
• Email marketing

The signs are hidden in your web statistics. Learn to read the key metrics and you’ll be on your way towards driving website performance.

Unique Visitors

Refers to a unique Internet user who views your website, where that person is only counted once regardless of repeated visits in the future.

Number of visits

Usually refers to the total number of times your website has been visited. By comparing it with the number of unique visitors, this gives you an indication of the volume of repeat visits your website has been getting.

Page

Similar to the meaning when referred to a book, it is understood as one of the denominators of what constitutes a website. The website homepage is considered a page, but so are the other sections that you go to within the website that fall under different chapters or headings.

Visits duration

This refers to the time that people take to browse your website. It is useful as an indication of the relevance of your web content to your target users. If many users are going for the quick exit, that’s a sign your website may require an update such as stronger visual appeal, tighter editing of content or just more substantial information in general. This is where blogs and video files would be really helpful in retaining the user’s attention.

Hits

A hit has often been confused with a visit, but they’re far from the same. A hit corresponds with each file on a single webpage that is being brought up when viewed by someone. A particular page of a website may bring up 10 hits when it’s being viewed because of the numerous images on it, but never make the error of thinking it’s a reflection of the page’s popularity.

Clicks

It refers to the amount of actual clicks on your ad, whether it’s a banner ad, a PPC ad on a search engine or a link in an email campaign. For PPC ads, each click represents an associated cost from the search engine (such as Google) and results in a visit to your website from the search engine user.

Impressions

Impressions are the number of times your ad has been displayed to users. For PPC ads, in order for your ad to be displayed a user must have typed a term that related to one of the keyphrases in your PPC campaign.

Page impressions

Refers to the times each individual page on your website has been viewed. This is very helpful in determining relevance of content to your target users. Most people tend to eventually do away with pages where there are less impressions as it means that the content there isn’t engaging the user.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

The click through rate (CTR) is the percentage rate of users who clicked through after your PPC ad or web banner is displayed. This value is obtained by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. The higher the CTR the more popular your ad or web banner is, resulting in a higher Quality Score. For PPC, a higher quality score can improve your ad position without increasing your bid amount for particular phrases. For email marketing, CTR can also refer to the rate that users are clicking on a link embedded in the email that takes them to a whitepaper download, an enquiry form or to the pages of a website.

Open rate

Only applicable for email marketing, open rate measures the percentage of people who receive an email and actually open up and view it in its entirety. Glancing over the subject line or taking a sneak peak into the email contents from the preview pane doesn’t count. This figure can give you an indication on the interest levels of the email recipients to your message. It can also give you an idea if the time that you’ve chosen to send your email is effective. To send an email campaign to accounting companies at the end of the month will clearly derive low open rates as that’s the time when they’re the busiest and would disregard your email.

Need help?

Talk to a Melbourne IT eBusiness Consultant on 1300 132 838.

Useful links

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Pay-Per-Click
• Link submission
• Email marketing

Extending their marketing online

With their program being a proven success, the arrival of the Internet presented a challenge to Smokenders and to Philip Feinstein, their National Coordinator, in terms of replicating the success they have achieved onto the Internet. As with most people Feinstein had his initial doubts about using the Internet as a promotional medium.

“I’ve never been a highly technical person, so when the Internet came along and people were saying you need to get yourself onto the Internet, it took us quite a while to get a first website on the Internet,” Feinstein revealed.

Smokenders eventually got their first website and even had it made over on one occasion. Feinstein said they were probably getting one or two hits a week via the website in the initial stages.

The search for online customers begins with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

As Smokenders did not have many contacts with the IT industry, they didn’t really know who to turn to when they decided to trial online marketing. So it’s no surprise that they went to the people that first gained their trust in getting a website: their domain name registrar. The consultant at their domain name registrar then went on to debug all the jargon about online marketing to them. He also explained the application of keywords, search engines and website ranking in relation to Search Engine Optimisation in the most accessible way possible.

Feinstein couldn’t be more excited about putting away his initial skepticism as the results of their Search Engine Optimisation campaign astounded him.

“All of a sudden we were getting one or two [hits] a day, and as of now, we’re getting four to five hits a day. In some businesses that’s hardly anything, but in this industry, it’s a lot. For any smoker to look for help, to get onto our site and press the button, and say “hey, send more info”, that takes a lot of guts,” said Feinstein.

He elaborated that most of these enquiries were coming from people that found them on the search engines. He is also certain from past experience that the number of hits has gone up a lot as their website is now not only on the first page of search engines, but close to the top spots on Google, Yahoo!7 and ninemsn for the keyword “quit smoking”.

For detractors of online marketing that dismiss Search Engine Optimisation for its higher than average spend, Feinstein is also quick to clear the air that the Smokenders program at $445 (including GST) isn’t exactly for the budget conscious. Mind you, they now have a take-home Quit-Kit that retails for $189 (including GST).

“People have said to me that to quit smoking, they can buy a book or try other quit smoking alternatives that are cheaper or even free. Whether it’s to quit smoking or to take up online marketing, it’s the end result that counts, meaning you pay for what you get”, said Feinstein.

Further online activity

Looking forward, he anticipates greater involvement of the Internet with Smokenders and expects their advertising on the Internet to be four times what it is now in a year’s time.

Beyond their efforts into Search Engine Optimisation, their recently launched take-home Quit-Kit will let Internet users enjoy all the benefits of their seminars in the comfort of their home, in front of their computer. The take-home Quit-Kit, which includes a CD and a manual, will be sent out in the mail to those that respond via the Smokenders website. Coupled with telephone support, it has allowed their seminar program to be fully portable to meet the demands of the Internet generation.

Not the last word in their online success story

Despite the results of their online marketing campaign being a huge morale booster, they are not about to give themselves the pat on the back when there are graduates that backslide after their program. According to Feinstein, one out of five of their graduates return to smoking which effectively brings their long term success rate to 81.25%.

“But of the one in five that go back to smoking, some have willingly come back to us and have paid money to do the program again,” he explained how it was bittersweet to see some familiar faces.

Until the day the world is devoid of smokers, it’s safe to say that Smokenders as well as Feinstein will not allow themselves to be blown out in puffs. In the meantime, they can look towards Search Engine Optimisation and the Internet to help them achieve continued online success in their efforts to get everyone to butt out.

The Smokenders website is registered with Melbourne IT and they were also responsible for assisting Smokenders commence their Search Engine Optimisation campaigns. Melbourne IT has continued to support Smokenders in their online marketing efforts ever since.

The Smokenders website is www.smokenders.com.au 1800-021-000

Need help?

Talk to a Melbourne IT e-Business Consultant on 1300 132 838.

Useful links

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Pay-Per-Click
• Link submission
• Email marketing

PPC lets you pay for a spot on the Sponsored Links area (located on the right hand side of search results) of search engines under certain keywords or phrases. You only incur a cost when a user enters your website from one of your PPC ads.

You’re in the driver’s seat

While search engine optimisation (SEO) should be your long-term strategy, PPC can deliver immediate results while you wait for your SEO efforts to bear fruit.

• It’s quick. Your PPC campaign can be up and running within days or even hours.
• It’s cost-effective and affordable. You only pay each time a customer enters your website. Plus you can set a daily budget as little as $1 or $100,000.
• You’re in control. Choose what time of day to run your campaign, the geographic market (Sydney, US, global) to target or the language (English, Italian, German) to use. Pause or re-start your campaign as you wish. Change your keywords or phrases and up or lower your advertising spend at any time.
• You know what’s working and what’s not (and you can do something about it). Unlike other forms of marketing, PPC is highly measurable. You know what keywords generate more traffic, which ads attract the right customers and how much each keyword or ad costs you. This takes the guesswork out of marketing and gives you the confidence to make the right business decisions.

Reap short-term wins

PPC is ideal for:

• Newly launched or re-designed websites that need to get an immediate hit from search engines
• Websites that are waiting for SEO efforts to take effect (which can take up to three months)
• Geographically targeted campaigns eg users who search for florists in Melbourne
• Specific campaigns targeting a hit list of keyword searches
• Specific promotions such as new product launches, limited time offers, special deals and seasonal offers
• Testing the effectiveness of less popular or obscure keywords

Tips for the novice

Firstly, it would not be wise to handover your PPC campaign to a novice or run a DIY project. There is a lot more to grasp about PPC before you can kick back your heels and let whatever weird science drive PPC through its course on the Internet. Don’t allow sheer inexperience, wildly optimistic targets or misinformed judgment calls to thwart the potential of your campaign. Know your metrics, understand your click-thru rate (CTR) and what it means, do your maths and measure, measure, measure. Better yet, employ a professional.

What’s the deal with click-thru rates?

CTR refers to the number of times Internet users arrive at your website by clicking on your ad or weblink on the search engines. It is the first PPC campaign benchmark to look at. Generally, a higher CTR is great news because it means that users are interested in your ad. You have solved one puzzle that eludes many Internet marketers: how to write the most compelling but brief ad copy in the world.

But be aware that CTR metrics can be deceiving if tainted by click fraud. Click fraud is the poison of PPC and advertising networks do take measures to prevent it. Still, it can be exasperating to wonder which sly competitor gleefully clicks on your search engine ad all day long to inflate what you will owe Yahoo or Google by the end of the week.

On something more actionable, consider that CTR rates vary across markets. For some health sites CTR rates of 20% or more are quite possible, while 1% is something to crow about in thin, high-technology markets. One reason for the latter, as market research might reveal, is that technology decision-makers are averse to advertising. They tend to be loyal to the pricey brands they already own because the cost of conversion is stressful. Hence, it takes other channels (direct selling, for instance) to break down their inertia even to perfectly-targeted keywords.

Aim for high traffic and higher profits

Do the math. How much visitor traffic did you obtain? How well did the website convert them – either as a lead through a dedicated 1300 number, an online form, newsletter sign-up, downloads or an online purchase in the case of ecommerce.  What was revenue and margin per customer? Generated profit may be the most important because high CTR and tons of traffic count for nothing in the face of low registrations, sales or whatever acid test of new customer relationships matter to your business.

Cost efficiency

When you already know how much you earned from the campaign, the next thing to consider is the cost. It does make a difference if you spend $100 and earn $1,000 and if you spend $100 and earn $110. And we have not even factored in cost of goods. A money-losing campaign is a strong signal to stop, and re-evaluate your choice of keywords and media.

Wrong keywords or wrong media?

If you are running multiple campaigns on the same keywords and these campaigns perform differently, then it is obvious that the problem lies with the media mix. The solution is simple – quit the weakest medium and concentrate on the more profitable ones.

However, if your PPC campaign is not working on most of the media you are using, then the problem is most likely poor keyword selection. You can try other keywords, trusting that this time you will be luckier.

Like a jigsaw puzzle, the success of PPC depends on the clicking together of separate considerations and factors such as the above. If you lose any piece of the puzzle, you are unlikely to reap the rewards that PPC promises.

Need help?

Talk to a Melbourne IT e-Business Consultant on 1300 132 838 or book a FREE Consultation.

Useful links

• Up your Google popularity
• How to pick the right words for SEO
• Search engine listing: natural vs paid
• Why doesn’t my website rank in Google
• Blogging ups your web ranking
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Pay-Per-Click
• Link submission
• Email marketing

How your website gets lost

Search engines like Google will banish a website from its search pages for various reasons. Among the more common ones are practices labelled as “Black Hat”.

Black hat methods are underground practices that attempt to outsmart and manipulate search engine preferences for relevant keywords and backlinks to reap short-term gains. Keyword stuffing – the excessive placement of keywords on websites – and irrelevant linking are two of its main tactics.

The other tactics include Gateway or Doorway Pages which refer to low-quality web pages filled with gibberish or ramblings and no real content. Scraper sites are equally guilty as they contain nothing but advertising. And link farms are unpardonable as they are sites that simply display links and nothing more.

Together with breaching of other Google guidelines, the above abuses can result in your website being expelled into the Internet blackhole.

  ……………………………………………….

Lost website equals loss in business

For all the preachings on search engine marketing, it’s clear that any business looking to maximise traffic to their site needs to remain listed on every important search engine. Losing your place in Google means being invisible to about 45% of web surfers globally.

The proof can be found in a case study published by Hitwise on 13 February 2008, about an insurance comparison website GoCompare.com that was blacklisted by Google after the search engine detected irregular inbound links to its site.

Prior to the ban, GoCompare topped Google’s organic results for the search term “car insurance”, capturing 17.49% of all clicks from the keyword. But after Google sanctioned the website on 26 January this year, GoCompare plummeted down the search rankings and suffered an 87% reduction in traffic, generating a mere 2.31% of clicks in the first week following the ban.

The woes of GoCompare became the blessing for its closest competitors, Confused.com and Comparethemarket.com, as their search engine traffic soared to 77% and close to 300% respectively over the subsequent two weeks.

While it is definitely a big setback, being blacklisted need not be your lifelong fate. Like a publicly shamed child in the same vein as Corey Delaney of the Narre Warren South street mayhem fame, you can repent and ask to be taken back into the Google family.

Playing it safe on the Internet

Firstly, these problems would not arise if websites abide by the laws that govern search engine behavior. By familiarising and following Google guidelines, ensuring your site has specific content relating to your products or services, and not over-filling your site with unrelated keywords will prevent your website from being exiled.

Beyond the above points, Google may also ban your site if it does not adhere to other criteria. No one knows exactly what these other criteria refer to or what search engines disapprove of when it comes to websites. In any case, don’t expect their insider secrets to be aired on YouTube considering how tight-lipped search engines are on these issues. So the safest and surest thing to do is to keep your website content focused and relevant at all times.

Getting back into Google’s good books

To receive mention amongst the pages of Google again can be as simple as re-submitting your site to their directory. Getting back after being caught for inappropriate tactics takes longer, though.

You can expect a long trial period to prove that you consistently abide by the guidelines once more. During this trial period, Google can agree to list your site on one of their back pages in search results.

After about six months of “clean living” and abiding by all rules, you may notice your rank rising and traffic referred by Google starting to show up once again. We may never know if the islanders from Lost will ever be found, but for your website, it’s definitely not a lost cause.

Need help?

Talk to a Melbourne IT e-Business Consultant on 1300 132 838.

Useful links

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Pay-Per-Click
• Link submission
• Email marketing

A new domain

To cross over China’s online threshold, start by arming yourself with a .cn domain name – it is the localised Internet address for China. With over 950,000 .cn domains registered in 2007, it is essential to secure a unique online presence that distinguishes your brand in the Chinese market and protects your business’ online identity.

While not everyone can aspire to achieve a unique identity as powerful as the stratospheric 88-storey high Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, your job of creating a distinctive .cn domain is a lot less daunting, beginning with the following considerations:

• use only letters, numbers, or hyphen (”-”)
• cannot begin or end with a hyphen
• must have at least 3 characters, not including .cn

     
The sooner your domain is registered, the better it is for your business as it ensures:

• brand protection in China
• access to the Chinese market
• ability to provide more relevant, localised information about your business
• enhanced rankings and increased traffic through Chinese search engines

   
Remember, web hosting for your domain name must also be sourced within China to ensure optimal search results for your website.

                               ……  

 A big gong to Baidu, not Google

In the Chinese market, your best online partners are not Google or Yahoo. Brush up on your Chinese and get used to names like Baidu and Sina instead.

Searches on Chinese search engines are rarely performed in English. The local language, simplified Chinese text, is used instead. As such, Chinese text-based search engines the likes of Baidu dominate over the usual suspects Google and Yahoo.

According to a September 2007 report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), baidu.com took up 74.5% while Google.com made up 14.3% of search engines that users favour in China.

Even when Baidu is leaving others in its trail, it is interesting to note that Google is fiercely competing for the attention of the high-end demographic. In the same report by CNNIC, statistics reveal that 47.72% of the audience comprising of non-student users aged 25 and above, receiving Bachelor’s Degree and above and enjoying a monthly income of over 3,000 yuan (approximately AUD$500), have selected baidu.com as their preferred search engine while google.com comes very close with 42.32%.

Nonetheless, it is prudent to set your sights on Baidu and other Chinese search engines to make it on the Chinese market.

Don’t get lost in translation

With the dominance of Chinese search engines, it is essential to speak their language and have your website translated into simplified Chinese text too.

Creating a website in Chinese gives your business greater exposure in China and helps to increase the natural rank of your website in Chinese search engines. In addition, your business draws Internet users in markets such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore that also use simplified Chinese text heavily when searching on the Internet.

Perfecting the art of Chinese search engines

Submitting your website to Chinese search engines is one key step to ensuring your website is exposed to Chinese Internet users. But before doing so, ensure that your website follows basic design principles: user-friendly features, informative and relevant content, high visual appeal, suitable links to related industry websites and a seamless user experience.

Beyond that, there is a wide variety of online marketing options available through Chinese search engines that you can use to further promote your business:

• Directory Inclusion – Submit your website to a fixed-price directory based on yearly payment. The major Chinese search engines such as Baidu and Sina require a fee for directory placement for your website.
• Fixed Ranking Placement - For a monthly payment, the major Chinese search engines guarantee a top 10 ranking for your website based on the keyword supplied. The monthly payment is determined by the popularity of the keyword provided.
• Pay per Click (PPC) - A paid advertisement service that displays your website based on the keyword provided. Advertisers bid for a keyword, and pay a fee every time someone clicks on the advertisement.
• Contextual Advertising - Paying a fee for your advertisement to appear on certain websites that have allowed banner advertising to appear on their website.

    
The Internet in China is growing strongly and is likely to continue to expand at a rapid rate. CNNIC issued a report as of June 30 2007 that China’s Internet user base had reached 162 million. Meaning there were 100 new users per minute on average in the first half of the year. Internet penetration also came up to 12.3% with 122 million broadband network users. If this trend continues, the Internet will represent a ticket onto the Orient Express for Australian businesses to introduce and promote their services in the booming Chinese market.

Need help?

Talk to a Melbourne IT specialist Asia-Pacific e-Business Consultant on 1300 793 247.

Useful links

• Information on .asia landrush application
• Apply for a .asia domain name
• Apply for a .cn domain name – global domain names

(By the way, it’s not all doom and gloom if you have done so without “consulting” the Google bible on your site makeover. We’re here to help.)

Build on the lessons of success

Retain the keywords that worked for the original website. By all means, augment these with tags and keywords relevant to the fresh content. Do research other key words and phrases that rival operators use in the meantime. If you evolve and raise your sights, so will your competition.

Lock links in

Keep all links and move them over to the new site. Test them as soon as possible to ensure that all remain live and subscribes to the way Google determines how popular your web site is. Besides, the traffic received from those backlinks is too valuable to lose through carelessness.

Give priority to high-performing pages

Spend time on those pages that had generated lots more traffic than the rest of the web site. Attend to vital housekeeping tasks such as ensuring that all directory links work properly, that the directory listings themselves remain in place (update the pointers if necessary) and that there are no broken links inside and outside your site.

Metrics

Make sure you gather up your website statistics on leads, sales, Return on Investment (ROI) measures, and overall performance. These are the benchmarks that the redesigned web site must match or beat.

Re-submit your new website to search engines

It is necessary to let the search engines know about your new website through a resubmission process as soon as the new pages are live. This will make it easier for search engines to visit and re-index your new site.

Publicize the “new” site

Release a pointed story or two about the major enhancements you have put in place and what these mean to visitors. Go with every article distribution service, whether fee-based or for free, that you can find.

Tell your customers, too

Send a “thank you” email to all customers and visitors you still have records for. Tell them their valued feedback triggered the enhancements now in place and urge them to bookmark the new pages. This one step alone will launch a good wave of visitors to the site.

In conclusion, you can minimise the risk of starting over and having to work your way up through the ranks of anonymous sites competing on your keyword list. Retain the content and links that gave you prominence in the first place. Announce to all and sundry the improved functionality, vast new content and improved design they can take advantage of. If you follow the tips above, your customers will still be able to remember and recognise your business online regardless of the number of nips and tucks your website goes through in the future.

Need help?

Talk to a Melbourne IT eBusiness Consultant on 1300 132 838 or book a call.

Get quality inbound links

Since Google ranks your pages according to the number of links from relevant and credible sites pointing to your page, try to get as many quality links as possible.

Use keywords in titles, headers, and subheaders

Google gives weight to title tags and headers that contain relevant keywords. So make sure you do this as a matter of course.

Keyword dense content

We recommend that you achieve a minimum keyword density of 4% – the number of times relevant keywords appear on a web page in relation to the total number of words on that page.

Keyword-laden Links

Hypertext links are like doors that open on to a room or, in this case, a web page. So, if you have other sites linking back to yours, make sure the links have relevant keywords in them.

For example, rather than displaying the text below:
“Click here to learn more about Melbourne IT”

A better way is:
“Learn more about domain names, web design and search engine marketing at Melbourne IT”

Sitemap

If your site has lots of menus and submenus, a sitemap helps search engine robots navigate through the different web pages easily.

Submit your site to search engines

Let the search engines know your website exists. All search engines have “Add a Site” link where you simply add your web address that tells their robots to visit your site. Learn more about search engine submissions.

Use unique content

Avoid copying or borrowing content from other websites. The benefits of unique content are two-fold: it ensures your website content is interesting to your visitors and you avoid search engines penalising your site for replicating content from the original site.

Start a blog

Blogs are another way of maximising your exposure on the web. Ensure you include a link to your own site on every blog page. Learn more about blogs.

Submit your sitemap to Google Sitemap Beta

This is another simple way to make it easier for Google to find and visit your site.

Remember, there are many other factors involved in website ranking that should be given nearly equal consideration. Simply building a good website with quality content is the best thing you can do to attract visitors. Page Rank, however, will likely follow – consider it a welcomed byproduct of your hard work.

Need help?

Free Consultation with a Melbourne IT eBusiness Consultant. Call  1300 132 838 or Book a call.

Learn more about our Online Marketing Services.

Related articles

• How to pick the right keywords for SEO
• Four online marketing essentials
• Search engine listing: natural vs paid
• DIY search engine optimisation
• Search engine marketing explained
• Top tips to get more hits on your site

..

Yet with all the effort that goes into winning new customers, once you have gained a new account or a sale, it is by no means certain that you’ll be able to retain them for future business.

There are some commonly recognised reasons why businesses lose customers. According to research conducted by Howard Feiertag and John Hogan the most common reasons are:

1. Customer moves (4%)
2. Customer is introduced or referred to another company (5%)
3. Competition wins customer over by use of promotions, marketing etc. (9%)
4. Customer is dissatisfied with product or service (15%)
5. No customer contact and relationship strategy (67%)

It’s clear from Feiertag and Hogan’s analysis that generally businesses are not investing enough resources into maintaining relationship and ongoing communication with their existing customers.

Email marketing can help your customer retention strategy. Email is the ideal medium to maintain customer contact throughout the business lifecycle. Email newsletters provide a unique opportunity to keep your customers informed about any company activity, new products, special discounts, and industry updates.

Fortunately, modern email marketing programmes like Melbourne IT’s Email promoter provide an easy-to-use interface allowing anyone, regardless of their technical or HTML skills, to send professional looking email messages to a large list of recipients, and more importantly track results.

Customer segmentation. Tools like Email Promoter offer the capability to segment a customer database into qualified recipient clusters, thus allowing businesses to broadcast highly targeted messages. As example of using segmented data is where a business has 1000’s subscribers to a monthly newsletter but would choose to send a special promotional message only to those who haven’t purchased a product for more than six months (or only those based in Perth etc.). The secret to a good segmentation strategy is to ensure you collect as much relevant data from your customers when they sign up for your newsletter or create an account with your company.

Results tracking and analysis. Email marketing allows you to track and monitor results for each newsletter or email promotion your send out.

So when you start sending your periodic newsletters and promotions don’t forget to monitor the following key performance indicators:

• Open rate: How many recipients actually open and view your email messages.

• Click through rate: How many recipients click on a link on your newsletter to read more about your news or visit your website.

• Bounce rate: How many emails bounce back (due to old email data, or recipient’s inbox being full etc.)

• Forward rate: How many recipients have forwarded your message on to another customer or a friend.

• Unsubscribe rate: How many recipients have chosen to unsubscribe from receiving future newsletters.

These indicators will help you monitor your results and fine tune your email newsletters.

Interacting with customers and getting their feedback. Email is a quick and convenient medium that provides your business with a two-way communication strategy, and it allows your customers to provide feedback on products and services or log support enquiries. Using a targeted and informative newsletter you can be proactive in providing your customers with excellent service and support.

Get your customer retention strategy in place with Melbourne IT’s Email Promoter …
- Email Promoter explained (video)
- Related articles: Launching and managing a winning email newsletter

FREE E-book. Set up an Email Promoter account in November and receive our FREE E-book “Things you need to know to launch an email newsletter”

Succeeding with Keywords and Keyphrases

Define your industry niche or market segment more precisely.  If you sell how-to books, for instance, “books” is simply too broad.  You are going to get lost amongst precisely 479 million search engine results concerning books.  Instead, you may want to try “Home Improvement How-to’s,” or “Home Improvement Books” (just 59,300 rivals this time, and down drastically to 2,000 when limited to publishers or booksellers in the U.K.).  Obviously, Net-savvy searchers often have a specific item in mind and they want to be taken directly to it.

Get into the Minds of Your Customers

Take a cue from the Natural Language Processing experts and ponder how the unsophisticated shopper might phrase a search in everyday language.  Does he or she say, “scientific nutrient-dense additive-free pet food range” or “best natural dog food”?  At some time in your brainstorming process, invite folks who are not too close to your company.  Outsider ideas can be valuable.

You may be current on industry lingo but customers have a world of their own.  So what if you are convinced your industry vertical is properly defined by the keyword phrase “outsourcing service provider”.  Potential clients might have synonyms in mind: “contact center”, “call center”, “telemarketing”, “CRM”, or “inbound/outbound sales provider”.  By all means, include all these in your keyword list.

What Works for the Competition?

Try to find out what keywords rival websites use by simply doing a Google search for potential words or phrases and see if their sites come up. You might like to test if some of these keywords (that you are not currently using) work for you as well.

Tools and Aids

Use a “Keyword Density SEO Tool” (Hint: Do a Google search) to analyse your web pages and see if you are achieving a a minimum keyword density of 4% (the number of times relevant keywords appear on a web page in relation to the total number of words on that page).  Google and Yahoo Search Marketing also offer tools that help determine the type of keywords you might like to use for SEO and pay-per-click campaigns.

Branding and Geo-marketing

Strengthen the most-searched keyword phrases with your brand name and plug it in relevant places – page titles, headlines, secondary headers, section headers, “reasons why” lists, comment section.  Repeat the process in every page that suits.

And if local search is your ballgame, construct a supplemental list of key phrases that include the city, county or state you target for your real estate business, retail chain, home service business, student service bureau, or tour guide service.

Your newfound awareness of keyword and keyphrases should help not only your optimisation efforts. It will also help develop a keyword bidding strategy that takes take you closer to a rightful spot among the top three in the paid search ad position.

Need Help?

Talk to a Melbourne IT eBusiness Consultant by calling us on 1300 132 838.

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