Content marketing attracts and engages prospects at each stage of the buying process.

Getting a web visitor to take action is the main objective of any web page. Unfortunately, many businesses see still a website as a brochure and do not take into account the way that web usage has changed and what the real purpose is. They spend all their time on design and not enough on usability and website conversion optimization. Pretty is good but conversion grows a business.

1. Use of Strong Visuals

Images need to have a purpose not just be decoration. Derek Halpen at Social Triggers put together a great article on the effective use of images.

He pointed out the following potential reasons for using images.

-To show a key product or service feature

Derek points out how genius the image of Apple Air in the envelope is. Apple is selling the “thinness” feature and nail it with the image. If you are selling a service, a good graphic can explain your offer.

MacBook Air image example for web conversion

-To direct attention

Images can be used to direct the web visitor’s attention. Images of people looking at or pointing can emphasize a key headline or call-to-action like a sign up form.

-To build trust

Using pictures of real people involved in the business whether they are customers or team members builds trust. Derek points out that people want to deal with real people. Stock images just don’t cut it. Customer testimonials have a lot more credibility if they have an image of the customer with them.

Revenue Architects testimonial example

2. Get the Headline Right

Another key page element is the headline. Copyblogger found 8 out of 10 people read only the headline. The promise of the headline must be compelling enough to turn a browser into a reader and then a sign up. Copyblogger offer a 11 part course to help with this. You won’t get the headline right first time. Optimizely lets you to test different headlines (and images) with no coding required. Testing should be an ongoing process.

3. Be Mobile Friendly

The big movement right now is towards responsive design. This means that a web site will reconfigure to be usable for any device from laptop ti smart phone. Website builders from Virb to Wix and Squarespace now offer responsive solutions. Excellent responsive themes are available for WordPress.

Revenizer mobile responsive web exampleDespite this, only 6% of small business websites are mobile ready according to a recent survey. The same study calculated that the lack of mobile readiness is costing US small businesses $1T each year. Mobile is now 28% of all web traffic. 4 out of 5 of these visitors will leave a site if it is not mobile optimized.

Make sure your emails are mobile optimized also. 70% of users will delete an email if it does display well on their smartphone. 75% of users open emails on smart phones.

 

Looking for help with improving conversion. Contact us at Revenue Architects.

For more ideas, go to Revenizer for 400+ more tips on optimizing digital + real time stats on your marketing performance.

The article summary is below.

Revenizer web conversion tips

Expanding Your Digital Review

Website assessments are nothing new, yet today, we need to take a comprehensive view that includes a look at your websites, apps, media, and social media presence. So, when you do your next check-up, instead of thinking “website assessment,” you should be thinking “digital assessment.” Given how rapidly things are changing in digital strategy and systems, you should be conducting a self-assessment at least each year. When we do this for clients, we call it a “DXI” –  Digital Experience Index. The benefits are clear.

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I received these statistics in a recent email and I thought they were worth sharing further with some comments. I am adding some implications as I see them below each one:

Eye-OpeningA whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not identified their funnel. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

  • Without a defined funnel, it is very difficult to develop a predictable forecasting capability.
  • Defining your funnel – with the buyer in mind – helps you develop the specific content you need to engage buyers at different stages.
  • In most of our B2B work we help define a collaborative qualification model between sales and marketing where sales teams have early insight into marketing leads. By taking a “decision support” approach, the organization is not leaving it up to marketing to determine the relative value of a lead – often the sales rep can help make the judgment supported by the behavioral data.

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With a solid Digital Marketing Foundation, Financial Advisors can run effective, targeted campaigns to build reputation and generate qualified client leads that can be nurtured and won.

Digital Marketing Foundation

  • Target Market Strategy
  • Overall Content Marketing Plan
  • Quality eMail Marketing List & Tools
  • The Right Sponsorship, COIs & Affinity Groups

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Today, I received an email from a leading high performance sales training and systems company that offers leading solutions for buyer-focused sales and marketing. The company has been around for a while and is clearly a leader in their space, so they had credibility from the start. The email headline got my attention as it was related to new buyer-focused sales strategies and it included a call-to-action for  training in advanced marketing and sales.

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Best Wishes for the New Year!

Consider adding these resolutions to YOUR list and increase your impact in 2013.

  1. Deepen Your Relationships… Use social media and filtering tools to deepen 1:1 relationships, retain and grow contacts.
  2. Earn Your Reach In addition to paid media, differentiate with quality content to drive reach with earned media.
  3. Hug Your Sales Team… Don’t let inbound marketing make you forget your valued selling professionals and partner channels.
  4. Enhance Your Revenue Systems… Use best practices in media management, marketing automation, CRM, and social media
  5. Innovate and Stand Out Dust off that strategy and use design thinking to create innovative digital experiences.

 

Team Revenue Architects
revenuearchitects.com
877.REV.EARN

 

The Twitter Buzz was so great for #SchwabIMPACT and #RIAS4U during Schwab’s annual IMPACT conference this year, it reached Twitter’s trending list!!  The Keynot by EVP Bernard J. Clark, unveiling enhancements to “RIA Stands for You” campaign propelled the buzz.

Below are a selection of tweets as well as some highlights of a related webcast next week.

In next week’s webcast John Stone will be discussing five strategies for using the #RIAS4U campaign:
  • Website Hub – Use RIAS4U to enhance your website content and value
  • RIAS4U Branding – Gain from program’s “halo effect” by using the brand and content
  • 1:1 Targeting – Use new tools to filter and focus on 1:1 engagement using RIAS4U
  • Social Media – Expand your reach and influence with social media engagement
  • Campaigns – Combine RIAS4U elements into your custom campaigns.

 

RIA Stands for You: Tips to Get Started! – https://bit.ly/TVfXmU

Are RIA Firms Using CRM Effectively? – https://bit.ly/ToZZUj

Bernie Clark at Schwab Impact: RIAs’ Competitors ‘Want What You Have’ – https://bit.ly/RFcCrL

Check out our #RiAS4Y blog post and download our Revenue Performance Healthcheck – https://bit.ly/ZBnueC

Check out all of the news on the Schwab Talk blog – https://bit.ly/TnKCaa

 

Schwab is investing millions of dollars in the RIA Stands for You online campaign.  It is an opportunity for clients of Schwab Advisor Services to put the marketing muscle of Schwab to work for their own firms.

By focusing the campaign online, Schwab is validating the power and growing importance of digital and social media channels and marketing programs to attract new clients and referrals. The beauty of the web: it is measurable and trackable.

One of the major challenges of attracting the attention of prospects online is fresh content.  And Schwab is providing a great deal of this (educational documents, logo, videos and more), for RIAs to customize and integrate to enhance their own online marketing efforts.  Plus there is a dedicated website and a social media presence.

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Judy Gern, Revenue Architects Senior Client Partner, recently published this article in EContent,  a leading authority on the businesses of digital publishing, media, and marketing.

Here is an excerpt (click the image below to launch the full article)

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By John Nielsen

Lead scoring is the process of evaluating and assigning points to prospects and leads using marketing automation tools. Points are distributed based on the attributes associated with a qualified lead.  It is important to understand whom you are marketing to when managing a campaign, sending irrelevant content to your followers is a quick way to lose.  To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, below are a few tips one can easily follow to update your contact lists and help identify priority focus using lead scoring.

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