First, let me personally apologize to our readers, because despite all the exciting things on the way, I should have made the time to get another blog article out there for you.  With that out of the way, let me set this up for you…

Our Market

As we mention from time to time, we have clients from California to New York and have been working to obtain more in the middle.  Our largest market is currently California and we’ll continue our efforts there, as well as begin some new efforts very soon to expand that market.  Our second largest market is currently New Mexico – partly because our corporate headquarters is located there.  There are some other important reasons that make New Mexico our second largest market, but I’m going to hold those as company secrets for now.  Texas happens to be our third largest market currently, so efforts will begin there in earnest as soon as we can spare the resources.

Marketing Collaboration

Back in March of this year, we announced our collaboration with Majestic Media in Farmington, NM.  Since that time, we’ve met with them almost daily to develop and polish a strategy.  We will fully unveil the results of this within a week or two – and things will become really interesting in the Four Corners area.  But that’s not the point of this article.  The point is this:  create collaborations with complimentary businesses in and around your industry.  Why do this?  Try this little exercise:  Take a stick and try to break it – not that difficult to do.  Now, take two sticks, tie them together, and try to break them – a bit more difficult.  The more sticks you tie together, the more difficult the bundle will be to break.  Seek out and develop strong relationships with other businesses to create a better product for your collective customers and a mutually beneficial situation for all businesses involved.

The more businesses you can tie together with your own into a mutually beneficial relationship, the stronger each business will be.  Now get busy and tie those sticks together!

Be Real

There used to be all sorts of tricks you could pull off to rank well in the search engines . . . and they worked.  Those same tricks today will get you tossed down in the rankings with all the other lowly tricksters.  Search engines are much more savvy nowadays and want to be a relevant as they possibly can in order to retain their user-base.  This means you have to be real.  No more tricks.  Just deliver quality content that people want to see – and the search engines will reward you for it.

Be Smart

Of course, you still need to put in the work to see what keywords are most relevant to your site.  You still need to write compelling content that is most relevant to your site and your keywords.  You still need to design your site in a way that is search-engine-friendly.  You can’t just “be real” like you are at the local pub after your fifth pint of your favorite brew . . . you have to be smart.  Make your page titles and descriptions as relevant as possible to your site and your keywords.  Include relevant alt tags for your images.  In other words . . . do the work.

Be Good

Google knows.  Oh yes, they know everything.  They know when you are sleeping.  They know when you’re awake.  They know if you’ve been good or bad.  So be good, for goodness sake!  Google can see how long a person stays on a particular page . . . and on a particular site.  The longer people stay on your page . . . and the longer they stay on your site, the more relevant your site is for the keywords that led the traffic there in the first place.  If you be real and be smart, you are well on your way to be good.  Create content that people want.  Make it engaging.  Give them pretty pictures to look at.  Include a video for people to watch.  Think of the sites that you like, why you like them, and why you continue to go back.  You think they’re good . . . so be good.

Be Social

OK . . . so now you’re real, smart, and good.  Share your content and make it easy for others to share it as well.  If you’ve put in the effort to be real, smart, and good, your visitors will want to share it with their friends and followers as well.  Share your content on your Facebook page, through Twitter, and on LinkedIn.  Send it out to your other social networks as well.  Stand tall and be proud because you’ve made the commitment to be real, be smart, and be good!

There’s more to traffic generation, but if you can grasp, and stick with, these four principles, you are well on your way to generating traffic.  If you get stuck, you can always contact us for help.

You use these numbers to make decisions.  Which pages are attracting the most visitors and holding their attention?  Which sites are referring the most traffic?  Of course, you’ll need to continue the numbers game into leads captured, and sales from leads, but we’ll just focus on traffic for now.  The following are my two favorite tools for internet traffic measurement.

Google Analytics

www.google.com/analytics/
There’s no denying that Google is the giant of the Internet.  Why not use their analytics – it’s free!  How can you go wrong with that?  It’s very easy to add to your website and you’ll collect all sorts of juicy information that you can use to improve your efforts.  Drill down to see a map of exactly what cities are driving your traffic – that could come in handy for geographically targeting your efforts.  You can see what keywords are driving traffic so you can optimize on what works best and improve or drop what is underperforming.  Take a look at your traffic sources to see what sites are driving traffic to your site and which are performing best.  For instance, one site may refer more traffic than another, but if they hit the site and bounce (only view one page and leave), it is not your best source of traffic.

There are all sorts of goodies to be found in Google Analytics, so check it out – it’s free so what do you have to lose?

Alexa

www.alexa.com
Alexa is a great source of research on any website.  It will show you how a site ranks, how many inbound links a site has, what search terms are driving traffic to the site, and more – even take a look at demographics for the site’s traffic such as age, education, gender . . . even whether they have children!  Some of these features are only available for sites of a certain rank.  If your site doesn’t rank well, check out a competitor that does rank well, take a look at their demographic information, and voila – you have demographic information!  Take a look at your competitor’s search terms that drive traffic and see what you can do to improve your own site for the same traffic.  Use your imagination and just go nuts!

We incorporate analytics into every inbound marketing strategy – let us do it for you too!

Highest Internet Traffic

Should you strive to achieve more internet traffic than anybody else – or at least, your competitors?  Sure, you can shoot for that . . . as long as you do it the right way.

Let’s say you sell dog collars, and your site runs right to the top of the list for the search term, “dog.”  You’ll probably get LOTS of traffic because of that, but your competitor has taken the time to construct his site so that he’s at the top of the list for the much less popular search term, “dog collars” and variations of the same.  He has also taken the time to build incoming links from sites relevant to the dog collar industry, he provides eBooks about dog collars, he blogs about dog collars, he collects and nurtures leads through email marketing.  He’s working social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn . . . basically, he’s becoming known as the dog collar expert.

In this example, your competitor is WAY ahead of you and your team dedicated to capture all “dog” traffic from the search engines.  Between you and your competitor, you will most likely have the highest internet traffic, but your competitor has built an entire Inbound Marketing model completely relevant to his business – and he will definitely see more sales for his efforts.

Targeted Internet Traffic

Build a system of traffic generation micro-targeted to your business and its products or services, engage your visitors once they get to your site, become the site that others in your industry want to link to, provide something of value to your visitors in exchange for a few bits of information to generate leads, properly nurture those leads into sales, and consistently analyze all of the data.  If you convert more of your traffic into leads, and more of your leads into customers, you will have more business without the need to increase your traffic.  Then – increase your targeted traffic and really watch your business grow!

It’s not all about the highest internet traffic – it’s about the right traffic.  Let us help you find the right internet traffic with an Inbound Marketing strategy!

Notice the number of sites linking to these most popular websites.  The key to SEO is inbound links – they make you an authority.  Each time another site links to your site, it is a “vote” for what your site is all about.  The more authority the site linking to you has, the more weight the inbound link carries.  However, it’s not the only thing that counts.

Let us help you make your site more popular with inbound marketing strategies!

1. Google

Google enables users to search the world’s information, including webpages, images, and videos.  It offers unique features and search technology.  4,884,039 other sites link to Google and it is also the most popular site in the US.

About 29% of visitors to Google come from the US, and roughly 26% of visits to Google consist of only one pageview. The time spent in a typical visit to the site is about twelve minutes, with 34 seconds spent on each pageview.

2. Facebook

Facebook is a social utility that connects people so that they can keep up with friends, upload photos, and share links and videos.  7,218,823 other sites link to Facebook and it is also the 2^nd most popular site in the US.

Search engines refer approximately 4% of visits to it. The time spent in a typical visit to Facebook is roughly 24 minutes, with 55 seconds spent on each pageview. Relative to the overall population of internet users, this site’s audience tends to be users who browse from school and home; they are also disproportionately women.

3. YouTube

YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people that matter to you.  Upload, tag, and share your videos worldwide.  3,371,663 other sites link to YouTube and it is also the 3^rd most popular site in the US.

Roughly 21% of visitors to the site come from the US. It has a bounce rate of about 34%.

4. Yahoo

Yahoo is a major internet portal and service provider offering search results, customizable content, chat rooms, free email, clubs, and pager.  2,015,936 other sites link to Yahoo and it is also the 4^th most popular site in the US.

Roughly 32% of visits to the site consist of only one pageview. It is estimated that 31% of visitors to the site come from the US, it is also popular in Taiwan, where it is ranked #1. Compared with internet averages, the site’s audience tends to be aged 45–55 and over 65; they are also disproportionately women browsing from school and home.

5. Baidu.com

Baidu is the leading Chinese language search engine, and provides a “simple and reliable” search experience, strong in Chinese language and multi-media content including MP3 music and movies.  It was the first to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search in China.  363,777 other sites link to Baidu and it is the number 1-ranked site in China.

6. Wikipedia.org

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia built collaboratively using wiki software.  2,123,583 other sites link to Wikipedia and it is also the 6^th most popular site in the US.

Relative to the overall population of internet users, the site’s audience tends to be users who browse from school and work; they are also disproportionately childless, both high- and low-income people under the age of 35 who have postgraduate educations. Visitors to the site spend approximately 5 minutes per visit to the site and 61 seconds per pageview. About 53% of visits to Wikipedia are bounces. It is estimated that 21% of this site’s visitors are in the US.

7. Live.com

Windows Live is a search engine from Microsoft.  185,482 other sites link to Windows Live and it is the 12^th most popular site in the US.

Visitors to this site view an average of 6.6 unique pages per day. About 4% of visits to this site are referred by search engines. While approximately 16% of visitors to the site come from the US, it is also popular in Mexico, where it is ranked #5.

8. Blogspot.com

Blogspot.com and Blogger.com are one and the same.  It is owned and operated by Google and is a free service that allows people to create their own blog.  1,803,099 other sites link to Blogspot and it is the 11^th most popular site in the US.

Visitors to the site view an average of 3.5 unique pages per day. Visitors to the site spend about five minutes per visit to the site and 51 seconds per pageview. Compared with internet averages, the site appeals more to users who browse from home and school; its visitors also tend to consist of women earning less than $30,000. 27% of Blogspot’s visitors are located in the US.  It is also popular in Indonesia, where it is ranked #4.

9. Twitter.com

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that utilizes instant messaging, SMS, and a web interface.  5,993,069 other sites link to Twitter and it is the 8^th most popular site in the US.

It has a bounce rate of roughly 36%. Twitter’s visitors view an average of 4.8 unique pages per day. Visitors to the site spend roughly 7 minutes per visit to the site and 51 seconds per pageview.

10. QQ.com

QQ.com is China’s largest and most used Internet service portal.  460,152 other sites link to QQ and it is the 2^nd most popular site in China.

11. Amazon.com

Amazon seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.  1,203,074 other sites link to Amazon and it is the 5^th most popular site in the US.

Relative to the overall population of internet users, the site’s users are disproportionately Caucasian, and they are disproportionately moderately educated, childless women earning over $60,000 who browse from home. Visitors to this site spend approximately 38 seconds on each pageview and a total of ten minutes on the site during each visit. Amazon.com has a bounce rate of approximately 27%.

12. LinkedIn.com

A networking tool to find connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners. Allows registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business.  1,237,729 other sites link to LinkedIn and it is the 10^th most popular site in the US.

Search engines refer about 7% of visits to the site. The time spent in a typical visit to the site is approximately eight minutes, with 39 seconds spent on each pageview.

Organic Search Traffic

Organic traffic is the traffic that comes to your website from a source other than paid search or referral traffic.  Referral traffic comes to your website by way of a hyperlink listed on another site that points to your website.  Basically, if a person visits Google (or another search engine), types in a word or phrase, and clicks one of the results, that person has just become part of the organic traffic to a website.  What you want to do is generate that sort of traffic to your website.

Why worry so much about organic traffic when you can use AdWords?  Because organic traffic is free – and we all love free!  Let’s say you make widgets and the editor of the authority in widget magazines (World’s Wildest Widgets) consistently mentions your company in her magazine.  In case you were wondering, her name is Wendy Westcliff.  People look to Wendy Westcliff’s articles in World’s Wildest Widgets because nobody knows widgets like Wendy!  Since Wendy consistently writes about your company, you would think her widget enthusiast readership would come to you for widgets – that’s called organic traffic – and it’s free.

Google AdWords for Paid Search Traffic

Google AdWords allows you to pay to have your website listed at the top of the Google search result pages for certain search words or phrases.  While that sounds like a great idea at first, remember that you must pay for this – and you may have to compete with other people willing to pay for the same words or phrases.

The trick is to develop the right strategy to direct the right traffic from the right paid search to convert at a high enough level to generate enough revenue to be profitable after paying for the traffic.  When you search for things in Google, do you skip over the paid results at the top of the page?  Most people do.  However, you don’t pay for people to skip over your paid search – you only pay for clicks.  Just be sure to attract the right clicks to your paid search to be profitable – it can be done – people do it all the time – but wouldn’t it be great to convert traffic from organic search – for free?

The Best Google Internet Traffic

Now you’re asking – but what is the best traffic – organic or paid?  The best traffic is the traffic that gets you the most leads and, in turn, the most sales.  If you have a little cash, go ahead and jump start your search traffic with an AdWords campaign while you work on increasing your page rank to move you towards the top of the search results to get you even more free, organic traffic than you generate from your AdWords campaign.  Get both of these strategies right and you’ll have more traffic, leads, and sales than you know what to do with!

Let us help you increase your Google Internet traffic with a search engine optimization plan!

Marketing in a Box

“We have exactly what you need right here!  A marketing plan to fit any business, big or small, fast or crawl, we can do it all!  Just pick from Package A, B. or C and we’ll see you at the finish line!”

Have you ever bought a computer sight-unseen just because you needed a computer?  Even better, what about an investment plan?  That one would sound a bit hokey right?  Your marketing is every bit as important as your investment plan because it is an investment in the growth of your company.  If you order Package A, B, or C without a consultation ahead of time, you’ll receive your package and find that the waist is a little too loose so you’ll need a belt, the legs are a little too long so you’ll need them hemmed, and they fit just a bit crooked.  You’ll eventually get tired of wearing Package A and toss them in the garbage before going to the store to try on your next pair of paints.  Take at least as much time choosing the company you hire to take care of your marketing as you do choosing a wardrobe and you’ll be at least a little better off.

Custom Marketing Company

Do you have a website?  Does your website traffic increase from month to month?  Do you use social media?  How do you use it?  To build brand awareness?  Customer engagement?  Traffic?  What social media outlets do you use?  Facebook?  Twitter?  LinkedIn?  Do you monitor social media for mentions of your company, products, or competitors?  Do you have a blog?  How often do you post?  Do you have an SEO strategy?  How often do you perform keyword research?  How often to you analyze your website to ensure they’re optimized effectively?  Do you track your inbound links?  Do you actively work to build inbound links?  Do you generate leads from your website?  What percentage of your traffic convert to leads?  How many offers to you have on your website?  How many landing pages do you have?  How often do you build new calls to action to drive traffic to your landing pages?  Do your leads convert into sales?  What percentage of your leads convert to sales?  How often to you send email marketing messages?  Do you segment your email marketing lists?  Do you use automated lead nurturing?  Do you analyze your results each month and implement changes to improve those results?  I could ask many more of these types of questions, but I think you’re catching on.

How about this . . . What are your business goals?  When do you want to reach those goals?  Will your current marketing plan achieve your desired results?  What are your personal goals?  When do you want to reach those goals?  Are you being asked even half of these questions when you purchase Package A, B, or C?

Make a Plan to Make a Plan

Take some time to look around.  Talk to several different marketing companies.  Invest your time before you invest your hard-earned money.  If a marketing company doesn’t take the time to try to get to know you and your business before trying to sell you a marketing plan, your best bet is to keep looking.  Marketing plans don’t come in a box.  Marketing plans take time, effort, and thought in order to work properly.

Contact us today for a free consultation and let us be your custom marketing company!

Inbound Marketing Funnel

The top of the inbound marketing funnel is all about bringing traffic to your website.  There are many ways in which to do this including the obvious, such as search engine optimization (SEO).  There are other ways to attract this traffic such as blogging or using social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.

The middle of the inbound marketing funnel is all about converting that traffic into leads.  A great way to do this is by offering premium content and using areas of your website, blog, social media outlets, and email marketing efforts to drive traffic to landing pages where a percentage of that traffic will complete a form on a landing page in order to receive the content.

Your lead nurturing system at the bottom of your inbound marketing funnel is where you nurture the leads gained in the middle of the funnel until they are ready for your sales funnel.  You see where your sales funnel is at the bottom of your inbound marketing funnel, but what would happen if you used outbound sales strategies to generate leads?

Interchangeable Sales and Marketing Funnels

You’ve committed yourself to an inbound marketing strategy so how do you implement a sales staff to help things along before your leads get to the bottom of your inbound marketing funnel?  Do they need to just tell people to go visit your website so they fit neatly into your inbound marketing model?  This is a three-dimensional world full of all sorts of complications so embrace the chaos and roll with it.  Things rarely fit neatly into the models we’ve created for them so take some time to fully understand the concept of what you need to generate a sale.  If you honestly understand the basic decision-making process of your customer, you can talk to them appropriately at any level, or combination of levels, of any funnel or pipeline or process or strategy or roll of the dice or . . . anything, really.

Does your customer require education about your product or service in order to make an informed decision?  Of course you can do that in your inbound marketing lead nurturing system, but can your sales staff also accomplish that task?  Will your potential customer or client require a consultation in order for you to determine the best solution for them?  Is your sales staff qualified to provide that consultation or do they need to introduce them to you or another member of your professional staff?  Does the educational component need to precede a consultation or can it be incorporated into the consultation?  Do you see now how you may be able to mix and match different portions of your sales and marketing funnels?

Your Sales Staff Can Use Inbound Marketing Strategies

Have you considered that your sales and marketing funnels can be one and the same?  Oh they can my friend, and this is where things get really interesting!  Consider your inbound marketing funnel and how it drops leads into your sales funnel.  Now, imagine if your sales staff caused your inbound marketing funnel to be more interactive.  Whoa – did you just get a shiver of excitement?  OK, maybe it’s just me – or maybe I need to explain more.

Consider creating an online presence for each member of your sales staff including, a web page linked to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Now imagine your sales staff interacting with people on your company’s Facebook page, monitoring Twitter for keywords, and establishing themselves as experts in appropriate groups on LinkedIn.  Do you see what’s happening here?

Your sales staff doesn’t have to beat the streets or wait for leads to fall out of your inbound marketing funnel – they can be an integrated part of your inbound marketing efforts!  They can answer questions, direct people to appropriate premium content offers, help you establish your company as the company with all the answers – all while strengthening their own presence and reputation.  Your inbound marketing funnel will convert better – and your sales funnel will convert better because there’s a good chance your leads will have already interacted with your sales staff at some point in this process.  Now did you get a chill?

Let us help you integrate your sales staff into your inbound marketing strategies!

FARMINGTON, N.M. – ICT Marketing today signed an agreement with Majestic Media to provide them with inbound marketing consultation services and begin offering those same services to Majestic Media clients.

ICT Marketing is a full-service marketing company that specializes in Inbound Marketing.  They will use that specialty to help, and collaborate with, the premier media company in the Four Corners – Majestic Media.

“I’m excited about this collaboration,” ICT Marketing Owner/Partner Ken Collins said. “We provide marketing services to clients from San Francisco to New York.  It’s about time we expand our reach to our own home town here in Farmington, N.M.”  Majestic Media is media company in Farmington, with a reach that spans the Four Corners.  Winner of the 2011 Farmington Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year, their media offerings include digital billboards, periodical magazines, a weekly newspaper, and a nightly news broadcast.  In just a few short years, they have made an unmistakably positive impact on Farmington and the surrounding area.

“In planning projects, whether it is our local newspaper or our nightly news broadcast, how it will benefit the community is always the first thing we look at,” Majestic Media President Don Vaughan said.

“Majestic Media has always been committed to bringing large-market services to this area.  Integrating a local company into Majestic that can provide our clients with professional inbound marketing will allow us to provide a complete package for local companies interested in expanding their business.  We want consumers in the Four Corners to have the same tools and level of service available to them that businesses in Dallas and Phoenix have.  ICT Marketing can do that for this area,” Vaughan said.

“Our entire business model is based on developing a relationship with our clients, educating them, and working with them to achieve results that continue to improve over time,” says Ken Collins.  “We care about the business, the owners, their budget, and their customers – our success is their success.”

Inbound marketing is a type of marketing that tends to focus on the Internet because it is based on the customer and how they like to find products and services.  Because most of the population accesses the Internet to find the things they’re looking for, inbound marketing strategies will ensure the customer finds your company and have it stay at the top of their mind, builds a relationship with your company, and looks to your company as their trusted advisors before and after they decide to buy from your company.  Because the customer initiates the search for the company, this method of marketing is “inbound” in nature.

For more information about the official announcement of the collaboration between ICT Marketing and Majestic Media, contact Ken Collins at 1-877-215-7086.

ABOUT ICT MARKETING
ICT Marketing is a full-service marketing company with offices in California and New Mexico, and able to provide marketing services to companies throughout the United States.  While they offer many services, their specialty centers on Internet Marketing and Inbound Marketing.  They will help you get found, generate leads from that traffic, and turn those leads into sales.  They will analyze the results from those efforts to generate ever-improving results.

Tell Your Story With Images

In Part 1 of our review of the new timeline format, we discussed images.  Images are a big, important part of Facebook.  If you are a Facebook page admin you already know that, and Facebook now gives you some really cool toys in order to take advantage of that.  Read Part 1 for the specifics.

Getting Fans

The Like button is still important – so it’s still at the top of your page with your pretty new cover image.  And those apps you’re using with the cool “fan-gate” or “like-gate” feature still work – so keep using them.  You no longer have the non-fan landing tab functionality where you sent non-fans to your cool app tab and asked them to Like your page, but that doesn’t matter if you’re clever.  All you really need to do is deep-link to your fan-gate app!  What does that mean?  Link your Facebook ads directly to your tab instead of your Facebook page, link to the tab from your blog, email . . . whatever you want.  The other cool part of the new timeline is that your tabs now have room to stretch with a full 810 pixels in width.  Oh yeah – a real good stretch – now doesn’t that feel better?

Pinning Posts

So you’re running a campaign, but you want to mix up your posts (rightfully so) so you don’t desensitize your fans to your campaign.  That used to mean stressing about keeping a new campaign post close enough to the top of your Facebook page for visitors to easily find it.  Well, gather ‘round folks ‘cause I have the solution to all yer problems right here!  It’s called pinning.  Choose any post, past or present, that exists on your page and mouse over it.  You’ll see a star and a pen appear on the top right of that post.  Click the pen to “Edit or Remove” the post and a menu will appear allowing you to “Pin to Top.”  This will pin that post to the top of your timeline until you decide to unpin it or replace it by pinning a different post to the top.  So run your campaign and pin the campaign details to the top of your timeline so visitors can easily find it for the duration of your campaign – how awesome is that?  Of course, you’ll still want to schedule campaign update posts so they show in the newsfeed, but now you no longer need to stress about where they show on your wall.

Highlighting Posts

Remember the star and the pen I just mentioned?  Well, now that we know what the pen does, what about the star?  The star will allow you to Highlight a particular post.  Great – but what does that mean?  When you highlight a post, it stretches itself across the width of your timeline.  Now that post becomes more noticeable in your timeline!  Oh the power . . . the power!  Sorry, I got carried away there – play with this feature for various types of posts and see for yourself how it changes the look and feel of your page.

Private Messages

You know how sometimes you want to send your friend a Facebook message instead of posting on their wall?  Well, pages are people too!  With the new timeline, your fans can send your page a message – now they’re not only your fans, but your “friends.”  This adds another level of interaction between your brand and your fans – now they can talk to you in the way they feel most comfortable.  You can access these messages from your new Admin Panel, along with your page notifications, new Likes, and Insights.

Tell Your Story

“Once upon a timeline, there was a brand that everybody Liked…”  We’ve been calling them posts in this article, but that was just to help you with the transition.  Now, updates to your page are called Stories instead of posts.  Why?  Because that’s the name of the game, baby!  Facebook is about stories – and everybody has one.  Your brand has a story to tell – so tell it.  Updates get read (if you’re lucky), but everybody loves a story – and they love to share them.  You’ll want to take a second look at your post strategy – stop blurting things out and start telling your story, and watch the crowd begin to gather around so they can hear it.

Let us help you tell your story and take advantage of the new Facebook Timeline with our social media marketing services!