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Happy Independence Day!

Friday, Jul 3, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

Ok, so it’s tomorrow, but we hope you have a great weekend!  See you next week!

fireworksmandj98(photo by mandj98 @ Flickr CC)

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Why Blogging Is Important to Businesses

Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

bloggingdbdbrobotI was talking to a colleague the other day and she said she had a web developer tell her client that blogging wasn’t important for a business.  Shocking.  Blogging is one of the easiest ways to have constantly updated content on your website.  It’s a way to show off your expertise, have an opinion, and get noticed.  I think blogging is extremely important for businesses, here’s why:

Content is King

Visitors come to your site to find some type of information.  The more information you have on your site, the more people will come to your site to get that information.  Getting people to visit a website is half the battle.  Once you have them there, you have the opportunity to market your other products and services.

People Are Selfish

Sure you have an awesome product, but no one really likes to be advertised or marketed to.  Everyone wants to know what’s in it for them.  By blogging, you can provide content and information that your customers and potential customers find valuable.  They’re more likely to listen to what else you have to say (about your products).

Sites Need to Be Updated

No one is going to come back to a site that doesn’t look like it’s been updated in 22342 years.  Blogging gives you a quick and easy way to constantly update your site.

Build Reputation

People want to do business with someone they trust.  Blogging gives you the opportunity to give a lot of information away for free, which builds the reputation that you care about your customers.

Show Some Personality

People also want to do business with other people.  They want to understand what your company stands for and what the people who work there are like (which goes a long way towards building trust).  Blogging allows you to write a bit more informally, have some opinions, and show off your personality.

Be An Expert

If you’re in business, you’re probably an expert at something.  You have a lot of valuable information stowed into your head.  Blogging gives you the opportunity to show off your expertise while offering something of value to your customers.  People want to deal with someone who knows what they’re doing.

Listen & Connect

Probably most importantly, blogging gives you the opportunity to connect directly with your customers, potential customers and other industry colleagues.  You’ll get some great information about what other people think that you can use to improve your own business.

Cost Effective & Easy

While blogging does take some time and patience (results don’t happen overnight), it’s a relatively cost-effective way of getting your message across.  Blogging software makes it easy to startup a blog in just  few minutes.

What are you waiting for?

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(photo by dbdbrobat @ Flickr CC)

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Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links – July 2, 2009

Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

fleur120

We post links to stories about how to use the web effectively throughout the day on Twitter, Google Reader Shared or Delicious.  Also, if you have a post or link you think is worth sharing, please let us know!

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What Your Website Visitors Initially See – The 5 Second Glimpse Test

Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

The first time visitors come to a site they usually spend less than 5 seconds figuring out if they’re in the right place.  Right place being, of course, where they can get whatever information it is that they’re looking for.  During those 5 seconds you need to communicate what your site is about, what information you have to offer, and how they’ll be able to navigate the site, so it touches on design, usability, content and marketing…

What do visitors see during those 5 seconds?  Try The 5 Second Glimpse Test:

  1. Open your website in it’s own browser window, and then minimize it.
  2. Ready?
  3. Un-Minimize the window and start counting slowly to 5 (1 mississippi, 2 mississippi….)
  4. Look at your website during those 5 seconds.
  5. Re-minimize the browser window.
  6. What did you see?

When I did The 5 Second Glimpse Test for this site, this is what I saw:

sazbeanblogcapture

First my logo on the upper right… Then the flower below and to the left. Next the title of the top post.  Then the site title and tagline in the upper left.  Lastly, the little icons in the right column…. then it was time to close the window.

The great thing is you can use this test on others to see what they see in the 5 seconds.  Just explain that you’re going to give them 5 seconds to look at your homepage and you want to know what they see during that time.  It’ll give you pretty good insight into what people see when they first come to your site – and whether it’s what you want them to see.

Since you only have 5-10 seconds to catch someone’s attention, it’s important that you get the right message to them during that time.

What did you see during your 5 Second Glimpse Test?

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Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links – July 1, 2009

Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

fleur120

We post links to stories about how to use the web effectively throughout the day on Twitter, Google Reader Shared or Delicious.  Also, if you have a post or link you think is worth sharing, please let us know!

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our free email updates or following us on Twitter.

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Ask Sazbean – Office Hours – Insights Group, Brighton, MI – Thursday, July 2, 2009

Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

I’ll once again be out at Insights Group in Brighton, MI this Thursday (and every Thursday in July) to answer any questions you may have about your website, social media or the Internets.  Check my calendar for details about this and other classes and events.

Sandy and I are going to cover video and video podcasts, so if you have a question about how to get video on your website, now’s a great time to get some answers…

Get Your Internet, Website and Social Media questions answered….

If you’re in the Detroit area, and have questions about:

  • How to use Internet for your business
  • How to improve your business website to get more traffic, sales or leads
  • How to use social media for your business

I’ll be in Brighton (MI) this Thursday, July 2nd (and every Thursday in July)  to answer these types of questions in person at the Insights Group from 2-4:30pm. Normally, consulting costs $125/hour for consulting, but I’m offering this session at only $20.

Here are the types of questions I can answer in this setting (not a full list):

  • Tips on how to improve your website
  • How to use social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) for your business.
  • What the numbers mean in Google Analytics and how to use them to improve your online strategies & marketing (or want to know what Google Analytics is).
  • Specific suggestions on how to measure return on investment (ROI) for your internet marketing or advertising (including Google AdWords).

These are not the only questions I can answer, just a few to give you some ideas.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to offer more in depth analysis in such a short time period, but I’ll answer as many questions as I can (no questions about broken computers please).  I love talking about business websites, the Internet and social networks, so I’d love to talk to you about what you can do to use the Internet for your business.

Details:

When: Thursday, July 2, 2009
Time: 2-4:30pm
Where: Insights Group, 7187 Grand River, Brighton, MI 48116 (Map)
Cost: Only $20 (regular consulting at $125/hour)

I hope to see you there! Bring Your Questions!

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Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links – June 30, 2009

Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

fleur120

We post links to stories about how to use the web effectively throughout the day on Twitter, Google Reader Shared or Delicious.  Also, if you have a post or link you think is worth sharing, please let us know!

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our free email updates or following us on Twitter.

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Ask Sazbean – Why Shouldn’t I Use Hits to Measure Traffic on My Website?

Monday, Jun 29, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

AskSazbeanlogo200Hits are really a reference for how many files are being downloaded from the web server.  In the days when web pages only had one file associated with them, it made more sense to use hits as a measure of traffic on a website.  These days one web page is made up of many different files.  Each file downloaded is considered one hit. How many files (hits) per page can vary greatly. So it doesn’t make sense to use hits for measuring traffic any more (unless you want to know how much you’re using your web server).

Technically, hits refers to how many files have been downloaded from your website.  Every page on your site is made up of many different types of files that get put together by your web browser into one “page”.  A page is a file (or several), as are each of the images, videos, podcasts, and stylesheets that are referenced by that page.  So for every page on your website you’ll probably have at least 10 files or “hits”.  Larger sites can have as many as 100 files or “hits” per page.

Most of us are concerned with how many people are visiting our website, and we equate that with traffic.  In that case it makes more sense to use visits or unique visits (unique visits being a measure of how many uniquely different people visited your site, as far as can be determined).

Sometimes people get a bit confused with the terminology regarding website statistics.  Sometimes when people say “hits” they really mean visits, or pageviews, or unique visitors…. With so many things associated with the word “hits” it’s not hard to understand how people can be confused by the term. So when talking about your website statistics, it’s important to understand what number you’re talking about, since the meaning behind that number varies quite a bit.

Statistics can be a bit confusing… I think I’ll try to cover them again in a more detailed post….

For more information:

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Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links – June 29, 2009

Monday, Jun 29, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

fleur120

We post links to stories about how to use the web effectively throughout the day on Twitter, Google Reader Shared or Delicious.  Also, if you have a post or link you think is worth sharing, please let us know!

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our free email updates or following us on Twitter.

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The Value of a Website’s Tagline

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 by Sarah Worsham

uniqueDelphineThere’s nothing new about taglines.  They’ve been used in different types of media for quite some time as a way to summarize the entire company/product/organization in a short bit of space/time.  On a website, the tagline is usually a short bit of a text near the logo to describe what that site is. They’re the first glimpse into exactly what it is you do.  If the tagline isn’t clear, visitors will have to spend more time figuring that out (which they may not).  Often visitors enter your site somewhere other than the homepage and the tagline may be the only real description on the page where they do enter.

A good tagline should:

  • Be clear & informative
  • Be short & concise (six to eight words)
  • Differentiate your business
  • Offer at least one clear benefit
  • Be personable and catchy (hopefully a bit clever)
  • Be unique
  • Stand on its own

This may seem like a lot of weight on just a short phrase, but good taglines are invaluable for differentiating yourself and quickly describing what it is you do.  Once you have a good one you’ll be able to use it on all your marketing materials and advertising.  If you don’t know how well your tagline works, try showing someone (or telling) your tagline and see what it is they think you do.

How do you use your tagline?

(photo by Delphine – Very very busy :/ @ Flickr CC)

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