We’ve noticed something slightly shocking over the past few years: that a new business website can be a complete waste of time and money.

Now, that’s probably not what you expected to read in this space. More likely, you thought we were going to tell you how, since it can potentially attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, your website is an important – and probably the most important – part of your marketing mix. You thought you were going to hear about how it doesn’t just help you with sales, but also public relations, customer service, and even recruiting. You just knew we were going to tell you that your website represents some of the best money your company can spend.

And those would all be correct… as long as you’re building a site with an online marketing plan to go with it.

Here’s what we are getting at: a new website for your company is fantastic, but unless you’re making the accompanying investment, in time or money, to search engine optimization, social media marketing, improved content for your landing pages, and so on, then you probably shouldn’t expect to get too much out of it.

Too many prospective clients are out there just looking for “a website,” and too many web design firms are happy to give them one – and collect a fee – without taking the time to learn about the client’s real needs and business goals. But a website built without purpose or plan is just an expensive online brochure. With the right tools in place, it can be a huge boost to your businesses income.

Do you need more help turning your web design project into a profitable online marketing plan? Then contact Marcy Design (614-224-6226) today – we’ll give you the kind of personal service clients have come to expect from us for years.

Newspapaers are forecasting that 20-25 percent of their print readers will migrate to the tablet within five years. http://bit.ly/etMz8w

Do you know how much each lead costs you? If you take the cost of your specific advertisement, divide it by the number of phone calls it generated – you have your cost per call. If you determine the number of prospect calls, then divide it by the cost of your advertisement – you get the actual cost per lead.

This number is gold.

http://www.callsource.com/ROBERT-FRIED

When most auto dealers look at a new web design, or decide to upgrade what they have, their thoughts turn to flashy photos, stylish fonts, and quality content management systems. Those are good ideas, since they’ll help you sell autos, but there are other things that factor in to the effectiveness of your dealership’s site, too.

One of those things – and one that’s often overlooked by dealers and web designers alike – is the writing on your pages.

After visitors have been blown away by your great design, stunning photos, and unbeatable reputation, they’re still going to have to read about your dealership and cars you are selling. Paying a bit of attention to what you put on those pages can give you a leg up on the competition.
Here are three tips to get more mileage out of the copy on your dealership website:

Tell a story. It’s almost cliché to say that people buy cars for emotional reasons… but that doesn’t make it any less true. If you can describe your autos in a way that makes it easy for buyers to see themselves in them, that will translate into more people on your lot.

Emphasize the positives. It goes without saying that every model of car – every shape, color, price, and performance profile – makes it a good fit for somebody. Learn to describe those benefits on your website the same way you would to a shopper.

Don’t go over the top. At the same time, no one wants to feel like they’re being oversold, so take care to ensure that the language you use doesn’t go too far. Point out what’s great about a certain model, and then let it speak for itself.

Too many dealers fail to put a lot of thought into the copy on their website, which is too bad, because it keeps buyers who might have otherwise been interested from checking them out. Follow these tips and be sure your dealership’s web copy is giving you an edge. Or, if you really want revved up results, talk to Marcy Design about giving your site a tune-up – it’s a great way to increase sales.

Tips, tools and traps to avoid

Your success with online video boils down to one thing–quality. But there’s a lot more to the quality of an online video than visual clarity. In fact, there are five crucial qualities when it comes to marketing with online video. Those five qualities are explained below, along with tips, tools and traps to avoid.

No. 1: Quality Planning
Online videos aren’t as easy to change as a section of text on a website’s landing page, so it’s a good idea to do some planning before you start rolling the camera. Start by determining your objective for the video and then plan the content to meet that objective. Here are some examples of marketing objectives and content you should consider including in your video for each.

Marketing Objective and Content to Include:
-  Brand recall – Your logo, emotional content, entertaining content
-  Advertisement – Your value proposition within the context of a story
-  Lead generation – An incentive combined with instructions for sharing contact information
-  Education – Product demonstrations, step-by-step instructions, product comparisons
-  Endorsement – Customers giving testimonials or professional paid endorsements
-  Immediate sale – The immediate benefits of your products or services and a call to action

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US companies will spend more this year on digital and online advertising and marketing than on print for the first time ever, according to a study released on Monday. Companies will spend 119.6 billion dollars on online and digital strategies and 111.5 billion dollars on newspaper and magazine advertisements and other print campaigns, according to the study by California-based Outsell.

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By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Ford Motor has high hopes for Fiesta, a popular model abroad launching in the U.S. next year.
So how does it introduce the subcompact car to Americans? A massive ad blitz on TV? In-house promotions at dealers nationwide?

Nope.

In April, Ford tapped 100 top bloggers and gave them a Fiesta for six months. The catch: Once a month, they’re required to upload a video on YouTube about the car, and they’re encouraged to talk — no holds barred — about the Fiesta on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s extremely important to this company’s history,” says Scott Monty, whose job as head of social media at Ford was created about a year ago to take advantage of the growing social-networking wave. “It’s about culture change and adapting to this ongoing way of communicating. The bloggers are fully free to say what they want.”

Social-media services, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and countless other websites, have had a profound effect on how millions of Americans — especially those under 35 — interact with others (or don’t), shop and view brands. It’s a real-time digital lifestyle, powered by smartphones and netbooks, that often colors what products they purchase, how they view brands and where they spend most of their waking hours.

Marketers have noticed. Social-networking services increasingly are indispensable business tools, says Forrester Research. According to its survey of 1,217 business decision makers worldwide late last year, 95% use social networks to some extent.

And 53% of more than 300 marketers planned to increase social-media marketing spending this year, according to a Forrester presentation in April.

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