US Teens Use XBOX ONE & PS4 More For Internet Than Video Games March 9, 2014

US Teens Use XBOX ONE & PS4 More For Internet Than Video Games

When I read the headline from eMarketer, I was stunned. The retail price of an XBOX One is $500 and the Playstation 4 is $400. Yet, teenagers are using these video game consoles more for internet use on their TV more than the video games themselves.

What this tells me is that their is tremendous demand for internet usage on the consumer’s TV. And it presents a tremendous opportunity for internet marketers and small businesses alike.

Back in the early 2000’s not many small businesses had websites. So getting one was a big deal and gave the business with a website a big advantage over the competition. Then around 2006-2008, we were getting to a point where most small businesses had websites, but not many were actively advertising and marketing their websites to get website visitors.

Fast forward to 2014 and virtually every small business desires to be on Google’s search engine in an attempt to market their website and try and get more business. But making money off Google has become more difficult with increased competition and limited real estate on Google’s first page.

I believe the new frontier for small businesses is in local, geo-targeted, banner advertising on websites throughout the internet. Right now, not many small businesses are doing it, but soon they will be.

And not only is there great opportunity because the advertising is inexpensive. Or from the lack of competition.

The opportunity is great because of the coming explosion of website traffic from people using the internet on their TV’s.

In the next 5 years, internet traffic and eyeballs on websites will skyrocket not only from mobile devices like cell phones and tablets, but also from people using the internet to watch their TV content.

And the more traffic there is, the more the cost of the advertising will be driven down due to such a large inventory of eyeballs.

This study from eMarketer illustrates the coming boom of online display, banner advertising.

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What Makes A Website “Good”? Might Not Be What You Think January 12, 2014

What Makes A Website “Good”? Might Not Be What You Think

Back in 2003, Customwave originally started as a web design company where small businesses wanted us to design the nicest looking, fanciest websites. Why? Because the theory was back then that the nicer the website looks, the more likely the potential customer turns into a customer.

But in 2014, things have changed.

What makes a website “good”, depends on the goal of the website. What you want the website to do. Let’s first look at the website where small business owners want to get more phone calls from potential customers.

The goal of the website would then be to get the highest conversion rate between website visitors to phone calls. So whatever changes and tweaks done on the website to increase that conversion rate from 10%-20% is what makes the website “good” in this case.

And a lot of times, the design and fanciness of the website have nothing to do with the conversion rate. I repeat, a nice looking website doesn’t necessarily mean the website converts well.

In my experience, 2 of the biggest factors in high conversion rates is that the website is super simple. Where the navigation is easy. Why is that so important? Because lots of older people, or people not computer savvy might know how to turn the computer on, they might know how to get to Google, but once people get to the website, they still have a hard time finding what they’re looking for. Thus, the more simple the site, the easier it is for everybody to find what they’re looking for. Especially the phone number!

The other most important aspect in 2014 is that the website is mobile friendly, meaning the website operates well on cell phones and tablets like the ipad. A lot of people aren’t aware that if the website isn’t mobile friendly, Google won’t even show it on it’s search engine.

A lot of the older websites, and when I say older I mean like 2008, 2012 that have flash elements, slider graphics, a lot of those don’t show up well on mobile devices. And that could make your conversion rate from mobile website visitors to phone calls really small. Which would make your website “not so good.”

With other websites like shopping carts, it’s all about the conversion rate between website visitors to actual sales. With other websites that just want you to fill out a form, it’s about the conversion rate between website visitors to form fill outs. Get the picture?

A website is only successful when it does what you want it to do. Not because it looks the way you want it to look.

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Internet Marketing Secrets Revealed. This Is How You Can Make Clients Money.

Too many internet marketing firms want to have plausible deniability when it comes to a client’s sales. Whether it’s search engine optimization, paying Google per click, too many in our industry want no accountability for the actual results. I actually used to be the same way, back in 2005, 2006, 2007,  just learning the ropes.

Most of the time, when internet marketing companies don’t have proper tracking in place to know what types of results they’re getting, it’s because they’re not confident in their abilities to increase a client’s sales. Therefore, they stick their heads in the sand not wanting to know the actual results. Again, when i was younger, I used to be the same way.

The thing I’ve learned is that it’s not enough to just advertise someone on the internet, specifically on Google. It’s not enough to just get someone phone calls. To really succeed in this industry, you need to help your client’s make more money. At the end of the day, that’s the only thing that matters.

Now someone might say, well, we can’t control whether a website visitor makes a decision to call the client. And that part is true. However, the thing you can control is the quality of the phone calls and email leads. Some months there will be a few more calls, some months there’ll be a few less, but as long as the quality of the calls are good,  the client should still be able to get new customers and make more money.

A lot of companies in our industry do a pretty good at client acquisition, landing new small business customers. But many of those same companies do a terrible job at client retention, keeping those small businesses for any longer than a year. The reason why companies like Reach Local and Go Daddy aren’t dominating even more than they are is because they constantly lose clients because they focus on advertising. They don’t focus on making the small business client money.

And how could they? This industry is so new and so young, there’s not enough people that know what they’re doing to take care of all the demand. Colleges are just getting around to starting to teach internet marketing, but because this industry is fluid and changes rapidly every year, their information is often times outdated and obsolete. Most small businesses that work with someone in a call center with limited experience, training, and knowledge have a bad experience. Therefore, the small business cancels after the contract is over.

So as internet marketers, what exactly can we do to help our clients make more money? How do we do that?

You have to focus on the quality of phone calls and sales leads. Decrease the junk leads as much as possible.

Every business is different. And for every business, they will want a specific type of customer. Find out what type of customer they want. Then get really specific on which keywords you target to make sure you get them the right type of call.

Find out the schedule of when they want to be advertised. If the client is getting clicks at 2am in the morning and doesn’t have anyone to pick up the phone at 2am, you don’t want to be advertising them at that time. Only advertise the client when they’re in a position to answer the phone or return email quickly.

Find out which devices they want to advertise on. Some businesses will find it more valuable to be advertised only on cell phones, versus all devices. Or only computers and not cell phones.

There’s a world of opportunity in our industry. The vast majority of internet marketers are not doing that great at their job because what we do is so brand new and we’re still trying to figure it out. But the people that will really succeed in the next 5-10 years will be the internet marketing companies that can RETAIN small business clients. KEEP them. Have them advertise with you for years and years. And the only way to do that is to help them make money from your work.

 

 

 

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Review Websites Going Extinct?

Seems like the reviews industry could have some problems. Nielsen recently raised red flags with their annual “trust in advertising” survey.

The most startling thing in the data was that over 40% of people said they were skeptical of online reviews. Even on “trusted” review websites like Trip Advisor and Yelp.

Seems like people in the mainstream are catching on to the fake review problem that’s out there. Where business owners will sometimes leave positive reviews for themselves and sometimes competitors will leave negative ones.

To me, there’s no real quick fix solution here. Even with Yelp, who has a “review filter” that is supposed “filter and remove fake reviews”, most people would say it’s not effective. Small businesses have famously cited Yelp for sometimes even filtering and removing real reviews left by real customers, while publishing and keeping fake negative reviews.

I think as more and more people in the mainstream become aware of this, review websites will lose their value. That if people don’t know which reviews are real and which are fake, what’s the point of visiting the website.

There is a real danger that these review websites that have sprung up and had success in the last 5 years or so will find themselves in serious peril and danger of going the way of the dinosaurs. They need to figure out a solution that will do a much better job of figuring out which reviews are legitimate and which ones aren’t.

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November 3, 2013

The Value In Being An Industry Specialist

To a lot of small business owners, when they think of getting new customers off Google, they think the biggest challenge is just getting on Google. And as soon as that happens, they’re set. And to a lot of internet marketers, they think that all they have to do is get a small business advertised on Google and the client will be happy.

Over the years, I’ve learned it’s not that simple.

When I first started back in 2003, our main focus was on getting people on Google. But after we got people on Google, their concern was they’re not getting phone calls. So the volume of phone calls started to be the focus. But then even still, some clients would say the calls are coming in but they’re not getting customers. But why?

Every small business is different. Even different businesses within the same industry are different. In other words, not every company wants the same type of customer. More specifically, not every company wants the same type of phone call.

Whenever I start working with a new client, the most important question I ask is always what type of customer the client wants. Because it’s the quality of the phone calls and getting the client set up with the right type of potential customer that’s most important.

The number of calls a client will get will always be different. It always fluctuates. But as long as there’s a few quality phone calls that are the types of customers our small business client is looking for, our client should still be making money off of what we do.

So my advice for not only small business owners, but also other internet marketers as well, the biggest value that an internet marketing company can bring to the table is having the knowledge and experience to know what keywords and other aspects to target to get the small business client the type of customer they need.

And that’s why being an industry specialist is so valuable. Because having someone advertise you on Google isn’t enough. They have to know what to target to get you the type of customer you need, for your marketing to be successful.

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Mobile Internet Use Now Surpasses Computer Internet Use

Jumptap and comScore recently released data for the past month that said internet usage from a mobile device (cellphones, tablets, etc) was at 51% and internet usage from computers was at 49%. Meaning that when marketing on the internet, their should be a sea change in philosophy and strategy.

For instance, building a fancy, animated website won’t really do too much anymore considering that those types of websites have a hard time showing up on mobile devices.  The goal now should be to build ultra simple and easy to use websites that can be easily navigated on any mobile device.

Mobile devices are no longer the future of marketing on the internet. They are now the present.

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In 2013, Does Facebook Work For Small Business Marketing?

It seems like more and more lately, people ask me whether or not it’s worth their time and or money to advertise and market on Facebook.

My answer is that it depends on how big their business is, whether they’re trying to produce sales leads, build brand awareness, etc. So here are some circumstances where Facebook marketing can work and doesn’t work.

Small business that advertises on Facebook (pay per click ads) and wants more phone calls (aka sales leads)

Facebook’s pay per click model is no different than other forms of display advertising. Currently, in 2013, it’s statistically ineffective for small businesses. We at Customwave have tried it every which way and there’s not enough calls for all the money spent on clicks for our small business clients to make money. I believe it’s because a lot of clicks come from people accidentally clicking on the ads on their small mobile device screen. If you run a small business and you’re paying for ads on Facebook, you’re wasting your money.

Big business that advertises on Facebook (pay per click ads) and wants more phone calls (aka sales leads)

If you work for a big company that everybody knows of, paying for clicks with Facebook ads will produce more sales leads and customers. So why do Facebook ads work for big business, but not small businesses? Because #1, the big business won’t need as many clicks to produce sales leads because of how familiar consumers already are with the business. So the click to call conversion rate for a big business will be much better than a small business’. Plus, the big business won’t care if they get clicks accidentally because building brand awareness is already their primary strategy.

Small business that socializes and networks with people they know on Facebook and wants more phone calls

This is the one way a small business can market themselves on Facebook and have it work. But it requires knowledge of how Facebook works and lots of time chatting with people. It requires meeting new people, building a relationship with them and then hope that if the time comes when they need your service, they’ll go to you. Very similar to how real life word of mouth business works.

Big business that socializes and networks with people they know on Facebook and wants more phone calls

Most big businesses don’t have to network online to produce calls or sales leads because people already know who they are. Big businesses will usually have people work on their social media accounts just for customer support and general marketing.

Small Business that advertises and pays for clicks on Facebook ads to build brand awareness

If you have the money to burn, this is a long term strategy that can work. But if you’re struggling to make payroll this week, I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. In the long term, making consumers aware of you over the course of a year, 2 years, 3 years, then advertising to them trying to produce sales leads will be even more effective because of how people are familiar with you. Facebook can absolutely help you with that by paying for clicks with their ads. But it’s not going to do too much right now.

Big Business that advertises and pays for clicks on Facebook ads to build brand awareness

And here we get to the main way Facebook is currently able to stay a float right now. Big business loves the vast amount of ad inventory and reach Facebook offers and does it simply to continue to have top of the mind awareness with consumers. And they don’t mind paying for accidental clicks because after all, even if someone clicks on the ad and sees the big business, the big business achieves their goal which is the consumer being reminded of them. It’s the same reason Coke and McDonald’s advertises just their logo in lots of places. All they need to do is remind you of them for their marketing to be successful and Facebook gives them another place to do that.

So there you go. Internet marketing constantly changes and next year Facebook may make major changes where people will start to use their website in different ways, but in 2013, this is how marketing and advertising on Facebook works.

 

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79% Of People Surveyed Say They Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations

Yes, you read that right. And we all know in the small business world how important referrals are. Here’s the full survey from Bright Local.

If you are someone that is reading this right now, run a small business, are spending money advertising on Google or other places on the internet, it is essential that you don’t have any negative reviews floating around. Litterally, by the definition of the word, essential. The last thing you probably want is an increased amount of people looking your company name up on Google because they saw your ad and have an interest in what you do and then find the bad review.

The survey also shows that an increased number of people in 2013 are looking at online reviews, but they’re reading less reviews when forming their opinion on the business. In other words, every small business should be concentrating the vast majority of their time on the review websites that are on the top half of the first page of Google when you search your business name. Those reviews in that real estate will make or break you.

It’s one thing to advertise your business. Get people to your website. Get phone calls from those people. But after that point comes the most important part where the potential customer decides if they’re going to give you their money or not. For a lot of people online reviews can be something that will help decide that.

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When Is The Best Time To Do Email Marketing?

GFI just put out an absolutely wonderful survey that asks people when they check their email!

The winner? Weekends at 81%!

You can check all all the stats of the survey here.

Why is this such a big deal? Because if you send out your email blast when people don’t typically read their email, it makes them less likely to read yours.

I’ve always suspected that the weekends were the best time to do email marketing selling Customwave Internet Marketing services, but now I have my proof!

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Within 1 1/12 to 3 Years, There Will Be More Mobile Internet Users Than Computer Internet Users

T-Mobile and MetroPCS completed their merger today to become the 4th largest cell phone company in the country.

But the numbers that really stood out to me are the following:

-AT&T has 105 million subscribers, Verizon 99 million, Sprint 54 million and T-Mobile / MetroPCS has 43 million. That makes 301 wireless accounts in the US, not counting the smaller carriers.

-Some of the accounts are secondary accounts for some people so comScore and Nielsen, it looks like the number is around 250 million people with cell phones in the United States.

-According to comScore and Nielsen, 57%-60% of cell phone users now have smartphones that access the internet.

-So that would mean around 150 million people in America with cell phones that have internet access.

-Both research firms believe that as even more people get smartphones, that within 24-36 months, there will be more people that access the internet with a mobile device than a regular desktop computer or laptop. Stunning!

-According to IAB, in the total digital advertising and marketing spend in the county, only 9% of the money is dedicated to mobile internet marketing.

-In other words, advertising and marketing targeted for mobile internet use will be absolutely booming in the next 3-5 years.

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