This New Year is yielding a new rush of innovative web tech and design. A site that stays in line with these trends is bound to peak interest and lower bounce rate. The goal is the build a thoughtfully designed and up-to-date website to keep reeling consumers in and direct them throughout the website. These four tips are things to keep in mind to stay ahead of the curve for the New Year.

1. Don’t Be Afraid to be Bold!

Take a look at Mail Chimp, Instagram, and Pinterest for example. These three sites joined by committing to bold designs and layouts. All of these websites are joined together by a commitment to bold designs and layout. Whether you incorporate an exaggerated footer, incorporate a key graphical element, or compose a strong layout, there should always be a keen level of attention to detail. Bold design elements are a great way to modernize and keep your website up-to-date and on trend in the next coming years.

2. Use HTML5 With Care

We’ve all heard about the buzz around HTML5, which offers a lot of exciting flexibility that can make a website interactive. Achievable functionality includes embedding videos, drag and drop interfaces, and dynamic message posts, all with little code work required.

Beware of browser compatibility…a common issue as with any programming. Though your high tech site might look great in the latest version of Chrome, it might look like a series of broken features and images for a less savvy user running IE7.

Unfortunately, this has been a constant issue in the internet world, however, there are precautions to take in order to ensure that every user had a great experience on your website. The key is using open-source JavaScript-based tools that feature detection for HTML5. There are many programs you can download for free on the internet, or for a small charge.

3. Get Rid of the Fat

The traditional layouts for websites often call for separate pages that encapsulate the “About,” “Contact” and other informational areas of the website. Simply consolidating pages into one, or getting rid of unnecessary information will keep visitors on your site and help then find direction to find the info that they do what to know. If you are a Real Estate Agent you want to focus on what visitors are primarily going to your website for…to see properties. Make your site more visually stimulating. If you are a financial expert, provide the information visitors would be looking for, still keeping your site visually stimulating. Let’s be honest, mortgage information isn’t exactly the most interesting topic. Therefore, it is in your best interest to consolidate information and keep it simple while directing visitors where you want them to go.

As we move forward in 2012, further exploration into one-page websites is a given. Create landing pages for visitors to get quick results about what they’re looking for. The more straight forward and direct you are with your website, the more visitors are going to enjoy your site.

4. Tie in Your Social Media Wisely

The tip also known as the “Quit it With the Widgets” tip. Announcing your social media presence on your own website is an absolute necessity, but it needs to be done with care. Automatically updating widgets that stream in social media presence seems intrusive and outdated, not to mention that they can be a hassle for a designer to install and maintain.

To put it simply, social media should absolutely be a presence on a business website, but it should not be a powerful presence. Integrating social media, whether in graphic links or a social ticker, should be done with the user’s eyes in mind. When social media is done intelligently and with consideration, your website instantly will look socially connected and organized.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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Take Advantage of Negative Campaigns

One of the most overlooked features of PPC campaigns is the use of negative keywords. Negative keywords allow you to hand select words that will not trigger your ad. Negative keywords help you to attract clicks from the most serious buyers and save on your PPC dollars. For example if you are a new car salesman you probably don’t want someone clicking on your ad looking for a used car. In this case, it would be wise to add “used” to your negative list.

Location Specific

Not focusing your impressions by location is one of the easiest ways to drain your PPC budget. Why have your ad appear in California when you are only licensed to sell in the state of Maine. Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo all offer geo-location features to target your market based on IP addresses and/or geo-specific keywords.

Differentiate Your Ad with a Call to Action

Your ad should stand out and differentiate itself from the competition. The ad needs to have a compelling call to action and provide value. You have to provide searchers with a clearly labeled reason to visit your website. Your offer should be as compelling as possible, encouraging searchers to act. For example: Use our FREE quick and easy website doctor to help you determine whether or not your website has what it takes for your business to achieve success online.

Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are phrases that are specific to your product consisting of three-to-four words. Long tail keywords help to target the most qualified customers. Visitors using very specific search phrases related to your product or service are typically further along in the buying process, ultimately leading to a higher conversion rate. Long tail keywords have the added benefit of fewer bids meaning a smaller cost per click. Target those who are ready to buy by including words like “buy,” “price,” and “where to buy.”

Do Not Hope for the Best

A successful PPC campaign requires adequate testing and analysis. Adjustments are almost always necessary throughout the life of your campaign. The metrics provided allow you to analyze and understand your campaign. You may need to setup a series of A/B tests to track what works well for you and what does not. Alter one variable at a time while running multiple ads simultaneously to gather the data you need.

Timing Is Key

Timing can be just as important as geo-targeting. Analyze your metrics to help determine when your ads are at the highest conversion rate. Save your budget by restricting your ad impressions to your most successful time frames. You might be getting a lot of clicks at 2 am, but are you converting these clicks?

A Homepage Is Not a Landing Page

Do not direct traffic to your website’s homepage! If a customer does not find what they are looking for in the first 10-15 seconds they are going to go elsewhere. Direct customers to a targeted landing page geared towards what they are looking for. The landing page should be simple and straight to the point, not cluttered with unnecessary content. Give them a reason to provide you with their contact information. Do not throw away all that time and money by sending targeted customers to an irrelevant page on your website.

Use Keyword Generators as a Guide, Not as the Ultimate Answer

There are several tools available online to help you generate keywords. Some of the most used tools are the Google AdWords Keyword Tools and Microsoft Advertising Intelligence. Keyword generators can be a helpful first step in determining your keywords, but do not rely solely on these tools. Go with your gut feeling. You know your target market more than anyone else.

Quality Score

Your Google Quality Score determines where your ads appear in the sponsored results for a given query. Higher Quality Scores across your AdWords account generally mean that your ads receive more impressions for lower costs.So it’s definitely in your interest to understand the system. You should always be monitoring your quality score.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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1. Access to Your Offer

The start, your visitor has just taken the time to fill out your form and sign up for your offer. Where to begin? With a conventional Thank You!

You also want to make sure that you include the title of the offer into the title of the Thank You page to reassure visitors that they are on the correct page. Then, if applicable, provide a way for viewers to download or view the content. They should also be aware of expectation, such as a phone call or email from you.

2. Social Media Sharing

Surely, you want to add in a social media toolbar with icons and links to your social media pages and networks. Having these accessible on your Thank You page is just as important as having them on your landing page. After they have decided to download your content, they are more than likely to explore any other information you may have to offer and share this information with others in their networks. Make sure you have a share button on your landing page containing the content, giving them the opportunity to share with their networks.

A quick tip to make it more likely for viewers to use the share buttons is having them download or open the content in a new tab or window. This gives them the opportunity to read the content without closing out of that Thank You page, enabling them to return to that page after they have received the content, with more potential to share it. If they are excited about the information they have received, they are more likely to use the buttons to share the content.

3. Calls-to-Action

Suggesting the next steps for your new lead is a critical marketing opportunity. You can read more on Calls to Action here. Even though saying Thank You and providing access to content desired is the primary focus of the Thank You page, taking control and motivating them towards the next step is very important. Use taglines such as ‘Subscribe to Our Blog”, or “Like us on Facebook”, or “Click here for a Free Quote” to direct them to other areas of your website you want them to visit. You want to formulate the call to action based on the offer.

You want to also try to get your lead to reconvert. This means getting them to participate in another offer. When a lead downloads another of your offers, or reconverts, they are indicating a stronger interest in your content. Essentially, the more engagement a lead has with your content marketing and product, the stronger their lead quality, and the more likely they are to convert from a lead to a sale. Bottom line, make sure you include a couple strong calls to action on your Thank You page to enhance reconversion.

4. Auto-Response Emails

Similar to how the Thank You page works, you can also set up an auto email response to thank visitors who filled out your form. This is used to confirm their form submission, and to thank them for taking time to fill out your form.

Take advantage of these strategies to generate higher quality leads, which would be more likely to convert and reconvert into customers.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

The post “Thank You” Landing Pages to Improve Lead Reconversion appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

Google

It’s hard to believe that a site featuring a different theme on the home page each day started out with such a simple design. The creators of Google didn’t know HTML code, so they worked with what tools they had.

Youtube

Possibly one of the most visited websites around, Youtube started as a simple page that had no indication there were videos to watch. The first video uploaded to Youtube came from the creator and featured him in front of some elephants at the zoo.

Facebook

Anyone who watched The Social Network has a vague idea of how the biggest social media site got started. What they failed to show us in the movie is how simple [thefacebook] looked. It is not hard to believe that this exclusive membership was only extended to those on the Harvard campus.

Yahoo!

One of the biggest sources for news and entertainment, Yahoo! was created as a way to search for information on the web. It featured a simple search bar and links to other websites.

Amazon

While Amazon isn’t a very fancy site now, it was even more straightforward at its inception. A simple page with an introductory paragraph and text links to search for books; this site left a lot to be desired.

Twitter

Inspired by SMS shortcode rules that call for five characters, TWTTR looks nothing like it does today. This homepage let clients know exactly what to do—sign in or sign up—and little else. The design has gone through about six changes in the past five years, but has still managed to attract more than 100 million users despite its simplicity.

The New York Times

Launched in 1996, The New York Times chose to feature only one photo and a lot of text links on their homepage. While it looked just like a copy of the print version when it first went online, the current site features mostly photos and videos to help attract readers.

Myspace

In 2003 Myspace was launched as a competitor to Frendster. Their design was really simple and it is hard to believe a site that lets users edit HTML code and put in personalized backgrounds began with such a bland homepage.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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