AN EXPERIENCED WEB MARKETING FIRM

Recent industry reports put shopping cart abandonment rates at anywhere from 20 to 50%. In too many cases, cart checkout processes take too long, require too many clicks and involve too many requests for non-essential information. Shoppers get distracted and distressed, lose interest, leave the site, or simply shop and research at another online store. The result is a huge lost revenue opportunity.

*According to Forrester Research, the average shopping cart abandonment rate among online retailers is 36 percent.
*38 percent of online users do not buy online because they have to register with a site before purchasing. (source: Forrester)
*Online customers return to a site an average of three times before making a purchase.
*A study conducted by PayPal and comScore found that 45% of online shoppers had abandoned carts more than once over a three week period, leaving behind baskets worth an average of $109.
*Forrester’s Online Retail Checkout report showed 39% of online non-buyers didn’t purchase online because they thought “returns would be a hassle.” Talk to us re web usability & conversion advise . visit smbwebdemo.com

The Internet has now surpassed the print yellow pages and newspapers as the primary local resource for consumers looking for services. This is not to say that print newspapers and yellow pages don’t have meaningful usage anymore, but it’s clear where the momentum is.

The Pew Internet and American Life study recently took a daily ‘snapshot’. Since 2002, the number of Internet users who search at least once a day has risen from approximately one-third, to almost half, or 49%. Overall, the amount of daily search users grew 69% between 2002 and 2008. While coming in a close second to email in this study, search beat out other daily Internet activities such as reading the news (39%), checking the weather (30%), researching a hobby (29%), surfing for fun (28%), and visiting a social networking site (13%). The two studies referenced above independently reflecting this shift in 2007 were from TMP Directional Marketing-comScore and WebVisibile-Nielsen. Both studies showed search and/or the Internet, generally as the medium with the greatest reach among U.S. consumers for local information.

What’s really interesting is that most experts believe yellow pages directories receive 90 percent of their traffic from search engines.

The idea is that most people search in the main search engines; they may find a directory and then are forced to repeat the search within the directory. This isn’t good for either the searcher or the marketer. Consequently, it’s not good for the search engine either. Google and the others want the searcher to find the answer they are looking for through Google, rather than send the searcher to a competing directory for a solution. This is a gigantic insight if you consider that; given the choice between you and a directory you might advertise in……Google wants you to win.

What Is Pay Per Click?

Pay Per Click advertising builds on the HIGH DAILY USAGE of search engines such as GOOGLE to bring your message to prospects at exactly the time they are looking for you. Most Internet users are familiar with PPC ads – i.e., sponsored links – which appear to the top and right of natural search results.

These ads are displayed when the user types a keyword search phrase into the search engine search box that then search engines matches the keyword chosen for your search engine marketing campaign as relevant to your business.

Prospects use search engines through out the buying cycle :

Research a problem or technology need
Understand the value of ROI for a specific solution
Learn about a vendors reputation
Discover new solution vendors I may not be aware of
Find peer discussions or reviews of products
Discover technology problems I wasn’t aware of
Find white papers, case studies or success stories
Find the price of a specific product or service
Explore specific brands of technology products
Find information on a particular service or vendor
Find product reviews
Understand a product’s features or specifications

Source: Google / Tech Target : How IT Pros Search Online During Purchase Process

* Some 62% of B2B marketers said their primary goal would be customer acquisition, 19% cited brand awareness and nearly 12% pointed to customer retention.
* Online will constitute more than one-third (nearly 34%) of marketing budgets in 2009, B2B marketers said; that’s up from the nearly 27% cited for 2007.
* Online areas that marketers plan to increase next year are website development (74% of marketers said so); email (70%); search engine marketing (64%); video (40%); webcasting (39%); banners (36%); sponsorships (30%); and social media (26%).
* Rating ad agency partners’ willingness and ability to adapt programs according to marketing goals, 54% of B2B marketers said “OK” and 41% said “excellent.”
* Rating trade-media partners’ willingness and ability to tailor programs to fit marketing goals, nearly 66% said “OK” and 28% said “excellent.”
* Nearly 20% of B2B marketers say they are using social media as part of the marketing mix: Among them, 40% use them for customer feedback, 31% for market research, 29% for advertising, 27% as a sales channel.

Three-fourths of marketers are planning to increase their outreach to social media in 2010, while roughly half intend to up their efforts in each of the following: SEO, email marketing, and virtual events/environments, according to recent research by Unisfair.

Other survey findings:

* Lead generation and customer retention/engagement are the most critical objectives for marketers today, with 60% and 48% respectively ranking them as very important on a scale of one to five.
* 26% of marketers (the highest percentage for any one method), say LinkedIn is the social networking tool proven to add the most marketing value. Facebook came in a close second with 23%.

Search Engine Marketing: an area of internet marketing that seeks to promote web sites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages. Search marketing includes Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): an on going process geared towards increasing website traffic from search engines via un-paid natural / organic left side search results.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): A form of Internet advertising, in which the ad sponsor only has to pay for actual traffic to the website. These 4 line PPC AD’s appear on top and on right side on search engine results pages on Google , Yahoo & Bing etc

For more explanation and information regarding proven professional execution of these strategies & tactics please contact us today

is an ongoing monthly iterative /cumulative process via …

SEO & Search Marketing : Google PPC AD’s
Great useful and relevant text Content
SEO friendly web design & coding / programming
web site usability
On-page optimization
Off-page optimization
Link Building > reciprocal
Email Marketing
Advanced Keyword & competition Research
Joint ventures with partner sites
Blogging > testimonials , articles , tips = subject matter expert in your field
Micro-blogging > twitter
Off line marketing to drive traffic to your web site : print , radio , TV etc
Video Uploading & video optimisation & photo sharing
Pod casting
Press Releases
Online PR >> social media
Social Networking >> face book , blog , linkedin

FYI : Always work with and engage with a proven FULL TIME search marketing firm who have the EXPERIENCE & track record and have the full time QUALIFIED IT staff resources to manage & execute these campaigns ! (eg ) a 2 to 3 man jack of all trades outfit will use your web site as a Guinea pig to learn off and therby adding no long term value to your busness period !! ask for case studies & talk to their clients & check out their ” hyped up ” track record ! It is your business brand that’s at stake !