Doug Carter of Carter International Training & Development, Inc. is one of those rare people that pretty much everyone he comes in contact with walks away thinking, “Wow!  That guy’s the real deal.”  In fact, he’s known as one of the most powerful interactive trainers around, with corporations such as Allstate, Fidelity and Americomm, and powerful entities such as Tony Robbins, Bill Bachrach and Michael Gerber raving about him.

So why did Doug come to Prime Concepts Group?  Well, his marketing brand  – particularly his website — wasn’t aligned with his high level of expertise.  In fact, there was no way anyone visiting his website would have any idea that Doug has so much to offer individuals and corporations looking to increase sales, efficiency and profitability.

That’s where we came in.

The first step was restructuring the navigation of Doug’s website for better usability, including creating several funnels to the most important information.  Next, we revamped Doug’s content (the written portions of his website), which was accomplished through a few conversations with Doug (he pretty much wrote all the content himself!)

Third, our creative design team gave Doug’s website a completely new look, capturing the profound impact Doug makes on his clients through powerful imagery.  Finally, our web development team put it all together, resulting in what you now see at www.DougCarter.com.

Check out Doug’s website and let us know what you think!  Is there something you could do to better align your marketing brand with your level of expertise?  If you’d like a complimentary critique, give us a call directly at (316) 942-1111 and mention this blog post.

Do Your Marketing Materials, Website and Social Media Match Your Brand’s Promise?

I was talking to a prospect today raving about how he’s built his business through mainly referrals… but now his business has slowed and he wants help.

One look at his website and social media profiles and it was clear why referrals are what has driven his business… because his other promotional efforts lack his brand’s promise.

By that, I mean., they are old, outdated, confusing, lack style, have poor marketing messages and simply don’t communicate the quality or value that his business truly offers.

In short, they are “sales prevention tools” getting in the way of attracting and converting prospects into long-term clients and customers.  They are certainly costing him thousands of dollars in lost sales.

Does that scenario sound familiar? Want to know how to solve these problems?

Here’s your action step:

1. Go look at your website through the eyes of your prospects and ask yourself, “Would I do business with this company?”  Can you easily understand what problems your organization helps to solve or what desires your business fulfills?

2. Next, look at your social media profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube and see if there is a communication disconnect.  Do you have keyword-rich, benefit-driven descriptions that will engage your target prospects to connect with you?  Here is a link to a free replay of webinar on Social Influence. Watch the Video now.

3. Finally, look at your other promotional and sales efforts to ensure that they are congruent with the quality and value you offer. They should be in alignment and be tools that help you find, attract and keep your customers.  If you would like a critique or hot seat to evaluate and improve your results, just let us know…

4. Enter your biggest marketing challenge in the comments below for a chance to win an IPAD.  Answers and winners will show up in future posts.

And motivate them to take action!

Imagine yourself standing in a long checkout line at the grocery store.  You’re surrounded by sleazy tabloids and “fluffy” gossip magazines, but there’s no way you’d let anyone catch you looking at them.  Yet… you’re curious.  You just can’t help using your peripheral vision to take a peek.

As your eyes scan all the headlines, you see one that intrigues you.  That can’t be true… could it?  Before you know it, you’re throwing the magazine in the cart hoping no one will notice your lapse in judgment.

So what happened?  The headline stopped you in your tracks.  What’s more, the headline intrigued you enough to buy the story.

Now, I’m not here to talk to you about impulse magazine buys in the checkout line, but what this scenario does do is illustrate the importance of a headline that motivates a prospect to take action.

When it comes to marketing your business, headlines are arguably the most important element of your copy– whether it be for your website, a print promotion, an email blast or any other marketing piece.  The reason?  Because the headline is what attracts your prospect.  And, if your headline doesn’t blow their socks off, it could be the last thing they read.

In addition to grabbing the attention of your prospects and directing them to your offer(s), an effective headline sets the tone for the rest of your marketing message and prepares the prospect for what’s coming.  In other words, it pre-frames them for your offer better than any other element could.

So where should you get started? We suggest brainstorming headlines before you start the copy, writing the copy while brainstorming more headlines, brainstorming more when you finish and then selecting the winner.

Although there are almost too many types of headlines to count, we usually group them into six main categories.  Check out all six below along with popular examples:

The Question Headline

This headline gets the prospect curious about the answer and you can even pull them through the copy by not revealing the answer until the end.
Ex:  Do You Make These Mistakes in English?

The News Headline

This headline is very effective in conveying a sense of urgency and importance when you’re offering something new or breakthrough.
Ex:  Amazing New Medical Breakthrough for Fat Loss

The Benefit Headline

This type of headline is classic.  Better yet, if the benefit of your offer is desirable, you have the prospect’s attention immediately.
Ex:  Make Enough Money to Buy a New Car!

The Scare or Fear of Loss Headline

For many people, the fear of losing something is greater than the desire for gain, which will make it hard for them to resist checking out your offer.
Ex:  Just How Much Money Are You Losing?

The Intrigue Headline

This headline is ideal for arousing interest and intriguing the reader enough that they want to keep reading the copy.
Ex:  Can You Pass the Prosperity Test?

The Testimonial Headline

This type of headline is good for establishing credibility, whether the testimonial is by a celebrity or simply at satisfied client.
Ex: “My Hair Started Growing Back in Two Weeks!”

It probably goes without saying that the way to learn headline writing is to write them.  So, what are you waiting for?  Have fun brainstorming and being creative!  And don’t forget to test your efforts.  If you send out an email blast, send 500 with one headline and 500 with another (as an A/B Test) to track the response. Once you sent the control, change only one element, like the headline, and test again.  Before long, you’ll be writing headlines like a pro and motivating your prospects to take action!

What’s your favorite type of headline or headline style?  Do you have an example of an effective or ineffective headline?  Leave us a comment below.

What I’m talking about is a different kind of NAP– Name, Address and Phone Number– and how these directly relate to driving targeted traffic to your website.

Let me ask you a question… Are your company name, address and phone number all easily visible on your website, social media accounts and local business directories like Google Places, Bing Local, Yelp and Yahoo Local? Better yet, can you access all of these listings, websites and accounts and tell me that your company name, address and phone number are all the exact same?

If not, you’re actually driving traffic away from your website.  Let me explain why.

Essentially, when search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo create these business listings that you can claim and update for FREE, they use searched information on the web to determine the correct address for your company. If, for some reason, they have an old address from before you moved or a missing suite or building number, you can be missing out on all the traffic that should be pointing to your current address and phone number.

These listing are so simple to claim, access and update and they’re a great starting point to drive targeted, ready-to-take-action traffic to you. So, first things first, make sure the NAP information on your website is accurate and how you want it displayed on all mediums– from social media accounts to your Yelp Local Business Listing.

Next, review your social media accounts, profiles and admin areas and make sure the contact information, business name and address are all the exact same as your website. From there, simply login to your local business listings (if you don’t have one, go to the major sites mentioned above and search for your company name and then claim your business for free) and make sure the same NAP information is accurate and consistent with the other mediums.

This seems so redundant and simple, I know, but you would be surprised with the number of clients we have who are either naive or unaware of the effects that NAPs have on their business. The key is that it’s not too late to claim your listing, update your accounts, profiles and website. By taking a few minutes and checking these areas, you will ensure you’re not making the mistake of continually driving traffic to your competitors.

If you have any questions on how to make these updates or how to claim your listings, please call us today at (316) 942-1111 or comment on this post.

Many business owners know their website could benefit from a website facelift, yet they don’t want to make the same investment a complete website overhaul would entail.  That’s how Prime Concepts can help.

We’ve created a customizable solution designed to give certain clients who qualify the facelift their website needs for a reasonable investment.  A recent example is accountability expert and leadership speaker, Sam Silverstein’s, website.  Sam helps organizations make accountability their competitive edge, creating more effective leaders, selling more, providing greater service and increasing revenue.

The customized solution we provided for Sam included improvements to his website copy, visual design and graphics, navigation and search engine optimization.  As you can tell from www.SamSilverstein.com, the end result speaks for itself!  If you’re interested in getting more targeted traffic, higher search engine rankings and improved conversions, check out Sam’s “refreshed” site, view the rest of our website design portfolio and learn more about our website development solutions.

Along with video, mobile devices make up one of the fastest growing segments of the internet. Mobile phones have become like a remote control for nearly all aspects of our lives, and Cisco predicts that there will be 7.1 billion internet-connected mobile devices just four years from now.  So how can you capitalize on the popularity of mobile phones?  One way is by having a mobile website.

Mobile websites can be developed for just about all mobile devices, including iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Blackberries and Windows devices.

Would you believe, more than half of our clients are requesting mobile websites now.  The reason?  Because they realize the need to make their brand as mobile as their customers and one of our clients has actually reported significantly more traffic on their mobile site than their regular site!

If you’re a company or organization that wants to get targeted traffic, improved conversions and cater to your website visitor, then you need to make your brand as mobile as your customer.  Your website should be designed with today’s multifaceted Internet user in mind.

So go look at your website using an iPhone, iPad or any other mobile device. If you have Flash on your website or if you have a website totally built in Flash, then the millions of iPhone and iPad users can’t see your content. And while your regular website may show up on a mobile phone, the text will be tiny, some elements just won’t work on mobile devices, and the user has to constantly scroll up, down, left right, in and out.

You should definitely consider getting your website’s content produced in a mobile website format.  This means that the navigation, font size, content layout, and graphics are optimized for mobile devices, and more importantly, mobile customers.

For examples of mobile websites, check out our mobile website design portfolio and learn more about our mobile website design solutions.

That’s why I put together some time-tested and proven tips and strategies designed to give you a big boost in growing your business.  I think you’ll find a lot of value from the quick-read ideas presented in “Profit-Rich Marketing: Proven Strategies to Help You Grow Your Business,” which are designed for easy implementation.

The practical marketing approach and proven strategies will help you to:

• Create the Marketing Mindset
• Create Explosive Growth in Your Business
• Utilize Marketing Secrets of the Masters
• Measure Marketing Success
• Design Profit-Rich Marketing Materials
• Write Copy Like the Pros
• Build Your Online Money Machine
• Drive Targeted Traffic
• Use Blog Marketing to Build Your Business
• Monetize Your Social Media Marketing Efforts

Get more details on my “Profit-Rich Marketing: Proven Strategies to Help You Grow Your Business” and leave us a comment to let us know some of the ways you’d like to improve your business.

For those of you who may have missed the Social Media Influence webinar, you can now watch the live VIDEO replay of the event, download the presentation slides (.PDF), and even get an Audio MP3 version of the recording at:
www.ProfitRichResults.com/social-influence/replay

Many people submitted questions and with almost 1000 people registered it was virtually impossible to get to all of them. Look for those questions to be answered here on the blog. Subscribe to the RSS Feed to be notified of new posts.

This was a free and action-packed webinar on Social Media Influence and you’re encouraged to send the replay link to your other team members, associates and friends that are interested in growing their businesses and leveraging social media.

Didn’t ask your question yet?  Add a comment to this post and it will be answered shortly.

Each day you’re faced with new opportunities and the challenges of how you are going to spend your time and money. Whether you’re the CEO, entrepreneur, or the person responsible for increasing results from marketing and sales efforts, you already know that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find, attract and keep your customers.

The good news is—there is no need to panic! The sky is not falling… these economic times have actually created many new opportunities—if you know how to capitalize on them.

I wanted you to be one of the first to know about this event so you can mark your calendar and get registered for the Las Vegas Event in September 2011.

Watch the video above or visit the Business Growth Summit Event Website for more details.

Remember, grammar and punctuation has the power to showcase the professionalism of your organization.  A lack of proper grammar and punctuation (yes, even in a quickly typed email or buried within copy on your website) can do the opposite—diminish the perceived professionalism of your organization.

I plan on doing a few “refreshers” with our team.  I suggest you and anyone else from your organization who writes at all (nearly everyone!) review this first installment of reminders.

Semicolons

Semicolons usually separate two main clauses that could stand on their own if you wanted them to.  The catch is that they must be closely related main clauses.

For example:

“I need the report by the end of the day.”

“I will expect it from you by 5:00.”

Becomes…

“I need the report by the end of the day; I will expect it from you by 5:00.”

So why use semicolons?  The main reason to use a semicolon is to add some variety to your sentence structure.  This is a nice option if you have a large amount of content.

Colons

Colons are used after complete sentences to signal that what comes after the colon is directly related to the previous statement.  Colons should never be used after sentence fragments.  Instead, a colon should be used to expand or clarify on the complete sentence before it.

For example:

“Our company specializes in three areas.  They are internet marketing, marketing and website design.”

Becomes…

“Our company specializes in three areas: internet marketing, marketing and website design.”

So why use colons?  The main reason to use a colon, again, is to add some variety to your sentence structure.  Additionally, it helps your reader remember the points you included.

That’s enough for today, but why don’t you make a goal of using a semicolon and a colon properly at least once this week?  It doesn’t have to be for anything fancy—these can be used quickly and easily in a memo, email, report, etc.  Then let us know what you think!  Did using a semicolon or colon add variety and sense of professionalism to your writing?  Do you think you’ll start incorporating them on a regular basis?

YOU ASKED: What format of Email broadcasts, ezines, and e-newsletters works best?  HTML with color, pictures and graphics (Fancy)  or just PLAIN TEXT (simple) versions?

ME: My opinion has changed over the years.   Currently, I send most of my ezines and email promos in plain text, BUT… we are seeing more and more success in HTML versions of email broadcasts.

It really depends on your market and the relationship with that market.   For example, one of our clients, Roxanne Emmerich, has great rapport and a relationship with her corporate clients and they respond better to HTML versions of emails. When we schedule broadcasts we format BOTH versions in the email manager program so that the system will auto-detect the best version to deliver to their inbox.

Most email management services like Constant Contact, Aweber, Benchmark email services, etc., have those options.  It comes down to this…

What’s the best way to communicate the value you offer to readers? Sometimes you may need visuals, color and graphics to make your point.   Keep it simple and focused. Only promote one thing. Make it 90% value and 10% promotional as a rule or you’ll burn out your list and it won’t matter what format you send it in.

It’s a testing thing, but I am moving more and more towards clean HTML versions with a simple identifiable and branded header, clear main message and unique call to action to either read more, continue online, call , download, etc…

Even though HTML emails allow for improved visuals they are abused by so many companies that I tend to ignore them. I have Outlook set to block images in email unless I approve the email user first.   So if you want to reach me… use Plain text and great copy.

Use your stats in your email management program to check your open rates. Check your site stats for conversions.  Remember that COPY is what SELLS and Graphics attract attention. They work together to create the marketing message or communicate value.

What do you think? Do you prefer HTML or Plain Text emails? Let me know below.

You see examples of social proof everyday… beyond client testimonials, case studies and customer reviews; it’s in the star ratings on Amazon, the number of likes of Facebook, the video views on YouTube and followers on Twitter.

Be recognizing how social proof affects buying behavior, you can look for ways to leverage it to establish trust and credibility for your products and services.

Just the other day, I was searching ITunes for movies to download to my Ipad for a cross-country flight.  I was considering a few new releases and realized I was making my selection based on the number of stars a certain movie had.  Then I thought to myself “I don’t know these people, yet here I am letting their opinion impact my decision.”  In reality, their opinion may not mean squat about whether or not I’d like the movie.  We’ve all been to 4 star movies that were crap and we’ve seen movies that were one star that we really liked.  Even so, the star ratings of the movies influenced my selection.

Recent statistics tell us that 74% of consumers trust peer recommendations (social proof) and only 14% trust advertisements.  Even if you don’t agree with the stats, you’ll agree that you’re influenced by what your friends, peers and independent recommendations say, more than advertisements.

Testimonials

It’s hard to ignore the power of these recommendations from people with whom you’ve done business.  Buyers want to purchase from someone they feel they can trust; by displaying testimonials on your site, your prospects are getting a third party endorsement which helps them feel confident they’re making a sound decision.  Testimonials can come in multiple formats, from text, audio to video and I love to use short video testimonials because it captures the authenticity of the client.

You can capture them with a video camera, Webcam or even a simple Flip® USB camera.  Post them on your website or on a video sharing site like YouTube. Testimonials should be used like spices… salt and pepper them throughout your website, product landing pages, use them on thank you pages, auto-responders… just don’t overdo it.

Media Exposure

Without going too far off topic, it’s important to recognize that “media exposure” can be categorized into two main types… Social Media methods and Traditional Media.  Social Proof includes both types.   When your prospects read your name in print, hear you on the radio, or see you on TV, it helps to influence top-of-mind awareness.  They come to regard you as an expert resource, and ultimately, someone they might like to do business.

Visible Buzz

If you’ve been published or featured in traditional media sources, then showcase it (tactfully) on your website.  You can do this in a number of ways. Create a news release or add the appearance to a media section or media page on your website, or by displaying the source and media logos on your website… Yes, get permission or take your chances.

Mystery Searching a.k.a., Mystery Shopping

This is a simple exercise that you can do right now. Just go to your favorite search engine, Google™, Bing™ or Yahoo™ and type in your keyword phrases to see what shows up on the Search Results Pages (SERPS).   For example, if you search for “Ford Saeks” you’ll see that it’s impossible to not be able to find out more about me than you care to know. My websites come up first, followed by Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube, Naymz and various articles and blog postings.  Yes, that’s easy because my name as a search term is unique and there isn’t much competition on that keyword phrase.

Top rankings in the search engines are only part of social proof.  Research shows that more people are now concerned more about how many followers they have on Facebook pages, comments posted to their blogs, re-tweets on Twitter, connections and recommendations on LinkedIn, and views on their uploaded videos.

So what about You?  Go back and look at your level of social proof that you have on your website, on social media websites and throughout traditional media sources and create your action plan to step up the volume.

I’d love to hear what you think about social proof; post your comments below.

www.Blekko.com

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I know I need to be using social media, but I just don’t have the time.” Or “I have Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts but I can’t manage them all.” I have a simple answer for them: Aggregate and Syndicate.

By that I mean, using one tool to manage all of your social media sites simultaneously. There are a lot of Social Media dashboards out there to help you sort through and send out messages to your fans and followers, but I use Hootsuite.

Hootsuite allows me to pull all of my streams from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and several other social media sites so I can keep track of everything going on in all of my networks, in one place. It also lets me send a message to any and all of them at the same time so I don’t have to log in individually to each site and post the message.

What are the benefits of using Hootsuite? You can:

• Easily check stats and track results. For example, you can see how influential you were on Twitter in the last day, week, or month. See which of your tweets were popular so you know what type or topic to send out more of and which to avoid. You can also see what influencers have mentioned you so you can continue to build relationships with them. This feature really helps you with the Test – Track – Repeat cycle in your marketing.
• Get your team involved. If you have multiple people that help you with your social media, you can give them all unique log in information so they can access the account without sharing passwords. You can also assign tasks, such as delegating a certain team member messages you want them to respond to, etc.
• Schedule your updates. Leaving town for a week? Schedule your updates to go out at certain times and dates to make sure you are maintaining your online presence while you are gone. Or, just get them scheduled so you don’t have to worry about sending out the messages, all you have to worry about is monitoring the responses.
• Easily manage multiple social media accounts. Send out messages to multiple networks at one time and keep track of mentions of your brand or key terms on any of the sites you have integrated with Hootsuite. You can also look at the live feeds from people you are following on Twitter, friends with on Facebook, etc. so you can keep up to date with everything and know when your input could be helpful.
• Use your smartphone to manage your account. Not only can you log in straight from your computer, but you can download the app for your Android, iPhone, or other smartphone and update and manage your Hootsuite from wherever you are, whenever you want to.

The amount of time you spend on your social media efforts is up to you and your schedule. No matter if you are a super user or a once a day user, Hootsuite makes it much easier to manage multiple accounts at once to make sure you are monitoring conversations about your brand, responding to customer inquiries and comments, and sending out valuable updates to your networks.

How do you manage your social media profiles? Leave a comment and let me know.

Compelling facts from the video. While it was no doubt Erik Qaulman had it created to promote his book Socialnomics, (no I’m not an affiliate) it opens your eyes up to the massive opportunities created by these new web 2.0 mediums.   Social media isn’t a fad.  It’s growing exponentially and you better get with the program or get left behind.

I remember way back in the CompuServe and AOL days when people thought that the Internet was a fad too.  They waited to get their website going. Same thing happened again with blogging.  Now it’s Social media that has so many business professionals confused on the best practices to use to grow their business.

Social Media offers unique opportunities to build relationships, listen to the marketplace, get higher rankings in the search engines, gain consumer insights, and yes, get more sales. 

Businesses today can leverage social media by creating a social media action plan.  First, understand that even if you aren’t very active on Social media websites, you already have a presence because your customers are blogging, tweeting, linking, commenting  and rating your company, products & services, and employees.   Don’t believe me… go check for yourself. Go Google (or Bing, Yahoo search) your name or products.  Go to Facebook and search keywords. Then LinkedIn…. and even YouTube.  You may be very surprised by the results. 

If you want to get monetize your social media marketing efforts then give us (Prime Concepts Group, Inc.) a call or check out our Social Media Services.  We start with an analysis of your digital footprint and work closely with you on your goals and outcomes. Then we’ll make sure that all of your main profiles are branded, congruent, integrated, and aggregated.  Along the way, we’ll help you and your team understand how to make the most of your social media networking and social media marketing efforts.

For those of you that want the Do-it-Yourself (DIY) social media training, I recommend Mari Smith’s Quick Start Social Media Kit (Yes, We’re an affiliate, but we never endorse anything that we haven’t used ourselves with great results.)  If you’re not prepared to dig deep and take the time to learn and implement the strategies then hire professionals that can help. Otherwise, you’re just going to waste your time and money.

The social media revolution is already well underway… have any questions, opinions or comments?  Post them below and I’ll respond on future blog posts.

Businesses today need to think about how their customers will use their website and respond to their customer’s needs.

No one would argue that their prospects are checking them out online before doing business with them.  The problem (and opportunity)  is they are viewing your website through multiple devices and formats.

You would think that by now there would be more universal standards for website design, but actually it’s grown tougher each year.

For example, have you looked at your website using an iPhone, iPad or smartphone?  What about through different website browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Explorer?  And then there are different versions of the web browsers, plug-ins, add-ons, and widgets.  Let’s explore smartphone website designs and why it’s important for your business…

If you are a company or organization that wants to get targeted traffic, improved conversions and cater to your website visitor, then you need to make your brand as mobile as your customer. You should have your website designed with today’s multifaceted Internet user in mind.

If you have flash on your website or if you have a website totally built in flash, then the millions of iphone and ipad users can’t see your content.  That’s right, all of those pretty graphics or flash movies are going to show a big goose egg, nadda, nothing but blank space.  Hopefully, Apple and Adobe will come to terms with flash in the future.

There are a few tricks that Internet marketing firms like us have implemented to automatically detect the device and browser type and replace flash with graphics on the fly, but most website designers don’t understand how to do that yet.  Glad I have a team of smart, innovative web designers at Prime Concepts.

Beyond your regular website, you now should consider getting your website’s content produced into a mobile website format.  This means that the navigation, font size, content layout, and graphics are optimized for the the iphone and smart phone devices.

Take a look at these examples of how one of our websites looks on different devices.

Here’s an example of one of our other websites, ProfitRichResults.com and how it displays in a Firefox web browser:

Same website on the iPad: Looks virtually the same except we replaced the flash header area with a fixed graphic, swapped out the flash video of my speaker demo and replaced it with a version that plays on iPhones and iPads, then added special code to the website to automatically detect the device and show the best version for the visitor’s device.

Here is the same website again, but totally reconfigured as a mobile website “m.profitrichresults.com” for easy viewing and enhanced visitor experience on the iPhone and other smart phones.

This screen capture is just a quick example of one of our mobile enabled websites.

This is the same website content shown above in the web browser and iPad, but configured for the iPhone and other Internet enabled mobile and smartphones.

Every month our Google Analytics show that more and more users are reaching our websites using mobile devices.

Yes, I understand that your regular website may show up on a smart phone, but the text will be tiny, some elements just don’t work on mobile devices, the user has to constantly scroll up, down, left right, in and out…

Why make it so hard for your site visitors to benefit from your website and more importantly to do business with you?

It doesn’t matter if your customers use an iPhone G3 or 4, Motorola Droid, HTC EVO 4G, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung Captivate, Samsung Vibrant, Blackberry Tour or Bold 9700, Palm Pre Plus or other type of smartphone.  Some smartphones have touchscreens or keyboards, some have both, but all of them have small screens and you should enable your website content to fit your prospects and customer’s needs.   We’ve created smartphone websites for a wide variety of industries and applications, from retail, wholesale, distributor and online eCommerce stores.

Providing website design services and mobile website development is an ever-evolving process that we approach from a marketing perspective… not from technology.   We can help you grow your business and make your brand as mobile as your customers.

If you want to get your website enabled for the iPhone, iPad, mobile Internet device or smart phone give us a call.  We have reasonable rates and you’ll get outstanding results.

Tell us what you think. What’s your favorite smartphone or smartphone enabled website?  Post your reply and comments below.

Those that earn the majority of their income from selling products and services teaching others how to be internet marketers and those that show other companies how to utilize Internet marketing to grow their business.

One helps others become Internet Marketers and the other type offers services to grow through leveraging the power of Internet marketing.  They differ widely on their experience and expertise.

If you’re looking for an Internet Marketing Speaker to help you grow your business, increase conversions, get higher rankings in the search engines and make the most of your social media efforts then I can help you.  

As an Internet Marketing Speaker, I’m hired to present at many types of corporate, association and public seminar events.

Meeting planners want someone that can help their audiences understand and benefit from using Internet marketing strategies, monetizing social media marketing, and improving their website.   They want someone who will present in an interactive, entertaining way that delivers implementable action steps for their audience members.

With over 15 years of Internet marketing experience, developing hundreds of websites and selling millions through the power of the Internet, I have the real-world business experience and can present on the main stage general session keynote or an interactive break-out session.   Check out the social proof from our testimonials.

You can learn more about me, Ford Saeks, at my professional speaker website catered to meeting planners looking for a business, internet or social media presentation from a platform professional.

Ask me, Ford Saeks, a true Internet Marketing Speaker to present at your next event.

You want results. You want more targeted website traffic. You want better conversions from your landing pages to subscribers and sales.

You hire a website design firm or web designer and pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars and expect them to deliver results. Right? Of course you do and so have millions of others. The problem is that there are so many different kinds of web designers offering a wide variety of services and expertise.

Here are five tips to help you find the perfect web designer.

1. Understand that you, the business leader, marketing director or entrepreneur have to control your marketing messages. Web designers may know how to write the code for the site, but they most likely don’t understand marketing.  Don’t believe me. Look at your web analytics and consider how well your current website is performing.  Many came from either a print design background or a self-taught coding background, but I’ve yet to meet one that came from a business or marketing background. That’s another thing that makes Prime Concepts different; we are business growth and marketing professionals with a team of marketers, writers, SEO specialists, graphic designers and web developers.

2. Decide what your goals are for your website in advance. What action steps do you want visitors to take when they visit your website?  Subscribe, download, view video demo, listen to an audio, take a trial, buy something, fill out a request form.  What sections, focus and theme do you want?  Theme meaning areas of your website, not the design theme… that comes later.  Ask your department managers or staff what questions they get asked repeatedly and that will give you an idea of content that you need and how you want to organize it on your website.

3. Interview prospective Web designers and check their portfolio and testimonials. Keep in mind that portfolios are mostly there to give you a sampling and provide social proof that they can do the work.  You’ll want to take a close look at their company website. Do you like it?  Does it communicate what they do effectively?   Is it easy to follow and find their contact information?  One of the things that we offer is a quick website critique where we help you identify areas that would help you improve your search-engine rankings, conversions and website performance.  This can be extremely helpful in evaluating a new web design firm.

4. Don’t get seduced by the technology. I’m talking about the dark side of the force. You know, all of the bells and whistles that some website designers try to use to impress. Keep in mind that the only reason for your website in the first place is the response that it creates.  Are your webpages communicating the value, branding, information and generating leads and sales?  Your website is a communications tool.  What good is it if you have a full flash website that looks cool on some screens, but doesn’t work on iPhones or iPads, takes a long time to load, or has crazy or confusing navigation?   I love flash and other technologies too, but you have to decide carefully why you’re using them and do so appropriately so they improve the visitors’ experience.

5. Select the right Content Management System (CMS) To clarify this tip, you want to select your web designer carefully because I’ve heard way too many horror stories from clients before they came to us about their CMS.  For example, in the past, they paid thousands of dollars so they could update and manage their website content themselves, but they either didn’t ever learn the complicated CMS system, the person that was trained left the company, no one had the time to do it, or they completely screwed up the pages.  Worse, if they wanted to move to a new host or web design firm, they may not be able to move their website because of proprietary CMS systems, licensing or configuration issues.  There are so many different cms solutions (see wikipedia)  so you want to consider all of your options and get qualified advice in advance.  We suggest that at the very least you have a wordpress enabled blog component on your website. You need fresh content for many reasons and can call it a blog, news updates, ask the expert, or anything else. The WordPress code is open source and once configured on your website it’s yours to modify, move and benefit from now and in the future.

Hope this helps you make your decision to find a web designer easier.  Have questions? Ask them below in the reply/comment area or just give us a ring. We’re here to help!

First, understand that it’s the search-engine’s goal to provide the best search results for the user.  While Google, Bing and Yahoo rank website pages a bit differently they all have the same outcome of a positive and relevant user experience.  That experience comes from listing unique pages on their search result pages (SERPS).  

For this blog posting, I’m just going to use Google as “the search engine”.  

Duplicate content generally refers to blocks of text or entire pages that are virtually the same.

If you have the same article content and it’s used on several different websites, Google will try and decide which website is the originator of the content, give them the credit and show that listing.   Yes, that means that even though it’s your content from your website if someone steals it, or even if you submitted it to them and they posted it with your permission, it’s possible that website and not yours would get the credit.  I’ve seen my blog postings, YouTube video descriptions, and articles used on several other websites without permission or even back-links to my website. 

For clarifications sake, we all want higher search engine rankings and more targeted traffic.  We understand that we have to have keyword-rich content with those keywords used appropriately (keyword density) and optimized according to the rules of the search engines. 

So maybe you started out by creating new web pages targeted around a keyword theme.  Then you wrote a few articles or blog postings about the same subject thinking… more keyword-rich content means more traffic.  Then you took those same articles and submitted them to other websites or even posted them on other social media websites. 

Now you have fallen into the trap of duplicate content and even if you did so innocently, you may find that your website pages or entire site isn’t indexed anymore. That means no search engine traffic. Do I have your attention yet? 

There are several things you can do to get higher rankings, avoid duplicate content and prevent Google penalties.

1.  Understand that you need original, relevant keyword-rich content on your website and that each page should have a unique page title, unique meta-description tag, unique h1 header text, and focused content around a theme.  

2. Article marketing. Having your articles posted on article directories and other websites or blogs with links back to your website is a great way to increase your traffic when done correctly.  Back-links help Google understand the relevancy of your website because if you have several other websites with similar themes or focus all linking to you, like from your articles, you get more rankings.  In short though, you need unique or mostly unique versions of the article posted on different websites with a reference link back to you, not the same article everywhere. Having the same article everywhere is just a waste of time.

3. Check your website and learn more about duplicate content using Google’s Webmaster Tools.  It amazes me that people may think that Google’s ranking structure is a secret. While the algorithm may be secret, Google wants you to build your site properly so it can give you the credit.  

4. You can search for duplicate copies of your content using the online website, http://www.copyscape.com/. They offer a free service and premium service to check if content is unique and original.  Works fast and you’d be amazed by the results. Recently, I re-wrote all of the landing pages copy for our Prime Concepts website and found over 80 other websites that had taken my copy word-for-word, and just switched out the company name.   Go to CopyScape and check your website.

5. If you find infringing websites you can file a notice of infringement with Google.  Learn more about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how to file a DMCA notice here.

6. Get unique versions of your articles out on different websites. If you send the same article out to 500 different websites, Google is going to look those 500 websites and see the exact article on all of them and simply index only one or two of them and your efforts would have been wasted.  You need to submit a unique variation of each article to each article directory. There are literally hundreds of article directories.  This way Google and the other search engines will see all of the unique content and those pages will get indexed and credit the links back (back-links) to your website.

7. We believe strongly in article marketing campaigns, but the titles, main content, word count and resource box links have to be mostly different to avoid the duplicate content problems.  There are tools, called “article spinners” that can help you modify or re-work the content of your articles, but again, I urge you to use caution, as attempts to manipulate the search engines may cause the Google bitch slap and you’ll lose your rankings.

8. Be careful about services or websites that claim to create quick back-links or automated article submissions to other websites.  There are no short cuts to an effective back-linking campaign.  If you find a service or other tool that you love that’s produced great results, add a comment with details on this blog posting.

Take action now. Go write unique, keyword-rich content for your website and original content articles that you can place on article directories.  Turn them into Videos and podcasts too.  Remember that keyword-rich content drives traffic, so focus on delivering relevant information and watch your business grow!

If you really want to know how Google works then check out this informative mind map.

Click on the graphic below to load the larger version for easy viewing and printing.

You can click on the image above for a larger version.  This helps explain why Internet Marketing Services firms like Prime Concepts Group charges the fees to get your websites into top rankings.

I love to get your thoughts on this subject.

Please post your comments or questions on this blog post.

Yes, Prime Concepts Group is located in Wichita Kansas and we offer custom website design services. While over 90% of our clients are throughout the world, we operate an amazing custom web design and internet marketing services firm.

I’m Ford Saeks, an Interent Marketing Speaker, and way back in 1995 I was presenting seminars and workshops on how to grow your business through innovative sales and marketing campaigns. As soon as I was shown the Internet I immediately recognized it was going to be a revolutionary way to communicate, sell and market.

Over the next few years, I focused on presenting full-day and multi-day Internet Marketing training events to help businesses use the internet effectively.  The thing is, that after all of my Internet Marketing presentations people would say, “Ford, you understand what we need for effective website design so can you build our website?”

So, being the entrepreneur that I am, I went to other Wichita website design firms, interviewed them, and said that I could keep their sales funnel full of new clients if they could produce effective website designs and website solutions.  Sounded good to me, I’d make 10 to 15% off the top, they would provide the solution and everyone would be happy… Right?

Not so fast…  I worked with four other Wichita Website Design companies and in each case, they understood visual and graphic design, but they sucked at Internet marketing and knew virtually nothing about search-engine optimization (SEO), or how to create website landing pages that converted visitors into subscribers and buyers.

One company ripped me off so badly (over $100,000)  by selling me public domain website scripts and claiming them as their own. They were so stupid that they didn’t even remove the other Wichita web designs firm name from the copyright programming code. I’d reveal their name, but my attorney said to leave it out. They know who they are.  Okay, enough venting… back to the point.

I had prospects that wanted website design services so I started hiring web designers from Wichita, then trained them on the strategies and tactics of effective website design, SEO, landing page techniques and internet marketing.   I wish I could say that it was easy, but Wichita Kansas isn’t exactly the source for finding skilled website designers.  I did find a ton of talented graphic designers, but most didn’t understand how to translate their skills to HTML.   Now we have a full staff of a dozen talented website development people, all working in our corporate office in Wichita KS.

If you’re in Wichita, stop by and say hello and meet the web design team. You’ll quickly understand how we can help you with a new website design project or Internet marketing make-over. We’re located at 1807 S. Eisenhower St, Wichita, KS 67209 USA. We’re out near the Wichita Airport on the west side.

Since we started offering customized Website development we’ve created over 500 websites in a variety of shapes, sizes and applications. Everything from simple micro-websites, sales letter websites, wordpress blog type websites to fully functional secure membership websites, social media websites, large scale database and eCommerce websites.

You may notice several professional speakers, best-selling authors and experts websites in the Prime Concepts website design portfolio. That’s because I’m in the National Speakers Association, (now a National Board Member too) and speakers understood that I know how to market and sell information type products, like books, cds, dvds, seminars, workshops, training programs, and keynote presentations. They didn’t have to explain the business to me.  You can learn more about me at my Internet Marketing Speaker website.

It’s important to note that we focus on creating website development solutions that help you grow your business. We’ve designed and developed websites in a wide range of industries, from construction, manufacturing, distributing, real estate, health care, financial management, banking, insurance, and retail stores.

My clients don’t care that we’re located in litte ol’ Wichita Kansas and you shouldn’t either.  With the use of Skype, Gotomeeting, video conferencing and other technologies solutions you don’t need to select a local website design firm.  Of course, if you live in Wichita, Andover, Derby, Valley Center and surrounding Wichita area then by all means… check out what we have to offer.  We’re members of the Wichita Area Chamber of Commerce and have an A+ Rating at the Better Business Bureau.

You see, I’ve sold millions in products and services for my own business and helped thousands of others grow their business too.   That’s why my clients selected Prime Concepts.

We understand that your website isn’t just about pretty graphics, it’s about top search engine rankings and a website that provides sales, service, marketing, recruitment and is congruent with your unique brand… all wrapped up to provide an amazing user experience and competitive advantage.

Are you using the social media sites correctly to send traffic to your website?

Are you linking to your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Youtube or other social media accounts from your website?

With more than 400 million active users on Facebook, 30  million accounts on Twitter, 100 million U.S. viewers on YouTube, 50 million users on LinkedIn, and 200 million blogs, I’ll assume that you are actively participating on some level with at least a few social media sites.

Beyond using this medium to connect with new groups of people in unique ways, you should be making sure they want to learn more about you and what you have to offer so that they’ll either Google your name or just follow a link-back from the social media sites to your website.

What will visitors  see when they come to your website?

Will they be impressed and want to continue to connect with you or will they get lost in a cluttered mess of confusing layouts, poor navigation and content that reads as a cure for insomnia?

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid and think that you can abandon your regular site and just focus on using the the social media sites to connect with your target market.

Today’s Facebook is yesterday’s My Space. Google is king for now, but Bing.com is gaining ground. We’re still in the infancy stages of social media and web 2.o sites. Sure they’ve been around for a few years, but many businesses haven’t figured out how to monetize their Social Media Efforts and many people are clamoring to claim their space and figure it all out.

Think about it – why would you put your business and career 100% into the hands of a third-party site? You wouldn’t. So that means you have to get your site into top shape so that when you attract new visitors and they come to your site looking for social proof and credibility that you are the expert resource they are looking for.

What’s the one thing you could do this week? Go back and look at your website through the eyes of a prospect. Is it clear what you do? Is the focus around YOU or are you clear that the purpose of your website is to be beneficial to the user?

Remember, they don’t care about you until they know the benefits and the problems you can solve that they’ll pay to make go away.

Do you have great copy that’s compelling and solution-oriented with specific action steps on every page? Get your site in shape through the eyes of your prospect and make sure it’s designed from a marketing and sales perspective and not just pretty graphics.  And if you know that your site sucks and you’re ignoring it, what’s the point of driving traffic to it just so it can become a sales-prevention tool?

I used to suggest that you don’t confuse your site visitors and try to avoid having links that take them off your website since you want them to stay, subscribe and buy.  However, now customers are using the social media sites to help make decisions to do business with you, to get to know you better.

In any event, check your website analytics and make sure you have Web 2.o and social media strategy. If it’s not working…. make the changes!

If you ever attended one of my Internet Marketing Seminars then you know that “Keywords Drive Traffic” is my online marketing mantra.  This short blog post is focused around the importance of using your keywords (and keyword phrases) for social media marketing.

This starts with understanding that keywords drive traffic, but with social media marketing it’s not the typical usage of driving traffic to get people to buy a product or service.

In fact, if that’s all you’re trying to do with social media networking than you are approaching social media with the wrong perspective and will waste a ton of time.

Social Media Marketing is all about relationships, adding value, joining the conversation and getting and giving feedback.

With Social Media the words you use in your profiles, account names, tags, blog titles & descriptions, user groups, and other posts all help you expand your digital footprint.

The top 5 Social Media sites that I recommend you focus your efforts are Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and Your Blog. There are thousands of others and depending on your niche or focus area, there may be a few others that you want to leverage, but how many more in-boxes and accounts do you really need to manage?

Okay,  first thing about keywords is that you should be focusing on keyword phrases of at least 2 to 5 words. Most people search for at least 3 or more words so they get better search results. So when you are on the user account settings screen in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and YouTube, make sure you take the time to completely fill out your profile and use keywords so that your account will get properly cataloged and make it easier for people to connect with you.

When you post a video to YouTube (subscribe to my YouTube Channel www.Youtube.com/primeconcepts for other internet marketing videos), make sure you work your keywords into the video title and video descriptions don’t try to manipulate the listing, just use compelling copy and work in your keywords. Tags are critically important too and tags are just keywords to help users find related content. In YouTube make sure you put quotes around your tags when you have multiple words. For example, if I use a tag with my name Ford Saeks, and don’t use quotes, the site engines see FORD as a single word, and I don’t sell cars or need unwanted traffic, so use quotes for multiple words to make the keyword phrase tag the search element.

On Twitter, make sure you go to the settings screen and fill out your Name, URL and Bio line. Especially if you have a more common name. That way, when others are searching to find YOU, they can identify which twitter account to follow.

When you make tweets, and use keywords, you’ll attract readers that are searching for or following the same topics.  Same goes for Facebook and Linkedin, you need to revisit your profiles and update them with keywords so other people can find and connect with you. And of course, when you blog, you should work in your keywords into your titles

Jot down your top 25 to 50 keyword phrases. Keep the list handy during your Social media networking. And most importantly, Always write for the site visitor FIRST, and then for the search engines. If you have great content, share it, and engage in conversations you’ll be well on your way to monetizing your Social Media Marketing Efforts.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Secret # 7. Your web designer shouldn’t be in control of the marketing process

• Identify your specific outcome for each area and page of your website. What do you want the visitor to do?  Fill out a form, subscribe, call, click a specific link, download something, or make a purchase?
  

• Remember that you’re the marketer, regardless of your formal title.  You need to control the sales processes.  Don’t lose navigation ease for special effects. Please avoid a circus look with too many fonts, sizes and colors. Remember to construct the site with clear and redundant navigation. That means adding the main navigation choices to the top and relevant navigation at the bottom of the page.

• Add a site map for the search engines and visitors.  A site map is a directory listing of your pages listed on a pages for easy access.  Make sure your web designer checks the visual layout and menus on a PC / MAC with different browsers.

• Check your site on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google’s new browser Chrome.  Also, some new java-type menu programs work great on one type of browser and are all messed up on a different type of browsers.
  

• Before you hire any web design firm, or other vendor for that matter do you do diligence and check out their references.  Review samples of their work too! If you don’t see clear marketing messages and actions steps find someone else.  You can check out my client testimonials here.
  

Secret # 8: Use your Stats!  Set up your analytic tracking methods and calculate your visitor value?

This is also know as Value-Per-Visitor (VPV) Take your sales Sales $ dollars for a given period, usually a month and then divide by the number of visitors to your site = VPV (Example: $1000 / 5000 = .20)

How much is each one of your site visitors worth? This will also help you determine how much you can spend in PPC too.  Not to oversimplify, but if your visitor value is only .30 cents, then you wouldn’t want to bid higher than that or you’d be losing money.

For most of you watching this short clip, the point is for you to identify and calculate your sites performance benchmarks.

Do you know how many people visit your site?

What is your average conversion rate? Are people joining or unsubscribing from your lists.  How long are they staying on your site? You can learn a great deal from your site because it tracks everything. Check your site statistics Ask your webmaster. This helps you identify areas for improvement on your site so you can turn more clicks into customers.

We use Google Analytics. Its free and quite powerful. It tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online too.

When you pay attention to your stats and track your results you can then Write better pay-per-click ads (AdWords campaigns), strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. And the best part is that its free!

Lets Review the concepts from this 4-part video series:
(Blog Readers… subscribe to my Youtube Channel at www.Youtube.com/primeconcepts to watch short videos on Internet Marketing.)

1. Get clear on your outcome and purpose for your site (Add value, make a profit)

2. Get more domain names.

3. Design with marketing in mind

4. Create your top 50 Keywords

5. Help the Search Engines find you. SEM / SEO

6. Build your Database

7. Keep the Graphic Designer in check

8. Use your Stats and calculate your value-per-visitor VPV

I hope you’re excited about all the ways you now have to increase your websites performance. Each ONE of the ideas I’ve shared with you today can make you a lot of money if you take the time to implement them.

Remember, whether you’re the an Entrepreneur, CEO, Marketing Director, or Staff Member everyone on the team plays an important role in being sure all of your marketing efforts Add Value and Make a Profit.  Connect with me, Ford Saeks on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Prime_Concepts

This blog is about both, because when you make your marketing materials more effective — you’ll increase your bottom line.

I’m a big believer in systems, formulas and concepts… anything that’s proven to produce positive results. Here is a basic formula that you probably have heard of… or at least are familiar with if you’ve ever read any good sales material.

It’s called the AIDA Formula.

AIDA is an acronym for the formula used in creating powerful and effective marketing communications, sales letters, and is widely used in advertising too.

A – Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer. Stand out!

I – Interest: raise customer interest by demonstrating features, advantages, and benefits.

D – Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.

A – Action: lead customers towards taking a specific and measurable action.

Gather up a few samples of your marketing materials or view your website and ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s the PURPOSE for the specific marketing Piece or web page? Again, the AIDA formula applies to your website, print materials and Radio or TV advertising too!
   1. Is it to provide information & support the sale? – Is it to help prospects gain knowledge? Or…
   2. Is it to get the prospect to take immediate action? – For selling & promotion?
2. Is there an attention getting headline? Sub-head?
3. Is there a clear Benefit Message?
4. Who is Your Target Audience?
5. Is it designed with Your Prospect in Mind?
6. How would you score this piece on effectiveness from 1 to 5 stars with 5 being very effective-and 1 being boring and a cure for insomnia?
7. Always ask yourself: “Does this convey the message I want my reader to get?”

Now, make a note of this Action Step: Review all of your materials and see if they follow the AIDA formula, and then identify your super stars! You might be surprised by what you find when you look at your materials through the AIDA formula. This exercise will help you identify which pieces are designed well, and which ones need to be re-designed.

Of course the best measurement for any marketing materials is the response it generates. But when you’re planning your designs you’ll have a head start when you follow the AIDA formula.

Now that you know what to look for, let’s see what you should do when planning new marketing materials? Our goal is to follow the AIDA method. Remember, regardless of your role in the process, if you’re the CEO, Marketing Director or staff member, it’s important for you to understand and use these strategies even if you’re only using desktop publishing or creating more elaborate materials.

Plan ahead by answering the 5 W’s… This is very important.

Get focused on:

Who are you designing to? Who is the target prospect?

What do you want them to know or do?

Why should they care? Why should they pay attention?

Where can they get more info?

When should they respond or take action?

It’s helpful if you actually create a Word Document or template with the 5W’s… Who, What, Why, Where, and When? This will help you and/or your designer understand the purpose of the piece.

Now that you’ve have an understanding of AIDA and the 5W’s, I’d like to explore the two main parts that make up every marketing piece or advertisement… The first part is crafting a compelling message-writing the copy (the words you’re going to use to communicate value). The second part is the layout & design.

Subscribe to this marketing blog’s RSS feed in the upper right hand corner to be notifed of future blog postings where we’ll explore more on how to design effective marketing materials. And of course, post your feedback below!