Convince and Convert Blog: Where Social Media and Email Collide

I just finished giving a speech at the western region meeting of the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations in Sedona, Arizona. 

NCMPR is the association of community and technical college marketers. A really interesting group that needs to harness social media and work with prospective students on an individual, relevant, highly personal basis. 

While this presentation was specifically for NCMPR, there is a lot of material that will be valuable to anyone looking to launch and maintain a social media and digital marketing program for a mid-sized business or organization. 

Key points in this presentation:

- Media outlets have exploded, causing audience fragmentation

- You have to communicate to audiences individually, because they don’t herd together like the old days

- Using the power of audience segmentation

- Digital marketing is critical in this new hyper-targeted marketing world, because online users identify themselves through their search queries and site usage

- Ways to find prospective community college students (Twitter, Facebook, Blog search, Flickr)

- Web site is the key to translating awareness of your college (or any brand) to action

- Web content needs to be transparent, real, and multi-modal

- Lead acquisition is critical for colleges. Give users multiple call to action options. 

- Secrets to good form design

- Web site testing and optimization basics

- Lead nurturing via personalized follow up and triggered communications

Comments are very much appreciated. Enjoy. 

Welcome. If you like the content here, consider susbscribing to my RSS feed. You can also find me on Twitter @jaybaer

UPDATE:

Well, the .me registration was a complete and utter fiasco. Speaking from personal experience, and reporting from Mashable (soon to be joined by a lot of other reporting, I predict) - this was one of the worst examples of customer experience in my 15 years online. 

It took one full hour to check out. After having to reload every step in their byzantine shopping cart at least 3 times, I finally was able to pay. 

Then, 2 hours later (after already charging my credit card of course) I get an email saying that the domain they sold me was in fact not available. That’s like a guy from Safeway coming over to your house and taking back the sweet corn you bought in the morning because somebody else had apparently bought it too. I’ve received “out of stock” emails from e-commerce companies after checkout (which is also annoying - how about tying your online inventory to your offline inventory?), but to have that happen with a purely virtual item like a domain name is unfathomable.

Insert Conspiracy Theory

There were reports in recent months that GoDaddy was registering domains that people researched on their site (you see if a name is available, if it is and you don’t register it immediately, SURPRISE it’s taken the next day). Also, they were squatting on domains in the renewal grace period and dramatically increasing the renewal prices.

Based on that anti-customer behavior (if true), I wouldn’t be at all shocked if GoDaddy was selling .me domains, and then reviewing checkouts to find ones with aftermarket value, and keeping them for themselves. 

GoDaddy needs to spend less money on TV commercials, and a lot more on servers and a Chief Customer Experience Officer. Seems to me like their long-term plan is to achieve true market dominance (they are pretty close already) and then really start turning the screws on customers. Nice.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Tomorrow - July 17 - marks the first open registration period for the new top level domain (TLD) .me

Intended for use in personal branding, no doubt many other creative ideas for .me addresses are being hatched, perhaps similar to del.icio.us 

For PR firms and publicists, covering the .me base for clients that have existing or emerging personal brands (especially speakers and authors) is a must. 

.me domains are $19.98/year on a two-year minimum and are available most readily from GoDaddy. Domains go on sale at 8am on July 17. Use code BTPS7 and you should receive 20% off your purchase. 

More information is available from GoDaddy here.

We do not recommend moving your Web site content over to your .me address unless you have consulted a search marketing specialist, as doing so could severely curtail your inbound links and search rankings.

After a LONG waite, Adobe announced this week that Flash files are soon to be readable by search engines. This removes a major impediment to using Flash for Web sites, as previously all files created in Flash were essentially invisible to Google, Yahoo! and the rest.

So, we now have the classic good news/bad news scenario unfolding. Making Flash readable takes away the biggest technical knock against Flash usage. However, the biggest common sense knock against Flash remains, which is the fact that Flash is misused in most cases.

Unless you’re a cartoonist, film editor or other such business, the point of creating an all-Flash Web site is dubious at best. The fact is, people come to your Web site to get questions answered about your business. And in most cases, using motion and animation to answer those questions gets in the way of the users’ needs. Certainly, the much-maligned “Flash Intro” is maligned for good reason as more than 75% of all users immediately click “skip intro”.

My biggest fear is that search-friendly Flash will spawn a new generation of all-Flash sites that do a lot more showing off than information conveyance. This is already an issue for a lot of agency Web sites, and I hope they don’t take this new technological advance as an opportunity to layer on even more Flash (and music) on sites that are already overburdened with cheekiness.

Making the Horses Drink

The Web is the most comprehensively flawed world-changing technology ever. The ways in which you can screw up a Web site are without limit. In contrast, it’s a lot tougher to botch a fire, a wheel, a toilet, an ATM, or one of those KFC chicken/potato/corn/cheese bowls.

Like a really big Science Fair project, the Web sprouted organically and without profit motive. There wasn’t anybody in charge, there were only very loose rules, and Web site makers were left to their own devices – a hippie commune with mouse pads and tons of Mountain Dew.

The result of the Web’s socialist upbringing is that its core premise – accessing information – lacks standards. Imagine if every time you picked up a book the page numbering system was different. Some What if your cable TV only used prime numbers? Or if your radio would only tune to Pi? That’s the scenario we’re stuck with online. Every Web site requires each visitor to assess and learn its specific navigation schema.

It’s a tall order and it’s the reason why such a small percentage of Web site visitors do what we want them to do online. The percentage of Web site visitors that make a purchase on e-commerce sites (the “conversion rate”) is just over three percent. 97 out of 100 Web site visitors leaves empty-handed. Yikes.

But there are ways to help your Web site visitors understand your structure and lead them to a satisfying destination – hopefully an online order, lead, or other ROI-generating behavior.

People are People

Most of the visitors to your Web site will come occasionally and perhaps only once or twice. They do not understand the nuances and intricacies of your business, your corporate structure, or your product line. So don’t organize your site that way. If they can’t fathom the definition of a navigation label, they’re not likely to click on it. Name all navigational elements using language that your mother uses, not your customers – and certainly not your employees. Make it your mission to hunt down and kill all Byzantine abbreviations and insider jargon in the navigation – and if you have the stomach for it, site-wide.

Navigational Democracy

Ultimately, the users of your Web site will tell you what is the most important content on the site, and thus how the site itself should be organized. Examine the usage statistics for your Web site and determine the pages that are most frequently accessed and that have the longest duration of stay – indicating visitor interest in the content. Rework your site so that those pages are part of your main navigation, not two or three levels down. The behavior of your visitors demonstrates how to organize your information for maximum ease of use. If its too jarring to change your main navigation in this way, add a Quick Links box to the top right corner of every page and include in it direct links to every popular page within your site.

Lend a Hand

Most sites are buffets of information. Plenty of content, but with no real thought given to selection, sequence, or relationships between components. You develop a bunch of Web pages, organize them in a seemingly logical fashion, and let visitors decide what they want to read and in what order. That type of freedom can produce troubling outcomes, the informational equivalent of eating 4 helpings of chocolate mousse, followed by 63 coconut shrimp.

Instead, think of your site as a chef’s tasting menu. Instead of just letting the patrons go wild on your content, give it to them in measured portions in a sequence that will maximize their satisfaction.

Determine in what order you ideally would like your site visitors to access specific pieces of content on your site to move them from interest to action. Then modify every page of your site so that it either guides the visitor along that path (from step 2 to step 3), or if it’s a page that isn’t in the key persuasion process, points the visitor into that funnel.

This is not difficult, and can be accomplished by adding links at the bottom of your pages that guide the visitor to the next logical page. Even the addition of “next” buttons on the bottom of each page have been proven to improve conversion rates by helping visitors get to the information they need to make a decision.

Play Master and Servant

Especially on popular and critical decision-making pages of your site (but ideally on all pages), don’t be shy about telling the user what to do if they are ready to buy. It’s okay to ask for the order.

Your action buttons (call now, free estimate, request information, add to cart, et al) need to be big and compelling. Ideally, they should be the most visually arresting item on the page, using the “hottest” colors so that visitors’ eyes will land on them when they scan the page. Visitors need to know how to take action. Don’t be shy.

A recent study found that placing a small graphic of animated human eyes that “look” toward the key action button can increase response rates.

The animated eyes trick is about Wayne Newton on the cheesy scale, so that might be over the line. But, getting people to your Web site costs you something every time. Following these techniques will make your site easier-to-use and will transform more of those visitors to buyers.

Unless you’re a recently thawed caveperson, you’ve heard about blogs. No current-day buzzword is as buzzy as “blog” which leapt from geek-dom to mainstream faster than the evaporation of Bode Miller’s career. (author’s note: Since this was written, Mr. Miller has been resurgent and won this year’s overall World Cup skiing title. Apologies Bode)

Blogs (coined in 1999 and shortened from the original “Web log” circa 1997) are quite simple really. They are collections of Web site links and written commentary, typically on a single Web page and sorted chronologically.

From a pure technology standpoint, blogs are so old school they’re practically Amish. The pre-cursor of blogs, the online message board or forum is actually more advanced because it sorts commentary by topic. But the simplicity of the blog format – easy to read, easy to participate – is the keystone of their popularity.

In the mid 1990s, the recurring nightmare of old media was that the low cost and high speed of online information dissemination would result in a tidal wave of new, Web-only news sources that would threaten their monopoly on news and advertising revenue. Other than Drudge Report and a small cadre of others, it didn’t happen then. It’s happening now.

How many people could possibly have the desire to regularly post their thoughts on a Web page that anyone can see? More than you’d think. Blog search engine Technorati indexes 29.6 million separate blogs as of this writing. That’s digital musings writ large.

Blogs started as digital journals where persons could point others to interesting Web sites and tidbits, and indeed many of the most popular and influential blogs today showcase the opinions of an individual, augmented by comments from readers. Hundreds of luminaries in every conceivable field have taken to blogging like Britney Spears to poor mothering decisions. They are bypassing the traditional channels and taking their opinions to the citizenry unfiltered.

In addition to hugely influential political blogs, corporate blogs from General Motors, Microsoft, Scottsdale’s GoDaddy and hundreds of others are available for anyone to read. It’s like the head of North American marketing for GM coming over for a beer and some nachos and leaving you a note about why he thinks the launch of the Buick Lucerne in Canada will be a success.

This instant and open sharing of information and opinion is transformative and ties communities of like-minded people together in virtual tribes that can wield substantial real world influence. And smart marketers understand and embrace tools of influence.

While there are a number of blog-specific tactics, there are four primary methods for marketers to harness the power of blogs:

Capture intra-company knowledge

Tired of reading and answering dozens of mind-numbing emails from co-workers? Consider establishing an internal blog where employees can post information and opinion in an easy to read format that doesn’t clog the inbox of the entire firm. This is especially useful in large organizations with multiple offices and enables groups that don’t usually interact to monitor each other’s activities and uncover synergies that previously would have remained hidden.

Spread your message

Getting a new product or service mentioned on an influential blog is the new product placement, and is a burgeoning offshoot of public relations.

In addition, advertising on blogs is replacing search as the “next big thing” for online marketing. Reaching a hyper-motivated, engaged, highly literate audience through an ad on the right blogs is a marketing tactic right out of Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point. There are blog advertising services that specialize in brand-building, and others that focus on direct response.

Do it yourself

If your company has a product or service that appeals to a non-niche audience you should consider publishing a corporate blog. Telling people in a straightforward, relevant, and timely fashion what’s happening within the company can turn customers into raving fans and enables you to have a frank and often insightful ongoing dialog that has value far beyond focus groups.

But if you go this route, be prepared to care and feed your new blog regularly. An ignored blog gives off a cool breeze. It’s not air-conditioning, it’s indifference to your customers’ opinions.

Pay attention

Even if you’re not ready to start a company blog, you should jump online (after finishing this fine column, natch) and search your products and services on Technorati, Feedster, or Google’s Blogsearch. You may be surprised to see how often the blogging community is talking about you. Bloggers can serve as a weathervane or early warning detection system for customer opinion about your organization, and you need to be eavesdropping on this conversation.

Blogs are incredibly inexpensive, easy to establish and maintain, and are the online harbinger of a truly connected world where people organize themselves by interests and opinion, not by geography, age, gender, race, or religion. The Web’s long promised democratization of information has manifested itself in the form of blogs, and marketers that have not done so need to plug into this phenomenon now, while there’s still time to catch up.

What does the Internet have to do with your print, TV, radio, direct mail and other traditional tactics? Plenty.

Along with the oft-cited belief that half of all marketing dollars are wasted lies a corollary, which is that the traditional components of most marketing plans are evaluated using less than scientific means. In many cases, the perceived success or failure of a traditional marketing tactic such as a magazine ad is based on the random, coffee-breathed feedback offered by Lance, the knit-tie wearing sales associate that stops by your cubicle each morning to give you a blow by blow of each customer interaction. The one big sale Lance was able to make last month was to a woman who mentioned seeing your magazine ad. Thus, Lance advocates an eight-page full-color insert in the next issue since it’s obviously the best possible advertising vehicle.

In addition to Lance’s unimpeachable research, you may ask your customers via some sort of survey where they first heard about you. Numerous studies have shown these queries to be unreliable, as people either check the first box on the list, or whichever media they tend to consume most frequently.

So, what we advocate is the use of Web analytics to determine effectiveness of traditional marketing tactics.

With Internet access surpassing cable television in terms of consumer penetration rates, increasingly prospective customers consume traditional marketing messages first, and then evaluate your company via your Web site before determining whether to progress along the purchase cycle.

Consequently, as long as your traditional marketing consistently references your Web site, your online presence is a reliable surrogate and aggregator for your complete marketing program.

Here’s how to use it to figure out what works.

Public Relations

PR results have always been tough to measure. Historically, column inches of press coverage are multiplied by advertising costs for the same amount of space to derive a value. But that has no bearing on actual effectiveness of PR in driving awareness or sales. We log all media placements our PR division makes for clients by the date the articles ran and by publication. We also create a list of search terms that relate to each article.

Then, we look at the client’s Web site analytics to see traffic patterns after the articles ran, and measure visits from corresponding search terms.

For a recent client for whom we placed an article in the Wall Street Journal, we saw a 1000%+ increase in Web traffic, including many visits directly from wsj.com, and a spike in visitors using search terms mentioned in the article.

Marketing Mix

Similarly, to determine the relative impact of different pieces of the marketing plan, we create spreadsheets that plot when all traditional marketing activities occur such as TV and radio buys, billboards, direct mail drops, newspaper and magazine ads, etc. Then, we add a line graph that show Web site traffic, leads, and sales (if applicable) along the same timeline.

Anytime we see a spike in Web site results, we see what marketing tactics were ongoing at that time, and use that data to help determine which activities are most successful at driving results.

Message Impact

I’m not anti-focus group, but relying solely on research that asks people what they would do in theory puts a lot of artificial conditions on their buying behavior. After you’ve had a couple beers and if the light is just right, even the Pontiac Aztek looks pretty good.

We prefer when possible to mix focus group type theoretical research with measuring what people actually do in a low cost environment that gets results fast. We create a series of online banner ads that contain a distinct potential marketing message for the product or service, and then launch a quick online media buy that puts those ads in front of likely customers. Within just a few days patterns emerge that tell us which messages are salient. The trick to this approach is making sure that the ad creative is extremely similar except for the message itself. You don’t want to interpret a message as powerful, when it’s actually the photograph of the cigar smoking beagle in the one ad that is getting the attention.

While online marketing’s share of the overall marketing mix will continue to expand for the foreseeable future, it’s important to think of the Internet as more than an advertising vehicle. Those online ad dollars can be used to inform and improve the results of your traditional programs as well.

Make these changes now to improve online results

Thousands of Web sites built circa 2000-2002 are showing signs of wear and fatigue like a dot com Larry King. Today’s trend is away from flashy, narcissistic pandemics about why YOUR bolt and fastener company is the BEST, and toward obvious, easy-to-use, functional Web sites that respect the time and intelligence of their users.

You may not have the budget (or the moxie) to take your current site out back, pull an Old Yeller, and start fresh. Hence, this set of important changes you can make to eliminate small Web site lines and wrinkles, and return a fresh, healthy glow.

Focus on the User

Nobody comes to a Web site on accident. Each visitor needs something from you. The key to online success is figuring out what those needs are, and answering them as quickly as possible. Think of your site as an extension of your customer service department rather than your marketing department, and you’re on the right track.

How do you know what the needs of your audience are? Ask them. Put together an easy online survey using www.zoomerang.com or a similar tool, and invite visitors to participate. Include a question that requires survey takers to describe (or select from options) precisely why they came to the site. Use that information to reconfigure your site’s organization and content.

Once you have an understanding of what people want from you, determine how best to provide it. Create a chart of all the pages on your Web site. Does this page answer one of the primary five to seven visitor questions? If not, does this page clearly direct the visitor to another page that answers a question? If not, delete the page from your site. Your top seven visitor questions should be answerable in two clicks from the home page.

Have a Clear Home Page

The home page of your site has two purposes. Briefly describe who you are so visitors know they are in the appropriate place, and direct users to an inside page most likely to answer their question.

Do not use your home page to try to tell your whole story, and unless you are managing a Web site for a rock band, porn star, or art gallery do not put a flash introduction on your site. 93% of Internet users click that convenient “skip intro” button, so having your logo burst into flames accompanied by the first seven bars of “We Are the Champions” isn’t exactly money well spent.

Remember that many people will be seeing your site for the very first time, and thus need to evaluate each link on your home page before determining their next action. Ideally, provide 15 or fewer next click options.

Write Copy for the Web

People don’t read online, they skim. Eyeballs jump around a Web page like Tom Cruise on Oprah.

So, don’t repurpose your brochures. Instead, determine what the goal of the Web page will be, and then write it in an inverted, journalistic style. Conclusion first, then more details

Use a lot of subheads and bullet points to give the visitor’s eyes a roadmap to what’s important on the page. Keep sentences short and punchy.

Keep Score

The Internet is the most measurable medium yet devised, and features actual, honest-to-goodness counting of each person that comes to your site. It’s imperative that you use this data to consistently measure the effectiveness of your site, and make changes based on your findings.

Decide what behavior you want your Web site visitors to engage in on your site. Filling out your lead form? Calling your toll-free number? Downloading your white paper? Purchasing your product?

Whichever it is, use a Web analytics program (we recommend Clicktracks and Urchin on Demand (recently bought by Google)) to determine at least monthly how many of your visitors did in fact do what you want them to do on your site, and more importantly, your conversion rate.

To determine your conversion rate, divide the number of desired actions by the number of people who visited your site. If 100,000 people visited your site last month, and 1,000 of them filled out your lead form, your conversion rate is 1%.

This is the magic number online because it tells you how effective your site is at aligning what you want people to do with what they want from you.

If you want your site to generate a larger number of desired actions there are only two ways to do so. You can ignore the shortcomings of your site and get more people to visit – which can be a difficult proposition. Or, you can inject a little botox into your site, make it customer-friendly, and get more results from the people already there.

In comparison to their human counterparts, Web sites have certain advantages as sales representatives for your company. They work 24×7, don’t complain about the commission structure, and don’t expense $273 for dinner with “Paul” the imaginary new business prospect. But otherwise, Web sites are generally terrible salespeople.

Nearly all Web sites have (or should have) visitor action as a central goal. Whether that action is a purchase, filling out a lead form, signing up for an email newsletter, or a combination of these or other activities, enticing visitors to ACT not just READ, is the end game of online marketing – and one at which most sites consistently fail.

The percentage of your site’s total visitors that actually take a desired action during their visit is called the site’s conversion rate, and a multitude of Internet research pegs average conversion rates at 2-5%.

Just imagine what would happen if your sales force closed only 2% of the calls they made. In most companies, a close ratio in that neighborhood would result in a humiliating verbal flogging at an early morning sales meeting, followed closely by a strong hint manifesting itself in the form of a $5 off coupon to Harriet’s House of Resume Polishing.

Even more damning is the fact that the people visiting your Web site are there for a reason. By their very presence, they have indicated their interest in your product or service. They didn’t enter a random set of characters into their browser to see what might happen. Consequently, your Web site’s pool of prospects might actually be MORE pre-qualified than your sales team’s. So what gives? Why can’t most sites close more than 5% of their prospects?

There are three primary culprits.

First, despite the excessive use of hair products and occasional personality disorders, professional salespeople have one critical skill that most Web sites lack entirely – listening. In a conversation with a prospect, salespeople are trained to listen to what the prospect says and probe for need. Only when needs have been identified do well trained salespeople offer solutions to meet them.

Web sites are often exactly the opposite. The entire “conversation” is not a conversation at all, but a monologue. “This is what our company does. These are the services we offer. These are the benefits of those services.” No acknowledgement of customer need. People act because they have a problem or need, and believe you can solve it. Frame the issue from their perspective, and you’ll be able to more succinctly and directly explain why you’re the solution.

The second problem is that Web site owners dramatically overestimate depth of visit. A March, 2004 study of thousands of sites from Web site analytics company Onestat.com found that more than 80% of all Web site visitors view three pages or fewer. This has massive implications for home page design and content organization. To increase conversion rates it’s imperative that your site diagnose visitor need, deliver evidence of being able to meet that need, and encourage action within the first two pages. Don’t waste your most valuable real estate – your home page – by including on it a worthless animated sequence or other corporate welcome statement that doesn’t address need or encourage action.

If the primary objective of your site is to get people to request your free brochure about your new weed killing spray, include a large button on your home page that says “Overrun by weeds? A weed-free yard is within your reach. Click here to see how your weeds could be singing the blues by this weekend.” Corny? Yes. Effective in getting prospects to request the brochure? Yes.

The third problem is a fundamental lack of understanding that unlike in-laws and Supreme Court Justices, you’re not stuck with your conversion rate. Now that Internet advertising is hot again, companies are constantly looking for ways to increase their Web site traffic, not realizing that the least expensive way to improve results is to re-architect the site itself to boost conversion rates. If you better your conversion rate by 100% – a very achievable objective in many scenarios – you’ve effectively doubled your marketing budget.

Certainly, there are principles that are universally true, including those included here. However, when you’re ready to get serious about conversion rate improvement, the only way to do so is to test your theories. Work with your team or a consultant to create several versions of your home page. Try new navigation labels. Build multiple lead generation forms. The only way to truly optimize results is to test until you’ve found the Web site recipe that makes the tastiest casserole for your company.

Is it easy to optimize conversion rates? It’s not too difficult to improve them by ridding your site of obvious problems. But a complete optimization strategy and tactical plan can indeed be tricky. But, unless you have a large unused cubicle farm and a platinum account at monster.com, it’s a lot simpler to test new Web site options than to try a fleet of new salespeople.

Consumers visit a limited number of Web sites each month. How can you make your site one of them?

In the American way of thinking, if some is good, more must be better. Anything useful or interesting gets proliferated until it reaches gluttonous proportions.

Cereal is good. But do we need nearly 100 varieties? How many movies based on comic book characters can be made in a three year period? A lot, evidently. And nowhere is this phenomenon more omnipresent than in reality TV. Real World begat Survivor which begat a death spiral of televised humiliations that explain why most of the world either laughs at or hates America. By the time you read this, you may have watched or Miss Dog America, an actual show on Fox (during sweeps, natch) with 50 fine bitches from around the country - plus D.C. - competing for top canine honors.

If there’s a dead horse, America will beat it.

The Internet is no exception. Being a primarily American creation, the Web lives by the same rules of excess applied to the rest of our culture. In 2002, there were approximately 35 million Web sites in existence. That’s one for every nine Americans.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the average U.S. home Internet user visited 49 different Web sites in December, 2002. Out of 35 million, each person went to just 49 sites. How’s that for a little competition?

What can you do to get your Web site a small share of the 12 hours the average home Internet user spends online each month? Here are four tips to keep them coming back.

Focus on Why, not What

At this point, most people assume that your company has a Web site. Consequently, while you should include your Web site address on everything associated with your company to maximize the effectiveness of this technique you need to do more than just slap on your URL.

Whenever time and space permit, explain why people should visit your site. It’s easy to ignore or overlook your Web site address alone, and it certainly doesn’t provide a compelling reason for someone to visit the site. For example, instead of tagging ads with www.arizonalottery.com the Arizona Lottery should add, “Sign up to have winning numbers delivered by email. Free. Visit www.arizonalottery.com”.

Web site promotion that offers specific reasons for doing so can draw discretionary visits that a URL by itself cannot.

Be Found

As people’s use of the Internet becomes more focused and task-oriented (the average number of sites viewed monthly was in the 70+ range as little as one year ago), users “search and surf” less. However, according to measurement firm WebSideStory, Inc., 36 percent of Web site visitors arrived at sites via a search engine or other Web link. This means that roughly one third of your potential audience will (or will not) find you using a search.

Search engine optimization is the classic “get what you pay for” business. If someone tells you they can get you listed in all the search engines for $99, run away. Sure, they can get you listed, but if you’re not in the top 30 results for a given search phrase, there°s no point in being there at all.

We work with search engine optimization companies daily, and in our experience, you should expect to pay a minimum of $250 a month if you are at all serious about driving traffic to your Web site.

Make it Easy to Return

The counterpoint to the 36 percent of Web site visitors who arrive via search engine or link is that a whopping 64 percent don’t. That means that two out of every three people who come to your Web site will do so by typing in your URL or using a bookmark (aka favorites).

Tackle these two important tasks immediately: First, if you are using an acronym as your Web address and you are not IBM, ATT, NAFTA, NBA, NFL, or some other equally recognizable collection of letters, stop doing so immediately. The old rule that your URL needs to be short is bunk. It needs to be easy to remember, and using an obscure acronym for your Web site address is by definition difficult to remember.

Ideally, your Web address should be whatever your receptionist says when he or she answers the phone.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital is a long-time client. For their first Web site (circa 1996) they used phxchildrens.com as their address, to focus on brevity. Now, however, their award-winning site uses phoenixchildrenshospital.com as its URL.

Second, remind people to add your site to their favorites. If you can make a bit of room on your home page add a small line reading, “Visit again. Add us to your favorites.” Just a little note so visitors who truly are interested in your site will take a second to put you in the all-important favorites list before they move on to one of the 48 other sites they°ll visit this month.

Push, don’t Pull

Unless your target audience is more familiar with Harry Potter than Harry Truman, the notion that they will “sur f”the Web and come back to your site on occasion to see what’s new has about as much credibility as Michael Jackson’s “only two surgeries” claim. Adults use Web sites primarily to access specific information, solve problems or research purchases. Period.

So, if you want them to come back, you not only need to give them the specific reason for doing so (see above) but ideally you must give them the vehicle, too. That means getting permission to communicate with them via email, usually a periodic email newsletter where you can give subscribers a compelling rationale to revisit your site.

Indeed, email is getting a bad rap due to misuse and overuse (which we prophesied in this column 18 months ago), but if you do it right, it’s still the most powerful way to get visitors to return. AZ-TV, the independent television station that boasts Pat McMahon and the Wallace & Ladmo revival among its programming, is a client. On days when their email newsletter is sent out, Web site traffic spikes 300%.

Just remember to never send an email that doesn’t have real informational value to the recipient. If you don’t have anything new and useful to say, be quiet.

The Internet is as big as Mike Tyson’s gigantic, hideous face tattoo. After all, there are 683 search results on Google just for “bizAZ.” Getting eyeballs to your Web site is one of the eternal challenges of the industry, but you don’t have to stage a dog beauty pageant to do it. Just implement a few of these tricks and they’ll be beating down your digital door.