Time flies when you're having fun!

Its amazing how many sites I visit where the content hasn't been updated for more than a year. In fact, its even more amazing how fast time goes by when you think about it in these circumstances. It seems like I added something to this blog just the other day, and more than a YEAR has passed! Scary!

Well, I have never thought of myself as much of a blogger, so I have already forgiven myself for huge gap of time between posts in this...not to mention that I can probably count on one hand the number of people (outside my staff) that might even read this...but I promise that I would never let my web site go unattended for such a long period of time.

So in this post I thought I would share a few things you can do to make your site more interactive, engaging, accountable and have it generate more leads and sales. We recently sent these ideas out to our Customers in a monthly email newsletter.

Hopefully they will give you some ideas for your own site.

Live Chat Reduce operational costs and increase sales! A single question answered from a Live Support agent can be enough to close a sale. Integrating Live Chat on your website can accomplish the level of instant client care that is required to keep you ahead of your competitors and increase your website sales while reducing your operational costs. Phone, fax, staff and other support operations can add up to lots of expenses. Live Chat will enable you to communicate instantly with your visitors and pass crucial information at virtually no cost. Lightbox With Lightbox you can dazzle people that visit your website with your latest promotional piece, an interactive photo gallery or an audio/video presentation. Lightbox allows you to present video, pictures and audio to your customers, but doesn't force it on them. With a Web 2.0 look and feel, it will captivate your audience while spicing up your website with very little cost. This is one of the most popular website enhancements being incorporated into existing sites. Signup Forms If you want to maximize the revenue of your service you need to maximize completion rates of your web forms. Unless you have some revolutionary ideas to impress your visitors at first glance, it is not enough to simply enable users to sign up on your site. To make it possible for your services to reach maximal exposure you must provide users with a good user experience. Forms need to invite them, describe to them how the service works, explain to them why they should fill in the form and suggests the benefits they'll get in return. And, of course, it should be extremely easy for them to participate. CAPTCHA Spam Protection A CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test most often placed within web forms to determine whether the user is human. For example, humans can read distorted text, but computer programs can't. The purpose of CAPTCHA is to block form submissions from spambots - automated scripts that harvest email address from publicly available web forms. If your website needs protection from abuse, it is recommended that you have a CAPTCHA installed on all your forms. There are many CAPTCHA implementations, some better than others. Let Mosaic help you stop the SPAM and regain control of your online forms. Analytics and Web Site Traffic Analysis Do you know how many people visited your site yesterday, last week, last month? If not, Mosaic can help. We can add a very powerful Web Analytics package to your site that will not only tell you how many people visited your site but how they found you, what keywords they used, how long they stayed and what part of your site most interested them. If you like real-time statistics with a lot of interesting reports on the people coming to your site, call us now!

I drank the kool aid

I have finally come around to the iPhone. It is because we all needed =20 new phones in the office and the Verizon hardware was pretty bad. =20 Definitely did not want a blackberry.

 

Now I have to say that I really like this iphone.  I am still getting =20 to know it and will post the kook things I come across.

 

How to increase the return on investment of your website

The most critical part of increasing your website’s return on investment is making sure the site provides a clear call-to-action and (just as importantly) a functional, easy-to-use follow through mechanism. This call-to-action and follow through mechanism will increase your conversion rate (the number of click-throughs that result in a sale or other call-to-action) regardless of the action you want a visitor to take.

An effective call-to-action should provide a clear, concise message that answers the following three questions:

•What should I do next
•Why should I do it
•How do I do it

To create an effect call to action, you should incorporate the following elements:

• Visibility: Be sure to put your call to action in a place on the page that is visible at first glance. This means that ideally your call-to-action will be “above the scroll” (a location on the page that can be viewed in your browser without scrolling) generally in the middle or right hand side of the page.

• Clarity: Make sure that your message is clear. Use short, simple words and phrases to get the visitors attention. Include graphics but avoid cluttering things up with too many graphics.

• Incentives: Offer incentives and other rewards when a visitor follows he call-to-action such as “Free 60-Day Trial” or “25% off Online Registration”. Something that will make it worthwhile to follow the call to action.

• Engaging: Use engaging, instructive words and phrases to hook the visitor. “Register Here”, “Call today” or “Get more information” etc.

• Urgency: Create a sense of urgency. Limit the offer to a specific period of time, number of customers or number of orders.

Once you have engaged your visitor with an effective call-to-action, you need to decide what you want the visitor to do next and provide a functional follow through mechanism to complete the conversion. Decide what you asking your visitors to:

• Register for something
• Buy something
• Become a member
• Post a review or response
• Make a phone call
• Fill out a form, etc.

Whatever it is you are asking the visitor to do, it is critically important that the follow-through process be relatively simple to accomplish and that the follow-through mechanism is functioning properly. There is nothing worse than having a prospective customer follow your call-to-action only to discover that they cannot follow through to conversion because of a technical glitch.

These sorts of technical issues are quite common, and as much as anything, the failure of the follow-through mechanism is responsible for the poor return on investment of many websites. Not only that, these technical failures will significantly devalue a company’s brand and corporate image because potential customers relate this technical failure to the overall ability of the company. One could argue that it is better to do nothing than to have a poorly or non-functioning call-to-action on your website.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you should vary your call-to-action from page to page within your site. Different pages will appeal to different types of visitors. Some calls will work better with loyal returning customers, where other “softer” calls-to-action will appeal more to new or prospective customers.

Finally (the secret sauce for those still reading the article), never under estimate the power of your web site traffic reports! Every site should have a service monitoring web site traffic so you can get the fantastically detailed and informative reports about click-through and conversion data for every call-to-action on your site. These reports will allow you to actually measure which calls-to-action are working and which ones are not. They will also help you determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your overall Technology Enabled Marketing strategy…but I will save that discussion for another article.

Prepared for SmartCEO Magazine
By Jason Bach, Principal & CEO, Mosaic Technologies, Inc.
On October 22, 2007

Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing Services

Over the last 9 months, we have seen a dramatic surge of interest in the Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing services we provide, however most people still don't completely understand what "Technology Enabled Marketing" really means.

Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing is a business process that makes your web site the focal point of your marketing efforts. It then leverages a variety of technologies to attract people to your website, engage them once they arrive, collect information while they are there, and finally returns a wealth of analytic and statistical data to your marketing department which allows them to measure the results and make more educated marketing decisions moving forward.

In 2007, companies have spent roughly 50% more on their "Technology Enabled Marketing" budgets than on more "traditional" advertising/marketing channels. The days of yellow pages are coming to an end...and the demand for inclusion in search engines is on the rise.

In 2008, Mosaic Technologies looks to further expand its Technology Enabled Marketing offerings and provide an even more comprehensive, sophisticated and accountable solution for its Clients.

From keeping your website up-to-date to providing more sophisticated search engine optimization services, Mosaic Technologies can help you increase the visibility of your website using Technology Enabled Marketing services.

If you or your company are interested in getting more information about the Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing services and the benefits it provides, please give us a call today at (240) 399-3900.

Welcome to the Mosaic Technologies Blog!

Thank you for visiting our new blog! We look forward to keeping your informed about news and events happening at Mosaic Technologies as well as informed with information related to Technology Enabled Marketing and the other services we provide.