Internet Marketing Blog
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Cristina: Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012 3:56 PM
 This post originally appeared on Vistaprint's Micro Business Perspectives Blog.
Here is a general overview of group buying and how small businesses are using it. If you type “group buying” into Google, you’ll get over 44,500,000 results. The most recognized player however, is probably Groupon, a Chicago-based company that has enjoyed explosive growth over the past few years. The business model is simple: Groupon typically keeps half of the money generated from the deal, and the other half goes to the featured retailer. If, for instance, a $160 dinner is offered for $80 on the site, Groupon and the restaurant split the $80. As we mentioned, Groupon is just one of many group buying sites. Others in the space include LivingSocial, Google Offers and Gilt. What about my business? The big question, of course, is how does (or doesn’t) group buying fit into the world of a micro business owner? The first step might be looking at a few pros and cons. Although there are a number of advantages to consider when it comes to group buying, the biggest is likely the opportunity to generate buzz and in the end, reach a deep pool of new consumers you might not have been able to before. According to a Financial Times piece, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason thinks his company is the perfect way for small businesses to do just that: “We’re hands down the best way to get customers through the door,” he says. “Which for small businesses is the difference between success and failure.” And while customer procurement is undoubtedly vital, small business owners also have to weigh a number of important risk factors like potential financial impact, and whether or not they’ll be able to honor the deal if it takes off. ToMuse takes a hard look at whether or not group buying is cost effective, and ultimately comes to the conclusion that it really depends on the offer. And as for delivering on the deal, one cautionary tale comes in the form of a cupcake. Rachel Brown, who runs a small bakery outside of London, featured what she thought was a simple deal on Groupon (a 75 percent discount on a dozen cupcakes) that would maybe generate a few hundred orders. Instead, she was flooded, finally cutting the orders off at a staggering 8,500 — which, for the record, is a lot of cupcakes. According to the Daily Mail, her business took a massive hit. “Because [Brown’s] deal had been so generous and the demand so huge, she made a loss on every order – wiping out her profits for the entire year,” the publication reports. In the end, not all businesses are the same, and the decision comes down to you as a small business owner asking the right questions, such as: Is the risk worth the potential gain? Can I afford to offer such a deep discount? Am I prepared to honor the terms of the offer if there’s no limit? We’ve only scratched the surface of group buying, but hopefully you’ve gained a little insight. Tell us in the comments section: Do you think you’ll consider group buying or will you stick to more traditional methods? Image: Groupon |
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Ryan: Posted on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 4:38 PM
 One question we get a lot is,“How can
I add social media buttons to my Vistaprint website or email marketing campaign?” And the answer is: It’s easy! (Not to mention a great way for customers to share your content with their contacts, and grow your business.)
The Basics
So what are social media widgets, anyway? If you’ve ever browsed the Web (which we are assuming you have) chances are, you’ve come across these handy applications on a number of occasions, and you might have even used them. Widgets are buttons that can be added to your website, email marketing campaign, blog or social media page; you can use widgets from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to engage your site’s visitors, to increase brand awareness and attract more customers. You can checkout examples on sites such as Boston.com, and even right here on our blog to see how these versatile buttons are typically used. How do I add them to my site?
Incorporating widgets is a simple process, with just a few steps once you’re logged in:
1. Go to your “Extras” menu in the Site Builder.
2. Click the “Add Social Media” icon.
3. Select the type of social media you’d like to add to your website. You can choose among “Like” and “Share” buttons from Facebook, Twitter extras like “Follow” and “Tweet” or a host of other social media widgets.
4. Once you choose the widget you want, set up the options for the given widget, and add it to your Website or Email Marketing Campaign!
Hopefully this quick how-to inspires you to get social with your site or campaign! Do you think you’ll be socializing your site or campaign anytime soon? Let us know in the comments section!
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Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 10:45 AM
Over the past few months you have given our team great feedback on our suite of Internet Marketing products and how we can improve them. We truly appreciate this feedback and it allows us to our products updated and fresh. We have recently rolled out two improvements to the photo functionality from this feedback and wanted to give you an overview of the changes.
Light-Boxes
Updating the light-boxes for single images was the first improvement we made. When a visitor to your site clicks on any of your images to “view larger,” they’ll see a light-box that highlights your picture. Below is a screenshot of the new light-boxes in action: Filmstrip
The other new addition that has been made is to our “filmstrip” image gallery extra. The new features include: updated thumbnails, enlarge your “filmstrip”, and the ability to browse through existing albums. Below is a screenshot of the updated filmstrip functionality: These new features are available for you to use now. Be sure to take a look at them and let us know what you think.
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Francine: Posted on Monday, April 25, 2011 5:10 PM
I wanted to look at Vistaprint’s website users’ favorite features to keep visitors engaged. In addition to the text and general info that you share on your site, here are tools I’d suggest using based on what’s succeeded for other businesses like yours:
Get the word out with Social Media
Make it easy for visitors to spread the word about your business to their friends by adding social media links to your website. We have lots of options to get you connected.  A “Like” button allows visitors to interact with your site, or a “Share” button enables users to share your website on their Facebook Wall and Newsfeed. If you make updates through Facebook or Twitter for your business, I’d suggest adding the Facebook or Twitter Feed. This option automatically adds your posts to your website, keeping your content fresh and updated which search engines like Google® tend to reward with higher rankings. Don’t Just Say It, Show It with an Image
We’ve all heard the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and it’s something all website owners should consider. Businesses can showcase their entire product lines, special events and staff. Add just one photo or entire photo galleries with captions.
Add a Little Action with Videos
Videos can really spice up your site and intrigue your site visitors to learn more about you or your business. You may consider a product demonstration or customer testimonials to personalize online visits. If you have a personal website, post clips of your wedding, baby milestones, celebrations or just funny videos you want to share with friends and family. Pin-Point Yourself with a Map  Visualizing where customers can find you reminds clientele that you are local and easy to reach. The maps feature also offers a link for Driving Directions to your location so customers can get to you quickly. Gather Visitor Information with a Form Forms provide a convenient way for customers to contact you 24/7. I’ve also seen many Vistaprint customers customize forms for things like quote requests and job postings with their own titles and dropdown or radio buttons. See the Connect with Customers with Forms article for more on how to maximize your forms. Sell Your Products with PayPal® Set the Tone with Music
Music can help to convey the tone of your website. You may want to play your company jingle to reinforce your marketing message, a non-profit organization or social awareness campaign may choose a poignant song to evoke emotion, or you may want to simply play all of your favorites on your different web pages. There’s only one rule when it comes to song selection – make sure it complements the content of your website. These favorites can be added from the “Extras” button on your Site Builder’s toolbar. Please let us know what your favorite Extras are, or other features you’re interested in.
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Ryan Burke: Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 3:22 PM
Have you ever felt overwhelmed before sitting down to build your first website? Do you stare at your computer for hours hoping that it will build itself? Do you constantly ask yourself: “Where should I start?”
I know how hard it can be to get your first website off the ground, especially if you’re new to internet marketing. We’ve all wrestled with major decisions from “What’s the purpose of my site?” to “What type of design to use,” to “What kinds of pages should I include?” Don’t we all wish that someone would sit next to us and help get that site published?
Everyone looking for guidance is in luck! We recently introduced an integrated Website Setup Wizard and Checklist that will make it easier than ever for you to make an awesome site so you can announce your business to the world.
Website Wizard
So you just signed up for your free trial and you think “wow, what do I do now?” As soon as you get to your dashboard, you will be able to get all the help you need by clicking “Help Me Get Started” on the left of the following screen:
This Setup Wizard will put you through a path that really helps address everything you need to get your site started. We will get your name and message on your site and we will even recommend a website design that matches your other marketing materials or industry, which means everything can stay consistently branded. If you’re having difficulty picking a website package, we have an interactive package selector to help. We’ll ask you some questions that focus in on the website package that really suits your needs. You’ll also be able to set up all the pages you want, your website URL, and the email associated with your site.
If something comes up while you’re going through the Setup Wizard, you can save at any point. Next time you come back to your dashboard, you’ll be able get back in to where you left off from the dashboard message center. Once you’re finished with the Setup Wizard, all you have to do is edit your content in the Website Builder and publish your site!
Website Checklist
The Setup Wizard is great for those of you just starting up your site, but why stop there? The Setup Wizard provides the essentials, but our new Website Checklist really helps grow your site. Your personal checklist can be accessed from both your website dashboard and builder:
Dashboard:
Builder:
The checklist will really help you bring your site to the next level. This interactive checklist will help you monitor your site and will give you guidance about what to add to your site - like maps, social media widgets and images. The checklist will also help you easily edit your website keywords and add a guest book to connect with your customers. It’ll even show the date you completed an item so you can reference it going forward! This new feature will really help you get the most out of your site.
We really hope that the new Website Setup Wizard and Checklist help to get your site to the next level. These tools are here to help you continue to grow your business online. Looking forward to hearing your comments and thanks for your continued support.
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Ryan: Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 2:01 PM
A few weeks ago, I posted some information about a new tool we added to the website builder: a Meta Tag editor. This may be new to many of you and you might be asking yourself some questions like, what are meta tags, what is Google Site Verification and how do I set it up? Or, how does this work with the Vistaprint Search Engine Optimizer (SEO)?
What are meta tags?
Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header of a webpage. These tags are never seen by visitors to your site. Instead, their main purpose is to provide search engines with information about your website. This helps search engines recognize and rank your website.
What is Google Site Verification and how do I set it up?
Google Site Verification is basically a way for Google to know that you own your site. They will provide you with a meta tag to put in the header of your site so they can pick it up through their search engine, helping improve your visibility. Once enabled, Google Site Verification and Google Webmaster Tools allow you to understand how people are accessing your site and what they are searching for. Follow these easy steps to setup Google Site Verification for your website:
1. First, you’ll have to set up an account with Google. If you already have something like Gmail, you’re all set. 2. Go to Google Webmaster Tools and sign in using your Google account. 3. Once you’re signed in to the tools, click “Add a site.” 4. Enter your website URL and press continue. 5. On the next page, choose “Add a meta tag to your site’s home page.” Google will provide you with a meta tag. 6. Open up your Vistaprint Website Builder in a separate window and choose the “Add Meta Tags” extra. Paste the meta tag Google provided you here.
7. Publish your website.
8. Once published, go back to the Google Webmaster screen and click “Verify.”
9. Once verified, you’ll be directed to your Google Webmaster dashboard, where you can access information about your site.
How does this work with Search Engine Optimization?
Google Webmaster’s dashboard provides specific information about your site, including significant keywords and search queries. Basically, they’re telling you what keywords you have on your site and how people are finding you. These are great pieces of information but don’t give you full details about your website optimization. Using SEO with what you’ve learned from Google Webmaster can really benefit your site.
SEO provides you with a report card that has specific rankings for each area of your site, including website name, links, images, and each individual page. In addition, SEO shows how optimized your website is for specific search terms and keywords on your site (for more information, refer to our Vistaprint Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) post). With the keyword and search term information from Google, you can receive a real time score about how well your site is doing with SEO. Google may be saying what keywords are significant, but it may not mean each individual portion of your site is fully optimized for these. That’s where SEO comes into play; it tells you where to optimize and provides fixes/tips on how to do it. Using both of these tools together will help grow your site and company’s visibility through search engines. We hope you like this new addition, please feel free to share any experiences you have and any questions you have. |
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Samuel: Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2011 10:14 AM
 Are you seeing results from your email marketing campaigns? If so how are you using the information to enhance your campaigns to make it more successful?
After you’ve sent your first few campaigns, it’s important to look back at your results to determine which email is generating the most interest.
Some of the key things you want to look at are: Open Rate: The number of people who opened the email. The amount of times the email has been opened will give you a good understanding of how impactful your subject lines are and if there is any difference in when you send the email, including different days and different times.
Why is the subject line important, you ask? Subject lines are the titles of your email, the first thing your customer is going to see in their inbox. It’s what is going to compel them to open your email rather than put it in the trash unread. People also check there emails at separate times of the day, and will most likely to open emails at the top of their inbox. After a few campaigns and depending on the amount of people you are emailing, you will get a good idea of the difference in open rates with emails sent at varying times of the day.
Click Rate: The number of clicks received in each email. The click rate will give you insight into the type of content your customer likes to see in the emails. If you’re sending out emails to the same group of people on a regular basis, you can do some testing by changing up the style and format each email, then compare the results. For instance, some customers might like a newsletter updating them on your business, while others might want to see a straight offer. Change up your emails so you can get a read on what you should be sending and when. Purchase Rate: The number of people who ordered a product after seeing the email. This one is a little harder to get too, as it requires you to have some identifying factor in the email that you can track back to an order. A good example or fix here is offering a special coupon/discount in the email which you track to see how many customers purchase, using the coupon. The purchase rate is important, as it can give you an idea of your return (amount of money earned) per email campaign. From there you will be able to calculate which campaigns prove to be the best value for you. This also may be a combination of a few different types of emails spread out over time, as the same type of email may not work every time. Unsubscribe: The number of people who unsubscribe from receiving your emails. With interesting content and sending the emails to the right people, the unsubscribe rate should be very low; however you should expect to see a small amount of people unsubscribe. If you see an alarming rate from one email campaign you will be able to use that information to assess what caused people to unsubscribe. To keep the rate low, track the amount times you’re emailing your customers and be sure to keep the content engaging. To understand what is working and what is not, be sure to look back and asses your email results on a regular basis. These metrics should guide your next campaign strategy, so you can improve with each new email campaign you send. Each metric can also be looked at on its own if you want to do some specific testing. For example, if your emails structure is the same most of the time, you may want to focus on your subject lines, which you can bring more focus to the open rates. How have you been looking at the results of your campaign? Is there anything I have missed? Hope this information was helpful for you in terms of thinking about your next campaign. |
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Samuel: Posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:03 AM
 In September 2010, we launched a Social Media Initiative with the goal/intent of engaging with you, our valued customers, to provide insight and learning materials to help you get started with growing your business online. Over that time we have interacted and had great conversations with many of you on our Blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Now, six months into the initiative, we would love to hear your thoughts on our use of social media. We would really appreciate your support if you could spend the next three to five minutes to answer a few questions in this survey. There is also a little prize at the end of a 25% Vistaprint site wide discount with 7 day free shipping! Start Survey by clicking here now! We really appreciate any feedback you have, feel free to also make any comments in the comments section below. |
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Ryan: Posted on Friday, March 04, 2011 5:20 PM
Hello folks,
Thanks for your continued support and following. We really appreciate the engagement from all of you. Your comments have been extremely important in keeping our products updated and fresh. With some feedback we’ve received, we’d like to announce a few changes that you’ll see as you enter the builder to continue to work on your website.
One change you’ll see is an updated feature for PayPal. For those of you that sell online, you can now offer discounted prices. Use the following steps to start discounting your products: 1. Access PayPal from the Extras dialogue
2. Choose “Add a PayPal Shopping Cart”
3. Enter the price of your product and a discounted amount  4. Click next and check out the discounted price If you’re selling something on your site, like a book, and normally charge $10.00 but want to discount it by $2.00, the product would appear like this:  You can update both new and existing products with this new feature. If you don’t have a PayPal account, here’s some more information on how to set it up. No matter how you update, this is a great way to show your customers that they can receive great products or services at a discounted price from your business! Another feature we’ve added to our website extras is a Meta Tag editor. You can access this through the Extras dialogue as well. Lastly, we’ve created an Email Marketing survey to gather more feedback. If you want to take the survey, you can access it from your Email Marketing dashboard. There are some great questions in there and we’re really interested to hear what you think. If you have a few minutes to take the survey, that would be awesome! We hope that these new features make your website even better than it already is. Also, we are continuously updating our products, so stay tuned for more articles in the coming weeks. Please feel free to share any feedback you have or thoughts for new features that you would like to see.
Looking forward to your comments and thank you, for helping us make the tools better for you!
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Samuel: Posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 10:46 AM
Email Marketing is a proven method of communicating with customers, generating qualified website traffic, and keeping your business on top of mind. It is a great way to create brand loyalty and retaining customers who matter the most, the ones you already have. Now, for the tricky part, what should you focus on when writing your email campaigns and newsletters.
The first step in developing a successful email strategy is determining your email mix. Before you get started with writing and designing your campaigns, it’s helpful to think through the different reasons you plan to contact your customers.
Here are a few examples of the type of emails you may want to send to your customers. Email Newsletters
One of the primary purposes of an email newsletter is to build upon the relationship you already have with your customers and keep them engaged with your business. Often these emails are not product related, but more focused on providing insight into a recent update to your business like a new employee, trade shows you attended, awards you received or sharing any interesting industry news. For example, if there is a craft fair coming up that you will be attending, it would be suitable to let your customer know through an email. Once you have attended the fair you can add some information about how the fair went to your next newsletter.
 Catalog & Product Emails
Catalog and Product emails are relatively straight forward and self-explanatory. Essentially it is an email listing out some, if not all of, your products to encourage your customers to come back and purchase with you again. The best approach here can vary by product, however it is recommended to focus on just a few of your products to give them prominence. This can be done by simply listing out your products with some images and some brief text to get customers excited to click through to your website. Quick Announcements
Similar to a postcard, these are simple, brief announcements that can be focused on providing a quick update or even focused on showcasing one product. Often the email is very easy for the recipient to scan through and understand and has a very clear “Call to action” for what the customer should do next. 
Having a mix of informative newsletters and promotional content will show your customers that your business is interested in keeping them up to date and abreast of any special deals for which they may want to take advantage. Having a diversified communication strategy will help keep your messages fresh, maintain your reader’s interest and discourage them from unsubscribing from your mailings because of repetitive content.
Using these examples, think about the types of things you want to communicate with to your customers about and on a regular basis work out a plan for what and when you want to send the emails out. Most email readers will only scan an email quickly before deciding to read on or delete, so it’s important to have a clear goal before contacting your customers.
By starting out with this approach your campaigns will be successful and keep your customers reading too!
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Ryan: Posted on Tuesday, January 04, 2011 2:42 PM
 Search engine marketing is one of the fastest growing forms of marketing for companies. Experts predict that spend on search engine marketing will double in the U.S from $13 billion to $26 billion by 2014 (WordStream.com). Tons of companies are expected to continue to use this form of marketing to reach out to potential customers. In this growing competitive space, targeting the correct keywords is the foundation of your SEO campaign. Everyone in the market today is trying to compete for similar keywords. Barbers are competing for “barbershop,” landscapers are fighting for “landscaping”, and florists are using “flowers,” you get the idea. These keywords are great and useful to target, but it’ll be difficult for you to show up on Page 1 if a bunch of other companies in your industry are also targeting the same keywords. For small businesses, researching keywords related to your company is important to make your business standout through SEO. Through your research, keywords that are beneficial to your company have a combination of these qualities: - Describe of your business
- Consistently searched by potential customers through search engines a lot
- Have small number of search results in search engines
These keywords are known as “long tailed keywords” and account for 70% of the world’s searches through search engines. So, as opposed to just targeting individual keywords that comprise 30% of searches, target specific groups of words using the characteristics to strengthen your SEO campaign. For example if you’re a residential landscaper, in addition to targeting the word landscaping, you may also target long tail expressions like “landscaper for local homes” or “landscaping for homeowners.” Many companies are turning towards search engines to grow their businesses and there is no indication of this trend slowing down. With a number of companies competing for similar keywords, it is important to research long tailed keywords that your customers are searching for. Positioning your SEO campaign around long tailed keywords is important to the success of search engine marketing. Have you thought about "long tail keywords" before? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on SEO and the strategies you use or are thinking about using. Happy New Year and all the best for an awesome 2011! |
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Whitney: Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 5:02 PM
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website so it ranks high in search engines and you attract more visitors and customers to your site. When you have the right tools, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is simpler than your think. Vistaprint’s Search Engine Optimizer is a tool for your Vistaprint website that will walk you through the process of SEO so regardless of your SEO knowledge or experience, you can start showing up in search results. The tool includes a detailed report of your site, quick fixes, a writing wizard, a search assistant, and a blog. SEO Report: To start, we’ll analyze your website and provide you with an overall search score. The report will individually score specific elements of your site so you can quickly and easily see what’s working well and what needs attention. To improve your overall optimized score, focus on improving areas in your report that are red and yellow, eventually making them green. Once all your report card is showing green, you’ll have an optimized site! Quick Fixes: Within your report, you’ll be able to make improvements on the spot that can elevate your score in seconds using the Quick Fixes. If there’s an area of your report card that isn’t green, use the quick fixes to correct them. Just click to fix, right there in the Optimizer! There are no quick fixes for the Search Terms or Site Contents, so if these sections need work use the Search Assistant to help. The Writing Wizard: If you’re not sure what to say to your visitors, you can use the Writing Wizard to add professionally written content to your site in minutes. When using the writing wizard, select one of the options for “what you’re writing about” and the industry that best describes your business, and we’ll provide you with a variety of text options. Select the yellow fields and replace them with information about your business, then add the text to your site. Use the text as-is or for inspiration. The Search Assistant: When it comes time to work on the Search Terms and Site Contents of your site, you won’t be alone. The Search Assistant will be right there with you. It’ll keep tabs on your overall score, word count and search term usage while giving you easy access to other features. Open the Search Assistant while writing text on your site, and it will tell you which Search Terms you need to add. A Blog: Search engines favor active websites with relevant content, which is exactly what a blog provides. Plus, it’s a great way to interact with your customers and develop relationships. You’ll get up and running in minutes and it’ll match your website design for a professional, consistent look. To make sure your website isn’t overlooked in search results, use the Search Engine Optimizer to improve your site for search engines. In the end, your improved search placement will make it easier for people to find you, drive more business your way, and it could even move your website ahead of your competitors. |
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Samuel: Posted on Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:54 PM
Facebook is the world’s most popular social network and many customers have asked us how to set up a fan page for their business similar to the Vistaprint Internet Marketing fan page.
For businesses of all sizes, fan pages are a great place to get to know your customers better. We use the wall as a great place to foster conversations, but you can also use the page to broadcast deals and send out event invitations.
Please keep in mind that the fan page is different than your personal profile. You should you’re your personal page for interactions with friends and family , while the fan page should be used to interact with your customers. For more tips on balancing out your Facebook uses, check out this post on Vistaprint’s Micro Business Perspectives blog. If you’re looking for ways to drive traffic to your Fan page with a fan box, badge or like button, be sure to check out this post on " Adding Facebook and Twitter Badges/Buttons to your website". Be sure to let us know if you have any additional questions and best of luck with your new page! |
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Bryan: Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 3:28 PM
 Showing up as the number one position for a search term is a potential gold mine for micro businesses. More than likely the user that performed that search is going to click on the number one listing. Why? Because it’s the first listing they see and they know the search engine believes it to be the most relevant site for their search. Based on leaked AOL data a few years ago the first listing is likely to have 3.5 times more clicks that the No. 2 position, and being No. 2 isn’t bad!
So what’s the secret to ranking number one? You can’t just pay to have your site show up, even in the paid listings search engines need to deem your site relevant and worthy before they will serve it. We know “content is king” and that optimizing your title and URL are important parts of organic search, but everyone can create a URL that’s at least somewhat relevant and optimize their title tags for searches. You want to know the trick, the secret, the special combination that will boost your site to the top?
Make your site for the user and the rest will follow, it’s that simple. It’s a broad answer you’ve probably heard before from Google’s head of Webspam Matt Cutts. We tend to think of this answer as a copout, expecting insight to the Google algorithm or specific details on how we can alter our code to improve rankings, but one should really heed Matt Cutts’ advice. Google and other search engines will always try and do what’s best for the user. So if your site is optimized for the user, chances are that your site will eventually rank well for your targeted keywords.
Yes there are certain structural improvements you can perform allowing spiders to crawl your site with more ease, but when it comes down to it there is still no better form of marketing than word of “web”. If people enjoy your site they will share it with others and so on and so forth. A webmaster shouldn’t be too concerned about building their site around spiders. By building a site around the user you’re also building the site around the spider.
Yes, I understand that in the end it might not be the answer you’re looking for, but in the end, it’s the most effective one.
What do yo think about organic search? Looking forward to recieving your comments. |
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Emily: Posted on Monday, November 29, 2010 10:57 AM
 Both paid search and organic search are valuable tools to help your business get found online, and it’s important to understand the difference between the two. Paid search describes the ads that are displayed on the top and the right sidebar of the search engine results page. As indicated by its name, paid search is a service that you will pay for. This is most commonly done on a CPC (cost per click) basis. As the advertiser, you bid on the keywords that apply to your site, and you set your maximum willingness to spend per click, per day, and per month. The search engine uses this information, along with the relevancy of your ad, to determine if and where you will be placed on the results page. Obviously the more you’re willing to pay, the higher you will be placed on relevant searches. To ensure relevancy, you need to make sure that your ad specifically applies to your landing page (your website). In order to do this, the content (the written description) on your website should reflect the information that you’re calling out in your advertisement. In conjunction to relevancy, you also need to make sure your ad is appealing and competitive. It’s usually a good idea to check out your competitor’s ad copies (by searching for the keyword you’re interested in bidding on) to make sure your offers are competitive and compelling. You always want to do some research before investing! Paid search can become expensive if you’re bidding on high traffic keywords, so make sure you bid within your means. The organic listings are the main, larger listings that take up the remainder of the page. These are the results that no one pays for, but are driven organically through the search engine. You don’t pay to appear on this list, but there are a few tricks to making your site rank higher on specific keywords. Ultimately, search engines like to please the user, so they put the sites with the most relevance to the search query at the top. In order to make your site more relevant to specific keywords, you’ll need to boost the content on your website to highlight and describe those keywords. In addition to boosting the content, it’s important to keep the content up to date. Additionally, it will benefit your site’s rankings to have the title tags of your pages reflect the relevant and high search volume keywords. You can use Google’s Keyword Tool to determine the most high volume keywords within your product/services scope. Another way to really improve your organic rankings is to acquire quality, natural links (when another website places a link to your site on their page). This shows the search engine that your site is popular among the online community, and thus more likely to please the user. You can build links by promoting your site and creating viral content that will naturally spread. Ultimately, your goal as an advertiser is to make your business visible in the top paid and organic spots for the keywords (search queries) that apply to the goods or services that your business provides. This would put you at the top of the page in two different locations, giving you a greater share of the search engine results page. Historical data has continually proven that it’s most advantageous for the advertiser to acquire these positions to increase their session count (clicks), and ultimately their exposure. You can learn more about search engine optimization by clicking on the category on the left or by clicking on the link here. Are you using paid search or an organic strategy? We wold love to hear from you. |
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Francine: Posted on Friday, November 12, 2010 10:54 AM
 Oftentimes we’re asked how small businesses can best gather email addresses and other personal information from customers if they have a physical storefront, or aren’t getting a lot of traffic yet to their website.
The answer is simple, put out a sign-up sheet in your store or wherever you do business that will encourage customers to add their email and receive information from you. A good way to get customers to sign up is to give them an incentive. Call out that this email list will allow them to get special offers and deals, or offer them 5% off their immediate purchase (as they’re checking out) just by signing up. You worked hard to get people to come to your store and interact with you, make sure you’re able to continue to talk to and market to them in the future.
Position the forms next to your register, place them on your counter, or hang them on the door- and they’re the lightest item you’ll bring with you to fairs or events. Upload your new contacts into your Email Marketing list for templated emails to keep folks involved with what you’re doing and returning to your website for future business with updates, newsletters, and promotions. Look for the forms in your Email Marketing Dashboard, under Market Yourself or Build Your List. Once you’ve created yours, save it to your dashboard for later use, print in PDF format, or download to save to your home computer. Check out the one I started customizing below. Also, try our web forms for your Vistaprint or non- Vistaprint website. Enjoy the new FREE form feature! |
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Samuel: Posted on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:48 PM
A website will almost always be a work in progress, launching one is not easy if you don't have the right tools and support. There are always tweaks to be made and changes that will affect the user experience, traffic and overall theme of the pages. But there are also a few key mistakes that people typically make when it comes to starting from scratch. This morning Jeremy and I sat down to go through some of these key mistakes and while it was originally a large list we have refined it down to these 10. If you can focus on getting these right, you’ll have greater success in launching your businesses website. 1. Domain Names: Choosing a domain that is relevant, easy to remember and consistent with your brand. Check out Ryan’s post on “Your perfect domain name” 2. Brand Consistency: Spend the time to make your site look and feel like the rest of your brand. So if you have already designed a business card with certain design elements, make sure that you keep them consistent with your website. Professionalism is what you are looking for and it gives your customers confidence shopping with you online or in your physical store when everything is the same. This includes colors, tone of copy and including your company logo. 3. Consistent and concise information: Your customers are busy people these days and get bombarded with information all day. Having clear, consistent content which is easy to navigate is so important but too many people try to over communicate everything they do and how they do it to get their message across. Keep the format the same, shorter is better and above the fold is where your most important content should live. “Above the fold” is the term used for all the content you can see within the top part of the screen and it’s high value real estate. Check out Ryan’s post about content above the fold. 4. Call to action: Micro businesses have a website for a reason, be it informing their customers of where they are and how to contact them, selling products, or putting out content around their industry or demographic.. But no matter what the reason, there should always be a clear call to action for the customer to act and take further steps to do business with you. Giving the customer a clear direction gives you a better chance at a successful outcome. If you want them buy something think about the information they will need to know before buying. Give it to them then provide them with an avenue to purchase. For example, a PayPal purchase button or large phone number call out for estimates. Even a simple “contact us today!” can be effective in spurring action once people have landed on your site. 5. Investing time: Spend some time up front to make your site look professional and well presented. Check over your site design and content before making it live to the world. It doesn’t need to be perfect when you start, but having areas of your site looking sloppy does not make a good first impression. You want it to be as close to perfect as possible before launching it. 6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Think about search engine optimization while building your site and consistently after it has launched. Too many people think about it after the fact and being aware of good SEO practices from the start will put you in a much better position to maximize your online potential. The Vistaprint Search Engine Optimizer is a great tool to be able to monitor your SEO. 7. Customer contact details: At every opportunity try to capture your customer contact details so that you have an avenue to contact them in the future. Having a “Contact Us” page is a must, which will allows you to take your potential customer’s information in the process. Be open about your contact details; put your contact information on every single page of your website to make it easy to find. This will help you build a database of your customers and allow you to use mediums such as Email Marketing in the future. 8. Announce your site: People are not going to just stumble upon your site; they need to know or hear about it. Create an email marketing campaign to announce the launch of a new site, share it with your friends on Facebook, reach out to your local Chamber of commerce and put a link to the site on your new business cards or other marketing materials. 9. Understanding your data: Once you have your site set up and customers are coming to your site keep an eye on your website traffic. Make sure you’re taking the right steps to boost that traffic and testing your efforts over time. Again, your site won’t be stumbled upon, you need to be proactive about getting it found by search engines and customers. Check out an article by Francine on “Understanding your website traffic.” 10. Don’t set it and forget it: Your business is growing and changing all the time. Your website should be too. Too often micro businesses think, “Oh I have a website now, I am all set there.” The actual answer is, “it takes time to grow your business online and requires continual improvement.” Consistently spend time each week to monitor and make updates to your website. Listen to customer feedback and make changes to improve. Hopefully these tips help you whether you are just getting started or are working on improving your site. Look forward to hearing the mistakes you made when starting out. |
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Ryan: Posted on Friday, November 05, 2010 3:25 PM
 Have you ever heard of the term “above the fold” when it comes to newspapers? Well it also refers to the area on websites. “Above the fold” refers to the area of a computer screen a person can see without scrolling up, down, left, or right. Just the other day, a customer asked me where the best spot to put a PayPal button was on their site. My answer was “above the fold.” I began thinking about my answer and felt like this is a very common question. Since “above the fold” is so important here’s a little background about this area of your website. During the internet’s early years, many believed users would never scroll down a page. Since then, there has been debate over the best use for above the fold space. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen recently tested the notion of “above the fold” through his Eye-tracking Study. Through this, he found users do scroll through web pages, but spend 80% of their time looking at information above the fold. To further that, those users that scroll do so primarily when they feel information is important or valuable to them. This study can guide what kind of content to include above the fold. Since users only spend 20% of their time on the bottom of web pages, the top area space is more important than ever. Keep this idea in mind when you are selecting content to include and showcase on your own site. The type of content will differ from business to business, but it’s important to be selective in choosing what information to put here. Try to incorporate important elements that will capture your audience.  Include things like specific calls to action, directions on use, or relevant imagery. All of these can be considered quality pieces that will interest your customer to scroll through your webpage. ProBlogger does this extremely well. While customers spend 80% of their time above the fold, don’t try to overwhelm them with content in this space. Targeting those important elements of your business will interest customers to scroll and read your website. It’ll be tough for a customer to focus with lots of content squeezed into a small area. With a simple design in mind, you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to find the information they need. Providing customers with a clearly defined path on you site is important.  Surety Bonds uses a simple design to direct customers to a strong call to action. Content above the fold is the first encounter between you and your customer. Selecting the right content to show can make all the difference and allow customers to engage with your website. Quality pieces of information will interest visitors and keep them coming back. Do you notice that you get more activity on information placed “above the fold?” |
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Whitney: Posted on Monday, November 01, 2010 11:09 AM
 Choosing your website’s search terms is an important part of building your website and optimizing the content for search engines. You want to be found and ultimately come up in searches for specific terms and keywords, but what should you choose and how do you know what’s working? There are many ways to determine what search terms you should use for your business, but one very powerful tool is Google’s Free Insights for Search tool. The Insights for Search tool helps you determine the most powerful search terms related to your business by looking at search volume across specific regions, categories, time frames and sites . Once you’ve chosen your search terms, don’t forget to use them in context of your location (if you are a local business). For example, don’t just write about “backyard landscaping”; write about “backyard landscaping in Lexington, MA”. Setting up Insights for Search Using Google’s Insights for Search tool is pretty straightforward. Once you go to www.google.com/insights/search, enter a search term related to your business. For example, if your business provides landscaping services, try “Landscaping”. If your business is a bakery, try “cupcakes” or “bakery.” If you want to narrow your results to searches in your area, you can specify your location. If you want to narrow your results to searches in a specific time period, you can select a date. In my example, I used “Landscaping” as my search term, and filtered by results in the United States for the last 12 months. Once you’ve specified your search terms and filters, click Search. Your results should show you data on that search term over time. If you get the message “Not enough search volume to show results,” try expanding your filters to be less specific (for example, don’t specify region beyond country, and set your time filter to 12 months).
Interpreting your Results
Google will give you data on Interest over Time, Regional Interest, Top Searches, and Rising Searches. For the purposes of choosing search terms, focus on Top Searches and Rising Searches.
 Top Searches refers to the search terms with the most significant level of interest, related to the search term and filters you entered. In my example above, I used “landscaping” as my search term. The results tell me that “landscaping ideas,” “landscape,” “landscaping design” and “backyard landscaping” are common phrases that people search for most in Google (related to the term “landscaping”). For my landscaping website, I could now decide to have a page on my site all about “landscaping ideas” so people find my website in search listings. Once they got to my website to read about landscaping ideas, they could see the services I offer and decide to call me. Alternatively, I could make sure to include the phrase “backyard landscaping” quite a bit in the text of my site, because I now know that is a common phrase people are searching for. Rising Searches are a little bit different from Top Searches. Rising Searches are searches that have experienced significant growth in a given time period. In my example, although “grasses for landscaping” is not always a very popular search term, recently a lot of people have been searching for that phrase. By incorporating Rising Searches into your website’s text, you have a unique opportunity to get ahead of your competition by using the most recent and accurate related search terms. Wrap Up
Choosing your website’s search terms and incorporating them onto your site is an important part of marketing your business online with a website. Google’s free Insights for Search tool is a great way to help you determine the most powerful search terms for your business. And don’t forget – if you’re a local business, be sure to use your search terms in context of your location.
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Francine: Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 2:35 PM
Thinking about how to craft the most effective title for your blog post? Last week, we discussed how to Make Your Blog Posts “Must Reads”, and a strong title is important to reel readers into your posts.  When your title is strong, your reader may want to share the post link with friends spreading your readership. Also, the words you choose in your post title will display in search result pages and on social media sites where your post was shared. The title is built into your post’s individual URL (called the permalink URL), too, in your browser bar. Whether for the initial open rate, search results, social media sites, index value, or the permalink URL, here are five ideas to consider to create strong titles for increased success with your blog posts: 1. Include keywords relevant to your post
When ranking your website, search engines look for similarities in the subject matter of your blog post, title, and other site content. Consider using the keywords you’re optimizing your article for as increased usage in the title will help to accelerate the ranking process for search engines. This also helps your readers know the basic points your post will discuss.
2. Convey the post’s purpose or benefit
Get your message across clearly in your title, especially if there’s a benefit to the reader.
If you’re conveying a sale, let your customers know: All Hair Products Must Go by Sunday.
If you’re showing how to do something, say it up front: How to Decide When to Sell Your Home or 10 Steps for Your Dog’s Best Bath. If you’re making an announcement, make it specific: We’ve met our $5,000 Funding Goal
3. Ask a question
Ask a question to develop relationships with your readers by breeding conversation. Consider which of your readers you want to target with your question. Questions may also give you an opportunity to gather information from customers that could be helpful to your next sale or event.
4. Use power words to attract interest
Examples include Free, Now, Vote, Quick, Secrets. Strong words within your title help draw attention to your post. While the post is important for your visitors to continue reading after they move beyond the title, power words can spark healthy click through rates.
5. Bring controversial ideas to the table
Strong ides often prompt readership and debate. Consider if you have a strong viewpoint, and how to phrase that within a few words for your title.
Enjoy these strategies to engage interest in your post content by writing strong titles. Even better, as you continue to launch new posts, clear and intriguing titles make your archived, older posts easier and more fun for readers to view. What have your favorite post titles been? |
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