We know that reviews are an important and featured piece of information, right? And we know that they can have a dramatic effect on conversion rates, right? Yes, we do and here’s how.

In July 2009, the Nielson company conducted a study of  25,000 consumers in 50 countries. Ninety percent of consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online.

70 percent is enough for me to highly recommend making customer reviews a priority in your marketing strategy.

In addition, I stand by my early suspicion that reviews play a roll in the Google Places algorithm. Although not formally confirmed by Google, I’ve seen reviews (or lack thereof) be one of the deciding factors.

So, how do you score a highly sought after customer review? Let’s hope it’s not by upsetting your client so badly that they vow to voice their dissatisfaction on every social networking site available.

Let me rephrase. How do you score a highly sought after, GLOWING customer review? Here are several possible motivators:

• Feedback Button on Website – Encourage customers/clients to give an evaluation of your service or product by having a Feedback Button right on your website.  This button can be named as “Suggestions”, “Praise”, “Reviews”, “Testimonials”, “Feedback” or any other appealing or descriptive label.  This enables you to gather possible testimonials for use on your site quickly and easily.

• Incentives – Many of my clients utilize this method in an effort to entice customers to write a review.  Consider offering coupons / discounts or entering the customer in a contest to win a prize.

• Email Invitation – Provide your customers with a post-purchase reminder to write about their experience. The easiest way to do this is with an automated e-mail that asks customers for a review.Make this part of the order process! First they get an order confirmation, then a shipping confirmation, then a review request. Or for travel related businesses, first they get a reservation confirmation, then upon their departure, they receive a “thank you” email that includes a review request.

So what about negative reviews? I’d say that for most of us, a negative review will occur at some point because “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. My recommendation in this regard is to respond, and respond immediately. Ignoring a negative review would be foolish. Use the negative comment to locate problems and fix them. A little constructive criticism can go a long way in improving your product or service. I also think people respond well to honesty and humility. So, keep your responses humble and gracious and you will be forgiven quicker than if you respond in a defensive manner.

I hope this convinces you that customer reviews are necessary and helpful in any Internet Marketing strategy. Good luck!

• The earlier you start the better prepared you will be if other things pop up (which they inevitably do)
• You may find that some of your ideas may take time to come together (Do you have some research to do? Do you need other people to make things happen? How much time will they need to get their part done?)
• If you are optimizing for new products or services, it will take some time for your efforts to show up in the search engines
• If there are changes to your website or marketing message you’ll probably want to test a thing or two to make sure you are getting the most out of your efforts (and test it before the holiday rush of visitors hits your site)

Let’s take a look at each one of these points in a bit more detail.

Things Pop Up
When was the last time your business ran as smooth as you planned for an entire month, let alone an entire year? Probably never. Unexpected things happen that take up your valuable time – the time you may be planning on working on the holiday season. If you are able to map out a plan of attack for your holiday season right now, you will be more likely to stick by it and be able to complete it on time.

Most Online Initiative Take Some Time To Come Together
Some initiatives require other resources like designers and copywriters. The earlier they are involved the more apt they are to meet your deadlines. A PPC campaign is often a powerful revenue driver around the holiday season. And sure, you can pull one together over coffee one afternoon in late November. But to really get the most out of your investment you should start early so you can test different keywords, different ads and different landing pages. That way once the holiday traffic is searching for your product or service you are ready to take advantage of it.

Jumping Up The Search Engines Doesn’t Happen Overnight
As we all know, it takes time for solid SEO efforts to show results in the search engines. So if you start now, you may just be #1 for the terms you want by the time we’re all holiday shopping. But if you start in November there is virtually no shot at that.

It’s Better To Test With A Smaller Sample Size
If you’re testing a new marketing message with an email campaign and / or your website, why wait until the bulk of your customers are coming to buy your product to test it? It make sense to test it out when the stakes are not as high. Test a few landing page designs on a small sample (maybe only part of an email list, maybe a month when traffic to your site isn’t that high). That way you have the kinks out when it’s time for the holiday rush.

Are you still under the impression that it’s too earlier to start thinking about Christmas 2010? Or are you all ready starting to plan for the 2011 season? Let us know your thoughts.

But my challenge to you this year is to not only make resolutions for yourself, but make them for your business. After all, our business is our livelihood. We need to make sure that it is just as “healthy” and “happy” as it can be.

So, here are some ideas to start 2010 with gusto!

A. Get that website redesign that you’ve been thinking about! It’s time and it really does make a difference.

B. Try Social Media Marketing. That’s right … Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr. It cannot be denied that Social Media is a powerful tool in marketing your brand. Start slowly by creating one account. Get used to how it works and how you can use it for marketing purposes. Put it on your daily schedule for updating and work on building your fan base and followers. Once you are comfortable with the one account, you are ready to add another.

Make sure that you are maximizing your opportunities with social marketing. The conversation starts online, but the conversion happens in the real world.

C. Embrace one new “function” on your website. Try adding something new and creative to your website. After all, your website is your vehicle to promote your business. Explore videos. Add a Newsletter Sign up and try Email Marketing. Try blogging. Add related articles or expand your content by adding a new section altogether. Keep your website moving forward!

D. Set marketing goals. With all these new marketing strategies, make sure you track your efforts. You’ll easily be able to see the difference your new strategies are making by analyzing your statistics. Continue doing whichever avenues have made a positive impact.

E. Get involved. Read related blogs and leave comments. Become fans of Facebook pages. Send Direct Messages on Twitter. In a word … participate. Your effort will be rewarded.

F. Cross your t’s and dot your i’s. Make sure your online profiles are fully complete. If you can add 10 pictures, add 10 pictures. Fill out all descriptions and added info sections. Don’t forget about the reviews! Make sure you have enough reviews by soliciting happy clients for them. It’s a good idea to go and check all accounts. You may have thought you would go back to finish one or more of them but forgot about it.

G. Manage your reputation. With the introduction to real time search, it is more important than ever to be aware of what is being said. Use Twitter Search to track any mention of your name, your keywords, your location and your competitors’ name. Use Google Alerts to have an email update sent directly to your inbox. Based on your choice of query or topic, Google will send an email of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.). This is very handy indeed.

Above all, have a happy and healthy New Year!

But the fact that thousands of sites can be linked to by the same main URL domain can lead to a trust issue. How do you know if the link will lead to a safe site that really matches the copy that surrounds it? Is it possible that the link is a spam link, and the enticing copy surrounding it is only there to trick you into clicking on it? Does the fact that you don’t know make you more or less likely to click on it?

Even though the majority of Short URLs you come across will indeed be safe and link to a good page, the truth is that it is tough to be 100% sure that what you are clicking on is safe, and will lead directly to where you want to go. And we all know that one bad click can sometimes ruin a good day. So, what are some tips to keep in mind when you come across Short URLs:

• If you trust the sender or poster (like someone you follow on Twitter), you should be okay. But be wary, as some accounts can get hacked and those hackers may spam people associated with those accounts.
• If you think the link may be spam, don’t click on it. If the marketing message entices you, you can probably find out what is being referenced by searching that website.
• Preview the linked page if possible (TinyURL offers this option – http://tinyurl.com/preview.php).

I believe that the need for a service like Short URLs will always be there, but the exact form the future versions of this service will take is yet to be determined. Do you have ideas of what it will look like? Do you have alternatives to Short URLs? Have you run into any huge problems? Let us know.

Do you have an email newsletter that you send out weekly/monthly/bi-monthly? Why not connect it with your Facebook Page for your business and kill two birds with one stone? Don’t know how? It’s easy, trust me. Here are some instructions:

If you use Vertical Response as your email platform

If you use Constant Contact

If you use iContact

Providing an email sign up to your newsletter can be as easy as downloading the Static FBML application to your page and then following some simple instructions. Have questions, please contact us and we can help you get up and running.

Increase your reach by over 24% by creating this simple form and pasting it right into your Facebook Business Page profile. It will show up either as a tab when you download the app, or in the left hand corner of your Page profile.

Examples:

Get people to sign up via your Facebook Page for news, latest events, or hot deals THEN follow up with a short, but sweet, BLAST through the “Send an Update to Your Fans” feature. Whether you have 10 fans, 100 fans or a billion fans — say hello to them via this feature  fast and effectively.

Facebook is making communication easy, folks. Jump on the band wagon and promote your business through these easy to use tools.

Don’t miss out on the added 24% of traffic/customers/leads that you could get by broadcasting your email newsletter through social media.

The most common culprit would be the words that you are using in the subject line of your e-campaigns. There are actually certain spam filter “trigger” words, which are words and combinations of words that are identified as being most commonly used in spam messages. These add spam points to your email when being received by your subscribers, and if your points are too high, your message will get blocked. In other words, if your e-campaign “looks” like a spam message, it could get caught in spam filters, even if you are following all the rules.

So… wondering which words and phrases to avoid? Have a look…

100 Spam Trigger Words & Phrases To Avoid

(Note: I am going to assume you are not using words like sex, Viagra and other spam filter trigger words in an honest e-campaign, so obvious ones like that have been intentionally left out of this list.)

1. #1
2. 100% satisfied
3. 4U
4. Accept credit cards
5. Act Now!
6. Additional Income
7. Affordable
8. All natural
9. All new
10. Amazing
11. Apply online
12. Bargain
13. Best price
14. Billing address
15. Buy direct
16. Call
17. Call free
18. Can’t live without
19. Cards Accepted
20. Cents on the dollar
21. Check
22. Claims
23. Click / Click Here / Click Below
24. Click to remove
25. Compare rates
26. Congratulations
27. Cost / No cost
28. Dear friend
29. Do it today
30. Extra income
31. For free
32. Form
33. Free and FREE
34. Free installation
35. Free leads
36. Free membership
37. Free offer
38. Free preview
39. Free website
40. Full refund
41. Get it now
42. Giving away
43. Guarantee
44. Here
45. Hidden
46. Increase sales
47. Increase traffic
48. Information you requested
49. Insurance
50. Investment / no investment
51. Investment decision
52. Legal
53. Lose
54. Marketing
55. Marketing solutions
56. Message contains
57. Money
58. Month trial offer
59. Name brand
60. Never
61. No gimmicks
62. No Hidden Costs
63. No-obligation
64. Now
65. Offer
66. One time / one-time
67. Opportunity
68. Order / Order Now / Order today / Order status
69. Orders shipped by priority mail
70. Performance
71. Phone
72. Please read
73. Potential earnings
74. Pre-approved
75. Price
76. Print out and fax
77. Profits
78. Real thing
79. Removal instructions
80. Remove
81. Risk free
82. Sales
83. Satisfaction guaranteed
84. Save $
85. Save up to
86. Search engines
87. See for yourself
88. Serious cash
89. Solution
90. Special promotion
91. Success
92. The following form
93. Unsolicited
94. Unsubscribe
95. Urgent
96. US dollars
97. Wife
98. Win
99. Winner
100. Work at home

Bottom line: Avoid using these spam filter trigger words in your e-campaign subject line if you can. Be creative, and find a different way to say it!

See more email marketing tips »

Change The Subject

Nobody biting? It could be time for a change. If you can’t get them to click, it might not be a problem with your subject line, but the content subject itself!

So you look at the tracking stats for your newsletters after every issue, and the clicks and open rates are consistently low. Take some time to reevaluate your message to better appeal to your target audience.

I just glanced down my inbox for an example of a subject line I would never click on. Found a bunch, but here is one: “You’ll be saying WOW every time with ShamWow” I don’t even have to open it. I know what’s in it. I’m not interested in reading an ad.

I honestly might, however, click if it had said something like, “ShamWOW Ranked Best For Clean Kitchen” because it sounds like a news story, some piece of information I can take away. But then they would have to deliver on that promise once I opened it. That means their entire email content would have to change. And if they don’t have something interesting to send, they shouldn’t be sending me an email. Read this post on Internet Copywriting for Dummies.

Is it time for you to rethink your message? Test a new approach each time and monitor how the stats change until you find something that works. Keep in mind, very few people respond well to large blocks of text and in-your-face advertising language, so keep it brief and add value. More on this in the next point.

Do More Than Sell… But Sell

Give readers an option other than “Click Here To Buy Now!” Offer some additional resources that won’t distract the reader but will add value to your business in their eyes and give them a more well-rounded convincing reason to visit your venue. Then provide a strong call to action.

Let’s imagine you own a restaurant, for example, as we brainstorm for ideas. You could send your email subscribers a list of the top 5 things to do in the area (offering links for more information). Then remind them that they can top the day off with a nice dinner out. Or send them a coupon for a free dessert with purchase of entrée because they’ve been “such a good customer.” Let them know your pizza won the latest award. Have they tried it? Offer a gift certificate as the perfect gift idea for that upcoming occasion. Give them something for free on their birthday. Remind them that you do kids birthday parties or rehearsal dinners. I could go on and on.

Even if most of your subscribers don’t have these needs, they may forward it on to someone who does. Dig deep and learn how to spark interest and create value in the eyes of your customer with relevant newsletter content.

Forget Deadlines

When you have something to say, say it. If you don’t, don’t! Many email marketing campaigns aren’t reaching their full potential because they are forced or too scheduled.

When you have to pull something together to meet a deadline each week, month, whatever, your content can run a little dry. You might not have much to say, so you end up adding fluff or straight selling. On the contrary, if you have many exciting things going on, but you wait to send them all at once, each might not get the recognition it deserves. And think of the crammed subject line!

Keep your newsletters focused and relevant. Don’t send too often, but don’t send too infrequently. When you have something to announce, announce it immediately. If you are running a special, tell your subscribers about it. You get the idea. Send them to your website to learn more, and make sure you have an enticing landing page and that your contact us page is up to par.

In most relationships, you call when you have something to say, right? It follows, therefore, that you should email your subscribers when you have something to say as well… even if it’s, “We haven’t seen you in a while. Here’s a good reason to stop by…”

Borrow Good Ideas

If something works on you, make it work for you. Most of us receive a good amount of junk email every day. On occasion, as we’re check marking ten in a row to delete, there is one that catches our eye. It makes us stop. It makes us click. Next time that happens to you, take note. What was it about the subject line that got you to notice it? Was it short? Was it irresistible? Did it say your name? Make that work for you.

Even if it’s from a totally different industry, you can borrow good ideas from great campaigns. If you are very clever, you may even subscribe to e-newsletter lists from businesses in your own industry to monitor their techniques!

Test Everything

Oops, that image didn’t come through, and you just sent your newsletter to thousands of subscribers. Oops, that was the wrong link, and now you are confusing clickers. Oops, that was the wrong date, and now you have to send a correction email.

Mishaps are a fact of life, but many times you can spare yourself some time and embarrassment by simply sending yourself a test message first. Open up email accounts (even if only for testing) on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc. so you can see how your message will display in each account. You would be very surprised at the differences!

Also, double check dates, times, locations, other information, spelling, links… anything your message contains… to ensure accuracy – or better yet, get a second pair of eyes on it.

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Want some more expert advice on Internet Marketing or email newsletter campaigns? We here at Mannix Marketing would be happy to answer your questions and help you map out a plan that will work for you. Just call the office at (888) 395-9035.

With all Marketing campaigns, there are some strategic techniques you can use to provide higher clicks, and higher conversions. Below are some of my favorites!

1.    Keep your Subject Line Short: Studies* have shown shorter subject lines of 35 characters or less produce higher open rates AND higher click rates.

2.    Send on Sunday: Try sending out your email marketing campaign on Sunday night or Monday morning could produce higher open rates. The idea is that a lot of people are checking their emails later on Sunday night to get a head start for the weekday ahead.

3.    Add Lots of Links: Include lots of links within your messages – a report by mailermailer on November 2008 showed messages with 20 links or more had a sharp increase in higher click rates.

4.    Include ‘Teasers’: Don’t give your user the full story – you are more likely to give a catchy teaser to a story that you can link to than giving everything away. After all, the main goal is to get more people clicking to your site to learn more!

5.    Follow Up with a Shorter Email Blast: Have a great mid-month promotion, but only run a monthly email newsletter campaign? Don’t fret! Send out a very simple, very short email blast announcing just your one event – sometimes our quick and simple blasts announcing just one contest or one special has proven to be as successful or MORE successful than our bigger monthly news campaign.

6.    Segment Out Your Email List: If you can segment out your list and tailor your campaigns as specifically as possible, you are more likely to have stronger conversions. For example, if you are a restaurant in NYC and you can separate out your list based on local addresses versus addresses outside of the city, you will be able to tailor one e-campaign to locals and the other to tourists.

7.    Last but not least… TEST! What good is strategizing, planning, and executing a campaign and not testing to see what works? Keep a record of what teasers boasted greatest attention and what sort of subject lines worked the best. Remember, even though Sundays may be a good day to send out an e-campaign for a lot of different industries, your demographic may be different, so test your way to success!

I will leave you with this quote from the Email Marketing Metrics Report by MailerMailer:

“According to an October 2008 report by the Direct Marketing Association… By the end of 2008, it [email] will have driven $28 billion in sales and is projected to drive $32.6 billion in sales in 2009.”

* Study from the Email Marketing Metrics Report published by MailerMailer LLC, November 2008

Driving traffic to your site
There are several basic ways of getting visitors to your new site. The first is through the search engines. Having a high ranking is the name of the game here. Generally, people searching for something will click on one of the top listings that come up. Getting your site highly ranked in the search engines takes time and can be an investment, but it is worth it in the long run! Search Engine Optimization involves targeting specific keywords that you would like to be found on the search engines. Since there is no single cookie cutter approach it’s best to contact someone who can come up with a specific plan for your site.

Advertising your business through traditional means (print, radio and TV) has been around a long time and there is a good reason for it, because it works! Internet advertising is the new “kid on the block” but it has one huge benefit: your ad is up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for anyone to see, when they are avidly looking for something! Compare that to a TV, radio commercial or print ad. Plus, its highly trackable. You can get stats from how many people clicked to how many impressions your ad got.  I will use our regional city guides such as Saratoga.com and Albany.com as examples because that’s what I have the most knowledge about, but there are tons of other sites that are similar. Buying an ad or listing on one of these sites can be a smart choice. Our sites get a large amount of traffic and being on a site like this can be great exposure. The biggest key is they do the search engine optimization work for you. Saratoga.com for instance has articles, news, blogs for both tourists and locals which all help get its high ranking.

Pay Per Click Advertising. These are those simple text ads you see on search engine results pages. The ads shown are shown because they are related to the search term being used by the internet user. So if you are an apple pie maker, you may want to have an ad showing up when people type in ‘apple pies,’ ‘apply pie ingredients’ or ‘apple desserts.’ The great thing is that you pay only when a user clicks on your ad – hence the name “pay per click.” One great benefit is you can set your budget per day from anywhere from a few dollars a day to sky’s the limit. All the major search engines offer a PPC solution for your business.

Email Newsletters
Want to get the word out on your new site to your existing customers? Have some other news you want to share with your customers? Well, one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to reach them is an Email Newsletter. They require no stamps, no trips to the post office and no printing. You just need to create an HTML file with news, specials, discounts or any other information you want to send to your customers. To do an email Newsletter you will need an existing email list of recipients who signed up with the intention of receiving emails. If you don’t have a list yet, start one today and before you know it you’ll have cultivated a qualified list of leads you can contact on a regular basis.

If you think maintaining a list and executing an email campaign is a daunting task, don’t worry. There are many great all in one solutions that you can email from as well as maintain your email lists. These services also offer stats on how many opened the email, how many clicked, etc. Cost generally runs around $20 per 1000 emails for sending a Newsletter. Compare that to sending something through the snail-mail.

Here are some popular companies for Email Newsletters:

• Vertical Response
• Constant Contact
• iContact
• Streamsend

Site Stats
When your site is setup, most companies provide statistical tracking on your site. Website owners should check their stats regularly (no less than once a month) and see what pages users are visiting or what pages people are leaving on. These stats can give you clues on what pages you need to work on since things are always changing. Are users leaving halfway through a signup process? Perhaps there are too many questions, or they are asking more information than people are comfortable with giving away. If you notice low overall traffic, are you getting your website and business name out there enough? If not, it may be time to try some of the above ideas.

Standing out in the crowded field on the internet can be tough but by pursuing some of this suggestions, you can make your website successful and profitable.