Landing pages are stand-alone web pages, designed for conversion. They form a critical part of any good pay-per-click or testing campaign and yet, they are one of those marketing tools that seem to be under-utilised by a lot of businesses.

At some point in your small businesses life, you have to realise that the home page of your website is not the most relevant page that you could possibly send a new visitor to. Often, a potential customer will have to visit your services or product page, then your About page before they finally make their way to your Contact page (permitting that they do actually get there without being distracted in between). Every good landing page includes the minimum amount of information required to convert a visitor, whereas your full website includes absolutely everything.

You should use your website to sell your brand and a landing page to sell your product.

From running PPC campaigns, I have single-handedly witnessed how the slightest changes to a headline or the colour of a button can directly influence how many visitors convert. In that way, landing pages are a clear display of how the web can actually influence the way someone thinks – how a consumer rationalises a decision. The best part is that every learning (even from a basic A/B test) can be taken on board for the next round, forming a continuous cycle of designing and testing with a landing page that is only going to get better and better. Awesome!

In general, there are key elements that define a good landing page from a bad one. I’ve collected some great examples of effective landing pages and included why they work, but also what they could do a bit better. Take notes for your next landing page campaign.

1. Sprout Social

What I like:

• The clear headline & sub-headline tell users exactly what the product does and what they can expect.
• The offer of a free trial without a credit card lets users know that they can sign up without expecting to be charged anything. It creates a “safer” experience for a consumer – having to provide credit details can be a big deterrent.
• Big support brand logos provide great credibility and trust – hey, if it’s good enough for TechCrunch, it’s good enough for me!

What I’d test:

• Different coloured button. I’d like to see a green button – it ties in with Sprout Social’s branding, and green creates a positive energy (think green for Go on traffic lights here).

2. Cudo

What I like:

• The big, bold CTA (call-to-action). All you want to do is click it!
• Incentivising the sign-up process with a free bonus is a great way to push users over the edge. $10 for free!
• The display of latest offers directly shows what new users can expect – great deals at low prices.

What I’d test:

• Including a headline. I’d like to test a headline that explains exactly what Cudo does (daily deals) and possibly the process of purchasing offers. I think there is a common view that daily deals sites can seem a little too good to be true – a headline would help to manage consumer expectations.

3. Jump On It

What I like:

• The bold headline that immediately lets consumers know what they will get by signing up.
• The incentive of being able to win an iPad. Need I say more?
• The display of where Jump On It has been featured in the media validates that real deals can be seriously expected.

What I’d test:

• Including a few latest offers to show the kind of deals that are on offer. Whilst the headline is strong, it may seem little vague – especially for those visual users.

4. ZenSender

What I like:

• The process guide shows users what they need to do to at each stage of the process. Keeping it to 4 steps makes it look simple and encourages you that it’s going to be a quick process.
• The contrast of the CTA. Colour & contrast are your friends – pairing a big orange button on a different coloured background draws your eyes immediately. Also note that the only place orange is used is the button – this makes it stand out from the entire page.
• The inclusion of how ZenSender can help clearly shows what functionality is available and the benefits.

What I’d test:

• Hiding the top nav. Extra buttons and sections that don’t directly influence a user’s decision process, can actually be a distraction. By removing the top nav, users have one main place to go – the sign-up button.

5. Xero

What I like:

• The headline statement. “The world’s easiest accounting system” – It’s a big statement and yet I totally believe it. The “loved by thousands…” just backs it up, verifying it.
• The great CTA. I love the colour, I love that no credit card is required, I love that it only takes seconds to signup. I love it all!
• The inclusion of the latest customer tweets gives a great insight into what current customers think. It’s like a testimonial, but better!

What I’d test:

• Including the form on the home page. I’d like to test what would happen if a simple signup form was actually included on this page – rather than having to click-through to one. Being able to see the form shows exactly what needs to be done to get signed up – the less form fields the better!

If you have any examples of landing pages that you love or any questions, share your thoughts in the comments!

If you’re looking for a new content marketing solution that delivers great results, a whitepaper might be your best bet. Whitepapers can shoot your brand credibility through the roof, whilst providing an effective lead gen tool to your business.

Though the end goal is to generate sales leads, don’t confuse whitepapers with salesmanship. A whitepaper should demonstrate the benefit of a particular product or service in context with an accurate assessment of a specific business problem, while avoiding overt self-promotion and branding. You want your whitepapers to be reviewed as demonstrating thought leadership in your field and regarded as an authority piece on the subject at hand. When written correctly and supported by facts and figures, whitepapers can be extremely influential when making decisions on a purchase.

What are the benefits?

Informative whitepapers can help to attract high-quality leads and add credibility to your brand, whereas blatant sales pitches may devalue your trustworthiness. The great thing about whitepapers is, once the content has been created; it continues to work for you as one of the most widely distributed forms of marketing material shared between decision-makers. Highly-regarded whitepapers will help identify your business as a market leader with a logical and forward-thinking approach to a problem that your customers can connect with.

What should you include?

Consumers want to know that you truly understand their difficulties.  Before you can educate your readers on the facts supporting your solution, you need to demonstrate the problem in detail, giving your readers something to identify themselves with. Aim for a minimum of 6 pages with an ideal whitepaper around the 8-10 page length, unless your topic is more complicated and can justify the additional wording. A whitepaper needs to be substantial and informative, but you don’t want your customers suffering from information overload. The online audience generally has a shorter attention span and prefer to skim over highlighted points. A text box or sidebar with summary points is a great way for readers to retain key facts and recall the most important information when making purchasing decisions.

Offer your whitepapers as an online download, allowing for the ability to track interest and perhaps even capture the contact information of your readers. If your readers don’t contact you first through a subtle display of contact details for further information or discussion, you have the opportunity to contact your customers knowing that this subject is front of mind. Make it easy for your readers to share your whitepapers with other decision-makers as a recommendation from another colleague or peer is a safe assumption that the information is pertinent to them and is essentially an endorsement of your business.

Killer Tip:

A glossary, an appendix and thoroughly referenced facts and figures will go a long way to adding credibility to your whitepapers. Do not stop at just one white paper, as each additional white paper will add value to your business, your subsequent white papers, and goes further in demonstrating your expertise. Remember that the idea is to build the connection between the problem at hand and your company products or services, without openly promoting your brand or you will lose that connection. Your readers must be left feeling as though they have gained something useful from reading your white papers, and not to disappoint your readers by wasting their time with promotional material.

You would be surprised how many entrepreneurs and small business operators delay getting their concepts off the ground because they are stuck on a business name. On the surface, there is a lot of pressure! Your business name needs to be brand-able, it needs to be practical, it can’t be ambiguous, and the hardest one… it has to be unique!

Not having a business name is no excuse not to begin work. There is plenty of consumer research to be done, as well as financial planning and many areas of development that your nameless business will not hold you back from. During this phase, you may be lucky enough that your business name just comes to you! If you’re really stuck, there’s a process of elimination that may help you discover a business name that will tick all the boxes.

What do I need to do?

The hardest part of finding your business name is finding something unique. The last thing you want is to have laboured over your business name, only to get to the point of registration and find that it has already been taken. Grr! As you start coming closer to some ideas you like, bookmark the ASIC website to check registered Australian business names. The ASIC website will also show business names with similarities that are close to your own.

A domain name check will also be required, given that you will want to have an online presence. Use domain registries such as Whois or Crazy Domains to check whether your business name has a registered domain name. If your domain name has been taken, don’t be disappointed, there are some things you can do here. In rare cases, you may be able to purchase parked domain names if the owner wishes to sell, however if you are a startup, this will most likely cost money that you don’t have. You can also follow the trend of altering your business name to be more ‘Web 2.0’ by dropping a vowel or miss-spelling a ‘real’ word. An example of this would be websites like ‘Scribd’ (scribed) or ’Tumblr’ (tumbler) or ‘Flickr’ (flicker). Possibly the most famous example of a miss-spelled name would be Google, (derived from googol, which is the equivalent of ten raised to the power of 100, or 1 followed by 100 zeros). This is a business name that has become so famous, the word Google is now recognised as a verb meaning “to search for within the Google search engine”!

I’m really stuck!

If you are really stuck and have no idea where to begin, try some keyword research to get you started. You may have already done this while exploring the market potential for your business. Google’s keyword research tool also offers similar suggestions. You can perform keyword research around the term ‘Accountant Sydney’ to generate related terms that can spark new ideas and yet still remain relevant to your business. The added benefit to a business name inspired by keyword research is that it has an SEO value of a domain name that captures consumer search trends and is more likely to rank higher in search engines, especially at the startup phase.

Killer Tip:

Once you have your shortlist of business names, don’t forget to ask for feedback. What may seem perfectly obvious to one person may be confusing for others. And don’t panic! Your best ideas will come when you are calm and relaxed.

At Magicdust, we recently decided to reinvent our blog (welcome to the new face!). Whilst Facebook and Twitter are great for keeping in touch with our customers and fans, we wanted to have a place where we could share our opinions and our experience in more than a few characters. As a team of Internet lovers, we’re excited to create our own little slice of web and share our knowledge from web design through to online marketing. We hope you are too!

As a small business, you might be thinking of starting a blog yourself. Maybe you have already have one, but it’s not quite what you hoped it would be. Let’s face it, blogs are hard work and the return can often seem minimal – especially for a small business concerned about their bottom-line.

It might be hard to get started but a blog is a great way to share what you know, and it has the power to be an extremely effective marketing tool. The focus of the Internet has shifted, especially over the last year, to focus more on content. The old saying that ‘content is king’ has never rung more true. Now might be a good time to take another look at your business’s blog and see if it is a true representation of your brand. And if you don’t have a blog yet, we’re encouraging you to consider starting one. At first, it might seem like a long road with no reward – but we’re begging you to hold in there. We’ve seen small business’s shoot to the top of the search engine results, but better yet we’ve seen small business’s create a space that their fans and customers LOVE.

So go on, get blogging!

The latest BRW Magazine special edition has hit the shelves and this month sees the publication of the 2011 Fast 100, a list of Australian companies growing at high speed. This year’s list sees 56 new entrants and amongst them is Magicdust, making its debut entry at a commendable 76.

This years fast 100 has 24 companies in the information media and telecommunications sector with the next largest sector being the 22 companies in the professional, scientific and technical services sector.

Only two of the fast 100 are traded on the ASX though the total staff employed number is 4,576 and total revenue is $4.1 billion. 52 of the fast 100 companies were started from the family home!

Managing Director, Ian Mills has also been quoted in the Australian Financial Review when he commented on how getting the right mix of people is essential to a business as the morale of the whole business benefits from the right staff acquisitions.

What’s the problem with small business and websites in Australia?

According to the MYOB Business Monitor Report in February 2011 only 35% of the Australian businesses surveyed had a website and only 18% use social media for business purposes.

While that figure might seem extremely small to those of us involved in internet marketing, one only has to walk around a shopping mall or high street to see the many small businesses, all the hair salons, cafes, mechanics, pharmacies and so many more who probably all use internet banking and eBay yet who have not yet taken the step of putting their business online.

Interestingly, the same survey points to a finding that those businesses with websites are performing better than those without and lots of businesses agree they would actually do more business if they put some effort into online marketing.

So what is it about small business and websites that causes the obvious disconnect?

Is it a fear of doing “computer stuff” or of the public profile that goes with a website? A fear of the costs involved? Is it a feeling that their existing “word of mouth” referred business is enough marketing and will always be enough?

Running a website does not need to be complicated, most of the services aimed at small businesses these days require little more skill than say writing an email or updating your Facebook status. As for the public profile, well that is what business is all about!

Small business websites do not need to be expensive either. If you have the necessary skills you can go it alone or you can talk to a web designer who specialises in small business and understands the need for cost effectiveness.

As for that word of mouth referral business volume, is it always going to be there? What if a regular client mentions you to a potential customer who then tries to ‘Google’ you?

Maybe it’s just unfamiliarity with the functions a business website might have for your small business?

A small business website can be an ecommerce website actively selling products 24 hours a day or it could be an informational website displaying your services to your potential customers, along with your contact details, testimonials from happy customers and your guarantee policy.

A website can also be an integral component of your customer service e.g. displaying product information, showing off your best work, displaying instructions, frequently asked questions, new offers, special deals etc. Good information filled websites are popular with so many businesses. These types of websites can also be useful when looking to establish authority in your particular area of business.

We’re biased of course but we find it hard to see why more small businesses are not already on the web particularly when its so possible to have a perfectly functional yet cheap website design! If you or a friend would like to discuss the possibility of getting online just contact us to speak with our friendly staff for a free consultation. They understand not everyone is a tech-head!

Small Business SEO – Getting Listed in Search Engine Organic Results

Getting listings in the ‘normal’ organic results is a science/art known as search engine optimisation (or SEO for short). It has relatively little to do with the site design, it is really more based on the content of your website. Google and the other search engines like good content and plenty of it so that is the starting point. The foremost thing to understand for small business SEO is that it is vital to have good unique content that offers value to the searcher.

SEO is a long term process of optimising the content and structure of your web pages along with an ongoing campaign to acquire links to your site from other relevant sites. Be aware it can take many months, even years in some cases, to see results for particular keywords (search terms used by web users). Naturally, the more sites trying to get listed for the same keywords, the harder it is to get to the top of the search results.

You can get off to a good start by ensuring the meta titles of your pages are different to each other and are keyword focussed, e.g. if your company was selling widgets you might have a page with the meta title “Widget Sales”, another page titled “Designer Widgets” or “Discount Widgets” etc. The content of those pages would of course be all about those particular subjects. You might even have a page heading above your paragraphs with the same keyword in bold print.

With those keywords in the titles, headings and text on those pages you are giving the search engine robots a chance at determining those pages are all about those particular topics so they should be indexed for those particular keywords. See the knowledge base article for more detail on changing your pages meta titles on Magicdust eweb and eshop websites.

When your pages are ready with good content and you have edited your meta titles it is time to find another way to impress the search engines. The best way is to get other relevant websites to link to yours, the more incoming links you can get the better as search engines see good links as votes for your site, the more ‘votes’ your site gets, the more the search engines tend to list your site in search results.

Links from sites that are relevant to your business are more influential than general directories so do try to get some. If there are online directories that specialise in your industry get listings in those and see if you can get a listing from any professional or industry associations you might belong to or can get membership in. Links from general online directories such as Hotfrog, Yellowpages, Truelocal etc can help a little too so we would also suggest you get some of those too. See this page for more info on links and link building.

It greatly helps to have those incoming links lead directly to the various keyword targeted pages on your website rather than having them all go to your homepage. It’s also far more effective if the linking sites can include your target keywords in the anchor text, rather than just using the title of your website. (Anchor text is the text used to make the link, usually highlighted or underlined to show it is a link).

For example, if you’re trying to optimise a page on your site for the keyword “designer widgets” then ideally your incoming links to that page would appear on the linking sites as designer widgets, or joe’s designer widgets, or designer widgets at joe’s site etc. The more sites competing to get listed for that particular keyword the more incoming links you will need. In very competitive markets it can take many thousands of incoming links to signal your site is worth listing in the top 10.

So how long does it take to see results? After Google becomes aware of a site it will put it in the queue for the robots to crawl and will then try to figure out if it is good enough to list it for particular searches in particular parts of the world. After crawling it can take some weeks to begin getting listings, even for your own business name or domain name.

Depending on your level of ability there are several options available to you to make sure Google is aware of the site, the simplest being to submit it to Google here. You can also submit your site to Bing which will also help with getting into Yahoo. By the way, we find that as long as there are links from other indexed websites to yours, Google will eventually find you even if you don’t submit your site directly, some even say Google prefers this way of finding sites!

If you are feeling a bit more ‘tech’ inclined then you could start a Google webmaster tools account where you can do things like verify your ownership of the site, set canonical and geographical preferences and other webmaster tasks. Doing that stuff is not actually compulsory to get listed in Google though it is recommended. The most important thing is having a navigable and completed site (no dummy text or under construction notices) with good content and page titles. That is usually enough to get started as long as your site is linked to from others.

You are welcome to read more at this link on Website SEO. You might also be interested in downloading a copy of Google’s Starter Guide if you would rather a printed guide for bedtime reading!

You might also like to read our post on Getting Started With Google Places which can be useful for businesses serving a local clientele.

Want to boost your business’s exposure? Maybe it’s time to get started with Google Places.

Many businesses serving local areas get good results by getting into the map listing that appears for some localised searches. If you have a business that is physically located in an area and which services that area, you can start the process by claiming your listing in Google Maps and complete as much detail as possible on your business.

It is important to ensure your address, phone numbers and other contact info is accurately displayed as text on your website. Use your area code in your phone number too. The Google robots will want to see this contact information so there is no harm in having it on every page, you can always find a way to include it without taking away from your other content or interfering with your site design.

Ensure the same contact info appears in other directories like Yellow Pages, Truelocal, Hotfrog, Whitepages, Aussieweb, etc. It is important to ensure the same contact info appears consistently across other directories like those as this will help signal to Google that the information is accurate. This sort of ‘cross reference’ is known as a citation and the more you have, the greater the chances of getting into the seven listings Google often shows on results pages for local searches.

To get started on your Google Places page, first try going to http://maps.google.com.au/ and search for your business, then follow the links for business owners to lay claim to and edit those listings and complete as much as possible before updating your info in the other directories.

If your business is not already visible in those maps pages then go to Google Places and follow the instructions for setting up an account there.

Make sure your listing is as complete as possible by uploading some photos and videos if you have them as well as entering business hours etc then make sure that same info is used consistently in the other directories you list your business at. You will need to verify you really are the owner but Google makes this a really simple process, you can have a PIN code sent to your phone or to your address by postcard and this PIN is entered into your Google Places account to complete the process.

Google Places allows your customers to leave reviews of your business which can also help to boost your chances of making it into the top seven. Businesses that have some customer reviews do tend to appear in the top seven more than others so we would certainly advise you to encourage your customers to leave a review if possible.

Getting links to your site from others is important to optimise these local results too so see our earlier comments on building links above.