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MAY
31

Is your Small Business eCommerce System Killing Your Business?

 

Yes, it could be killing your business, if your Small Business eCommerce System looks like this process map diagram that I put together for one of my clients:

                    Small Business eCommerce System

This is the kind of multi-vendor Internet Marketing model that I've found some my Social Media Optimization (SMO) clients using or attempting to create as their Small Business eCommerce System.  What we've found in my practice working with these patched together eCommerce systems is that it takes as much as 2-3 times the effort, requiring as many as 4 or 5 full or part-time people to maintain, just in an effort to produce some online sales.  Which means that the odds of success could be stacked against you...  For example; with a stand alone blog versus an integrated blog you potentially lose up to 90% of the visitor traffic that never get back to your main website...

Now, I understand why they use systems like this, because you have to know where your customers and sales are coming from.  As they say; "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it!" So, email marketing, opt-in squeeze pages, sales letters, landing pages, event management, affiliate tracking codes, auto responders, up-selling and cross-selling are all integral parts of a successful Internet Marketing campaign.

But, a recent Social Media Marketing study showed that 94% of coaches, consultants and other small businesses fail to generate sales from Internet Marketing or Social Networking websites... I'm seeing the same statistics in my Social Media and Internet Marketing practice.  I can understand that, especially if they are attempting to use and maintain this many separate disconnected systems.  So, dont' become "road kill" on the Information Super Highway!  All of that time and effort they are expending on building their Small Business eCommerce System is killing their business

That's why I use and recommend the seamless Full Partner Small Business eCommerce System to my Internet Marketing clients.  It's my secret time management weapon!  Using Full Partner, I know that 64% of my online sales come from my Social Media Viral Marketing efforts.  As shown in the diagram below, everything a Small Business needs to succeed in online marketing and more is contained in one robust cost effective Full Partner fully integrated website system that provides web power for business:

                       Full Partner System Diagram

The fully integrated Full Partner system is quite a contrast to the multi-vendor model shown above and I've found that it requires a lot less time, cost and effort running my 4 websites using the Full Partner eCommerce system.

The Full Partner Web System has been developed to create and build powerful, fully integrated yet affordable Small Business eCommerce website solutions for its clients.  Full Partner has invested millions of dollars in this unique, proprietary system, with the purpose of “renting” its functionality to its clients at a very low cost, while providing a broad set of features and benefits usually reserved for expensive custom coded systems costing tens of thousands of dollars. Ask for your Free Demo.

Dave Westfall, MBA is Your Social Media Mentor and Internet Marketing Consultant who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you grow your business.  Dave was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal and uses his extensive business wisdom and knowledge to create winning Social Media Optimization (SMO) strategies and Viral Marketing campaigns for his clients.

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn. Or for more information please visit Dave online.

Warmest Regards,

Dave Westfall, MBA
www.Your-Social-Media-Mentor.com 
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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APR
12

Landing Pages

 

When Creating your sales funnel for your website, it is important to remember a few important points:

What is your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?

  1. A UVP is an offer or a free tool that engages consumers in an interactive relationship with your website, such as a free download, or a coupon for a percentage off their next purchase
  2. What is the Call to Action (CTA)?
  3. A CTA is an action that is required of a consumer to move through your sales funnel and take action on your UVP.
  4. An example might be:
    • Get your Free Subscription with an email address
    • Sign up for your Free Ebook.

Creating a Landing Page/Sales Page

  • A Landing Page or a Sales Page is a specific page designated on your site that allows users to gain information about a specific offer or unique product. 
  • Landing pages create credibility for your company and message and Search Engines recognize Landing Pages and rank them higher. 
  • Keep in mind using testimonials for your Landing Pages creates a personal touch that draws viewers in closer to your message. 
  • Check out and example of one of our Landing Pages
    http://www.fullpartner.com/fullpartner/Public/LandingPages/AuthorSales/index.cfm

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APR
5

Web 2.0

 

I invite you to come along on my journey into the exploding world of Social Media Networking and Internet Marketing 2010.

My head has been swimming in the last 18 months with the explosion of all the different Social Media Networks. How could anyone, (i.e. a normal non-IT/computer-programming person with a willingness to apply technology to business), keep track of all the different avenues of connection that have appeared?

I decided to start by taking a class that promised to “pull it all together” for me. Let’s see: There is HootSuite which will allow me to Tweet, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blog in one handy place. I have Tweeted once, and this is my first actual blog, so my learning curve is going to be steep.

I then decided to master the internet with an online educational Mastery in Internet Marketing program from the University of San Francisco. And this is the journey I am inviting you to take with me. I am here to share with everyone what I learn and how we can help you make your internet dreams come true with Full Partner. So, stay tuned. Let’s see how we can make 2010 the most productive and abundant year ever for our web based businesses.


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AUG
31

Full Partner Customer Relationship Management System-CRM Features and Benefits

 

As indicated in our last Blog, with so many Full Partner Web Power for Business features and benefits to write about, I've decided to start a new series of blogs to tell you about each of them.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing blogs about the features and benefits of using the Full Partner Web System to grow your Small Business

So, in this blog article we're going to explore the Full Partner Customer Relationship Management (Intranet - CRM)

The Full Partner Web System provides a suite of web-based applications to address the internal needs of your organization.  Known as an "Intranet", this is a private area on the Internet you can use to share information, collaborate on activities and manage your customers, prospects and sales opportunties. 

You Can Manage Your:
Users & Contacts
Prospects
Companies
Appointments Calendar
Projects
Tasks
Issues
Timeslips

Features of our Customer Relationship Management facility:

  • Intranet-Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 
    • Users Contact Infomation
    • Prospects and Lead Sources
    • Companies Database
    • Manage your Sales Opportunities
  • Online Calendar for managing your Appointments and Tasks
  • Documents Management System in multiple formats
  • Project Management System
  • Task Manager to follow-up and keep notes on communications
  • Issue Manager - for handling customer support trouble tickets and solutoin tracking
  • Timeslips for hourly billing projects

Hand ShakeWith Full Partner you can quickly deploy a centralized information solution for your organization.  Access it any time of day from anywhere in the world using our fully integrated SaaS- Software as a Service system.

 

Benefits: What do all of those Full Partner CRM Web Power for Business features mean for you?   Well, to sum it up-- You get More for Less... The Full Partner Customer Relationship Management System will help you manage your Prospects, Customers, Affiliates, Members, Calendars, Projects, Tasks, plus Hourly Billings and accelerate your business to the next level.  In many cases our Client's have experienced a quantum leap in revenue while spending less time managing all of their back office functions so you can do what you do best.

The Full Partner Web System has been developed to create and build powerful, fully integrated yet affordable Small Business eCommerce website solutions for its clients.  Full Partner has invested millions of dollars in this unique, proprietary system, with the purpose of “renting” its functionality to its clients at a very low cost, while providing a broad set of features and benefits usually reserved for expensive custom coded systems costing tens of thousands of dollars.  Ask for your Free Demo.

Dave Westfall is a Internet Marketing eBusiness Consultant and Small Business Coach who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you grow your business.  Dave was recently quoted in this Wall Street Journal New and Improved Small Business Turnaround Article.  

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.   Or for more information please visit Dave online

All the best,

Dave Westfall, MBA
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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JUL
29

Full Partner Content Management System-CMS Features and Benefits

 

As indicated in our last Blog, with so many Full Partner Web Power for Business features and benefits to write about, I've decided to start a new series of blogs to tell you about each of them.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing blogs about the features and benefits of using the Full Partner Web System to grow your Small Business

So, in this blog article we're going to explore the Full Partner Content Management System-CMS


Content Management System (CMS) - A Do-It-Yourself (no HTML knowledge or programming required) system that allows you to create, manage, add or delete photos, videos or multi-media files and fully integrate your website and blog content.  Upload documents or video files for digital delivery, set-up products, keywords, prospect forms and much more. 
The Features of our Full Partner Web Content Management System (CMS) package include:

 



You Can Manage Your:








Articles
Digital Downloads
Documents
Documents
Events
Images
Multimedia
Prospect Forms






  

  • Create Articles to display your website and blog content
  • Create Categories to allow tracking and sorting of content, events and other website elements
  • Set-up and control the Digital Downloads of documents, pictures, videos and other multi-media files
  • Upload Documents of all types e.g. PDF, MSWord .doc,
  • Upload Images of all kinds
  • Upload Multimedia including videos, .wmv, flash, podcasts and more
  • Manage your Products and Events
  • Automatic Email notification to your order fulfillment department
  • Create Prospect Forms to track and respond to your website leads
  • Manage Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to change the look and feel of your website

  

Yes, there are "free CMS" systems available, but you would have to install it yourself and manage all of the HTML and JAVA programming, coding and databases.  But the Full Partner Web System takes care of all that for you.  Plus it's fully integrated with every other component of the Full Partner Web System, so your content can be used in your website, your emails, your blog, your online store just by selecting it from a list of your content database.

So, there is no need to hire programmers, lease servers, and there is no HTML coding required, etc.  So when you add in the cost of programming personnel and servers to a "free CMS", you will certainly save money and get a better, more comprehensive system with the Full Partner Web System, plus the tons of additional integrated features that the so called "free CMS" systems do not provide.

Benefits: What do all of those Full Partner CMS Web Power for Business features mean for you?   Well, to sum it up-- You get More for Less... The Full Partner Content Management System will help you set up an online store or website or blog and accelerate your business to the next level.  In many cases our Client's have experienced a quantum leap in revenue while spending less time managing all of their back office functions so you can do what you do best.

The Full Partner Web System has been developed to create and build powerful, fully integrated yet affordable Small Business eCommerce website solutions for its clients.  Full Partner has invested millions of dollars in this unique, proprietary system, with the purpose of “renting” its functionality to its clients at a very low cost, while providing a broad set of features and benefits usually reserved for expensive custom coded systems costing tens of thousands of dollars.  Ask for your Free Demo.

Dave Westfall is a Internet Marketing eBusiness Consultant and Online Small Business Coach who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you grow your business.  Dave was recently quoted in this Wall Street Journal New and Improved Small Business Turnaround Article.  

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.   Or for more information please visit Dave online

All the best,

Dave Westfall, MBA
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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JUL
22

Full Partner Ecommerce System and Shopping Cart Features and Benefits

 

As indicated in our last Blog, with so many Full Partner Web Power for Business features and benefits to write about, I've decided to start a new series of blogs to tell you about each of them.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing blogs about the features and benefits of using the Full Partner Web System.

So, in this blog article we're going to explore the Full Partner Ecommerce System.

Ecommerce - Full product catalogs, shopping cart and checkout system.  Multiple payment options including monthly subscriptions, order management, fulfillment, and inventory management.  Integrated Merchant Account allows you to securely accept all major credit cards or other forms of payment including PayPal.

With Full Partner's Ecommerce System, you can set-up your Online Store and offer an unlimited number of products or services for sale through a completely integrated shopping cart.  The shopping cart connects to the Authorize.Net, Verisign (PayPal), Innovative (Intuit), Material Logic, PROTX, RealEx, Trust Commerce, 2Checkout Merchant Account payment gateway systems to instantly accept credit and debit cards online in a safe, secure (SSL) protected environment.

The features of the Full Partner Web System Ecommerce package include:

  • Fully integrated with your website - allowing you to sell Products, Services, Events and Courses

    You Can Manage Your:

     • 

    Products

     • 

    Orders

     • 

    Event Registrations

     • 

    Inventory

     • 

    Electronic Coupons

     • 

    Affiliate Program

     • 

    Reports

  • QuickBooks™ Accounting Export
  • Site Administrator access from anywhere in the world to
    • Process transactions
    • Monitor sales
    • Process order fulfillment
  • Unlimited products - build a professional catalog with pictures, views, ingredient tables, and more.
  • Accept all major credit cards, plus e-check is available too
  • Installment payments and recurring payments - fully under your control
  • Automatic Email receipt to your customer that you can fully control and design
  • Automatic Email notification to your order fulfillment department
  • Fully integrated with the Email Autoresponder and Email Broadcast System
  • Fully integrated with Website Affiliate and Affiliate Marketing Packages
  • Easily import and export data for integration with fulfillment houses or inventory reports
  • Fully customizable shipping methods, by item, weight, price, or flat rate or choose UPS Online Tools, UPS Rates, FedEx Rates, USPS Rates
  • Tax tables for sales tax by state and city rates, customized for any purpose or use the comprehensive database
  • Coupons and gift certificates
  • Cross-sell and Up-sell tracking

What do all of those Full Partner Ecommerce Web Power for Business features mean for you?   Well, to sum it up-- You get More for Less... The Full Partner Ecommerce System will help you set up an online store and accelerate your business to the next level.  In many cases our Client's have experienced a quantum leap in revenue while spending less time managing all of their back office functions so you can do what you do best.

The Full Partner Web System has been developed to create and build powerful, fully integrated eCommerce web sites for its clients.  Full Partner has invested millions of dollars in this unique, proprietary system, with the purpose of “renting” its functionality to its clients at a very low cost, while providing a broad set of features and benefits usually reserved for expensive custom coded systems costing tens of thousands of dollars.  Ask for your Free Demo.

Dave Westfall is a Internet Marketing eBusiness Consultant and Online Small Business Coach who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you grow your business.  Dave was recently quoted in this Wall Street Journal New and Improved Small Business Turnaround Article.  

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.   Or for more information please visit Dave online

All the best,

Dave Westfall, MBA
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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JUL
17

Web Power for your Small Business from the feature rich Full Partner Web System

 

Web Power for Business!

Are you looking for a powerful, fully integrated, robust eCommerce web system to accelerate your small business? 

FINALLY!!  All the tools you need to:

  • Market your products & events
  • Increase your sales
  • Manage your web site and blog 
  • And grow your business

... Is available in one easy, integrated, affordable, web-based package.

Take a look at all of the features of the fully customizable Enterprise and very affordable Professional editions of the Full Partner Web System.

Full Partner System Diagram

Working with hundreds of clients over 8 years, Full Partner has built the most full-featured, fully integrated, powerful web system available today that is still affordable to small businesses of any size.  Plus, Full Partner is constantly updating it to improve its function-ability and ease of use.  Instead of piecing together many separate vendors' products (like email, shopping carts, event registration, customer databases, spreadsheets, websites and blogs) to market your products, increase your sales, manage your web presence and grow your business, the Full Partner Web System combines them all into a single, streamlined system.  So, every one of the Full Partner Web System modules is built on a powerful relational database to seamlessly interface with each other.

The Full Partner Web System has been developed to create and build powerful, fully integrated eCommerce web sites for its clients.  Full Partner has invested millions of dollars in this unique, proprietary system, with the purpose of “renting” its functionality to its clients at a very low cost, while providing a broad set of features and benefits usually reserved for expensive custom coded systems costing tens of thousands of dollars. 

With so many Full Partner Web Power features and benefits for Small Business to write about, I've decided to start a new series of blogs to tell you about each of them.  So, over the next few weeks, I'll be writing blogs about these features and benefits of using the Full Partner Web System:

Ecommerce System

Content Management System (CMS)

Customer Relationship Managment (Intranet - CRM)

Email Marketing System

Affiliate Marketing Package

Event Registration and Management System

Website and Blog Hosting

Communities and Membership Websites 

Help & Training Section

But for those Type-A personalities out there who "just can't wait to know more".... You can click on each Full Partner Web System Feature topic to learn more about them right now...

Dave Westfall is a Internet Marketing eBusiness Consultant and Online Small Business Coach who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you grow your business.  Dave was recently quoted in this Wall Street Journal New and Improved Small Business Turnaround Article.  

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.   Or for more information please visit Dave online

All the best,

Dave Westfall, MBA
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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JUL
3

The Right Shopping Cart to grow your Small Business or Online Store

 

I recently read an interesting blog post about Picking the Right Shopping Cart for your Ecommerce website.  The Ecommerce Know-How: Picking the Right Shopping Cart blog was posted on June 22, 2009 · by Armando Roggio  in it he shared:  "eight shopping cart "must haves" that I believe can help you select the proper ecommerce platform for your business and your marketing plan.  If the (shopping) cart you're considering doesn't have these must-have features, keep looking."   Please see his whole Picking the Right Shopping Cart blog at: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1156-Ecommerce-Know-How-Picking-the-Right-Shopping-Cart 

As an avid Ecommerce Shopping Cart User, I am pleased to report that my Full Partner Web System comes standard with a fully integrated shopping cart that has all 8 of the "must haves" identified in Armando's blog post:

Check Mark1: Pick an
SEO-friendly Cart-
Search Engine Optimization strategies can be easily accomplished in the Full Partner Shopping Cart by defining the Description and Keywords for Product Metatags.  Please see an example of the Full Partner Shopping Cart on my www.dewpointe.com website.

Check Mark2:
Coupon Code Support- The Full Partner Coupon Content Editor allows Users to offer a discount off the regular price of a Product, Event or Course. In fact, the Full Partner system offers three types of coupons: General, Specific and User based.

Check Mark3: RSS Capability- In the Full Partner Web System you can use this popular image  to publish your Blogs, Pod casts and even upcoming Event subscription links on your website by just inserting this image into an article, then selecting it and inserting the hyperlink URL for the RSS feed.
 
Check Mark4:
Cross-selling Functionality- As shown in this excerpt from our Help System the Full Partner Web System supports the set up of Up-sells and Cross-sells to increase sales of products, events or courses: 

Up-selling is a sales technique, where the merchant attempts to have the consumer purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-onsin an attempt to make a better sale. Up-selling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products, but up-selling can also be simply exposing the customer to other options he or she may not have considered previously. Up-selling may involve bundling discounts to make the up-sell item more attractive.

Cross-selling is the strategy of selling other products to a customer who has already purchased (or signaled their intention to purchase) a product from the merchant. Cross-selling is designed to increase the customer's reliance on the company and decrease the likelihood of the customer switching to a competitor. Cross-selling, like Up-selling, usually involves marketing more profitable services or products and may involve bundling discounts to make the cross-sell item more attractive.

Some believe that the proper use of Up-sells and Cross-sells can result in a 4 out of 10 success rate and correspondingly higher sales. Your Full Partner products, events and courses may be easily programmed to offer up-sells and cross-sells.


Check Mark5:
Customer Reviews - Full Partner Web System allows you to harness the power of buyer recommendations to drive customers to your site and increase sales. Studies prove that buyer-generated reviews convert more shoppers and attract more new customers to your online store. Customer Reviews can be created to capture the reviewer's buying personality (affinity group) so that shoppers get advise from people just like them. This makes Customer Reviews the most personalized and relevant content you can place on your website.  Please see the Club Store page at www.familyvaluescinema.com for an example of this Full Partner feature.

Plus you can harness the power of social network based shopping by adding Customer Reviews to your website. Setup is highly automated, simple and quick. You can create Review Templates that are custom-tailored to the product, event, course or subscription group to which they apply, so that the review content generated is most relevant.

Check Mark6: Product Sharing and Recommendations  - The Full Partner Product Editor allows you to create items that can be placed on your website (in Page Containers) and sold through the Shopping Cart system.  The Display Methods for Products automatically create an "Add to Cart" button for each Item in the Product. Prices are automatically calculated based on the rules you establish.  You can add pictures, descriptions and set items for Digital Delivery.  The www.organicbug.com Full Partner website uses this feature extensively.

Send this page to a friend pic



.
Check Mark7: Multiple Images, Image Zooming - The Full Partner Shopping Cart provides for 3 different Images and Image Zooming.  www.organicbug.com  uses the Full Partner Image features extensively.  Click on this link to see an example of our Image Zooming displays.

Check Mark8: Manage Campaign Landing Pages-   As shown below in this excerpt from the Help Section, creating new (unlimited) Campaign Landing Pages is simple and easy using the Full Partner Content Management System-CMS
For example, I used the Full Partner Campaign Landing Page setup procedures extensively to create multiple Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Landing pages for www.integratedalliances.com.

Building a New Landing Page for Your Website

Includes instructions on how to:

  • Create a new site model page
  • Create/Import your landing page Article
  • Create/Add a Sign up form - Prospect Data Form
  • Add the Prospect Data Form to the page
  • Add the Main Article to the Prospect Data Form Info Container
  • Create/Add the Thank you Article to the Thank You Container in the Prospect Form.
  • Create a PID code (Promotion ID code for sales tracking)
  • Create a Virtual link (Tiny URL)
  • Set up the Auto-Responder campaigns   

Click on this link for more information on the features of the Full Partner Web System.

Dave Westfall is a Internet Marketing Consultant and Business Coach who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you achieve your vision and goals.  Dave was recently quoted in this Wall Street Journal New and Improved Small Business Turnaround Article.  

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook or LinkedIn or for more information please visit Dave online

All the best,

Dave Westfall, MBA
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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JUN
23

Does your Website Contact Form have Info Elasticity?

 

What is Info Elasticity? As a "closet economist" I've coined the term "Info Elasticity" to describe the inverse relationship between our Prospect Response Rates resulting from asking for too much information on our Website Contact Forms.

The term "elasticity" comes from the study of microeconomics. The Economics Glossary gives the following definition for elasticity:  "Elasticity is a measure of responsiveness. The responsiveness of behavior measured by variable Z to a change in environment variable Y is the change in Z observed in response to a change in Y.  Specifically, this approximation is common:  elasticity = (percentage change in Z) / (percentage change in Y)"

Please don't worry if that definition went over your head. It does for most and I have a BS-Economics.  The key thing to understand here is that we can use the concept of "elasticity" when we want to see how the relationship of one thing changes when we change something else. How does demand for goods or service change when we change its price?  How does the demand for goods or services change when the price of a substitute changes?  How does our contact form response rate change when we ask for more or less information?  These are the types of questions that "elasticity" can help us answer. 

What is the objective of your Contact Form?
From my experience, the objective of a Contact Form should be to get the Website Visitor or Web Surfer to "raise their hands" and say they are interested in knowing more about your products or services. 

Asking for the minimum information you need is a courtesy to prospects and in my opinion can significantly increase your response rate.  Long, complex forms or requests for large amounts of detail or sensitive information could put off potential responses (forever).  In addition to first and last name, the most important information to request is telephone number and or e-mail address, either piece of info gives you a way to contact the website visitor and start a relationship.

I strongly recommend that you don't ask for more than the basic information unless you need it.  In some cases you may need to know a little more information to provide better service such as a position title or website address.  However, my experience, common sense, and now privacy laws suggest that you should avoid asking for sensitive information like income, social security numbers, or credit card numbers, unless absolutely needed, to prevent scams or the potential for identity theft.  I know from my own website interactions that I am resistant to provide information that I don't feel is needed or warranted.

So, I believe that a
response or contact us form is simply a starting point to build a customer relationship. A customer may just ask a question, for a free white paper or to subscribe to your newsletter, but that request gives you the opportunity to open a dialog, gather further information, and build a detailed customer profile as a basis for future marketing campaigns.  I've found that to be successful online you must have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) like Full Partner's system in place to ensure that the prospect’s initial request is developed into a customer relationship.

Can LESS be MORE? Yes, from my experience, "Info Elasticity" simply means: The more information we ask for; the less our response rate. I have seen many cases where asking for too much information significantly reduced the response rate and conversely asking for less information actually increased the Contact Form response rate.  For example, in the Mortgage Broker Lead industry when we asked for too much info or if the form was not easy to use the "Info Elasticity" kicked in and the response rate when down.  So, we tested forms until we reached a happy medium that produced a high volume of mortgage rate quotes while still capturing the minimum consumer information.   Recently, in another example, I recommended that an Internet Marketing Client reduce the information that they were asking for on their Contact Form by 66%, to just the basics, and their monthly Prospect Response Rate when up 400%. 

 Dave Westfall is a Internet Marketing Consultant and Business Coach who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you achieve your vision and goals.  Dave was recently quoted in this Wall Street Journal New and Improved Small Business Turnaround Article.  

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook or LinkedIn or for more information please visit Dave online

All the best,

Dave Westfall, MBA
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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MAY
26

Graduation time does your website get a Passing Grade?

 

I've found that graduation time is a good period to sit down, evaluate and measure the marketing effectiveness of your business website.  What letter grade would your small business website get?  Would it be an A or an F?  Or something in between?

Do you remember "grading on the curve" from your high school report cards and courses?  Well, in my opinion, you could use that same scale to evaluate the letter grade that your website should get for marketing effectiveness.  Some website grading tools create scores that go up to 99, so those results could be scored on the same scale that we learned back in high school:

90-99 = A
80-89 = B
70-79 = C
60-69 = D
< 60   = F

Now, I know that there is some controversy out there in the blogsphere about whether or not website grades are a valid measurement tool or "crap".   But for the purposes of this blog and from my personal experience as an Internet Marketing Consultant, they do appear to have at least some validity and provide a valuable guide to what needs to be fixed on your website to improve its marketing effectiveness. 

After all, why do you have a website?  Isn't it to generate traffic, leads or sales for your business and to help you make money?  Maybe it is like the vast majority, could be as high as 99% of all websites, because they don't get a passing grade on marketing effectiveness or page rank.  As you've probably heard, if your website doesn't show up on page one of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP), then the majority of web surfers will never find you.

Now, I'm not talking about how "pretty" your website looks or if it has a "flash intro".  Yes, those things could be important too.  Or could they be "part of the problem"?  I'm talking about marketing RESULTS!  But here's the question we're asking you to consider in this blog:  Is my website a lean, mean, lead generating machine?   

In Ajay Prasad's When Should You Fire Your Website Designer article posted in the www.SiteProNews.com  newsletter over the weekend, he says:  "Always Remember Your Website is your Marketing Machine

It is all about driving people to your website. This is more than "being found" for the right search terms. This is about having a comprehensive strategy that links your offline and online marketíng together to create leverage for your business and to get maximum results.

You need to be sure your online partner can:
    • Create a site that entices visitors to convert from information seekers to paying customers
    • Generate a stream of online and offline leads
    • Show you what functions of your business can be automated to save you dollars...and put those savíngs to good use...getting more customers 
    • Show you the secrets of capturing information and how to utilize it for easy access and follow up 
    • Show you how to make more sales with your existing customers
    • Help you set up marketing campaigns that get real results and build customer loyalty
    • Help you use marketing with email ethically and effectively

Seriously, if your web designer/dungeon master/graphic Zulu cannot do ALL of these things and more, FIRE them now. You are wasting time and money. And time is often worth more than money."

In my opinion just as importantly, if your website can't do all of these things for you; then isn't it time to FIRE your "starter" business website and upgrade to an affordable Small Business eCommerce website solution that can?

Using website grading tools, I've been able to help my Internet Marketing customers improve their website grade from an F to an A (from <60 to 96.8 in one case) and significantly increase their website lead generation traffic by 4X to 10X and its marketing effectiveness.

Over the next month I'm offering a series of workshops and webinars that will help you improve your website grade and marketing effectiveness:
1. Using Social Media for Better Marketing and Publicity Workshop May 29th 1-5pm MDT Denver
2. Does Your Website Get a Passing Grade? Webinar June 4th Noon Eastern
3. 
Turn your Website into a Lead Generating Machine Webinar June 18th Noon Eastern 

Please click on this link to ask for your FREE website grade.

Dave Westfall is a Internet Marketing Consultant and Business Coach who provides solid advice and proven solutions that work to help you achieve your vision and goals.  Dave was recently quoted in this Wall Street Journal New and Improved Small Business Turnaround Article.  

Click on these links to follow Dave on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook or LinkedIn or for more information please visit Dave online  

All the best,

 

Dave Westfall, MBA
DewPointe Ventures LLC


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