A study was recently released showing that visitors navigating directly to a web site resulted in almost twice the conversion ratio of those using search engines to arrive there (4.23% compared to 2.3%). Internet traffic generated from other sources such as text links or online advertising converted at less than 1% (.96%).

To make the best use of this information as business owners let’s start with how visitors can navigate directly to a web site ? there are really only two ways:

1. By typing your web site address into the address bar of their browser
2. By using a bookmark that they have previously saved

In order for someone to arrive at your web site in one of these two ways, they will have to be reached through some other means first, such as face-to-face sales calls, networking, direct mail or some other form of marketing. Therefore, be sure to include your URL on all of your marketing materials, stationary and company literature. There is something more tangible about being able to hold a brochure, business card or postcard in your hand and type the address into your browser. It creates a higher degree of trust by showing that you really are more than just a web site.

Now we’ll look at the lower converting traffic from search engines, links and online advertising. Although it will offer a lower conversion ratio when compared to visitors navigating directly to your web site, it’s still a valuable resource and can also serve as the first contact that someone has with your company so that their next return can be through direct navigation. You should include a mix of SEO and online advertising to improve the effectiveness of your overall marketing campaign.

We all know that inbound links are a vital part of an effective search engine optimization campaign but if you’ve ever tried to increase your inbound links on your own, you probably know that it is difficult and time consuming. There is a relatively easy way to develop inbound links from relevant web sites though. It’s called link baiting, which is simply creating and posting fresh, useful content to your web site on a regular basis. Over time, links to this information from other relevant web sites will begin to grow as other web site owners attempt to provide useful information to their visitors, validate their viewpoints or even point out what they disagree with.

Since we’ve been discussing blogs a lot recently, it’s probably a good idea to dispel many of the myths regarding copyright and copyright infringement. Because of these myths, many bloggers have accidentally (and sometimes intentionally) put themselves or their company in violation of copyright laws. This should help you avoid ending up in that situation.

Myth 1: I can use anything that doesn’t have a copyright notice ? That is incorrect. Anything from writing, to art to music is protected upon creation and the creator does not have to file for copyright protection, or even put a notice up.

Myth 2: Since it’s online it’s public domain and I can use it ? That is incorrect also. The internet is just another medium, like television or radio, for people to transmit their message. Content on the internet is protected just the same as anywhere else.

Myth 3: I can use anything as long as I’m not profiting from it ? Regardless of how you intend to use something that someone else created, you still need their express written consent. Besides, profit is a matter of perception. You may not be making any money from it, but you may be using it to promote an idea or belief which would be considered a benefit to you.

Myth 4: I can use anything as long as I give credit to the original creator or include the original creator’s copyright notice ? Same as above.

Myth 5: I can use anything as long as I take it down when the copyright holder objects ? While you can try, we certainly don’t advise it. You may get away with it in some cases but it is more likely that you will face hefty fines enforced by the court and be ordered to cease using it.

Someone worked hard to develop their content, whether it is writing, art, music or something else, and it’s not fair to them for you to use it with out their permission. Think of how you would feel as a clothing retailer if someone came into your store, took your inventory and then sold it or even gave it away ? would you think it was ok as long as they told everyone where it came from or if they didn’t make any money?

The latest study shows that Google is still in the lead when it comes to searches preformed in the U.S. with 39.8% of the market followed by Yahoo with 29.5%. MSN is slowly creeping up with a meagre 14.2%. The fourth and fifth places are held by The Time Warner Network and Ask Jeeves, with 8.7% and 6.5% respectively. While Google holds the largest share, they are quickly loosing ground to competitors compared to 2005.

Our prediction at WMG is that within six months of the release of Windows Vista, MSN will gain at least 5% of the search market, and within twelve months that number will climb as high as 9%. It’s likely that Yahoo will make a 3-4% gain over the same time period.

It’s common for business owners to make unrealistic requests of design firms. Probably the most common is when they contact several design firms and ask them all to design something for them, whether it’s a logo, brochure or some other piece, with the intent that they will choose one of the designs if they like it. While it may seem like there is nothing wrong with this request, in reality, there is. Think about how this request would be taken in any other industry.

Potential home buyer: I want you to build me a house and I’m going to have three other builders do the same thing. After these homes are completed, if I like one I’ll purchase it.
Home builder: Uhhh…No.

Potential car buyer: I’m thinking about buying a car from either you or another car dealer with in a seventy mile radius. I’d like you to drop off one of each model of car that you have (the other car dealers will be doing the same) and after I’ve had a chance to drive all of them for a while I’ll decide if I want to buy one.
Car dealer: Uhhh…No.

Restaurant visitor: I don’t know what I want to eat, but I’ll know what I like when I taste it. I want you to make everything from your menu deliver it to my house. Keep in mind that the Chinese, Italian and Mexican restaurants will be delivering their food as well. After tasting everything, if I’m still hungry, I will choose a meal from one restaurant.
Restaurant owner: Uhhh…No.

The bottom line is that graphic design is a business. You wouldn’t run your business by handing out your product or service for free in hopes that someone might feel like paying for it and you shouldn’t expect a design firm or designer to do so. Some firms will do spec work, but they usually fall into one of two categories. They are either brand new firms with no experience trying to land their first clients, or they are huge firms that only work with clients that have multi-million dollar advertising budgets.

Like any other business, a graphic design firm has overhead. By working on spec, they are forced to raise their prices because unlike some businesses that sell a product, graphic designers can not take back their time and resell it. Many people take for granted the overhead that can be necessary to run a graphic design firm. Specialized software is required to do what we do, and depending on what is needed, can be an investment of several thousand dollars per employee ? which must be updated on a regular basis. Additionally, a graphic design firm needs far more robust hardware than the average user. Our processing power, memory and storage capacity needs can be mind blowing and frequent upgrades are often necessary. Most firms employ highly skilled designers, whom must be paid accordingly. These designers have the talent and experience to develop marketing materials that deliver results quickly and efficiently. All of this allows us to provide our clients the best service at a reasonable price and in a timely manner.

With all the industry buzz-words flying around lately, the simple little postcard seems to have been pushed to the back burner. After all, how could it be expected to compete with the kings of cool, like guerrilla marketing or podcasting?

As business owners, we’re not really interested in looking cool though. We are interested in making a reasonable profit, and when it comes to direct marketing, there really isn’t much that can beat a solid postcard campaign. When compared to other forms of direct mail, postcards have a far higher response rate because there is nothing to open or sort through. Your message is right there in your prospects hands. The cost can also be significantly lower than other forms of direct mail.

So how do we get the most from a postcard mailing?

• Start with a highly targeted mailing list. A broad, shotgun approach to direct mail will lower your ROI in a big way. By using a highly targeted list, you are ensuring that only people who would truly benefit from your offering get your message. This keeps your initial costs down while improving your conversion ratio.
• Make an offer they can’t refuse. People can get a 5% discount anywhere, anytime. They will break down your doors for a 20% discount. You’re offer doesn’t have to be a discount though. It could be a 100% money back guarantee, a free product or service with their purchase or anything else of a reasonable value. Just make sure that you don’t give away so much that you are loosing money.
• Have your postcards professionally designed. Yes, you can get your nephew to whip something up for free but doing so will not generate much business for you. Think of it this way ? you probably could perform your own liposuction in your garage but the results would be significantly different than those of a real plastic surgeon. A skilled graphic designer is well worth the investment because they will generate more business for your company.
• Have your postcards professionally printed. Printing your postcards on your own ink jet or laser printer looks unprofessional, is time consuming and actually ends up being more expensive than having them printed professionally. You can have 5,000 4″ x 6″ postcards printed on a heavy gloss stock for less than $250 and present the right image while saving yourself time and money.

There are some obvious marketing benefits to blogging. It helps to keep visitors coming back to your web site by providing useful and timely information while supplementing your search engine optimization campaign by providing fresh content on a regular basis.

But there is another hidden benefit that blogging provides. It nurtures creativity and innovation. By setting a goal of making a certain number of posts each week, you are forcing yourself to come up with new content ? which forces you to use your brain. Often times, while working on this new content for your blog you will also come up with new business ideas, ways to do things faster, cheaper or better. The more time that you spend engaging in this type of activity, the better you will get at it, thus creating even more new ideas in a shorter period of time.

Despite a lack of public comments on their relevancy ranking system based on “neural net” technology (called RankNet), MSN has been making strides to further improve the relevance of their search results ? something Google has yet to do. To understand how RankNet will affect you, you first have to understand what neural networks are.

Neural networks

Neural networks are based on the parallel architecture of animal brains. They consist of simple processing elements, a high degree of interconnectivity and adaptive interaction between their elements. The network adapts by changing the weight by an amount proportional to the difference between the desired output and the actual output. This creates a network that can “learn” at an increasing rate as it processes data.

RankNet

RankNet uses neural networks to evaluate a set of documents and determine not which are the most relevant to the search query but rather the factors that actually determine their relevance to the search query. A neural network in and of itself is fairly simple and straight forward, the difficult part is teaching the network how to properly apply weights to various features of a web page. To put this in perspective ? MSN utilizes 569 features to evaluate a document and each feature can be weighted differently depending on the circumstances.

As MSN’s neural network “learns” how to properly rank web pages on a consistent basis, they will be able to offer more relevant and timely search results than Google or Yahoo and begin taking a larger portion of the search engine market share. RankNet should help to decrease the amount of spam web sites and splogs. Legitimate business owners will benefit from increased traffic if they have an effective search engine optimization/internet marketing strategy in place and of course, users will benefit from more relevant search results.

If you want to see serious results from your marketing efforts you’ll need to be clear with your message. Does your restaurant have the best Italian food? How do you know? If three of the four local food critics wrote it in their column, say that in your marketing. It will carry a lot more weight than just saying “We have the best Italian food.” To make your message as credible as possible you have to quantify it. For example:

Instead of saying:?
“We have the lowest prices in town!”
You could say:
“Our prices are 23% lower than anyone else in town!”

Instead of saying:
“Our pool vacuum is faster than anything else on the market!”
You could say:
“Our pool vacuum will clean your pool in 1/3 of the time it takes with an ordinary pool vacuum!”

Instead of saying:
“Graduates of our sales training program close more sales!”
You could say:
“Graduates of our sales training program close 14% more sales!”

There is an easy way to increase the traffic to your web site with out spending a lot of money or time. Simply add your URL (web site address) to all of your marketing tools. From business cards, to company vehicles all the way down to your email signature, this simple step can help to increase your web site traffic dramatically ? and it doesn’t cost you any more money.