My 2¢ Worth

 have received many requests for articles on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is not a topic I publish many articles on for the simple reason there is much misinformation regarding SEO.

owever, there are also many people well informed on the subject and I will be publishing a series of articles on SEO and the search engines in general.

t's going to take some time to put this together, but I should have it ready within 8 weeks.

n the meantime I will continue to publish informative articles cover all aspects of Internet marketing and design.

Feature Article

Showcase the Message

by: Nick Usborne Freelance Writing Success

If you are designing a web site for which the achievement of high conversion rates is a priority, focus your design efforts on showcasing and highlighting the content and copy.

For sites where conversion rates are a priority, the primary purpose of design should be to present the message in such a way that it delivers the maximum impact.

>>So "good" design doesn't matter?

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that design serves a function. For an entertainment or arts site that primary function may be to present images in an attractive way. That's fine.

But for a site that is created to generate sales, the text must come first. Everything...from the architecture of the site to its design must work towards supporting your message and delivering people to the final checkout page.

>>Sounds obvious. Why make the point?

I make the point because the presentation of the message is often the last thing on the minds of web groups.

Web designers are higher on the food chain in these groups. All too often the writing of the message becomes a secondary consideration. "The site will look like this. We'll arrange the pages like this. And by the way, we need someone to write the words."

This attitude of "text comes last" is nonsense and it has been from the day the internet first went commercial.

Hundreds of millions of visitors have always known that their primary need on arriving at a site is to find the key messages. "Am I in the right place? Will I find what I want on this site?"

Our visitors know that the words are the most important element on a web site.

Google knows that the words are the most important element on a web site. (Unlikely aside from the Googlebot: "Cool design. Better rank this page higher.)

The only people who haven't understood this so far are web group managers and web designers.

Even marketing people insist on just dropping in for-print-approved text on their sites, without any thought as to the special needs of the medium. (Would they create a radio ad simply by using the sound track from their TV commercial? I don't think so. Every medium has its own demands when it comes to the words, the web included.)

>>How to design to showcase the message

The first step is to bring the writer in at the beginning. The designer will find that the writer has a number of priorities and needs in mind. He or she might say:

"This is the page's primary message. We need people to really get this on the first screen."

"We have three separate audience needs to address here. I need these three headings to have equal emphasis, preferably on the first screen."

"This message is just the first step in converting a visitor to a buyer. We need a strong pathway of three levels before he or she is ready to buy."

"This sales message is complex, it will take some space and longer copy. We need to format the text so that people will keep reading. We need strong subheads, some indented passages and emphasis at the following points."

Once the writer has outlined the needs of the copy, the designer can then focus on showcasing the key points in the message, giving the correct emphasis to the various headings, subheads, body text and links.

The designer's job here isn't to make the page "pretty", it is to deliver the message with the right emphasis, and with each point in the correct sequence.

>>How does a designer know what to do?

In some senses, this is new ground for designers online. Until now, too much emphasis has been places on design for its own sake, instead of using it to support the copy on a site's pages.

If a designer wants to know how this works, he or she should go sit next to a direct marketing designer/copywriter team while they work.

See how the team communicates. See how the designer listens to the writer and places a great deal of emphasis on the type. Watch how the designer spends a lot of time selecting the right font, the right type size and color. See how a conversion-focused designer pays massive attention to the placement and appearance of every element of text.

Why? Because in direct marketing the response rates are intimately connected with the presentation of the copy. It matters where on the page each text element is placed. The font and its size and emphasis matters. The final formatting of the text matters.

Online? When you are building pages with a view to maximizing conversion rates, you become a direct marketer. That means thinking like a direct marketer, writing like a direct marketer and designing like a direct marketer.

>>Concluding points...

As it stands on the web right now, we have a couple of groups of designers.

There are the general web designers who create beautiful sites, without regard to how the copy should and can work harder.

And there are the online direct marketing designers who design single page sales sites that are created to maximize sales.

At some time in the future it would be good to see these two groups learn more from each other.

It would be good to see the general web designers learn more about increasing conversion rates by learning some of the skills of the online direct marketing designers.

It would be good to see the online direct marketing designers expand their skills beyond the scope of single, scrolling sales page.

And it is essential that every online designer pays a great deal more attention to the writers and the showcasing of every page's message.

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Nick Usborne is a freelance writer, author, speaker and advocate of good writing. For more articles and resources on making money as a freelance writer, visit his site at www.FreelanceWritingSuccess.com

Browser Caching problems

Almost all current and old browsers use the Cache feature to allow for fast loading and viewing of pages you have already been to. This will sometimes cause people to see old versions of your page. To tell browsers when to get a newer copy of your site, you should use following tags:

<META http-equiv="Expires" content="Thu, 22 Dec 1925 1:00:00 GMT">

<META http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">

These meta tags should be placed in between your <head> and </head> tags. Also, the specified date should be a date in the past so that the browser will immediately get rid of the cached copy or not keep it at all. It is also best to use both tags because most browsers understand the "Expires" tag; however, some older browsers may still look for the "no-cache" tag.

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

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Second Article

Event Marketing

by: Scott Geld Blaster

Event marketing is one of the more popular forms of subtle but successful marketing. These days, events are a large part of the marketing mix for some companies. Companies are successfully using events for marketing and promotion, as they would use any of the more traditional forms of advertising to promote their products and services.

Events offer a more personalized and customized message to the audience. Events bring the actual product to the customer and consciously and little subtly it gives a message about the product to the audience. Events tend to bring the products to the customer directly, though it targets a much smaller audience than other tools of advertising. Events like trade shows, sporting events, concerts etc which allow the customer to try and feel the products is a good way to make the customer aware of your products, because there is a clutter of brands today and unless special effort is made your brand could get lost in this clutter.

A company's main aim is to increase its sales and it does this by bringing its services directly to the customers. In a store, you might sell some products incidentally to people looking for something else. But it makes a lot of difference when the person gets to try out the product or even receive a sample of it at various events. This is because experiential marketing has lot of scope in today's society as it gives the customer a direct opportunity to try out something new and accept it only when he likes it.

Events are also important tools to maintain relationship with old customers and pitch in to new prospective customers. The existing customers are often given free entry to such events, and probably given some incentive to attend the event. The presence of the old customers is beneficial for the company because they are likely to give testimonial about your products in the presence of other audience. And of course in any event the number of people attending the event is crucial and the existing customers even though may not buy still add to the number of people attending the event.

Event marketing is based on the premise that a customer is most likely to remember what he has experienced himself. Therefore, to achieve this, you need to make your demonstrations interactive so that people will remember them and indirectly your product, even after they have gone home. This is the most effective way of marketing.

Popularity of event marketing is increasing by the day and more companies are adopting it as a favored marketing tool that it is taken up as a specialist career profession. Courses are being offered at universities and colleges where candidates learn skills to host and execute events of all sizes and types. Because of this increasing popularity of event marketing, many companies and big businesses are employing professionals with formal education in the field.

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Scott Geld is the owner and operator of Marketing Blaster which is a premier resource for marketing information. For questions go to www.MarketingBlaster.com

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Download of the Week

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