The most common CTA  items are clickable buttons that perform an action- for instance, opening a form, downloading a pdf file or opening a web page with additional interactions or information pertinent to the call to action. For example: “Buy this now!”, “Join Our Mailing List”, “Like us on facebook” or “Learn more…” buttons might open a shopping cart, navigate to an opt-in form or download a white paper pdf file.

CTA Item: Your call to action should be a clear offer, presented in a compelling way and completed in a few easy steps. Does your call to action encourage customers, clients, and supporters to behave in a way that produces results?  For example, will they be compelled to email your business, ask for a quote, learn more about your services or offerings, tell friends about you or share your content?

Goal: Determine what your webpage goal is. Then identify the steps you want your website visitor to take – from the landing page to the goal. State your offer clearly, using active and engaging words to excite them about what’s going to  happen (i.e. “Free Trial – start working in 30 seconds”).

Design: Place your button or language where it has plenty of “white space” around it. Make sure it’s attention-getting! Graphically designed buttons with bright colors or large interesting graphics will get your visitors attention!

Secondary CTA’s: You can also include secondary CTA items such as  linked & highlighted text or icons. For example your main CTA might be “BUY NOW!” but your secondary CTA’s may include “Like us on fb”, “Join our Mailing list” or “Contact Us”.

It is important to prioritize your CTA’s; the more calls to action you add to your website, the more you’ll dilute the strength of each individual element. Therefore when adding CTAs  to your website, think carefully about which one or two actions you most want visitors to take, then use your calls to action to encourage these activities over lesser priorities.

Overall, an effective call to action should inspire your website’s visitors to click and perform the desired behavior. By making the CTA compelling and easy to execute, you’ll be well on the way to turning visitors into customers.

If you’d like to learn more about converting your website visitors to customers, eMail the Elwood Studio, Call 908-543-3410 or visit us online at www.elwoodstudio.com. We’d love to help.

If you’re not yet familiar with either the name ‘QR codes’ or the idea behind them, they’re very similar to the barcodes used by retailers to track inventory and price products at the cash register. The main difference between QR codes and traditional bar codes is the amount of data they can hold and share.

Bar codes are linear one-dimensional codes and can only hold up to 20 numerical digits, while QR codes are a two-dimensional (2D) matrix that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information. Their ease of use and their ability to hold not just more information but different types of information make them a fantastic tool for small business marketing.

When you scan a QR code with your iPhone, Android or other smartphone, you can access a variety of information and rich content. Link to digital content on a web site; activate a number of phone functions including email, IM and SMS; open the mobile web browser, download a VC file, join emailing lists and more. Any of these functions are easily achieved with a properly created QR code.  And it’s a fairly simple process to make one: entering the appropriate data into a QR code generating program to create the QR code, then making sure the code is applied where you want it to be available.

The Origins of QR Codes
While QR codes are still considered a novelty here in the United States; they’ve been commonly used for over a decade in Japan where they were invented.  QR is a registered trademark of Denso Wave, a company that makes bar code readers and related products.  Denso Wave has decided not to exercise their patent rights of QR codes – essentially making this ‘open source’ – and that has encouraged their widespread use.

How QR Codes Work for You
The dissemination of smartphones has effectively “put a barcode reader in everyone’s pocket”. As a result, the QR code has become a focus of advertising strategy, since it provides quick and effortless access to the brand’s website. Beyond convenience to the consumer, the importance of this effortless access is that it increases the chance of conversion – that contact with the advertisement will send qualified prospects to your site immediately, where potentially, a prospect becomes a customer.

QR code Readers are necessary of course. The QR code reader app on my iPhone is QR Reader, and it does an excellent job. For the android, you could try Barcode Scanner. A comprehensive list is available on http://www.mobile-barcodes.com.

If you’re interested in more information about how QR codes can help your business, contact the Elwood Studio. Visit us online at www.elwoodstudio.com or call 908-534-3410. We’ll be glad to help!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Making adjustments to your website based on your traffic will help your site do it’s job better- that is, give your visitors what they came for. Whether it’s simply information, a way to contact you about your product or service, or actually making a purchase, search engine optimization can make a huge difference in the value to your visitors.

We prepare simplified reports for our customers as a straight-forward synopsis and provide a set of recommendations for SEO improvement. The full data is always available of course, but as the site owner, the simple report answers your most significant questions: How many visitors came to my site? How did they find my site? What pages did they visit? Is my traffic growing? How do I improve my site traffic? The answer to those questions: pay attention to your traffic over time, implement a marketing program and update your site regularly.

The first thing that everybody wants to know is: Can I tell who visited my site?  Modern analytics allow us to make some educated guesses about site visitors using network information and targeted landing pages, but  the reality is, unless your visitors specifically tell you who they are, you wont get to know that information.  

Site traffic is a metric developed from your server logs, which are records of all activity from the Internet to your site. What you can get from the log analysis is a general impression of visitors’ behavior; whether they came directly to your site, from a referring site or from a search engine. You can tell how long they spent on your site, what pages they looked at and what files they downloaded. Specific information like the visitor’s name is only available if they choose to give it to you- for example by filling out a contact form, newsletter subscription, or making a purchase. And people who take the time to request information from your website should always become part of your contact list, as this step means that they’ve tacitly agreed to get further marketing materials from you… another step on the path to turning a visitor into a customer.

Customers that we provide web mastering services for, we expect- and usually see- a steady, organic growth to site traffic. What we’re looking for as the site becomes more mature is a steady upward trend, broken by spikes representing effective external marketing pressure. As you tune your site to become more useful to your visitors and continue your on and off-line marketing efforts, the expected result is an increase in traffic.

Simply put: more traffic = more conversions = more sales.

Using your site traffic as a metric is a great tool for determining the efficacy of your marketing and advertising. Server logs record the spikes in web site traffic and these are almost always the result of an identifiable corresponding marketing effort. Such as paid keywords, online banner ads, radio interview, tradeshow event, newspaper or trade magazine ads, newsletters and so on.

Another simple tool that we can use to track advertising effectiveness is an ad-specific URL or landing page. In your ad, you might offer more information or downloadable content which a customer would receive after submitting their contact information. The page on your site that they’re directed to is specific to your offer, giving you a very simple way to see just how effective that advertisement was. Print advertising is now taking advantage of QR codes  which are easy to implement and can open your website to a specific page right on your prospect’s phone.

If you’re interested in more information about traffic reports or other webmaster services, we’d be happy to talk to you. Visit us on line at www.elwoodstudio.com or call me at  908-534-3410.

Debra Elwood
President, Elwood Studio

Email marketing is:

• inexpensive,
• targeted,
• develops loyalty & trust,
• builds brand awareness,
• measurable

According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, e-mail marketing was expected to generate $42.08 for every dollar spent on it in 2010. E-mail marketing outperforms all other direct marketing channels such as direct mail and print catalogs. source

72% of respondents to an Econsultancy survey in early 2011 described email’s ROI as excellent or good. Only organic SEO scored better. source

So how do you get the best ROI out of your Email Marketing? You start with a good Email Communications Plan. Read and/or download our ten step plan for “Successful Email Communications”

The Elwood Studio is your partner for producing Successful Email Communications – contact us today to get started.

1.) Do you think your website has a professional appearance that is attractive to your target market?

2.) Is it clear on your home page what your business does?

3.) Do you provide good detailed content – information about your company, products and services?

4.) Is the information on your site current and relevant?

5.) Is it easy to find your contact information and do you provide multiple ways for prospects and clients to reach you?

6.) Is your site optimized for search engines? Do you appear on the first page of specific keyword search results? Do you know what your Google page rank is?

7.) Are you promoting your website through Online Ads, TV/Radio, Newspapers, Trade Magazines and/or Direct Mail?

If you answered yes to all of these questions – You’re heading in the right direction.

Otherwise contact The Elwood Studio to get help on making your small business website successful.

Websites recently completed by the Elwood Studio: 

View  more website samples at The Elwood Studio

Critical to your business, whether it is large or small, retail or B2B is your Brand. Having your own unique identity will differentiate you from the competition. Effective brand implementation gives you the upper-hand in competitive markets. The challenge is for you to define, implement and control your Brand in a way that evokes a desired response from your clients.

Define
Your brand is your promise to your customers. Essentially, it’s an indication of what they can expect from your products and/or services. How do you want your clients and prospects to perceive your company: High-tech, Friendly, Exclusive, Best quality, Low cost, Good value, Innovative, Globally responsible, etc.? You can’t be all things to all people. To define your brand, you need to be able to answer the questions below:

• What is your company’s mission?
• What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
• What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
• What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

Implement
Create/design your visual brand – logo, colors, fonts, images and layout templates for all your collateral materials, advertising, websites, email newsletters, and social media sites. Create/write your copy in the desired tone (voice brand). Decide on how (print, web, tradeshow) and to whom (age, gender, occupation) you plan on communicating your message. Implement a strategy for all communications including collateral materials, sales calling scripts, advertising campaigns and so on. Understand your target and use the most effective media to reach them.

Control
Make sure to use your brand consistently. The tone (words) and image (visual aspects) of your company need to represent your brand at all times. Be sure that your brand is recognizable and is perceived as intended. If you’re using social networking sites – the task becomes more difficult and will require additional diligence to control.

Do your research. Learn what your current and prospective customers think about your company. Don’t rely on what you think they think. Know what they think. For some customers it may be appropriate to ask them directly but for most clients and/or prospects a short online survey can be very revealing.

Need help defining, implementing and/or controlling your brand?
Call 908-534-3410 or email Debra