This article was written by guest blogger Chris Tompkins.

Do you have a Google Adwords campaign that is a total stinker? How about a great click rate on your ad but the conversion on your site is less than stellar? Believe me, we have all been there. This can be especially true if you have many different products you are trying to promote in different ads and then visitors become confused and don’t stick around on your site. It can really leave you pulling your hair out.

This is why I suggest trying out a landing page. If done correctly, it can maximize your conversion rate and your budget. Rather than “clicking through” to your website, you will send viewers to a dynamic product/service specific landing page.

A landing page (also known as a “squeeze page”) is a web page that is best used to convert leads from media and online advertising, direct mail offers, methods of promotion. You might consider using a landing page rather than your website because the landing page will sell or promote a specific product or service – the item your visitor is interested in. For example, rather than featuring all of the services you offer at your toy company like your website would, your landing page would focus only on your strategy board games for teens.

Here are some quick tips about setting up your landing page:

• It should be hosted at a different domain than your business (so instead of www.thetoybox.com/teenstrategygames, the landing page domain would be simply www.teenstrategygames.com).
• Since you are not confined to the design structure of your website, you have full freedom to create a new layout and design.
• The copy is written to be much more compelling and sales oriented than your business site and blog in order to convert a prospect.
• Offer at a minimum one or more incentive(s) to drive conversion.
• Your landing page will contain (sometimes numerous) opt-in boxes that support conversion.

The most important part of the landing page is arguably the copy. When writing the copy for your landing page, keep your Google Adwords advertisement handy. Your landing page needs to be the natural progression from the prospect clicking on the ad to reaching your “landing page.” Remember, in this day and age, “bait and switch” techniques are old hat.

Make sure that your headline reflects the message on your ad. For example, if your Google ad says about “The Secret to Wrinkle Free Skin” then the headline on your landing page needs to be “Want to Learn the Secret to Wrinkle Free Skin in 7 Days?”

Make sure that your landing page is full of valuable information that builds the credibility of you and your business. Make liberal use of quotes from famous clients, testimonials, video, graphs, press coverage, awards…basically anything that makes you stand out among the crowd. If you have a lot of this information to share, it could result in a long page – but not to worry. Even with longer pages, the effects can be astounding. In the same manner, short and powerful landing pages can be just as effective!

Since your page is built around an offer, there are two things you need: an attractive incentive and opt-in technology. Free evaluations, free consultations, eBooks, eCourses and reports can work wonders in terms of attracting consumers.

For a short, one screen landing page, one opt-in box is sufficient. As a rule, for every screen length, you should add one and a half opt-ins to the body copy of your landing page. This is a good measure as to how many times you should request this information. Don’t worry if it seems redundant. People scan the copy on landing pages, so many times they will not read every word you have written. With that in mind, you want to make sure you don’t miss one opportunity to generate a lead!

However, remember that nothing is full proof. You must keep a close eye on the effectiveness of your pages. A simple headline tweak, color change, or testimonial addition can swing the conversion rate either way. View your landing page as a “real time” experiment and make sure to install Google Analytics to track the activity. Measure one week against the next, and tweak where needed. Also, note that there is no such thing as too many squeeze pages. If you have 100 products, you can make 100 squeeze pages. Overall, the goal is to be as targeted and completely aligned with the messages of your marketing plan.

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Chris is the CEO of Go! Media International, LLC – an integrated marketing firm specializing in cutting edge social media strategy and online marketing campaigns. Chris is a fundamental supporter of education in the online marketing technology sector (for companies and individuals) and speaks at national and international conferences alike. If you’d like to find out more, visit his blog or follow him on Twitter.

*Photo by PinkShot

This article was written by Chris Tompkins

I often notice individuals jumping headfirst into online marketing, whether it be social networks, blogs, micro-blogs (like Twitter) and other online channels. The main issue with this strategy is that many times their shared communications seem canned, the tone is a bit off, the message is not cohesive and the approach, at times, can be rather aggressive.

You know who they are.  When you encounter someone like this, you say things like: “Why are you just barging into my universe?” “Stop selling to me!” “Spammer!”

It isn’t just you. A lot of people feel the same way.  And, in the online world, they shout it so everyone can hear. Loudly.

First things first: the wonderful world of online marketing is different than the wonderful world of traditional marketing. Although they have many things in common (target markets, messages, distribute collateral, market research), the approach is vastly different.

The difference is that social networks and online communications are not just pushing the message through the channel.  Instead, they are about building relationships and having conversations. Read that sentence again. Relationships and conversations.

With that in mind, here are two steps you need to follow to stay in the game. If you have been entrenched in social media marketing for quite some time, then these tips will keep you fresh. Brand new and desperate to see what everyone is talking about? These two resolutions should help you enter the online marketplace with more ease.

Step 1:  Listen, Watch and Monitor the Activity Before Joining the Discussion

The mistake many of us make is that we don’t listen before we leap. Our gut instinct is to stick to the same communication style as our email blasts, corporate website or our “business speak.”

I’m not saying its a bad way to go, but if you are going to talk that way then you better make make sure everyone else is speaking your language.

Go to sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and look around. Go into the groups section on LinkedIn and Facebook and use the search function to find groups relevant to your professional interests. Look at the discussion topics, how people are conversing in each topic, and check the level of activity. Anyone providing links to video or audio? Click, watch and listen.

Also, LinkedIn and Facebook have a main micro-blog wall (they call it “Status Updates”). See how people are interacting, watch how they speak.

Twitter is more tricky; my tip is to download TweetDeck. It is a third party platform that helps you listen in a fast and efficient way. You can search for people talking about relevant topics to your business, your company and even you! Before you send out your first “tweet”, check out TweetDeck and size up the playing field.

Step 2: Plan Before You Dive

If you are going to begin engaging with the global online audience, it’s important to get your act together first. Stop and think for a minute. Would you execute a branding or PR initiative without at least a plan outline?

Sit down and identify what you want to get out of this. This can be the hardest step. Without full knowledge about what you can expect, it is hard to identify what your goals should even be. My advice is to be realistic, honest and take into consideration what the medium is all about. If you are thinking about SEO, direct response advertising or pay-per-click Google ads, then you will think in terms of hits to your online point-of-sale. The social media market has elements of this, but the purpose is to position yourself as an expert, increase visibility to you and your brand, build relationships that will in turn build your business and more.

Think about your purpose, your field of expertise and what value you can offer to others. Once you pinpoint that, you can identify the sites you want to focus on, the methods you want to employ and targets you want to hit.

Wrap it up

I really can’t stress how important it is to take the time to check out the playing field before you jump in headfirst. I think the real point here is that you wouldn’t sink $100,000 in a direct marketing initiative without making sure of the integrity of the mailing list. You would never spend $15,000 a week on an English speaking call center who is calling a Spanish speaking market.

At the end of the day it is Marketing 101. Learn where your market is, what they are saying and then plan how you are going to join the conversation. Then start talking.

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Chris is the CEO of Go! Media International, LLC – an integrated marketing firm specializing in cutting edge social media strategy and online marketing campaigns. Chris is a fundamental supporter of education in the online marketing technology sector (for companies and individuals) and speaks at national and international conferences alike. If you’d like to find out more, visit his blog or follow him on Twitter.

*Photo by Watje11

This post was written by guest author Chris Tompkins.

With the numerous books being published on social media marketing, intense media coverage and more people joining sites such as Facebook and Twitter than ever before, it is obvious that many of us are hungry for social media materials.

Since more people adopting the use of social media channels, the need for new resources that will help us utilize them in a more effective manner is great.  Honestly, it is extremely encouraging that so many people are eager to learn before they act, rather than just plow blindly ahead.

With that said, I wanted to share a useful list with you. This list focuses on a few social media blogs that I suggest you visit. As these are well known, they may have appeared on other lists, but who cares – they have great information!

The blogs below are not only informative, but they offer great tutorials on new and existing social media tools, talk about the latest technological advances, offer free downloads….and can be pretty entertaining at times.

So, without further ado, here is my own personal list of favorites blogs (in no particular order):

Mashable
This is my top favorite. A great blog with loads of content and so many updates it only makes sense to subscribe to the RSS feed or be left behind. No nonsense advice, lots of fresh perspectives and multiple bloggers make this one a slam dunk in my opinion.

Chris Brogan
If you have read the amazing Trust Agents (which I absolutely love and endorse 100%) then this is the blog behind one of the authors – Chris Brogan. Great blog, great information and written in an engaging, conversational style.

Social Media Today
Another site in the same vein as Mashable, with comprehensive content written by many different authors. This is another one with so many regular updates its a smart idea to subscribe to the RSS feed.

Guy Kawasaki
Terrific blog from the ever-present Guy Kawasaki. He talks about anything and everything from upcoming tech conferences to how to build iphone applications. Always an enjoyable read and his positivity is catchy.

Ma.tt
Another extremely interesting blog with one heck of a blog design. Matt Mullenweb (aka PhotoMatt) dishes the dirt on many topics and is heavy on video, pictures and great content. Worth a look to see if it is a good fit for you.

Altimeter Group
This offers a holistic approach to emerging technologies (which I support). If you liked the book “Groundswell,” this blog will be right up your street.

Rashmisinha
I like this one as it really dives into more technical subjects and discusses them in an easy to understand way. Worth a look for sure.

Seth Godin
The wonderful blog of Seth Godin, author of more books on marketing and sales than you can shake a stick at (most recently the bestseller Linchpin). I enjoy Seth’s take on the social media and his posts are always well written, witty and full of takeaways.

TechCrunch
Are you more interested in the latest applications, toys and software to make the online experience more enjoyable? Then this is the blog for you. A clean and clear design and “regular folk” language make this a must-read for anyone who wants to stay up to date with the latest technology.

Now, let’s remember that these are just some of my favorites. What are yours? What sites do you visit to get the best information? Please share them below! Also, let me know what you think about the sites I suggested. I would be interested to hear your take on them!

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Chris is the CEO of Go! Media International, LLC – an integrated marketing firm specializing in cutting edge social media strategy and online marketing campaigns. Chris is a fundamental supporter of education in the online marketing technology sector (for companies and individuals) and speaks at national and international conferences alike. If you’d like to find out more, visit his blog or follow him on Twitter.

*Photo by Martin Kingsley

This post was written by guest author Chris Tompkins.

As we have all seen over the past few years, blogs are popping up everywhere! Everyone from the famous Hilton Hotel chain to the cat lover around the corner from you are launching their own piece of the blogosphere.

Why are they doing it? Well for many reasons but the ones you are probably interested are:

• they are top credibility and customer relationship builders for businesses
• they create many new opportunities to grow your business

So, let’s get down to basics…and I do mean basics (anyone familiar with the blogging platform – avert your eyes now).

A blog is basically an online diary where you can share your opinions, expertise, favorite videos, relevant pictures.  Basically, anything that you want to communicate to your target market of readers. What makes it different from your commerce website is that the language is more conversational and should inspire comments and conversation with your readers.

As a business person, think about a blog as a conversation starter with your customer. Every time you write to your customer (by posting a note or article on your blog) you are blogging. As you are the author of your blog postings, you are considered a blogger. I share this with you because sometimes the above “blogging lingo” can over complicate such a simple concept, so it is best to understand these terms before you dive in.

Blogs allow your customers and prospective customers to learn more about you and your business and to interact with you. The by-product is that when you share your expertise with the masses, you build your credibility in your industry. And best of all, it can work as a direct funnel of pre-qualified leads directly to your website.

These are the steps to get started:

• Sign up for a free blog on either Wordpress or Blogger (the two most used FREE blog sites….I prefer Wordpress)
• Using their ready-made design templates, choose a suitable layout for your blog (make sure to use one that fits your message and topic. No puppies spilling out of baskets if you are a chain of funeral homes)
• And then start posting!

OK, simple enough. But what the heck do you write about? The simple answer: anything that is related to your business or area of expertise. If you are an economist, write about some of the recent advances in economic policy. If you own a computer software company, share ten tips to a faster desktop computer.

A great way to easily generate activity on your blog is to look at every piece of information that you have written in the past (articles, ebooks, marketing materials, brochures, company bios, etc.) and see if you can recycle it. Post it on your blog and you have instant content!

Now that you have a site, design and content…it is time to let people know it exists. Let everyone know about your little piece of heaven on:

• Your email signature
• Your company website
• Social Media Networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing)
• Digg and Technorati
• Email newsletters

Also, anytime you write an article online, make sure to add the link to your blog including discussion rooms and message boards.

Now that you have people coming, make sure that you write new blog postings packed with useful information at LEAST twice a week. The trick to effective blogging is not to do 100 posts a week, but to pick a number and hit it consistently. If once a week is all you can spare, that’s fine as long as you make sure to do it every week.

Blogging does not create instant results but as your followers grow, so will the number of business opportunities. In my opinion, blogging is one of the crucial marketing mediums that every company and individual should not ignore. (Plus, it can be a lot of fun!)

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Chris is the CEO of Go! Media International, LLC – an integrated marketing firm specializing in cutting edge social media strategy and online marketing campaigns. Chris is a fundamental supporter of education in the online marketing technology sector (for companies and individuals) and speaks at national and international conferences alike. If you’d like to find out more, visit his blog or follow him on Twitter.

*Photo by laruth