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Email lists: Be careful

A quick tip for anyone considering an email marketing campaign:  Do your homework on the list you're considering.

I'll back-up.  There are two types of opt-in email marketing lists:  addresses you gather on your website and those that you buy from a vendor.

An example of a Wheel Media client website with the former is www.pcpipe.com.  This is a very reliable way to gather a list of customers and prospects.  The list will grow slowly, but the quality of the list is high because people have pro-actively taken action.  An excellent strategy.

Buying a list is a bit more tricky.  You'll need to confirm that the names are opt-in, that you aren't paying for duplicate email addresses, and that if there is a problem with the list they will work with you.  The most reliable way to conduct a mail campaign is to use an agency for the content, design and coding, and a dedicated service for the mailing.  This ensures you comply with spam laws.

This mailing service also will also do a cursory review of the list to ensure it's clean.  This review checks for fake email addresses (i.e., fdsfsdf@sfsdf.com) or a high percentage of globally-unsubscribed email addresses.  If it does, you won't be able to send to it, period.  (And you wouldn't want to, because emailing people that don't want to hear from you does more harm than good.)

More info here.

Who would you work with?

Pretend for a minute.

Pretend you're in charge of the next tradeshow for Intel and you need to have an exhibit designed.  You know, a big booth with workstations and product displays.  The whole enchilada.

You hop online, search Google and find a couple companies that do this sorta stuff:

Nutmeg Exhibit 

ESC

What do you think?  Does design make a difference to you, as someone evaluating companies online? If you're like most of us, I'm guessing yes.  We're all drawn to things that are visually appealing; that anticipate our questions and answer them.  All things that are well-designed, from the ipod to websites, inspire trust and build confidence.

And what does all that inspiration mean to a small business?

One more customer (or three.)

How much should you spend on a new website?

As the director of a web design agency I appreciate how difficult it is to answer this question.

We all know how to shop for a new computer-- compare a few different manufacturers, look for online reviews, choose features, and buy one.  Not the cheapest, and not the top-of-the-line.

But how much should a small business pay for the company website?  If you read the spam you might think $299.  And if you speak to one of hundreds of very talented interactive advertising agencies across the U.S. you might get figures of $60,000, $80,000 or more...

It's hard to identify value in an industry that's fairly new.  For small businesses, I offer the fairly simplistic rule-of-thumb:

• Small company:  1%
• Medium-sized company:  .5%

I'm referring of course to a percentage of annual revenue.  Spending less than 1% of your annual revenue on a marketing tool that is working for you 24/7 is a responsible, smart investment.  This is not an annual investment-- this is key-- this is a one-time cost.  Unlike recurring marketing costs, once you build a website the bulk of the expense is history.  Paid-for.  Finished.

Sure, you might decide down the road to optimize your site for Google, or do an email marketing campaign, or change up the content, but these projects are smaller (and much lower in cost.)

Do the math yourself-- how many sales do you need for a 1% investment to pay for itself?  How many new clients?  I'm guessing not many.

Relying on a busy, incomplete and unattractive website is like giving your clients a shoddy service:  It may be OK, but it's not going to help your business grow.

Google is obsolete

I'm sorry to draw you in with such a ridiculous headline.  I couldn't resist, because I just discovered a threat to Google.  And more importantly, a useful new type of search engines for small business.

Retrevo, is a vertical search engine for consumer electronics.  What is a vertical search engine?  One that focuses on something specific.  Use Retrevo to search for some electronic product, like “D200” (i.e., The Nikon D200) in Retrevo and then in Google, and you'll see why vertical search engines are on the rise.  The results are simply better.

Small business owners know that their customers are using their web to do their homework, and Google is where they start.  In a few years maybe there will be a vertical search engine as well.  The bottom line is that professional websites are what people are looking for-- they inspire customers to pick up the phone.  Small time, low-budget websites, well, they make companies look small-time.

With the rise of vertical search engines and local small business directories like MerchantCircle it's never been easier for customers to use the web to find and compare companies.

Companies like yours.

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Thanks to Guy Kawasaki and his blog for the tip on Retrevo.  More wisdom here.

Can your customers find you using Google?

Many business-to-business clients of Wheel Media have asked me about search engines and how they work.  The short answer is with paid or natural results.  The paid results on the top and right side of Google cost you monthly, and you pay even when it's your competitor clicking on your ad.  (Not fun.)

The natural results are the large, prominent text in the center of the page, and they rank websites by interpreting their code.  This interpretation is complex, with dozens of factors including page structure, keyword density and inbound-links playing a role.

As a marketer I prefer natural results.  In 1-3 months Wheel Media can move a website from page 37 to page 2 for a search that a customer might make to find you.  There is no mystery or gimmick to our service, just specific programming your website based on our research.

How about some evidence?  It's hard to argue with results.

One small business client has developed seminars for their corporate clients.  Targeting human resources professionals, our client teaches an approach called integral health-- a philosophy of personal wellness shown to keep employees invested in their own health (resulting in less time-off and higher productivity.)

So far so good?

A HR professional who has read about this approach might want to find a consultant to give a seminar to their company, going to Google and searching for integral health seminars.'

People don't search for integral health seminar's in big numbers, but those who do know just what they are looking for.  Wow-- what a perfect lead.

Give it a try at www.Google.com.  Up in the top 5 results you'll find a company called Integral Health Options.  Not a big site (and not an expensive service.)

More on search engine optimization next week.

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Wheel Media:  A San Francisco web design and sacramento web design company

Trademark Attorney