About Laurel Lindsay

Laurel Stark née Lindsay has helped thousands of businesses get better results from their online marketing since she began her career as a web marketer in 2003. As a speaker, author and CEO of The New Media Group, she’s been featured on CNN, Entrepreneur.com, CTV and ShawTV.

3 Pro Tips for Choosing your Business Domain Name

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

Whatever your business or industry, choosing the right domain name for your online presence can have a big effect on your future success. While the wealth of options available to you mean there might not be one single best choice for your needs, making a bad decision can certainly hinder your efforts; your internet marketing strategy, your lead capturing, and ultimately your sales.

A good domain name should be unmistakeable and represent accurately what your company is all about, and there are certain ways to help ensure your chosen domain achieves these aims.

Once you’ve settled on what you decide to be the best domain for your business, you can even think about which others might work in your internet marketing strategy too.

Read on to find out how all this can be done.

Ease of use

Crafting the perfect internet marketing strategy, only to have it undermined by an awkward domain name, would be almost criminal in the modern business world. If you want people to remember your domain name and ensure it will always be typed in correctly, it has to be as catchy and simple as possible.

This means anything overly long should be avoided, as are aspects that can be commonly mistyped. These include double ‘L’s or ‘T’s, unnecessary points, dashes, underscores, or numerical figures.

Company initials are good for shortening long company names, easy to remember, and are very difficult to misspell. If your company’s initials are already taken, anything else you choose should be short, sweet and to the point.

Pros and .coms

For companies based in the United States, the .com domain is still the most desirable suffix for those wanting to be seen as an authority figure in their industry. Luckily, here in Canada, the .ca domain is just as recognized, and can actually be of benefit to your company image if you’re looking to serve mainly local customers.

Depending on the nature of your business, the recently released batch of new gTLDs (generic top level domains) can also help you to project the right image from the extension on your domain name. Although .gov has long been used by government sites, .edu by educational facilities and .org often used by non-profits, the options now include such evocative terms as .guru, .consulting, .world, and .ninja, extensions that are regularly played with in the world of the modern internet marketing strategy.

Smart use of any of these can result in a more memorable domain name for your business than .com ever could, meaning a little time and research before deciding on yours is highly recommended.

Domain event

If you are planning different campaigns, either as part of your internet marketing strategy or offline marketing, another tip is to create multiple domain names that include different keywords related to your business. These could be your location, your product or service, the benefit your product or service gives to your customers, or a combination of any of the above.

By registering bestpizzaincalgary.com or imhungrynow.ca, you can use them as a split test to see which yields the better results, both as part of your internet marketing strategy and on print material like flyers or distributed menus.

We’re often asked ‘what’s in a name?’ When it comes to domains, with all the options out there and the pitfalls inherent in choosing a bad one, there’s actually quite a lot. Take the time to make sure you get yours right.

To watch one of our one minute tips on this same subject, follow us on Youtube!

https://youtu.be/VvXBlNXdu7g

Why Your Facebook Reach has Bombed and How to Fix It

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

Since its inception around a decade ago, Facebook has grown and evolved into something far bigger and far different to anything the creators could ever have imagined.

Beginning life as a social network exclusively for Harvard students, the site has since expanded globally to become what is essentially the world’s largest database of potential customers for those wishing to advertise to them as part of their digital media marketing. In a manner of speaking, Facebook has left school and gone to work.

For enterprises of all sizes, from the multinational to the sole trader, having a Facebook business page has become almost a prerequisite. As one of the most successful companies of all time though, Facebook has of course recognized the power it possesses in controlling both the advertising platform and the audience.

Unfortunately for those with fan or business pages, Facebook has recently made changes to take advantage of this power, which has meant these pages’ organic reach have plummeted. If you’ve found this happening to your own page and affecting your digital media marketing, read on to find out why and how you can fix it.

Pay to play

Companies as successful as Facebook don’t often leave money on the table. If you’ve seen your Facebook digital media marketing efforts bringing increasingly worse returns, it will be due to the site changing their regulations and, more importantly, their algorithm.

From now on, business page posts will no longer show up in people’s news feeds in the way that personal updates do. The reason your engagement has bombed is because nobody is seeing your posts; and if nobody is seeing them, what is the point in even posting them?

There is however something you can do, and it goes back to Facebook not leaving money on the table.

Every time you post, you have the option of boosting it. Boosting a post is essentially paying to advertise it, either to people who already like your page or to the wider Facebook community as a whole. The typical cost works out to be around six dollars a day, but there really isn’t any way around it. Now, if you want to play, you have to pay.

What to boost

It’s no secret that visual posts tend to get more engagement than those featuring text and links only, so it follows that these are the best type of posts to spend your money on boosting.

Facebook however does set guidelines that all advertisers using the platform for their digital media marketing must follow, with the 20% rule in particular concerning the amount of space in an image that is taken up by text. By overlaying a 25-box grid over your image, Facebook can see how many of these boxes feature your text. Any more than 5 means you will have violated Facebook’s 20% policy, which will prevent your post from being boosted.

Ensuring your posts are more visual than promotional is vital if you want to remain in Facebook’s good books.

Who to boost to

Although Facebook has begun to charge money to allow you to reach its massive database of users, the good news is that the database itself is still there, and Facebook’s boost options allow you great flexibility in who you want to see your boosted posts. The ability to target posts and adverts with such precision is a dream come true for those involved with digital media marketing, which is why Facebook is so confident in its recent algorithm changes.

Depending on the nature of your posts, you can boost those about new products to people who already like your page, boost posts introducing your company to friends of those who like your page, and even tailor your boosts to certain geographical locations, age ranges, gender, and general interests.

The ease with which Facebook provided a world of potential customers for free to those in digital media marketing was never going to last forever, but by knowing why your engagement has been worsening and knowing how to set it right, you can steal a march on those who may still be unaware of the recent changes.

http://bit.ly/Facebook-Grid-Tool-1

If your business serves homeowners, you need to know about Houzz

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

If you’re a designer, contractor or professional that provides services to homeowners, you need to know about Houzz- the new social media site specifically for homeowners to connect with providers.

This article will give you all the info you need to know about marketing your business on Houzz to get more customers.

Who uses Houzz?

Currently, Houzz has over 15 million monthly unique users – 90 percent of which are homeowners.

What is Houzz?

It’s a website where you can create an account and showcase your work. One of the biggest features to Houzz is the ability to add pictures of your past projects.

Users of the site can read reviews, see samples of your work and compare contractors before they choose the right pro for their project.

One of the reasons it’s become so popular is that it offers an ideabook, where homeowners can create a virtual scrapbook of images from contractor’s past projects.

Similar to the popular site Pinterest, Houzz is more effective in connecting contractors to homeowners because it allows direct connection, not just image collection.

Should my contracting business be on Houzz?

If you are a designer, architect, building contractor, or a professional that provides services to home owners—then Houzz is a great social media site for your business!

It’s important to know that before you sign up, that like any marketing initiative, Houzz will require time to properly build a strong profile.

As long as you frequently add images of your work, use keywords on your captions, and get your business involved in online discussions and reviews—a presence on Houzz will be a great marketing tool.

How does Houzz work to get me more customers?

Simply put, Houzz will help you get new customers by increasing your exposure to those searching for what you sell.

Not only do you get in front of Houzz users searching for service providers in your area, but Houzz profile and images can display in Google search results, giving you huge exposure to people searching for what you sell

How do I create my Houzz account for best results?

Create and complete your profile: Make sure you have a profile picture, a description of your company, and contact information.
Add pictures: The more images your company profile has the better. Provide descriptions that include your keywords with your images so other users will be able to find you through their searched keywords.
Spy on your competition: It’s a good idea to follow others in your industry to see what others companies are posting.

How do I use Houzz to get new customers?

Putting your contact information up, adding some pictures, and calling it a day really isn’t enough. Here are 5 ways to get maximum results from your Houzz marketing efforts.

Use the idea book feature:

Here’s where you can incorporate your keywords in a short description, and your website information.

Add past projects:

Here’s where you can add in the city where your project was completed to help you rank on local google search.

Tag every image with keywords:

Instead of uploading photos and leaving it at that, make sure you’re using the tagging feature to ensure your images can be found by users searching for those words.

Answer questions:

Make sure you’re checking in regularly to answer questions and engage with the homeowners that are in contact with you.

Integrate it with the rest of your marketing:

Add your Houzz profile link to your website and email signature. You may even want to mention it on your voicemail.

Maintain your account:

Be sure to add new images and projects regularly. Schedule time each day to check into your account and engage. The more activity you have, the higher you rank in search results.

If you want to discuss how to get Houzz marketing working for you, drop me an email to chat.

Social Media is Your Friend – Treat it Like One

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

From humble beginnings, social media has grown from being a way for friends to share and stay in touch to become an integral part of corporate marketing plans for the majority of today’s businesses, and some of the most successful social media campaigns in the past have transformed their respective company’s fortunes.

Unfortunately, many companies still don’t understand the key elements of good social media practices, perhaps thinking instead that merely creating profiles and sporadically updating them is somehow enough.

It isn’t.

If you’re finding your social media efforts are falling short of what you’d hoped for, you need to be thinking about why that is. While the various platforms are now used for business, we should never forget where they came from. With that in mind, and to help analyze where you might be going wrong, ask yourself this: would I want to be friends with my business social media account?

It’s all me, me, me

You’re at a party, and you meet someone new. They’re attractive, and you get chatting. Ten minutes later, they’re still chatting, and you’re still listening. Suddenly, they’re not so attractive anymore. Social media is no different. Constantly talking about your own company, products or services is a surefire way to receive zero engagement on your profiles.

Successful social media campaigns are built on likes, comments and, ideally, shares. It’s the modern day version of word of mouth. This means interacting with other people, commenting on their content, re-tweeting, sharing, and making them feel good.

Then, like meeting someone at a party and having a two-way conversation, they’ll start checking you out too. If the like what they see, they’re going to tell their friends all about you.

The boring friend

It’s not nice, but it’s a fact of life. We probably all have at least one friend who, while being really nice and a great person, is just a little bit boring. In real life, it can be hard to keep making excuses when they invite us somewhere every weekend. With social media, ignoring them couldn’t be easier.

To keep your audience engaged, at least 80% of what you post has to be entertaining, inspiring, or informative. If it isn’t, people won’t need to think up a reason to not interact with you; they will simply stop listening, and find someone who does amuse, charm, or interest them. Successful social media campaigns do this as standard.

A little less conversation

Some people just know how to hold a great conversation. They’re knowledgeable, witty, informed, and entertaining. It’s a pleasure to talk to them, and you usually look forward to their company. Occasionally though, you have to go out and find stimulation in other ways: A walk in the countryside. A movie. Rock climbing.

Successful social media campaigns will always offer more than just words. Visuals like images, infographics and videos all capture the attention more effectively than text updates ever will. They take up more screen real estate, and are eminently more shareable than simple words too.

Investing in a stock image license or making your own videos is a surefire way of getting you closer to your dream of emulating those successful social media campaigns you admire so much.

I’m washing my hair

When friends organize get-togethers, the first people that are invited are those who usually say yes; those that are consistently there. Those who often say no, who spend as much time out of the circle as they do in it, begin to lose some elements of the friendship enjoyed by those who are always there.

Social media is the same. If you want to keep your friends, your audience, you have to always be there.

Inconsistent posting leaves your profile looking half-hearted, as though it’s only updated when you have the time or inclination, and is not a priority for you. And if it isn’t a priority for you, why should it be for anyone else? Consistency builds trust, which is key in successful social media campaigns, so a regular posting schedule should be devised and stuck to. If you can’t post every day, even once a week is better than a flurry of posts together and then nothing for the rest of the month.

Start caring about what others think

If you’re going to remain friends with people, it’s important to know what they really think of you, and to know that your efforts in the relationships are being reciprocated.

Social media is no different, and tracking the results of your activity is vital if you are to learn how to improve your engagement. There are tools that enable you to check what sort of activity your social media posting results in on your website. Do visitors from Facebook stick around or bounce? Are people checking multiple pages? How much time do they actually spend on your site once you’ve managed to get them there? What types of social media posts get the best reaction?

Checking these metrics is essential for all successful social media campaigns. Only by knowing and then acting on this information can you hope to improve your relationships with your social media audience, and hope to one day turn them into friends of your business.

Expect to drop in search results if your site isn’t mobile friendly by April 21: Google

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

if you haven’t been paying attention to how your customers and the general population is obsessed with their mobile devices, now is the time to start paying attention.

If you regularly review your website statistics using tools like Google Analytics, you will have noticed that the website traffic from mobile devices has been steadily increasing to almost half, if not the majority of your website visitors.

As of 2014, mobile web usage overtook desktop usage, and to accommodate the shift in consumer behaviour, Google is laying down the law for businesses that aren’t adapting.

As of April 21st, 2015, Google announced it will start penalizing websites it’s labelled as being non mobile friendly- source Search Engine Watch- full article he re

That means if you’re concerned about where your business shows up on Google search results, you need a mobile website before April 21st.

What defines a mobile friendly website?

From Google Webmaster Tools- these are the 5 most desired elements of a mobile website:

A defined viewing area (or viewport) that adjusts to the device’s screen size.
Content that flows in the viewport, so that users don’t have to scroll horizontally or pinch the screen in order to see the entire page.
Fonts that scale for easier reading on small screens.
Easy-to-touch elements (e.g., buttons) that are well-spaced from other touch elements.
Visual design and motion driven by mobile-friendly technology.

How do I decide if I need a mobile friendly website?

First, ask yourself if you’re concerned with displaying in google search results. If you’re not, then a mobile website likely wont be as high of a priority to companies that do have their google ranking as a priority.

Then, check your website statistics to see how many visitors are using your site on a mobile device. If the bounce rate and time spent on the website is virtually the same as desktop users, than your website is working for mobile users.

Most of the time, what we see though is a higher bounce rate and drop off than with desktop users. This is a not so subtle indicator that your website isn’t working for your mobile visitors.

What are my options for getting a mobile friendly website?

You have 2 options to choose from. The first is a mobile responsive website which essentially resizes and configures your regular website to fit the wide range of screen sized of tablets and phones.

This is more expensive to set up as it involves “chopping up” the elements of your existing website. However, it gives a uniform look across all devices and doesn’t require any additional hosting fees.

The second is a mobile website, which offers a mobile targeted experience to users. Completely different, your mobile website offers larger navigation and a simplified version of your existing site.

The mobile site offers a better experience for mobile users, with enlarged text and menu buttons, but does have the downside of additional hosting fees.

Both options can be created for you in about a week’s time by any web development company.

You may have also heard of branded apps for your business, which are valuable as well, and are generally considered the next step after getting a mobile website for your business.

How are mobile website visitors different than desktop users?

Most often, mobile website visitors are trying to accomplish a very specific transactional goal when they come to your website.

They’re often en route, and need directions, hours and contact information readily available. So, make sure this information is easy to find.

Mobile users are typically very impatient as well. Your mobile friendly site needs to load fast to avoid users leaving right away.

They don’t need a detailed paragraphs about your companies founder or hard to use drop down menus. Think of your own experience on mobile websites to get an idea of the type of experience that would be ideal.

Some Interesting Mobile Usage Stats:

View our latest mobile website launch (on a mobile device)

If you have questions about, or need help launching a mobile website before April 21st, get in touch via the comments below, or contact us

Put your LinkedIn Profile to Work for You Today

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

The world of online sales is constantly changing, constantly evolving, and constantly becoming a more competitive and crowded market for sellers who are all trying to catch the attention of the same group of potential buyers.

A good social media plan should be a part of any online marketing campaign, but even with the usual suspects of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, the message can still come across as being a touch faceless.

Fortunately, there is one social media platform that is perfect for making personal connections with potential customers. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked by sellers who may not understand the real value of spending time on their profile, networking, and content.

LinkedIn was designed specifically to connect professionals in a suitable, dedicated online environment, and top sellers know this. That is why they may spend up to six hours a week on LinkedIn. It’s part of their social media plan, and here are some tips to help make it part of yours too.

Look your best before your guests arrive

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and nothing looks worse on business social media than an incomplete profile. Like any platform used in your social media plan, the single most important thing to make sure of on LinkedIn is that your profile is 100% complete.

A photograph is essential, as nobody will want to deal with a profile without one. Remember also that LinkedIn is a business site, and you picture should reflect that. Professional headshots work better than a picture of you waterskiing.

Add a summary with all of your previous work history, including volunteer work and internships, and anything else you think might make a potential customer want to work with you. LinkedIn will even tell you on the right hand side how close to being complete your profile is.

Once you’re sure you’re looking good, you can invite anyone you know to connect with you. LinkedIn allows you to import your entire email contact list, which saves you the time and effort otherwise spent looking for them.

On LinkedIn, content is still king

Just like any other platform that is used in a social media plan, uploading content is a surefire way of being noticed on LinkedIn. Video or relevant images work well, as does linking to articles that you think will be valuable to your potential customers. They could be useful pieces you’ve seen elsewhere on the web, or links to your own company or personal blog. Sharing your own content should of course be another part of your social media plan.

If you have something to say but nowhere else to say it, it’s possible also to publish long form articles straight onto LinkedIn and have them show up in a very large sphere of LinkedIn members. Doing so can help you get recognized as an authority figure on a certain topic, and at the very least be a way of getting more eyes on your profile.

Whether posting links, long form articles, or just short status updates, remember to always add media. Even a simple image will be more eye-catching than just text, and will be far more likely to be shared into circles that you might not yet be in.

Professional social network is social

Despite being designed for professionals to connect with each other, LinkedIn is still is a social network, and that means you should be using it to be social.

This doesn’t mean taking vital time away from everything else you have to do in the working day. As part of your overall social media plan, just seventeen minutes a day spent liking, commenting on, or sharing your prospects posts will make them notice you, and encourage them to return the favor with your content too.

This has two main benefits; you will remain at the forefront of your prospects’ mind, and your content will be seen by people outside of your own circle, with a personal recommendation by proxy from your potential client.

Another way of interacting with people in your community is to make sure you give as many recommendations as you truthfully can. Similar to liking and sharing content, people will return the favor, and more recommendations for you will mean more credibility, increasing the likelihood of prospects taking you seriously.

With other social networks, it can be difficult to add a personal touch to business profiles without losing the professional message. For salespeople, LinkedIn is the perfect way to promote yourself personally as a respectable businessperson, and should be included in any relevant social media plan. Just make sure you follow our tips to maximize your LinkedIn potential.

Web Marketing Maestro

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

Do you love digital marketing? Self identify as a leader? Generally win at anything you put your hand to?

Your uncommon devotion to your vision and instinctual ability to draw out the strengths of those around you to achieve truly exceptional results.

An adept communicator, you’re looking for just the right place to spread your wings and mastermind like you were born to.

If this sounds familiar, you may be just the digital marketing maestro we’re looking for!

Are you an experienced or formally trained marketer?
Can you track and manage dozens of simultaneous priorities with a strong planning system?
Do you love the strategic and analytical planning process that goes into executing phenomenal marketing campaigns?
Are you a perfectionist who cares about getting the smallest thing just right?
Can you write well and communicate with everyone from the delivery person to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company?
Do you have the initiative to proactively seek out ways to solve problems and improve things before you are asked?
Are you passionate about improving the status quo?
Are you an upbeat, energetic person that loves helping business owners benefit from the technology that is a part of your day to day life.

You’re looking for a modern agency that is flexible and on the cutting edge of what’s possible in lifestyle design.

You’re unique and you expect your working life to reflect that.

Overview:

You role is integral to delivering excellent results to our clients.

Working with our talented team, you weave their skills and your own expertise together to craft, execute and measure ongoing digital marketing deliverables. Ensuring the utmost in quality is adhered to, you’re also adamant things get done on time and on budget.

Your dedication & enthusiasm inspires those around you to give their best, and enjoy doing so.

You like working with a well established firm, but one that is small and flexible enough to grow with, and have an impact on.

Role:

Work with the team to create, plan and execute digital marketing projects.
Project management, quality control and specification assurance
Liaise between contractors and vendors to realize project goals.
Personally execute some tasks as needed.
Fulfil production quotas; meeting & exceeding billable hour benchmarks.
Internal & external communication as required.
Act as an ambassador to the organization- actively contribute to brand building and engagement with the community via social channels.
Stay on the cutting edge of relevant developments in Site, Search & Social Marketing
Ongoing collaboration with the President to create & execute best practices across all areas of the organization.

We are:

A Western Canadian based digital marketing agency. The business owners that work with us watch their sales soar through Site, Search & Social media.

We harness the power of the internet to help people live better lives: that applies to our team, our clients, our communities and entrepreneurs as a whole.

We are in our 9th year in business and as demand for our services grows, we’re excited to continue our steady growth strategy.

Primarily serving clients in Alberta & BC, we also work with clients worldwide.

Soft skills:

Great attitude; Positive & Proactive
Strategic, Analytical Thinker
Detail Oriented
Ability to adapt to change/willing to learn
Ability to manage multiple overlapping projects
Technically savvy, comfortable
Team management and coordination experience
Previous marketing experience required
Excellent communication skills: written and verbal
Sales experience an asset
Experience working in a web development firm an asset

Hard skills/tools:

Google suite of products: analytics, adwords, docs, drive, g+ hangouts and social
Social media accounts existing and utilized: Facebook, twitter, linkedin, google plus, Pinterest, instagram,
Ad management -Facebook, google
Emarketing software: mailchimp, constant contact
Basecamp
Project planning experience: specification creation, creative brief, scheduling.

Compensation:

Starting at $30k/annum depending on suitability, experience.
Additional earning potential based on commissions, additional projects.

Perks:

Work from anywhere that has an internet connection & cell phone reception
Very flexible & fun work environment
Very high upward mobility
Regular contests & prizes

Control Your Email Habits Before They Control You

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

As a small business owner, few things are more important than good productivity and effective time management. Unfortunately, these aren’t always easy to achieve; especially when there’s Facebook to check, blogs to read, and a steady stream of emails to reply to.

Unlike Facebook and blogs though, email is something that no small business owner can or should avoid in the working day. The problems come when too much time is spent reading and rereading them while taking no action.

As we use MailChimp for our email marketing campaigns, we’re able to monitor our subscribers’ email habits. A few of the trends we’ve noticed from looking at this information is rather shocking; some people are actually opening our emails on up to 21 separate occasions.

Clearly this is a huge waste of time, and has prompted us to share a few tips on how to control your email habits before they control you.

Self-control with a self-timer

Assigning yourself a set amount of time for each task every day is a great way to ensure you don’t spend too long on just one and neglect the others. You can even set aside times for getting your fix of the non-work websites that are usually a constant temptation and distraction.

One of the most popular time management systems is the Pomodoro Technique, a method of assigning yourself medium length blocks of dedicated work time, usually around twenty five minutes long, interspersed with short breaks of five or ten minutes.

Giving yourself twenty five minutes of concentrated email time, perhaps two or three times a day if need be, will help to focus your mind on the task at hand, while giving yourself a guilt-free five or ten minute window to check Facebook or browse some blogs to refresh your mind in between.

Accountability looks good on paper

If you find yourself quickly checking your email and taking no action constantly throughout the day, it might shock you to learn just how many times you do this, even if the accumulative time spent doing so isn’t that much.

Every time you turn your mind to your email, no matter how briefly, you’re taking it away from all the other important tasks that need your attention too.

It’s natural to tell yourself you don’t do this too often while underestimating the real figure, but having a pen and paper with you and keeping a record of how many times you idly check your email throughout the day will help you see just how often you do so, which will in turn give you the visual evidence you might need to control this habit.

This technique isn’t restricted to just your email habits, either. Keeping track of how many times you unconsciously open a social media page or look at blogs you don’t actually read can help you cut down on that habit too.

Another type of game theory

One irrefutable fact of life is that people are more likely to work on tasks if they enjoy them. Another fact of life is that nobody enjoys wading through a backlog of emails. The obvious solution here then is to somehow make email a fun endeavor, and eliminate the boredom that constantly drives people back to browsing social media and non-work related blogs. If only there were a way.

Welcome to the Email Game.

Easily found on Google, the Email Game is a web application that turns the task of clearing your inbox into something enjoyable, which of course helps motivate you to get through them quickly, eliminating the bottleneck that is your inbox and freeing you up to get on with the next thing on your to-do list.

Take control of your email habits today

Spending time on email every day is unavoidable for small business owners, but nurturing good habits can ensure that time is spent well rather than wasted. Every minute saved on not idly checking your inbox can be spent on something more productive.

It can even be reassigned and become time reserved for browsing social media, reading blogs, or any other leisure activity that can help relax your mind and maintain your concentration on the important tasks of the day.

Using Google Analytics to Measure your Web Marketing: Part One

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

While many business owners and CEO’s know they need to measure the results of their marketing, many don’t measure beyond the sales generated.

Being aware of broader trends and areas of improvement help maximize the returns you’re getting from your web marketing and help you make better business decisions.

One way to measure your web marketing is leverage a free Google Analytics account to measure your website performance statistics.

Using Google Analytics to Measure your Web Marketing.

Part One- setting up your account.

If you don’t already have a google account, sign up for one and save your password in a safe place. Then, go to google.com/analytics and sign in.

Add in your website URL, country, Industry and fill out any other fields requested.

You’re almost done with your set-up, there’s one last critical step. Google Analytics will provide you with a tracking code which must be embedded in your website. Send this code to your web developer to add, and verify it’s working.

Then, schedule a reminder for yourself every 30 days to look at your stats, or ensure you’re getting a report from your web marketing team.

Part Two- getting familiar with your web visitor behaviour.

Once your account is created, click on your web address, and then on the left select Audience> Overview. You can choose your date range and even compare against past data using the tab on the top right.

Below is a screenshot comparing an overview of two months of web traffic. We’ll cover each metric and how to interpret it.

measuring web marketing

A session is defined as the period of time a user is actively engaged with your website. Typically, you want to see this number increase each month.
A user is a person who has had at least one session within the date range.
Typically you want to see this number increase each month as well.
Page views is the total number of pages viewed. This number should also increase each month.
Pages per session shows the average pages per session- or, how engaged your web users are with your website. A great benchmark to aim for is 4-5 pages per session.
Average session duration is how may minutes and seconds each session is. This is also an indicator of user engagement and this number should be increasing rather than decreasing.
Bounce rate is the percentage of users that land on your site and exited without interacting with the page. This number should be decreasing rather than increasing.
% of new sessions is an estimate of the percentage of first time visits. Typically this number should be increasing month over month.

By looking at this overview you can get a good idea of how engaged the traffic to your website is and measure your web marketing progress each month.

Next, we will find out specifically where your website traffic is coming from.

Click on Acquisition > Overview.

This chart shows the quantity and quality of the last two months of web site traffic. The blue lines are the most recent month, and the orange are the month previous.

Organic Search Traffic is defined as users that come to your website from a search they’ve done on a search engine.
Direct traffic is traffic that comes to your website by typing in your website address into the address bar.
Social traffic is traffic that comes to your website through sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc.
Referral traffic are website visitors that have come to your site from another website that links to yours.
Email traffic are website visitors that have come to your website by clicking a link in email.

What this shows us is all traffic, from all sources, except email is up. The decrease in new sessions suggests more repeat traffic.

The behaviour of these users shows that the traffic from organic search has an increased bounce rate, which is bound to happen with the huge increase in traffic.

The culprit for the overall website increased bounce rate is the large jump in the bounce rate from our email traffic. This tells us that perhaps we’re not doing the best job of engaging users from our last email newsletter.

In our next post we’ll cover how to determine what types of content is working, and what types of traffic are the best to cultivate.

What has been your experience with measuring your web marketing? Do you review your metrics regularly? Let us know in the comments below!

Don’t forget, sharing is caring, if you found this post useful please share!

3 Signs Your Email Habits Are Ruining Your Business.

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Laurel Lindsay

Today I want to talk about how email could be ruining your life as a small business owner and more importantly, what you can do about it!

A symptom of having an improper relationship with your email is the frequency and amount of time you spend checking it, and not getting other things in your business done.

We use MailChimp for our email marketing software and I’m shocked to see that sometimes people are checking emails and opening our email 21 different times!

That shows a sort of paralysis when it comes to decision-making, “Should I reply? Should I delete it? Should I respond?” and being tied to your email with all these technology devices like our phones and iPads and our laptops mean that a lot of people – myself included – feel very much tied to our email so we are constantly checking it and not getting a lot of other important things done.

So here are three tips to manage your email instead of having it take over your life.

So the first thing you can do is set a timer so you are checking your email say, for example three times a day for 30 minutes. When that timer goes off you stop.

The second thing to do is actually make a little tick using a pen or a pencil on a piece of paper noting how many times a day you are actually opening your email and maybe not responding but just leaving emails sitting there.

The third tip and what I really love is this thing called the email game. So, it’s a game that actually helps you get through your backlog in a fun way- perfect if you have a bunch of emails in your box that you just haven’t acted on and get that all cleaned out for you.

That’s your one minute tip! If you liked this please share and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel!

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Author Archives: Laurel Lindsay