Maybe you’ve finally decided to take the plunge and start to do e-mail marketing, but you’ve heard about regulations and wonder where to learn more? E-mail marketing is a great way to stay in touch with customers or prospects when done correctly, but there are definitely rules and regulations a business must follow! Read all about the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM Act and its requirements by clicking the link below.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

Be sure to read the details and regulations about e-mailing marketing before starting your first campaign. If you do not comply with these rules, you might just be sorry later on.

Have you heard all the talk about landing pages? Much like a landing strip for airplanes to land upon, a landing page is where you want internet searchers to land (once they have clicked on your online ad), so you can show your custom messages to them. You wouldn’t want an airplane to land on the grass, now would you? The landing strip is smooth and long enough for the pilot to land carefully and safely. That’s because it’s MEANT to be landed on. The landing page is a similar concept. You purposefully develop a page on which you would like internet searchers to land. If you are currently doing online advertising or are interested in giving it a try, maximize your efforts by creating landing pages with these rules of thumb:

• Develop different landing pages for each subject/ad you are running. You want your visitors to know they are in the right place, so they don’t click away!
• Have one clear, compelling call to action. Clearly show people what you want them to do, whether it’s to fill in a form, buy a product, call you, or something else
• Keep the landing page clean and simple. Don’t clutter the page with lots of text and confusing layout. Make it simple, so people can easily find what they are looking for quickly.
• Keep your fulfillment form simple. Don’t ask your customers or prospects to fill in 20 questions-- internet searchers want information fast.
• Use short, simple points instead of lengthy paragraphs. Long paragraphs don’t work on the internet, where people want to get their information and go.

Having specific landing pages for your online marketing can drastically improve your results, and can also reduce your costs.

Surely you are busy managing your business, and as you are chugging along, a nagging voice keeps saying, “Why don’t you have a Web site yet? You should get one. Everybody says you need one…”

I know, I know, creating a Web site can be a daunting task! But, there are some real benefits, even for the smallest businesses. Here are some reasons you DO need a Web site for your business.

• People can find your business. Where are people going to find your business? Sure, they may look in the yellow pages or ask a friend, but let’s face it. These days people can quickly do internet searches, even from their phone when they are out driving! If your business doesn’t show up when they are searching, you just lost business. Having a Web site can help those people find you.
• People can learn about the products and services you offer. A Web site is an excellent place to show people what your company does. Sure, you already have your company catalog but people cannot search through it at their leisure while sitting at home, drinking a cup of coffee (unless they happen to have a copy of it at their home). By listing all of your products and services on your site, customers and prospects both can learn about things they didn’t know you offered. And, this means increased sales for you.
• People may perceive your business as old-fashioned without a Web site. I know business owners who say, “A Web site does no good for me. I get all my business from word-of-mouth advertising.” While this may be completely true, that same person doesn’t even know the business they are missing out on because they have never had a Web site. If people go searching for you on the internet by your business name and no results come up, it can leave them wondering if your business is old-fashioned or unprofessional, or even out of business. Even a simple Web site that is informative can make a big difference!

When you search for things on the internet, do you ever wonder how those “Sponsored Ads” appear alongside the regular search results? Those ads are in fact paid advertisements. Companies pay for ads that show up based on the words people type in, or based on the content people are looking at. Companies use pay per click advertising as a way to draw people to their Web site. Here is a very general overview of how it works:

1. You choose the keywords you want people to find your ads with.
2. You write ads that match up with the keywords.
3. You pay only when people click on your ads.

Of course, there is quite a lot more to it than this, but this is the general idea. There are many different pay per click marketing programs available. Google’s program is called “Google AdWords”.

The good thing about pay per click marketing is that you get to choose how people find you, and you only pay when somebody clicks on your ad. However, if you do try pay per click marketing, be sure to be specific enough in your efforts that you don’t get meaningless clicks, yet not too specific that you don’t get any clicks at all. The key is to find a good balance between those two.

To learn more about Google AdWords pay per click marketing programs, visit this link:
http://www.google.com/adwords/smallbusinesscenter.