Big Love: 5 Tips for Happily Married Blogs, CTAs & Landing Pages
November 4, 2010
Big Love: 5 Tips for Happily Married Blogs, CTAs Landing Pages
While in most cultures marriage unites two loved ones, in the world ofonline marketing marriageshould exist between all entities. The more elements from your site you connect, the happier your “household” will be.
Reinforcing the tie between your blog posts, calls-to-action(CTA) and landing pages is one example of such harmonious marketing.
As most of you know, CTAs are images with short text overlay that prompt visitors to take action, such as subscribe to a newsletter, view a webinar or request a product demo. One click on these “buttons” and the reader jumps to a landing page that will collect her contact information in exchange for a valuable marketing offer. This path from a blog post to a landing page via CTA illustrates the much desired process of lead generation.But in order to increase visitor-to-lead conversion opportunities, you will need to happily marry these three elements.
1. Craft an Offer Relevant to Each Blog Post
When designing your CTAs, make sure it resonates with the content you have introduced in the blog post. For instance, if we write about how Google Instant affects SEO, the offer at the end of the post can be related to search engine optimization.
2. Create a CTA Template Stick to It
In order to turn the production of blog CTAs into a scalable project, you might want to develop a template. Consider creating a table or putting together some raw HTML code that you can copy and paste onto your blog posts. That way, you will be consistent in your format and make visitors familiar with your blog brand.
3. Turn It into a Habit
If you don’t have the time to invest in tailoring individual calls to action for each of your blog posts, that is ok. It is still better to present one valuable offer than not give your visitors any natural extension of their reading experience. Within HubSpot’s blogging platform, for instance, you can create a footer that will allow you to add a static CTA to each of your blog posts.
4. Make CTAs Consistent with Their Landing Pages
For best results, you will need to make your call to action consistent with the landing page it links to. If the language you use on that page is too different from the CTA, it might confuse visitors and result in their leaving the page. The connection between these two lead conversion tools should be seamless.
5. Optimize Both Landing Pages Blog Posts
While blog posts are your assets that capture qualified traffic, landing pages are your assets that transform this traffic into high-quality leads. Optimize both elements well in order to excel at lead generation. You can do that by targeting the same keyword combinations. HubSpot’s Blog Optimizer, for instance, gives real-time tips about SEO elements in posts. Once you determine a strong keyphrase that your blog post will revolve around, emphasize it in your CTA and landing page.
How are you connecting the different elements on your site? Share your insights in the comments below!
Photo credit:jcoterhals
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CommentsPosted by Magdalena Georgieva on Thu, Nov 04, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HubSpot/~3/j0EXv94NvtI/Big-Love-5-Tips-for-Happily-Married-Blogs-CTAs-Landing-Pages.aspx
3 Tips for Improving eCommerce Search Engine Optimization
November 4, 2010
3 Tips for Improving eCommerce Search Engine Optimization
When Im making a purchase online I hate having to navigate through a website to find what Im looking for. Dont make me dig. Bring me to that page quickly and easily and Ill be more likely to continue through checkout without getting frustrated beforehand and abandoning the cart. 
Also, like many people Im not sure what site is going to have what I need or want and I like to explore different options, so I turn to search engines. Now, how can you get people actively seeking the products you offer to land directly on that products page on your eCommerce site?
Here are 3 tips to improving search engine optimization for your product pages:
1. Categorize and Optimize Product Page URLs
Search engines use page URLs as a major resource for understanding the content of each page of your website. By categorizing products into sections and properly describing the specific product in the page URL youll be doing a much better job of explaining to search engines and human users alike what theyll find by clicking through to that page.
For example, if you sell tennis shoes and have a selection specifically for clay court surfaces you would want your page URL to read:
http://www.yourstore.com/tennis-shoes/clay-court-tennis-shoes
This will increase the probability of ranking for long-tail keywords which typically have less competition and are extremely relevant to your product offerings
2. Add Alt-Text to Product Images
Naturally your product pages will have an image of the product. Search engines cant understand what that image is representing without you adding alt (alternative) text to the image. Make sure the alt-text is aligned with the keyword youre focusing on for that page.
Continuing with the clay court tennis shoes example, you should add the following alt-text to your HTML:
img src=claytennisshoes.gif alt= Clay Court Tennis Shoes
Note: if you have multiple images of the same product try varying the alt-text for each slightly to target variations of the same broad keyword phrase. For example, if you have a side view of the shoes you might use something like:
img src=claytennisshoesside.gif alt= Clay Court Tennis Shoes Side View
Giving images exactly the same alt-text could confuse search engine when deciding which image is representing what, so it is recommended to vary alt-text throughout the page and your site.
3. Write Creative and Enticing Meta Descriptions
Although meta page descriptions will not affect your rankings in search engine results pages, they do a great job of differentiating your webpage from others listed in SERPs and can entice a search engine user to click through to your site.
The description is a great opportunity to start selling the product. In 150 characters or less, how can you set your products apart from others or explain the benefits of going through you as a retailer. Determine what your target market cares about in making their purchasing decision and position your eCommerce website as the best solution.
These are only a few things to consider when optimizing the product pages of your eCommerce website. For a more comprehensive set of tips download our free eCommerce marketing eBook.
Free Download: Ecommerce Marketing eBook
CommentsPosted by Billy Macdonald on Thu, Nov 04, 2010 @ 02:45 PM
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HubSpot/~3/3CaNp3BbInM/3-Tips-for-Improving-eCommerce-Search-Engine-Optimization.aspx
The ‘Story’ of a Photograph
November 4, 2010
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Its the best chance to make a great first impression. In real estate, one photograph can equate to hundreds of thousands of dollarsquite an impression! Whether a home is viewed in a magazine print ad or online, there is typically one photo displayed to spark interest and set it apart from all the rest. At the level of luxury homes, that one photo is selling more than a house, but the lavish and much deserved lifestyle that it can provide. Check out this Wall Street Journal article to see examples of beautiful photographs leading to beautiful results for home sellers.
Taking a photo that captures that story is a form of art. Professional architectural photographers invest in themselves by investing in their equipment. They get the best cameras on the market with the widest angle to capture the true size of the rooms. However, more than just the equipment, it is their expertise and vision that create that amazing photograph. It is all about capturing the unique features that make the home different and so desirable.
Working in the Exceptional Properties Division where every home gets professional photography, I have had the pleasure of working with many great photographers. Some of their collective photography can be found throughout the pages of our new listing presentation.
Sometimes getting the photo that tells the correct story means taking it from a boat
Waterfront Image
Or at night for a dramatic shot
Dramatic Shot
Or sometimes the story is best told from a much higher perspective
Higher Perspective
That one photo is the sole reason for a potential buyer to call or click for additional information. All Raveis exceptional homes are featured on the homepage of raveis.com and that one photo has to entice a potential buyer to continue on to see the rest of the photo gallery as well as a virtual walk-though of the home. I am very happy that we have such great photography to work with in our advertising efforts and I want to send out a special thank you to our entire Raveis photography team!
Article source: http://blog.raveis.com/2010/11/04/home-selling-tips/
Google Instant Goes Mobile
November 4, 2010
Now Trending:
Skype Group Video Calling Comes to Mac
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/HAv1QU2sGlo/
Eric Schmidt on Google’s Foreign Policy [VIDEO]
November 4, 2010
Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave insight into the companys burgeoning international policy on Wednesday night at a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York City. Schmidt, who oversees the companys technical and business strategy, spoke about the effects of technological democratization in the modern age and some of the challenges Google faces as it drafts its early forays into diplomacy.
Schmidt iterated Googles position on Iran, the Great Firewall of China, and other countries it views as potential threats to modern Western liberalism. Googles goals, he said, are best served when the company works to serve the interests of a particular countrys citizens, rather than pick fights with that countrys government.
Weve tried that. It doesnt work, he said dryly.
Its always best for us to operate from the standpoint of the citizens in the country rather than Google against the government.
Last nights discussion was framed around a paper co-authored by Schmidt entitled The Digital Disruption: Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power, which was published in this months issue of Foreign Affairs.
Schmidt, who is also a member of President Obamas council of advisers on science and technology, was joined on stage by the papers co-author, Jared Cohen, the director of Google Ideas, a current fellow at the CFR and a former policy staffer under Secretaries of State Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton.
Some of the other points touched upon during the meeting were these:
- Googles incorporation of collaborative filtering into its search algorithm to incorporate serendipity into its search results. Collaborative filtering is a crowdsourcing method whereby the search engine will increasingly rely upon passive feedback from its users, including their search histories, to improve its predictive search results.
- The CEOs fears for the digital future: He fears the rogue, empowered crazy person who can use digital democratization for a negative end.
- Schmidts take on the contentious Malcolm Gladwell piece in The New Yorker, which suggested that the revolutionary effects of social media have been greatly exaggerated in cases like Moldova and Iran.
Schmidt agreed with Gladwell on at least one point: that past revolutions tended to take place because of strong bonds, of small groups of people willing to risk their lives for social change. Current technology, thus far, has merely enabled weak bonds, diffused among too many people. (Think about the number of social good causes people support on Facebook versus the effect their support actually has.) This, however, is changing, Schmidt said. The next generation of mobile technology is all about tight bonds.
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/opzmhA317f8/
OpenTable Seated 15.4 Million Diners in Q3 2010
November 4, 2010
Online and mobile reservation service OpenTable released its third-quarter financial results, which showed significant year-over-year gains in revenue, restaurant installations and total seated diners.
Most notably, the publicly traded company posted $24.5 million in total revenues for Q3 2010, a 44% increase over the same quarter last year.
OpenTable is also reporting a 52% increase in year-over-year diners with 15.4 seated diners for this past quarter. The company now says it has an client base of 13,025 restaurants in North America a 26% increase since September 30, 2009.
CEO Jeffrey Jordan also revealed in an interview with Barrons West Coast Editor Eric Savitz at the FASTech conference earlier today that OpenTable will now focus on international expansion efforts in the U.K., Germany and Japan.
In September, OpenTable acquired U.K. competitor TopTable for $55 million. Jordan disclosed that the deal was nine months in the making, but now that its closed, the company can work to aggressively expand beyond its existing 2,000-restaurant base in the U.K.
One thing we found particularly insightful is the fact that OpenTable generates a significant majority of traffic from its own mobile applications and website. Jordan shared that, in aggregate, the companys numerous syndication partners YelpYelp
, Zagat, GoogleGoogle
, CitySearch etc. only generate a fraction of OpenTable reservations, 5% to 10% to be exact.
OpenTable shares saw a 10.78% bump today following yesterdays financial report, closing at $68.02. All signs indicate that OpenTable is a financially sound company.
Plus, while Jordan wouldnt reveal financial specifics around the companys newly started deal initiative, he did go so far as to say that Spotlight has, generated interesting revenue pretty quickly.
Image courtesy of FlickrFlickr, Robert Scoble
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/SNKDfi2gIxg/
Sharp to Launch Two 3D Android Handsets
November 4, 2010
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A Glimpse at the Future of Foursquare
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/ptH_ogxIph4/
Southwest Airlines
November 4, 2010
Okay, let me just say that I love Southwest Airlines. I showed up to the counter with my bike box, two large bags and my carry-on laptop bag. I payed $50 for the bike; that was it! And now I get to the gate and they have specially made, large, cushioned seats with outlets for laptops, or phones, or whatever! Now why can’t all airlines follow suit?
Can’t believe the race is finally here. Three days until the off-season. I really don’t feel as though I’ve been training hard for the past twelve months and to be honest and am not sure how I’m going to deal with taking an extended break from training; three weeks of absolutely nothing…I’m hoping this will let my lingering calf strain finally heal.
It’s funny, as I look around I see a few people who are wearing their “Ironman” clothing from other races. I always wonder why people are so into wearing these clothes to races as if to say “look at me”. Who cares! You spend a ton of money not only on the races, travel but also on Ironman clothing that is ridiculously over-priced. Yes, I will admit I am guilty of this to some degree; buying some of those clothes. But I would never one to wear these things while traveling, etc.
