The First Two Marketing Tools Every Business Needs

No matter whether you are a one man shop or a startup with major financial backing hiring a hundred employees, the first two marketing items your business needs are a website and business cards.

Why a website?  In this uber digital age, every business has to depend on their website to tell their story.  Even back just less than 10 years ago, if you needed a plumber, you would pull out your phone book and “let your fingers do the walking”.  When you found the listing for the local plumber, you gave him a call.  But in today’s world, most of us “have an app for that”.  So, in today’s digital age, you also have to be sure you’re using the correct content to drive your site to the top of the search engines.

Also at the top of your needs list, business cards are the most inexpensive and highly used face of your business.  They give everyone you meet a quick snap shot of your company.  With a catchy logo and unique design, you can make a lasting impression that will drive business your way.  So, if you’re just starting out or trying to decide where best to put your marketing dollars, make sure you have done these two things well.

For help with a website or the right business cards for you, or to answer any questions you may have, don’t hesitate to contact us!!

Email us at Marketing@NEX21.com

Social Media Place is a division of NEX21 Media, LLC. NEX21 Media is a proud member of the Birmingham Business Alliance, Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce, and The Better Business Bureau.

What Can Google Analytics do for You?

Do you really know who is checking out your web-site?  Do you need a Blog???  How do you know?   Then the first place to start is Google Analytics (GA), it is the most widely used website statistics service.  The basic service is free of charge but there is a fee for the premium version.  It tracks visitors from all referrers, including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, e-mail marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.
GA's approach is to show high-level, dashboard-type data for the casual user and more in-depth data further into the report set.  GA analysis can identify poorly performing page with techniques such as funnel visualization, where visitors came from (referrers), how long they stayed and their geographical position. It also provides more advanced features, including custom visitor segmentation.

Integrated with AdWords, users can now review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals).  Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file.  (source Wikipedia)

Here are 4 tips to remember when getting started:  (source toprankblog.com by eprokop 1) 

1. Filter Irrelevant Traffic:
Throw out the ad and keep the good…Some good filters to start with are:
* Traffic from your company’s internal IP addresses.
* Remote employee IP addresses.
* External consultants or venders, such as outsourced web development or marketing teams.
* Your home IP address if you plan on checking your website from home.

2.Set Up Goal Tracking:
This is very important part of planning your website, whether your website’s goals are to sell products, answer customer service inquiries, capture leads, or get visitors to view certain pages, the goals for your website should reflect your overall business goals.  Measuring your site’s performance in regards to goal completions is the most important application of web analytics, so it’s essential that you setup goals as early as possible.
* Sales
* Feed subscriptions
* Call back requests
* Lead captures

3.  Set Up Custom Alerts
Custom alerts allow you to rest easy between analytics sessions by alerting you to significant changes in important site metrics.  Some good custom alerts to start with are:
* Big fluctuations in traffic (both positive and negative).
* High bounce rate.
* Changes in Adwords spend (for linked accounts).

4.  Create Custom Dashboards:
Custom dashboards are great time savers because they put your most important analytics data front and center. Although you may to take some to get used to using analytics before putting together your first set of custom dashboards that way you will have a better idea of which combinations of metrics will be most useful to have at a glance.
You can create up to 20 custom dashboards per profile, so don’t limit yourself. You will find that certain combinations of data naturally make sense to be reviewed together.  Some examples are:
* Traffic: total, sources (organic, paid, referral), and top keywords.
* Goal tracking: sales, subscriptions, downloads, comments, etc.
* Visitor behavior: page views, bounce rate, new vs. returning, and time on site.

For help with setting up your Google Analytics or just to answer questions you may have don’t hesitate to contact us!!

Contact us at marketing@NEX21.com, or NEX21 Media.


Social Media Place is a division of NEX21 Media, LLC. NEX21 Media is a proud member of the Birmingham Business Alliance, Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce, and The Better Business Bureau.