Landing Page – An active webpage where customers will ‘land’ when they click your ad. The web address for this page is often called a ‘destination URL’ or ‘clickthrough URL.’

Below is a list of 7 deadly sins for landing page designs. The list was taken from a webinar from Tim Ash, a consultant from Google.

Have you committed one of the “7 deadly sins of landing page design?”

1. Unclear Call to Action
   Ensure that traffic is sent to a page where the desired action is clearly defined. If you wish for them to book a room night, have a large visible button that allows the customer to book a room night.
2. Too Many Visual Distractions
   A page filled with too many visual distractions, whether its photos of products or flashing banners or AdSense ads, will likely not convert as well. Keep the page simple, clean, and to the point.
3. Too Much Text
   A landing page should not be text heavy. Keep sentences short and simple, and convey your message using bullet points.
4. Not Keeping Promises
   Your AdCopy says: Buy 2 get 1 free, but if this same offer cannot be found on the landing page, you are not keeping that promise. If you have an attractive offer in your AdCopy, make sure that it is easily found on the landing page.
5. Long Forms
   Keep forms as short and concise as possible. Only include fields where it’s absolutely essential for the existing transaction.
6. Invisible Risk Reducers
   If your business is accredited by the BBB, or if your website is hacker safe and tested on a daily basis, be sure to include these logos above the fold.
7. Trust Indicators
   If your business is highly rated or raved about by another company of trust, place that logo above the fold as well. For example, if Conde Nast named your hotel as one of the “Top 500 Hotels in the World”, adding this trust indicator will surely help increase trust, and hopefully conversion.

We are Google Adword Professionals and we can help you implement a successful search engine marketing campaign. Contact us through the blog or on our website, SalesOverNight.com. If you’re company is in the medical industry check out of dedicated medical marketing website, LEVELTWO | Medical.

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As you type into the Google search box, Google Suggest guesses what you are typing and offers suggestions. In the example above, I typed “dallas den” and Google suggested “dallas dentists.”

It works by those amazing Google algorithms that use a wide range of information to predict what you are typing into the search bar. It’s a mashup between the overall popularity of various searches and the frequency of the search. The trending topics make a big difference in how these suggestions are ranked. For example, as of this morning the hot trends in the US are “home run derby 2009 winner,” “the bechelorette finale spoilers,” and “wbcn.”

You can dig down into trending topics to see the search volume index over the past 24 hours. For example, let’s look at the last 24 hours of “home run derby 2009 winner.”

You can see that there was a spike at 8pm (PDT) that trailed off late into the night, but shot way up this morning. Understanding trends like these is important for building your search engine marketing campaign.

Since Google Suggest relies on Google Trends, the current events will guide how people search for answers. If you are an advertiser that sells home run derby memorabilia, you might receive a tremendous amount of clicks over a short period of time, but the majority of those clicks would not return sales because they are visitors looking for news coverage, they are not interested in buying a coffee mug.

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Understanding the value of keywords in online marketing and taking the relevant actions is the key to making significant profits in the industry. Understanding the power of keywords means picking the right keywords, leveraging them effectively and continuously reviewing their conversion rates.

Google is not an automatic money making machine on its own. The power of Google is in the keywords, not on Google itself. The reason that keywords are so important is simple. Keywords represent a custom built service for the Internet searcher. They ask the search engine for information on specific words and the information is returned to them. Hence the reason why the premium is attached to keywords.

The success of the online marketer is therefore linked to how well she leverages her keywords. She needs to plan them very carefully and do a lot of research. Picking effective keywords takes skill and patience. Acquiring the skill helps the online marketer remain calm under pressure.

To pick the right keywords, the online marketer must constantly watch for traffic and searches for the relevant words. If she is pursuing a cost per click advertising strategy, she must also ensure she is not paying over the odds to the point where the keywords are not delivering sufficient value to her business. To gain an indication of the value of the keywords, seek competitor information on what they are spending on the keywords.

It is also very important to note that loyalty to keywords based on an online marketer’s hunch is suicidal to her business. Over 90% of keywords lose money in cost per click advertising; therefore it is very important that the online marketer has management information on conversion rates for her keywords. She should quickly identify the ones that her making her money and ditch the rest as quickly as possible. This should be an ongoing review process as keywords do run their course. The online marketer should aim to spend the bulk of her advertising budget on around the best 5% of her keywords. This is how she can consistently make money.

Keywords and not Google is the key to making money in an online marketing business. Understanding the power of keyword leverage, being consistent and unsentimental in the use of keywords and picking the right ones are the keys to success in the industry.

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Yesterday was a big day for Mac and iPhone users. Apple hosted its annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) and announced the latest updates to their wildly popular iPhone. While the majority of the opening keynote was focused on updates to the Apple products, they did allow some time for featured developers to discuss their latest technologies using the iPhone.

A very exciting presentation was done by AirStrip Technologies. They made medical devices and their presentation at WWDC 09 was about AirStrip Critical Care which delivers real time information to practitioners like ventilator flow tracings, patient vital signs data and rhythm strips.

The medical industry is flocking to the tech market and applications like this are a glimpse into the future of healthcare. Patients are looking for their healthcare providers to take steps toward advanced technologies. It’s important that your medical company show its strong commitment to staying current and valid in today’s dynamic market.

While you may not have the ability to create your own medical technologies, there are other ways to establish a presence of innovation and we can help you do it.

We specialize in:

• creating integrated marketing campaigns that include TV, radio, print, outdoor and interactive
• developing surgical cases for healthcare facilities, surgical centers and surgeons
• ensuring your staff effectively captures and tracks leads
• patient generation for individual physicians and physician groups
• website development
• pay-per-click (sponsored keywords) to drive targeted leads
• natural/organic search engine optimization to drive targeted leads
• powerful social media tools that capture grassroot leads doing research on the web
• results that are quantifiable by our proprietary software tracking and CRM system

Find out more at LEVELTWO Medical.

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Everyone wants the success of Google and as of this morning Microsoft has launched its latest attempt at stealing some of Google’s search dominance with their release of Bing.com.

Live.com, Microsoft’s major search engine, now redirects to Bing.com. I did a quick test search comparison using our company name, LEVELTWO, and I found very different results from Google’s results for the same search. Bing returned many more social network results than Google. Our Twitter account was ranked third on Bing, which Google ranks it 8th on their search engine. I think this is a good thing since social networks will often provide more current and up-to-date information than a static website.

Videos
Another interesting (maybe annoying) feature is the autoplaying video previews. By simply holding your mouse over the video search results the video will automatically start playing with sound. While this was a cool feature, I was quickly overwhelmed with multiple videos blasting sound through my speakers. However there is a mute/unmute button on each video which makes browsing video previews much less assaulting to your ears.

Search Categories
Over on the left side of the screen you’ll find a search categories list that are dynamically generated according to your search phrase. I tried several different types of broad searches and they all returned a different list of categories to accompany my search.

Overall, I think Bing is an improvement over Live search. I don’t foresee people leaving Google to use Bing as their primary search engine, but this friendlier platform certainly makes Bing a great secondary search engine.

Bing.com

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Just this week hulu announced their new desktop viewing software. It features a sleek new look that’s optimized for use with standard Windows Media Center or Apple remote controls, allowing you to navigate Hulu’s entire library with just six buttons. While some video distribution sites might be worried about their place in the market, we are excited to see yet another step closer to the internet becoming integrated with our operating systems.

With all of the online applications now available it is not too far in the future that the internet will become the platform for all of our personal computing tasks. Maybe we’re already there! Webmail, online calendars, invoicing, faxing, making phone calls, and of course the huge popularity of iPhone apps that integrate an online cloud computing system with the mobile software.

You can do it all on the internet. If the future of personal computing is online, that’s where businesses need to focus their marketing efforts. Facebook is replacing your address book and Twitter is replacing texting. As the social networking industry works its way into our daily lives, businesses can’t afford to not be apart of the shifting technology. The search market is integrating with the social market, search is universal!

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The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, including overall cost reduction for the distribution of information and media to a much broader, even global audience. This benefit alone has given online marketing a huge marketplace advantage.

Additionally, the interactive nature of online marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, has also proved imperative in modern day marketing strategy. Below we take a look at four of the most powerful methods of online lead generation.

Search Engine Optimization

Configuring or optimizing your website with targeted keywords or phrases, also known as SEO, not only offers the most cost-effective method of promoting your business online, but with approximately 80% to 90% of all website traffic originating from search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, it is crucial to be at the top of the list. A first page position on Google can generate thousands of unique visitors to your website, generating the leads we want, affecting your bottom line.

Would you like your website to rank well in the organic results on Google, Yahoo and MSN? Would you like to see a steady increase in the amount of visitors to your website? If you answered yes to either of these questions, LEVELTWO can show you how to achieve effective and efficient search engine optimization results.

Pay-Per-Click

If your practice is new to the web and you would like to generate business from your website immediately, Pay-Per-Click advertising could be the solution you are looking for. PPC advertising offers direct advertising to millions of people per day and is targeted by specific keyword searches so you can reach your practices’ audience. Pay-Per-Click advertising is an auction-based bidding system where you compete with your peers to achieve prominent positions in the Paid Search Results.

Media Purchasing

Sometimes just getting your name out there is enough to convert a prospective patient into a real patient, but to really get the most return on your marketing investment you need strategic media purchasing.

At LEVELTWO, our specialty truly is strategy. From innovative research tools to highly targeted demographic placement, we don’t just purchase media, we generate leads with every buy. So whatever your current circumstances are we can provide direction through creative, innovative and effective marketing solutions.

Social Marketing

As the Internet continues to fuel our economy and our society, it is more important than ever to participate in social marketing. Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are just some of the social marketing networks that can do most of the work for you.

By interacting with your followers, you can not only generate leads, but you can form unique relationships with them. And we can show you how use these relationships as effective marketing tools that directly increase your bottom line.

Interested in adding one or more of these tools to your online strategy? Contact us or give us a call at 469-619-0573

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Finding a search marketing company is easy. Just do a quick search and you’ll find tons of companies demanding that they are the best. So you’ve find ‘em, the hard part is choosing which marketing agency to use for your search marketing campaign.

We’ve put together 10 questions to ask your search marketing company before you sign that contract. You’ve let the salesmen do the talking, now it’s time for you to ask some questions of your own.

1. Does the contract include ongoing maintenance? The search marketing world is always changing and if you stand still you’ll get left behind.
2. Are they certified search engine marketing professionals for the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN)?
3. Each campaign should be custom tailored for each client. Ask them if they use any template campaigns.
4. Ask if they use any blackhat tricks. Blackhat are methods that are not honest and could result in getting your website banned.
5. An honest search marketing agency will never guarantee conversions, only a specific range of traffic increase can be guaranteed. A well planned campaign will yield a return on investment, but there’s no way to predict the level of activity.
6. Ask to see example campaign landing pages or websites. What’s your first impression? Would you buy it?
7. Do they offer on-demand campaign reporting or do they email you a spreadsheet once a month?
8. Do they make use of multiple search engines? A strong SEM campaign will be diverse.
9. Be wary if they say “yes” to everything. A successful search campaign requires a minimum level of investment. If they say that $200 a month will get your website ranked first in Google you might want to get a second opinion.
10. Do they track everything about your campaign? This includes the number of people who see your ads, the number of clicks, what they do once they reach your landing page, and how many of those visitors fill out a form or call your phone number. Call tracking is key to search engine marketing.

Honesty is the best policy. We know there are a lot of other marketing agencies out there, but no matter who you choice it’s important that you are informed about what you’re getting.

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Owning a blog is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity!

The online market has changed. Customers not only expect you deliver great products and services, but they also expect you to innovate the latest technologies and provide fast customer service. A good way to help your customers and prospects stay connected to your business is by creating an online presence that keeps them updated on the latest news and trends.

We’ve heard a lot of reasons why some companies don’t want to embrace the online social networking environment and we’d like to share our thoughts on three of the most frequent arguments against social media marketing.

1. You don’t know my business like I do.
   You’re right. No one knows your products or services like you do, but you’re missing the point of a blog. It’s about delivering interesting content about your industry. Let your main website be your selling platform and use your blog to reach out to people that are interested in your industry. The blog is not a place to broadcast your sales pitch, it’s a place to connect with real people, not the mindless masses.
2. People won’t read my blog.
   Successful blogging doesn’t mean you have thousands of readers a month. A blog can be successful with only a few hundred readers, especially if you work in a small niche market. Success is measured by the amount of interaction and connectivity you make with your readers, not simply the volume of readers.
3. It won’t help me sell my products.
   Wrong. Not only will a blog help you sell more products by creating deeper relationships with your current clients, a blog and social media campaign will reach more viewers than other types of internet marketing. For example, if you advertise on a few search engines you are not reaching the vast number of other networks that people commonly use to search for information. Unless you are publishing blogs, your prospects will never find you on popular blog search engines. If you don’t create videos, you’ll never be found on a YouTube search result.

Do you have a specific question about social media marketing. We dare you to ask us about it in the comment box below.

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Question: When is the best time to deliver an ad to a prospect?

Answer: During the research phase.

So how do you do it? As business owners, how can you actively deliver your marketing message at just the right time?

Great news! There are two approaches.

#1 – Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
When a prospect types in a search phrase into a search engine that contains keywords referring to your industry niche, using search engine marketing you can deliver a relevant ad directly to them right when they are in the correct buying phase.

In this example the prospect is looking for weight loss surgery. That’s a pretty broad search phrase so you may not want to spend money on an ad for someone just in the interest phase.

So in this example the prospect is much more specific in what they are searching for and they have entered the research phase and that’s when you can deliver a powerful ad specifically tailored to their search.

Learn more about search engine marketing.

#2 – Social Media Marketing (SMM)
When a prospect searches on a social network for a specific product or service unless you have a profile setup on that specific platform they wouldn’t see your ads. By developing a social campaign that targets searches outside of the search engine realm you will gather traffic that would not find you using a search engine.

Another exciting aspect is that you can directly contact a prospect as they begin the research phase. For example if someone on Twitter asks:

You can set up an alert that tells you exactly when someone uses any keyword you specify. In this example, one of our clients wants to know anytime someone mentions their back pain. So as soon as this tweet popped up, they were able to respond with a link to their herniated disc section of their website. Now that’s powerful marketing.

Learn more about social media marketing.

LEVELTWO

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