Got a special service or demographic you want to target on your website? This happens frequently in business – a change in direction, a new partnership, even a special event you want your online visitors to focus on. Usually it’s something big enough to need more functionality than just a new page or posting, but not big enough to wipe out all of the SEO, design, content and other work you’ve done on your site by starting from scratch.

The answer to your quandary might be to build yourself a Microsite. A Microsite is a smaller, more simple website – a subset of your main website – that’s extremely focused for a specific reason. Usually Microsites are heavily optimized for a small set of specific keywords and phrases, are geo-targeted and meant for a particular demographic or to achieve a particular goal.

Think of Microsites as another channel in your digital marketing toolbox, somewhere between email marketing and SEO of your main site. Like email, a Microsite is targeted for a certain subset of your audience, complete with targeting and specific calls-to-action. And, like your main site, it’s a live website with a full complement of keywords and SEO, designed to attract a certain segment of online search for a specific purpose. (more…)

Download our new whitepaper & then register now for Tuesday’s webinar.

eCommerce has accelerated the creation and exponential growth of the web as the  largest marketplace in history. The rewards of global e-commerce are nearly endless – and by now you must realize that a global view for your online store is absolutely critical.

A company that can successfully expand and embrace a global market – with tactics to address internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) – immediately gets access to seven billion potential buyers, from hundreds of cultures. These aspects, however, if they’re to be done right, are anything but small tasks.

To get a jump on the competition, or to check your current process against solid, winning results, download our most recent whitepaper,” Key Factors to Consider When Going Global with Your eCommerce Initiatives,” and then plan to join us for a free, live webinar on the subject. (more…)

Keeping even your most fickle customers can be easy, if you provide the right experience.

Even the most savvy internet marketers among us usually agree: online sales are most often lost at the checkout. And why would we not believe that, when you consider the fact that 51% of all shopping carts end up abandoned? A commonly accepted reason for this are that onerous shipping charges prompt shoppers in this direction – if it’s not free, or at least damned cheap, they drop the cart altogether.

That belief, it turns out, is a little off the mark. In fact, it’s simply untrue, according to Bridgeline’s latest eBook, “Web Experience Management: Secrets to Closing the Sale Before the Customer Checks Out of Your Website.”

The truth is that sales are lost long before your customer reaches the checkout phase. According to the eBook, “Somewhere in the web experience, the customer lost faith in the product, the company or the website – maybe even all three.” It’s an overall lack of a satisfying shopping experience, says Bridgeline, that  ultimately kills sales – in the same way a badly written plot leaves a film with no definable aftertaste, and therefore makes it merely forgettable. (more…)

According to some new figures reported recently, mobility is still on the path to becoming king of the interactive hill. For the first time, use of mobile apps has overtaken time spent on the web by just about 8 minutes per day. With an ever increasing number of devices in your customers’ hands, that trend means more – and changing – opportunities for success in marketing.

It also means that now more than ever it’s imperative that you’re well represented in the mobile space. There’s no question that your business will benefit from a mobile presence – and the smarter, more relevant and beneficial platform you use to broadcast it, the better. But which platform is best for your needs? Should you develop a mobile app, or a mobile version of your website? (more…)

Mr. Owl and a Tootsie Pop

I recently came across this discussion thread on the LinkedIn Group Content Management Professionals (CMPros) – How Long Should a CMS Implementation Take? It reminded me of the old Tootsie Pop commercial from when I was a kid – How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop (click here for a walk down memory lane). As the little boy goes from animal to animal asking the question, they all keep pushing him to the wise Mr. Owl. Mr. Owl attempts to illustrate the answer but his own impatience causes him to bite after three licks and thus declares the answer to be three.

A CMS implementation can be like that sometimes. Maybe it’s not impatience that dictates how long the project should take – but there are certainly many factors that play into this. What is for sure is that there is no one answer – except that it all depends. Certainly there are right ways and wrong ways to implement a CMS, but within the context of “right ways” (we’ll assume for the sake of this post that we’re only dealing with the “right way”), it’s really a matter of what’s right for your organization, business needs, and yes, budget.

So, as there are such a wide range of factors that can play a role – from the research/discovery phase, where we learn exactly how the CMS needs to fit and function in your environment, all the way to the final product launch – there are some core elements that can play a huge role in project timing (whether you’re deploying a licensed or open source solution): (more…)

We hear about the many facets of Search Engine Optimization all the time (thank you, Kasy). But, what about internal site search? Getting visitors to your site is only part of the battle. Giving visitors the tools to search your site plays an important role in successfully directing conversions.

Last weekend I began searching for all inclusive trips to Mexico through expedia.com. While expedia offers some important filters (date range, departure city, arrival city, hotel star rating), there was one major filter missing: Adults Only. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a camp counselor my entire adult life and love kids, but when I want to vacation, I want to escape everything including kids. So my frustration rose as I tried searching “Adults Only” within the hotel name and scanning the brief descriptions within my search results for the key words indicating my vacation would be kid free.

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