All Posts By

Mike Morris

ContentLanding PagesMarketingWeb Design

Maximize Online Conversions with Landing Pages (Part 2)

In our previous blog, we looked at how to get started with using landing pages to increase online conversions. This go-around we’ll delve into what makes a landing page truly great, and better yet, truly effective. Let’s get started! Headlines On your landing page, you need to have a headline and it needs to clearly communicate what you propose to do for your customer. Your headline should be bold and short. If you feel like you have a lot you must cram into your headline, your best bet is to break it up into a headline and then a sub-header. For example, which do you think would be most effective on a landing page: Our Software Download Can Find All…
Mike Morris
July 12, 2016
Landing PagesWeb Design

Maximize Online Conversions with Landing Pages (Part 1)

With a great marketing plan, you can get customers’ attention with a terrific email campaign or online ad. But what happens when they click through? Are you sending them to your home page? (gack!) Don’t waste the opportunity to convert. Use customized landing pages to guide your customer in the right direction. What is a landing page? A landing page is a specially-designed webpage that complements your ad or email campaign and directs the user to finish the transaction. In any campaign, you have three choices where to send your viewers: your home page, an internal page (such as a product page, service page, blog post), or a landing page. A great landing page will be similar in style and…
Mike Morris
July 1, 2016
Small BusinessWeb Security

Defending your Small Business from Ransomware

According to Trend Micro, a premier online security expert, incidents of ransomware are exploding in 2016. They’ve declared 2016 “the year of online extortion.” Sounds scary and expensive, especially if you are a small business owner. How do you keep your company’s valuable files and customer data safe and out of the hands of malware attackers? What is Ransomware? Ransomware is a malicious online virus. Once it gains access to your computer, it quickly spreads throughout all files on your server and hard drive and encrypts them, rendering them unusable. Most of the time, the user is completely unable to access their files. After the virus has done it’s dirty work, a pop up or other type of warning will appear…
Mike Morris
June 24, 2016
AutomationMarketingPPCSearch Engine Optimization

Paid Search vs. Organic Search

This week, the news hit that Apple is entering the paid search business. Ads will begin launching in the App Store this Fall, though the Beta version is available now. Apple’s entre has reignited the debate all marketers must enter at some point: in the world of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which is better for gaining more results, more clients, and better ROI? But first, let’s establish exactly what SEM is: “SEM is a type of Internet marketing associated with the researching, submitting and positioning of a website within search engines to achieve maximum visibility and increase your share of paid and/or organic traffic referrals from search engines.” Are SEM and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) the same thing? Not exactly.…
Mike Morris
June 10, 2016
BlogsMarketingSmall Business

Budget-Friendly Digital Marketing Solutions

When you own a small business, especially during the start-up phase, your budget can be tight. But if you fail to market your business, especially online, your prospects for success will suffer. Even if you can’t hire an outside marketing firm right now, there are plenty of things you can do for little-to-no cost to boost your marketing efforts online. Here’s how to get started: Get the best possible website and online presence you can. Start accounts and build pages on popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Submit your business information to online business directories for both your area and your industry. Make sure that your information is accurate and identical for every listing so that…
Mike Morris
June 3, 2016
BlogsContentContent StrategyMarketingSearch Engine Optimization

10 Big Reasons It’s Better to Blog (than not to Blog)

Does your business website have a blog? Business blogging is a key element of a great content strategy. Regular blogging has so many benefits to your business. Here’s ten big reasons to start (or keep on) blogging: 1 – The very biggest reason to blog is it drives traffic to your website. Who doesn’t want that? Ultra-successful businessman Warren Buffet is credited with saying, “Any business not bringing in new business is going out of business.” 2 – According to HubSpot’s “Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics,” 82% of marketers who post blogs daily reported earning at least one new customer through their blog, and 57% of monthly bloggers reported the same. There is measurable ROI for most business owners who blog…
Mike Morris
May 26, 2016
ContentContent StrategyWeb Design

Seven Smart Content Strategies to Grow Web Sales

Believe it or not, sales are affected by what is on your website. Imagine visiting a drab, unimpressive website with obvious errors for a product you wanted; how would you feel about ordering from this company? You might hesitate to do so unless you were compelled by something else, such as past experience or word-of-mouth recommendations. Your content has a huge impact on whether or not your website visitors choose to buy from you. It’s worth your time to analyze your content and make a few improvements. Here are seven smart strategies to get you started. This should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. Your website content should have zero errors. Read every single sentence on…
Mike Morris
May 20, 2016
MarketingSearch Engine Optimization

Sweet Success! 3 Ingredients For Quality SEO

If you’re baking a cake for a friend or family member’s birthday, you probably follow a detailed recipe from a book or website. These recipes will not only give you exact measurements of ingredients, but it will also list each step to bake, and decorate the cake. Having a recipe to follow is helpful when baking the cake, but it can also reduce the stress that comes during the baking process. As a business owner, you may also search for a recipe to create quality SEO content for your website. While there are millions of cake recipes in print and online, finding a full recipe for web content is a bit more challenging. Thankfully, understanding which ingredients are necessary for quality,…
Mike Morris
May 17, 2016
AutomationSearch Engine OptimizationSmall BusinessWeb Design

What is Google AMP and How Will It Affect Raleigh Websites?

Those who attend marketing, SEO, and programming events cannot escape the talk about Google AMP these days. Google AMP, which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, is very new technology that was announced by Google last October. So what is it? Google AMP is an “open source initiative” that aims to solve the problem of slow loading webpages, especially on mobile devices. Through some specific programming tactics, user un-friendly websites are transformed into pages that load quicker than lightning and please the end user almost instantly. Rich graphics load promptly, scrolling is smooth, and responsive design is automatically addressed. With Google AMP, web design is simpler and yields multiple benefits for the end user, which in turn benefits the publisher or…
Mike Morris
April 27, 2016
AutomationAutomationMarketingSmall Business

Is it Time to Add Marketing Automation to your Marketing Toolbox?

Are you interested in Marketing Automation Technology (MAT)? Wondering how it might benefit your small or medium-sized business in Raleigh and the Triangle? Marketing automation technologies have been around for a couple of decades, originating as a way to automatically add customer contact information into a standard letter. In the last 5-6 years, though, Marketing automation technologies have evolved into systems that enable businesses to identify, nurture, and contact leads who show interest online and convert them into buying customers. How do you know it’s time to invest in MAT? According to the Aberdeen group, businesses that use some form of MAT have over 105% higher lead conversion and 40% larger deal-size to boot. Marketing automation technologies consist of software…
Mike Morris
April 18, 2016

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