Worse still, they waste time and trouble attracting more traffic to their websites, rather than concentrating on turning existing visitors into customers, says Clare McKee, managing director of Brindleyplace company Website Troubleshooting. 

She said boosting visitors to a website was easy, but should not be used as a measure of the site's effectiveness. Visitor-to-customer conversion rates were a much better measure.

"A recent survey by SagePay showed that the conversion rates of most websites are extraordinarily low. Businesses know this, but don't know how to go about improving things. Very often websites are designed by graphic designers rather than marketeers. So it's not surprising that they end up with a website that looks beautiful but doesn't bring in the business," she said.

"The fact is that if web visitors can't effectively and efficiently find what they're looking for within a few seconds they will go elsewhere and probably never come back. Companies spend many thousands on their websites without understanding this simple fact," she added

Website Troubleshooting was set up in April 2009 by Clare McKee who is a web usability and conversion specialist. With customers all over the country, she provides a page-by-page website analysis incorporating usability techniques which empathise with the customer, and uses customer behaviour analysis methods.

"Once a proper analysis has been done the faults are simple to rectify. The alternative is to wave goodbye to your visitors," she said.

Clare Mckee, who has an MA in Creative Media Practice, runs two successful online internet marketing consultancies. Her background is in marketing, sales, customer relationships and advertising for a number of major companies.



Best Marketing Quotes, launched today, offers companies looking for marketing services a free, one-stop selection process to find the right person or company for the job.

Marketing professionals and agencies can register with Best Marketing Quotes and buy leads, enabling them to pitch for work that suits their capabilities.

The new company - based in Brindleyplace, Birmingham - has been launched by Birmingham businesswoman and web marketing consultant Clare Mckee, who already runs two successful internet consultancies. Clare, aged 45, believes companies are crying out for a no-hassle way of recruiting the right marketing suppliers without endless searches and recruitment processes. Best Marketing Quotes will give them a manually selected shortlist of potential suppliers matched for their capabilities and areas of expertise.

"If a company is looking for a particular marketing service they can consult the internet or directories and find so much choice it ends up being no choice at all. Finding a supplier which precisely matches their needs is not easy," said Clare Mckee.

She added, "At Best Marketing Quotes we pre-select a short list of no more than four people who have been chosen because their expertise matches the client's needs. In a busy world this saves a huge amount of time and resource, and the service is completely free."

Best Marketing Quotes covers a broad range of marketing services, including internet marketing, market research, web design, copywriting, advertising, public relations, exhibitions, merchandise, promotions, point-of-sale materials, printing, direct mail and event management. Service providers register with the company and purchase leads when identified. These leads typically cost £20 - £40 each.

Clare Mckee said, "Quite simply we bring clients and marketing companies together, building a marketing community, members of which can expect a high conversion rate because clients and suppliers are carefully matched."

Clare Mckee, who has an MA in Creative Media Practice, runs two successful online internet marketing consultancies. Her background is in marketing, sales, customer relationships and advertising for a number of major companies.



The rise of smart phones is fuelling the growth. Is it enough to simply rely on finding your desktop website via the iphone or smartphone?

According to a Forrester Research study produced in partnership with Shop.org, nearly three-quarters (74%) of online retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy.
One in five boasts having a fully implemented mobile strategy in place already.

Find a mobile marketing specialist here

Keep In Touch with Your Customers and Prospects

• Follow up with new prospects when they request
a free report
• Let contacts know about future events
• Send weekly tips and tricks of your industry sector
• Deliver a monthly or weekly newsletter

Above all be consistent with your email marketing



For many local searches, e.g. plumbers birmingham, Google will produce a list of locally based companies in the searched for sector. But this doesn't happen

Forrester applied an adjusted version of its Search Marketing Review methodology to 300 paid search ads from the retail, travel, consumer packaged goods (CPG), media and entertainment, financial services, and business services industries. Despite some bright spots — primarily in retail and travel —
the majority of ads failed.

Get the basics right or you'll quickly burn your budget.

Here is where Google Pay Per Click Ads  need the most improvement:

1. Keyword: include the keyword searched in either the ad title or copy — a practice that helps users know the ad is relevant to their search.
2. Conversions: ad copy should screen out irrelevant clickers and compel relevant ones to take action
3. Landing pages: include  enough content in sufficient detail in a digestible format about the keyword searched

 Google Adwords Pay Per Click Advertising

Pair intuitive usability with sleek design and you're onto a winner!

They don't even need to be first. Learning from the pioneers and then making it better.

 Apple iphone intuitive and sleek

UK consumers are leading the online shopping trend.

With the UK spending reaching around £1,312 per person per year. Germans spend £771 a year online and the French spend £693 annually.

"Leading UK retailers such as Argos, Next, and Tesco have begun integrating their channels in search of seamless cross-channel customer experiences to help drive substantial sales growth,” says the Forrester report.
 

"Growing numbers of UK online shoppers and growing online spend per shopper encourage retailers and travel operators to improve their online offerings, which in turn draw more shoppers and higher spending.”


Forrester March 2009

The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets.

IAB September 2009

IAB