Sounds easy – but just how does it happen?  Inbound marketing automation – is the answer.

Your website and web presence should be driving leads to conversion.  Let’s define conversion: we’re not talking a sale each time, but movement toward a sale to be sure.  Movement down the funnel.  Each movement provides an opportunity to capture data and measure the positive, neutral or negative reaction to the conversion activity.

Example, a landing page on your site invites the visitor to complete a form for a downloadable whitepaper with valuable information.  Clicking a button to register for a webinar that promises the mastery of a new skill. –Or, offering a couple of hyperlinks within the text that brings the visitors more information on the topic they are researching.  Each of these activities is measureable.  Each of these activities excites the visitor at a different point in their research, decision making and purchase process.  Best of all, all of these opportunities are elected by the visitor.  They are not push techniques but invitations to bring the web visitor closer into the fold.

Inbound invitations will not be successful if you don’t understand your visitors, their needs and the words the use in their search for information.  So the science of inbound marketing really becomes part art and part science.  A process that needs to monitored, tweaked and measured regularly.  This is not for the faint hearted, but it is for the serious marketer driving for new sales.

Your inbound marketing strategy and implementation plan should have these essentials components:

• Clarifying your ideal targets and building personas
• Creating attractive campaigns for those audiences
• Determine content strategy by channel
• Keyword analysis and optimization plan
• Offers for each part of your funnel

It should go without saying but your plan is not complete without SMART goals and a reporting plan.

Has your online marketing strategy matured to include inbound marketing techniques?  Jumping on  board now will still get you ahead of most of your competitors.  Having trouble knowing where to start or the resources to carry it out?  We’ve got you covered.  Make sure you attend our next webinar on May 21^st to figure how Email Marketing is in an important part of your inbound plan.

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The post Is all your rain making keeping your sales funnel full? appeared first on Evolve Blog.

When we opened our doors we made a decision that this company was not going to be just about “us.” It was going to be about Us, All of Us – the community – the culture and the concept of doing more than just being another company here in Minnesota. It was important to Marnie and I that we not just give back “someday” but from day one. We knew in our souls that this was not just the right thing to do, it was the only way we would do it.

Community Impact Award and Evolve Systems employees in action

A start-up is a hard thing to do and requires a near manic devotion to the concept of creation and nurturing. This same focus gave Evolve Systems a way to be better than just sales numbers and quarterly goals. It gave the company a compass by which we could chart our course and measure our success in terms of impact not profits.

The concept was quite simple: Donate 5% of corporate profits via cash or in-kind services to local non-profits and 8 hours of community service per quarter. What this means is that we close our doors once a quarter and go out into the community and perform random acts of kindness. The concept of staying local was important to us. We did not want to do volunteer work for the “National This”, or the “International That” – large companies in our community can take on those roles far better than we.

What we did was found hyper local non-profits where our volunteer service would be felt and be most impactful. We worked with the Community Emergency Assistance Program (CEAP) and raked leaves for their elderly clients. We helped the Alexandra House organize their storage. We worked with the Ramsey County School Safety Patrol Foundation during their annual fundraiser. Hyper local, highly impactful. Since 2003 we have logged over 5000 hours of work with local charities.

Those hours started with the first event, raking leaves for the elderly. That cold October day in 2003 was eye-opening for more reasons than just the bluster of a late fall day in Minnesota. It brought us out into the community were we could make a difference. We had been open at that time for just 6 weeks. Taking a full day off of trying to make money so that we could volunteer was humbling. I still had to make payroll. I still had to meet my other obligations.

I can tell you, nearly 10 years later, it was and is worth it. It is not just about doing business; it is about leaving a legacy. I cannot remember what code I worked on last year, or some of the systems I built 5 years ago, but I still remember clearly the day I fixed a bird bath for a woman whose husband had died years earlier and she did not have the strength to lift the heavy bowl back into place. She looked at the simple act we performed, righting a bird bath that had tipped over, and told us that the last time she saw it like that was when her husband had made it so. It touched me deeply in ways that a paycheck or a promotion never will.

Every day we choose how we will impact those around us. We can nurture the spirit of volunteer service above self, or we can simply serve that same self. It is up to us to set that path. Evolve Systems has chosen to be more than about the bottom line. It is not an easy path, but it is the only one we will ever take.

Would you like to know more about our random act of kindness?  Perhaps you’d like to join us for our next event – we’d love that!  Visit the link shown above to find out more.

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The post Making a Local Impact – Don Raleigh Speaks on Giving Back to the Community appeared first on Evolve Blog.

The post gives several reasons for poor performing websites:

• Lack of mobile access
• No Social Media Follow Links
• Failure to provide easy to find contact information; email address and phone number
• No contact form for 24/7 information requests
• SEO inadequacy

It is a bit bewildering when the internet has become such an important part of most business’ marketing plan that many, many businesses are not giving their website and online presence the attention it requires.  While many businesses are modifying their own websites – making sure you pay attention to trends, search engine optimization and opportunities to capture inbound marketing leads can make the task of a quick modification here and there into a part-time webmaster job.  This is a good time to remind you, Evolve Systems can help you with your online presence and web maintenance when it grows too big for your schedule and capabilities.

Simple goals for your website include getting found, ranking higher on the search results page than your competitors and engaging visitors once they arrive.

But remember your website is only one place where you can be found online.  A great online marketing plan layers SEO, Content Marketing and Social Media to encourage both prospects and customers to visit and follow the platforms they prefer and engage with your brand.   So while your website used to be the ‘only’ destination you now need to consider several connected or integrated platforms to provide your prospects and customers choices and encourage those fans to click through links that lead back to your website.

It’s time to refresh or buff up your website appearance.  Provide a user experience that will keep your visitor engaged and coming back.  If a prospect or customer has taken the time to visit your website reward them with content and appropriate activities and your must capture their contact information so you can continue to nurture their interest after they have gone.

We’ve talked about several of these issues in our own blog in recent months.

• Your mobile plan of action
• Using social media share and follow icons
• Keeping your website clean
• The importance of SEO

Did you find a tip or two to use for the spring cleaning on your website?  We’d love to hear what you think of this post and happy to address some questions.

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The post Your Website May Be Failing You – A 6 Point Checklist appeared first on Evolve Blog.

Consumers love a bargain!

How many times have you considered purchasing an item or service you have never been interested in before simply because it is 1/2 off. “I have never tried Indian food, now’s a good time – it’s practically free.” Business owners are betting on the chance that after I get my discounted Curry and Naan, I will be won over and become a repeat customer. But more likely I will move on to the next deal of the day because unless it is a ridiculous bargain I would never opt for something outside my comfort zone, like Indian food. So now this coupon has provided a 50% off deal for the one time customer and a 40% to 50% commission to the coupon company, what is left for the business owner?

Will high volume sales make the coupons worth it?

Despite the one-timers and the fees and cost of the deep discounts, the volume of business brought in will make the coupon a success, right? Maybe, if you can handle the volume. Often redeemers will trickle in over the length of the deal and as the expiration date approaches the business is flooded. Chaos ensues leaving new and existing customers disgruntled while the staff struggles to keep up and the business owner wonders, “what the heck was I thinking?”

Consider a more targeted approach to winning new customers…

Constant Contact launched a new model for online coupons called SaveLocal. This new approach offers solutions to the problems of traditional couponing deals for business owners like lack of control over price, duration and redemption restrictions. The fee percentages are also much lower then Groupon, but the most significant difference is outreach.

Instead of emailing a coupon to every deal seeker on line, SaveLocal relies on your company’s existing database of email addresses to send out deals. Customers can earn additional discounts by sharing the coupons via social networking sites. This is a more targeted and incentives based approach that may be better suited to small businesses with a sizable customer database. The deals are being offered to a smaller number of consumers initially, however, the possibility for exponential outreach in the form of personal referrals is powerful. Referral based deals are far more effective at creating loyal customers than random email blasts. SaveLocal also provides better tracking of coupon redemption and subsequent repeat sales then their traditional counterparts. SaveLocal offers webinars on how to get the most out of your deals.

Make your online marketing work for you and your business.

Online coupons can work well for some businesses but it is important to choose the right one and under terms you can meet.

• Make sure you can handle the volume of potential customers throughout the duration of the deal.

• Be sure the deal your offering allows you to cover costs, breaking even is OK if there is another benefit like new customers becoming repeat customers, otherwise you are just spinning your wheels.

• Be able to track your deal seekers to see how many return to pay full price.

• Consider what effects a coupon or daily deal scheme will have on your reputation for quality and potentially devaluing your products or services.

Are you a small business owner with a coupon tale to tell? Was it a boom or bust? Would you do it again and if so what would you do differently? Share your comments below or post on our Facebook page.

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The post Driving new business with ‘Deals’ – Here’s an Option appeared first on Evolve Blog.

Here are some of the numbers you need to be aware of:

• 90% of people remain within 3 feet of their cell phone 24/7 – even when sleeping
• 98% of SMS text messages sent are opened
• 90% of MOLO (mobile local) search results in action
• ½ of all Americans will access the internet this year via mobile only
• A negative experience means about 57-61% of visitors never return

2013 is all about ‘Social Mobile Local’ – SOMOLO is the ‘in’ term

Integrating your mobile options and marketing in terms of SOMOLO will help you to reach those 90% of folks with their phones at arm’s length.

There are many options within the mobile arena and a learning curve to be sure.  You may wish to start with our one of our latest blogs, Mobile Options – Here’s the Skinny.

Your plan should look like this:

• Do your research — look at your analytics for mobile traffic and mobile devices accessing your website.  If 10% or more of your visitors are accessing your site via a mobile device you need to understand download times, streamlining their experience and removing frustrating user experiences.  If you don’t, your competitor will.
• Minimize information and reduce content — Mobile users tend to use the internet a bit different than desktop users.  They want to click to call, access maps and menus quickly, check-in via social platforms and have 1 click checkouts, sharing and viewing options.
• Prioritize important and most used content – use Google Analytics page and content analysis filter by mobile users.  An awesome user experience (UX) comes from understanding your visitors need for information.
• Keep your branding and important features consistent across all your experiences.
• Use calls-to-action to lead visitors through site – user testing, flow analytics and conversion rates will let you know if you are getting it right.
• Include a search function if needed.
• Have a clickable phone number,  social media follow buttons, maps, etc

Best practices for your mobile strategy should consider:

• Remember keep it quick – users are on the go
• Simplify navigation – get to know what your visitors want
• Design for easy thumb access – no pinching
• Make it readable – no zooming
• Create call-to-actions – measure conversion
• Optimize for local search – mobile users are mobile
• Measure and tweak for optimal UX

Start with fresh quarterly goals and objectives, 2-3 customer personas, knowledge of where they hang out online and create a UX to delight – it bears repeating; measure, optimize and go again.

We would be happy to help you look at your best options for mobile and getting involved in SOMOLO!

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The post What’s Your Mobile Plan of Action appeared first on Evolve Blog.

Black hats, Backdoors and Botnets!

We have all heard of worm, virus and Trojan horse attacks used by hackers to compromise the network servers of big corporations and governments. Most of us don’t know what they are or what exactly they do; we just know we don’t want them on our computers.

Now in addition to the crafty hackers who create these viruses there is a class of cyber criminals known as script kiddie or skiddies. These are unskilled people who buy scripts or programs written by skilled hackers. With these scripts anyone can target and successfully hack a server despite having no technical skill whatsoever. Black market sites have millions of hacking tools for sale like, bank codes, log ins, passwords and the like. This has opened up the technical world of hacking to any common criminal with an Internet connection. These cyber criminals don’t know a botnet from a backdoor but they are using them against small businesses.

Small businesses have become a favored target of elite hackers and the common script kiddie because most small to mid-sized businesses, SMBs, don’t have proper and continually updated security measures in place, making them easy to attack. Often a business’ computers aren’t just targeted for a data breach but are also used as a zombie computer to facilitate various other breaches. On average there is a 156-day lapse between a system compromise and detection of that breach. Generally it is a third party like a bank that discovers credit card fraud and notifies the merchant they have been hacked.

Most experts agree that cyber attacks are not a case of “if they will happen, but when”. Business owners should protect themselves by making sure all the necessary security measures are in place and kept up to date.

Best Practices for defending against cyber attacks

PASSWORDS MATTER- A hacker can crack a 6 character lowercase password in ten minutes. However, by using an 8 character password with a few uppercase letters and that hacker will be at it for 3 years. Throw in a number or symbol and it takes nearly 50,000 years to crack it. Be sure you lock up your wifi with a strong password as well. In addition it is recommended to change passwords as often as possible.

Change Default Credentials- A popular technique used by cyber criminals is scanning for default credentials on Point of Sale systems. When they find the default credentials they immediately start capturing the credit card numbers stored in the system. Do not keep the same log ins and passwords that came with your hardware.

Firewalls- Install and maintain appropriate firewalls, one is probably not enough. Redundancy is key in network protection.

Educate your employees- Often breaches in network security are caused by innocent ignorance. Remote servers accessed by employee’s personal devices like smart phones and tablets put your organization at risk.  Make sure your staff is aware of the dangers of social phishing.  In tech terms there is a phrase known as level 8 compromise, namely human error, and it is at the heart of most security vulnerabilities.

Back it up! – Suffering a cyber attack is bad enough and can cost your business a ton of money in fees and lost revenue.  Lengthy recovery times can also interrupt the continuity of your business. However, if you are not backed up there is nothing to recover. Not all hackers are after money some are just destructive and may infect you with malware that will corrupt and or destroy all your files. A thorough disaster recovery plan  is essential for efficient recovery from a cyber breach.

Has your server been hacked, how did you recover?  Please share tips below that you have found helpful.

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The post Tips to Avoid Your Data or Server Being Hacked appeared first on Evolve Blog.

We shop, get information, exchange information and rely on our mobile devices more and more each day.

So as a small business – you must have your website mobile accessible at the very least and provide a unique and tailored experience for the mobile user in the best of all worlds.  A little vocabulary to get out of the way…

• Mobile Friendly – your website is designed in a way to make it useable on a mobile device, probably not an ideal user experience but the ability to navigate, see text and pictures, contact you or place and order is so compromised that your web visitor abandons the site in favor of an easier to use site – small image sizes, no flash and clickable phone number and easy to locate address information is important
• Mobile optimized means that the site will reformat itself for specified devices called out in the website coding. Buttons accessible with a thumb or by swiping, content formatted for screen size, and images optimized images to appear correctly are the kinds of issues addressed with mobile optimization.
• Mobile Website – sometimes using the term, responsive design, takes into account the user experience regardless of the mobile device your visitor is using.  It’s a pared down version of the main website with thoughtful use of space and data so it provides a complete experience in a mobile setting.
• Mobile App – a downloadable application designed the unique product and/or services you offer with a streamlined path for sales, information or reference to make the customer experience match and exceed expectations.  You should use careful consideration in developing a mobile app.  It could easily be the most expensive to maintain.

We are increasingly mobile in our behaviors and our need for information.  Considering that some 46% of consumers are unlikely to return to a mobile site if it didn’t work properly it’s important to have a mobile strategy in place.

Like to learn more?  Our next webinar will dig a bit deeper into mobile technology and how you can plan your next move.

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The post Mobile Website Options – Here’s The Skinny appeared first on Evolve Blog.

Over the past several years I have developed a series of habits that keep me sane and prevent me from being a slave to the inbox. I am still looking for a better solution, as is the nature of the idea of evolving, but for now I am fairly happy with the steps I have taken and wish to share them with you.

First, I come in early to work almost every day. I do this so that I am able to process e-mails from the night before. E-mail for me fall into 4 categories:

1)      Things that need me to do something NOW. The word now is important, as it sets the tone for what I am giving myself permission to do, or not do. (This is Key!) If something is a now item, it should be done at the moment that I read it.

2)      Things that I need to do, but not now. I will note this as a task (if not time based) or add it right then to my calendar (if time based). Task based may be something like: Call Mom. (Everyone should do this as a normal task, as often as possible.) Time based would be an appointment that needs to be met.

3)      Things that are interesting, but I do not want to deal with now. I will move this to one of several folders based on the type of data it contains: personal, research, follow-up, etc.

4)      Things that should never come to my attention, ever again. (Think: SPAM!)

In each case, 1-4, I am left with an empty in-box. I do not leave things in my inbox. I always move them to one of 4 types of folders. These are: Customer Folders, Time Folders, Later Folders or SPAM/Trash. The goal here is to have zero emails in my in-box when I am done. It is an in-box, not a fester until the end of humanity box!

The other thing that I have done that speeds my processing is to create filters for anything that comes at me more than once. These filters can move items to my High Priority (Time) folder, or if it is coming from a particular person it may move the message directly to their folder (Customer). This is also very useful if you have “that one person” who is infected with the need to send you jokes or pictures of monster trucks. I like jokes! I do. But I pay people like Jeff Dunham to make me laugh, not “that one person”.

And, here is the most important thing I do. I close my out my email system when I am done processing my emails. This means I am not distracted by something New and Shiny each time a message comes in. I even uninstalled my message indicator so that I am not alerted to new emails. This took discipline. But this habit also allows me to focus on the task that I am working on at the time, not on cute cat stories. (No, I do not care that you just posted something awesome on Facebook. If it is important I can look at it on my iPad, later.)

It is important to separate things that are important from things that are immediate. From personal experience I can tell you that there is an attraction to watching the inbox for things to do. It makes me feel like I am doing something. (And usually not the thing that I should be doing.)

By implementing discipline into the way that I deal with e-mail I have found myself to be much more productive and focused. The key here is to choose several blocks of time during the day to again process e-mail. Think of it like eating. If you take a block of time to go to lunch you are able to plan what you are going to eat and discipline your calorie intake. If you eat at your desk all day long, well, you will get fat. Shed those e-mail pounds by exercising some good data practices with your inbox.

Cheers,

Don

Don Raleigh is President of Evolve Systems.  We appreciate and rely on Don for strong leadership, direct communication and unique perspectives.

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The post Keeping e-mail from consuming my life – A Presidential Perspective appeared first on Evolve Blog.

Small Business security breaches are on the rise

According to the 2012 Verizon Data Breach study, 72% of reported security breaches were in businesses with 100 or less employees. Over the last five or six years cyber criminals have abandoned targeting big corporations because of their vast security measures. These hackers prefer the easy prey of mom and pop shops whose systems are easily breached.  See a related story about a small restaurant chain hit with security breaches.

The financial cost of a breach can put you out of business

It is estimated that the loss of revenue to a small business that has suffered a security breach comes in at about $10,000. However, that is only the beginning. Card brands such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express will fine the acquiring bank between $20 and $30 for each card that is hacked. The acquiring bank then passes those fines on to the merchant. On average 40,000 cards are stolen per breach, multiply that by $30 per card and a merchant could be facing $1.2 million, just in fines. Furthermore the merchant is liable for whatever fraudulent charges were made on the card. In addition to the financial devastation that can result from a security breach, the loss of customer trust can ruin an otherwise stellar reputation.

Best practices for securing your data

So what can a merchant do to protect their customer’s data? There are several security measures such as firewalls, anti-virus software and creating unique ID’s and passwords for each user on the system. Unfortunately, as quickly as new security measures are developed, cyber criminals develop ways to breach those new measures. The best way to ensure you and your customers are protected is with PCI compliance. Merchants who accept credit cards know they are required to make their systems compliant, but what they don’t realize is it’s an ongoing process. Compliancy standards change constantly and keeping up can be confusing and time consuming. Many merchants assume that because their credit card processing company’s system is PCI compliant, so is their system. However, this is not always true.

It’s about more than transaction fee rates

Any merchant who accepts credit cards has undoubtedly received sales calls, mailers and spam emails from credit card processors promising lower transaction rates, no hidden fees, etc. Credit card processing is extremely competitive and full of fly by night operations. When choosing a merchant services provider, make sure that they provide ongoing and up-to-date PCI compliance services in addition to competitive transaction rates.

Are you a merchant worried you might have a breach on the horizon? Contact Evolve Systems for a mini audit of your payment-processing platform. Evolve Systems can guide you through the steps to becoming and remaining PCI compliant as well as providing competitive transaction rates.

Has your POS been hacked? How did you recover?

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The post Are you storing sensitive merchant card data without knowing? appeared first on Evolve Blog.

It’s free and it only takes a few hours…

While it may cost nothing but your time to post on Facebook and Twitter, as a business owner how valuable is your time? How many “free” hours do you have in a week? Too often business owners abandon social media efforts after spending countless hours creating a web presence because they realize they simply can’t keep up. Trends in keywords and search terms change almost daily. Therefore creating new original content with current SEO language requires constant updating to your content. Building and maintaining a strong social media campaign can easily become a full time job.

Traditional marketing strategies can be applied to Social Media…

The old push and shove outbound approach just doesn’t fly any longer. Social media is best utilized as part of an inbound marketing strategy within your overall online marketing integration plan. Effective social media campaigns pull your potential customers in by creating an interactive dialog that educates and develops interest in your business and encourages their participation.

Social media efforts should convert to quick and easy sales…

Yes, social media can be an effective conversion tool but your messages are best delivered over several informational conversions. Posting, tweeting and pinning pulls your customers to your website where your virtual sales force presents your products and services. Now you have an interested and educated searcher who has come to you for conversion into activities that typically create a new customer. This is a process and it doesn’t happen overnight. When dealing in social media marketign a return on investment is not the only metric to measure. Businesses should also view ROI as return on influence or ROE return on engagement.

I can determine the success of my SMM through “likes, friends and followers”…

Being liked and followed is an important metric to measure along with, re-tweets, blog comments and the more traditional website based metrics like page views, unique visits, time spent on site, and of course number of conversions. It is likely that you have several marketing goals in mind when using social media. Each one of those unique goals should be measured within each social media platform to determine which one is best suited to achieving each goal. It may be that Facebook is a sharper tool then Twitter, if your goal is brand recognition. Your blog may outperform Facebook in lead generation because of its high SEO rankings.

I have posted everywhere, tweeted and re-tweeted everyone, blogged and chatted and I just don’t see the benefit to my bottom line…

One of the pitfalls of do it yourself SMM is focusing to heavily on quantity VS quality. While you want to engage potential customers in various arenas just showing up isn’t good enough. There are thousands of competitors vying for your share of the market in each social media space. Compelling quality content is what will differentiate your business, build brand awareness and drive traffic to your site, thus improving your ROI. Quantitative metrics like bounce rates and click-throughs are much easier to measure then their qualitative counterparts. Because of the subjective nature of what quality means there is no definitive standard. However, Evolve Systems can help you develop and apply qualitative metrics based on your specific marketing goals within each social media platform. With our online integrated marketing strategies we can make social media work for you instead of you working for it.

Contact us for a complimentary mini-audit of your web presence.  This is a 5-point recap on how your web presence is reflected for your business and opens up several opportunities to take your online presence to the next level.  The way to get one of these mini-audits is to contact sales@evolve-systems.com and we will get you started.

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