Tag: “Just Nancy”

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Sharing Buttons for Your Newsletter

A Bright Idea for Monday
A Bright Idea for Monday

If you are not using a template at your e-newsletter sending service and have used or created your own HTML code, you may have trouble adding your sending services e-newsletter sharing buttons if they are not already included in the footer.

I have found a solution at AddThis and a code creator that will make a code you can use for your HTML newsletter skin that does not include JavaScript.

Visit this page to create your own code: http://www.addthis.com/academy/add-email-share-buttons-newsletter/

If you want to track statistics you can set up an account and then get an API key which you then put in the ID field. Before you generate your code, update your details like Share Our Newsletter and your URL of your online newsletter to share.

AddThis is a wonderful work around and the buttons look good on the page. When clicked the email one will open an online interface for sending and the Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ buttons will open the senders accounts so they can easily share items with their online friends.

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Just Nancy – Facebook Pay Per Click Advertising

Is Facebook pay per click right for you?
Is Facebook pay per click right for you?

Facebook pay per click advertising – does it work? Should I use it?

The answer to both questions is yes and yes.  First does it work? Yes Facebook pay per click advertising does work to drive traffic to your website or Facebook page – you choose where you want the traffic to go. I personally like sending a reader to your website to a specially designed landing page that works to elicit a response from the prospect;  like downloading an ebook or signing up for a newsletter or better yet completing an information request form.

Second, should you use it? Well, this depends on your budget and goals. If you are not using Google AdWords, Facebook is great place to get low cost activity. However typically you will need to be a do it yourselfer for set up and management due to Facebook’s nature and location of the credit card for an account. I do like the ability to target by demographic and the click cost is typically much lower than AdWords.

Here’s the big caveat – if your potential customer is over 35 years old Facebook is the place. For a young set up customers Snapchat and Intagram are where your customers are spending their time. They may be feeding updates to Facebook, but are typically not on the Facebook platform.

Although we do not manage Facebook advertising for most customers, for a select set of VIP clients we do perform management services. My recommendations are based on what I see happening in real client accounts.

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What Are Your Customer Friction Points?

Nancy McCord is a Google and Bing Partner
Nancy McCord is a Google and Bing Partner

Friction points, it’s all about finding where customers have trouble completing during the buying process with you and fixing the issues.

Here are some examples of friction points:

Buyers have trouble downloading completed video files for a drone photography agency. What can be done? Maybe using Drop Box with easy to follow instructions and photos on what to do next for a file download.

Prospects have trouble understanding what is included in a blog post sale. How can that be clarified? Maybe posting samples of content with the right word count and number of links to help a prospect understand the type and quality they will receive on your website to prequalify prospects before they even call.

Buyers have trouble getting contract documents to sign and return. How can the process be easier? Maybe using a digital signing service and online document archive would work to speed the return process.

Each business has their own unique set of friction points. Making things easier for people to buy from you is not all e-commerce focused. Friction points exist even for transactions with  consultants and business to business sales, and for people who do not even sell items on their website.

My own company’s friction points have previously been: blog writing samples and writing expectations, prospects not having the proper technology to send or receive a contract, and buyers needing an online self-serve credit card payment center.

Are you hearing the same issues over and over from clients and prospects? That is a friction point. Now’s the time to identify what yours are and do something specific to address them to make buying from you and your company frictionless.

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Do You Need HTTPS Now?

We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing, Mobile, and Display.
We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing,, Mobile, and Display.

HTTPS – Google loves it, but for informational websites, moving to HTTPS adds to your costs. Expect to pay $129 to $229 for a SSL or secure socket layer certificate to be able to have your website use HTTPS in the browser bar.

For me at this time, I am not moving to HTTPS and it is mainly due to the additional cost. I do not have e-commerce on my website and I only use a contact form for prospects, so do not feel that I must have this extra security. But, Google loves the security and encryption that HTTPS affords for websites. At some point in time, the use of HTTPS on your website may be a ranking factor for organic results, but for now, it is not.

E-Commerce Sites MUST be HTTPS

If your website has e-commerce, you take payments or log users into a secure area, you really need to be using HTTPS at this point in time, no exception.

New Websites Should Embrace HTTPS

Any new websites we design are all in HTTPS. At this time I do not feel that existing informational websites should move to HTTPS, but that day may be coming soon.

To find out more about how we can help you, I invite you to visit our website to browse our service offerings and read more content on topics that will help your business grow.