Note: this is part two in a series called “Building Websites for Mobile.” The last post covered why it’s important to consider mobile users while this post discuss how to make your website mobile-friendly, and the next will cover what you should (and shouldn’t) put on it.

Hopefully, after reading the last post you did your homework and ran the numbers on your website to see how many mobile visitors have visited your website in the past year. Hopefully, you’ve also also taken notice of the actual devices being used. So now the question is “ok, fine, so I get lots of mobile visitors—what do I do about it?“

Our answer: create a mobile version of your website. This is great for user experience, and will completely solve the problems associated with your website not being compatible with mobile devices. You’ll just need to follow some basic rules:

Put it on its own subdomain. The best place to put the mobile version of your website is on a subdomain. (A subdomain is anything that precedes your domain. For example, in this url: www.example.com, the www is the subdomain.)

Back when mobile websites were first being used, what some companies started doing was creating an entirely new website on a different domain. Some websites like this are still around (i.e. www.amazon.mobi and www.foxnews.mobi), but this is not a good way to do it. When you get a separate domain for your mobile site, you’re effectively creating a brand new, separate website and starting over from scratch from an SEO perspective. None of the inbound links and “google juice” you have coming to your normal .com domain will carry over to this separate website. And from a search engine perspective, your .com and .mobi domains could be competing for the same space in the search engine results. Just don’t do it. In truth, this is an outdated practice and the only people who will tell you to use a dot mobi website are the domain registrars who want you to buy a dot mobi domain from them.

So instead of registering a new domain, we recommend you build your mobile version on a subdomain of your existing domain. The industry standard is to put an “m” before your domain and use that as your mobile subdomain. For example, Infront Webworks’ mobile site is http://m.infront.com. Because it’s still on our same .com domain, it’s still part of the same website.

Serve up different content on your mobile website. Just because you’re making your website mobile-friendly doesn’t mean mobile users need to see everything you have on your main website. Often, (as we’ll explain in our next post), mobile users aren’t looking for the same things anyway. Mobile users generally spend far less time on a mobile site and are looking for very specific information.

Think of a mobile users as “on the go,” and you’ve got the right idea. Their attention span is very short, they’re looking for some quick info and then leaving. Take a look at our mobile site to see what I mean:

Simple, right? There are only three main tabs as soon as you land on the page: Company, Services, and Contact. If you scroll down further, you’ll find links to contact us via phone and email, as well as links to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The beauty of these links is that on most mobile phones, simply pressing on the “phone” icon makes the phone start to dial the number, and pressing the “email” icon creates a new email with the address embedded, all ready to go. It’s fast and handy. If the user doesn’t want to start an email, he can also use the contact form under the “contact” tab instead.

Give users the option to view the full website. This is an important feature. At the very bottom of our mobile site is a link that says “view full site.” This is crucial because there may be times when a website visitor wants to see the full site on his or mobile device, especially if he or she is already familiar with your company and wants more than just your contact info. So give them the option to go from the mobile site to the main site. (Note: this does not apply to the converse—you don’t want to put a mobile link on your main website. Desktop viewers will never want to see your mobile website.)

Set user-agent detection to automatically route mobile traffic to the mobile site. The way that you actually show the mobile site to mobile users is by modifying the server settings to auto-detect if a user is coming from a mobile browser. This is really easy to do if you know how to modify an htaccess file (if it’s hosted in a linux server). What then happens behind the scenes is your smartphone’s browser tells the server its “user agent” (which is a long string of information identifying what kind of device it is and which browser it’s using) and the server can serve up the proper version for that particular browser. Regardless of whether a visitor is using an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or any other mobile device, just send them all to http://m.yourdomain.com. Some websites in the past had separate mobile websites for different mobile devices (for example, Merriam-Webster had an iPhone-specific online dictionary at http://i.m-w.com), but this is also an outdated practice now that companies just build iPhone Apps for this purpose. Just about all smartphones these days have full-blown browsers and are “smart” enough to render the same website.

So keep it simple, point all mobile traffic to the “light” mobile version of your website and next time you can see exactly what kind of info people are looking for when they’re using a mobile browser. Stay tuned!

I just read a quote from Guy Kawasaki, Venture Capitalist and former Apple evangelist. He told CEO magazine that the biggest lesson he’s learned as an entrepreneur was, “Never ask someone to do something you wouldn’t do.”

Sorry, Guy, but I have not found that to be an absolute rule. What I DO know about marketing is “Never market to yourself.” In fact, that may be rule number 1 in my book. I often hear people say, “I never click on the sponsored results in Google so I’m not going to spend my advertising dollars there.” It’s like saying, “I don’t go to Walmart because I hate the long lines. I don’t want to invest time negotiating with Walmart purchasers in an attempt to get my products on their shelves because I don’t shop their myself.” Well, with all due respect, Mr. Business Owner, I don’t care what you do. I care what your customers do. I’ve worked with businesses that make Half a Million dollars for every $4000 spent in Google Adwords.

Guy is forgetting or ignoring an important rule. Market and build your business around the customers. Ask the customer what they want, invite feedback, and make adjustments. Just because a millionaire CEO doesn’t fly coach, doesn’t mean his employees won’t.

Email marketing is a fantastic way for businesses to boost their sales and keep their customers up to date on what they’re up to. It’s fast, it’s relatively simple to set up, and it’s one of the most cost effective ways to market your business and drive customers to your website.

That is, if it’s done properly.

Email marketing is also one of the quickest ways to irritate your customers and make them stop buying your products. And it’s an easy way to break the law. Did you know that email marketing is regulated by Federal law? In 2003, the United States Congress passed an act that legislates how and when a business can send emails to customers or potential customers. Though as with most laws, it has an inherent flaw: it’s in legalese, so most people really don’t understand it. As marketers, this makes our job more difficult, but nonetheless, it affects us, so we’ve got to pay attention.

Here’s a quick guide that gives a breakdown of the Act, and it focuses on the main parts you need to be concerned with. Ready? Here goes:

What does “CAN-SPAM” mean?

The legislation passed by Congress that regulates commercial email is called the “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003,” or CAN-Spam for short. Got a nice ring to it, eh?

What is “Spam,” and what isn’t?

This is the most complicated part of the legislation. Technically, Spam is “Unsolicited Commercial Email.” In plain English, Spam is “annoying emails you didn’t ask for from companies you don’t know, selling products you don’t want.”

Should I really pay attention to the act? I’m just a small business.

Well, if you’re ok with breaking Federal law, then go for it. Otherwise, you’ve got to pay attention. And the size of your business has nothing to do with it. the penalties can be severe: you can be fined up to $300 per email if you’re convicted of breaking the law (source). Not only can it be expensive, it can also land you in jail, as the Act has criminal penalties for violators.

What if I hire someone else to run my email campaigns?

You’ve got to be especially careful in this case. Unfortunately, you are still liable whether you’re the one sending the emails or you’ve hired an outside marketing firm to send them. So ask! Ask if your vendor will send your email in a way that’s sure to comply with CAN-Spam. If you get a blank stare, run away! And hire someone else who knows what they’re doing, and how to keep your company out of trouble.

How can I send CAN-SPAM compliant email?

Wow. That’s a toughie. It’s probably too hard for us to explain. We’re not lawyers. What we can do though, is offer a few tips on what good email looks like. Generally speaking, here are some simple rules for email that is compliant:

1. Only send email to people that “want” it. People can tell you they want your emails through several methods: subscribing via a form on your website; putting a business card into goldfish bowl that says “join our email list” at a trade show you went to; giving you permission verbally; or by simply being a recent customer of yours (meaning they’ve purchased something from you in the two years or so.)
2. Make sure your email has an “unsubscribe” form on it. It really doesn’t matter where. It can be on the top, the side, or the bottom. But it’s gotta be there. It’s the law. And you can’t purposefully make it difficult or confusing for people to try to opt-out either, and you definitely can’t charge them any money to do so.
3. Put your business address somewhere in the email. While you may know that emails sent out from sales@yourcompany.com come from your office at 123 Main Street, your recipient may not. And aside from the fact that it’s downright unnerving when customers are solicited to buy products from a company that doesn’t give out their address, it’s also illegal. So make sure you’ve got a valid mailing address in there (either a street address or PO Box are acceptable). Even better? Put your phone number in there too.
4. If they unsubscribe, don’t email them again. Ever. Ok, so if they buy products from you again or ask to be put back on the list, it’s alright to email them again. But until that happens, if a recipient has made it known that he or she wants to be taken off your list, you’ve got to do it. And don’t send them any more email. The law says you have 10 business days to comply, but if you’re smart, you’ll move even faster than that.
5. Don’t buy or sell email lists. With very few exceptions, there’s only one kind of email list you should ever send emails to: your own. Unless you have a special agreement with another company to co-market your services in their newsletter or you have access to a legitimate opt-in list from an affiliate, DO NOT send email to recipients you don’t know. That is not what email marketing is. Unlike direct mail, where you can purchase lists from people who never signed up for anything, you can’t send email to people who don’t know you. And you don’t want to anyway. Truly effective email marketing sends helpful email to existing customers (or potential customers who have expressed interest). It doesn’t blast the same boring email to gobs of people hoping for a bite. Do it the right way.

Obviously, we’re not a law firm and we can’t offer legal advice. So if you’re really nervous about the emails you’re sending out, you should probably have an attorney take a look. But in our opinion, if you’re having a hard time deciding if your email campaigns are Spam, they probably are.

If you really want to learn more about the entire act and all its consequences, check out the FTC’s Compliance Guide for Business. Also, don’t forget that the laws regarding this matter are subject to change, so if Congress passes another act, or if the FTC (the regulating body in charge of enforcing the law) changes or strengthens the rules, like they did in 2008, you’ve got to keep up. Oh yeah, if you’re a consumer that’s battling Spam and you want to do something about it, you can report it here.

One final note: this legislation only applies within the USA. Other countries (Europe, especially) have far more stringent anti-Spam laws that go much further and impose higher penalties for infractions. So if you’re based outside of the USA or are sending emails all over the world, you may want to check out the laws in other countries. We suggest you start by visiting www.Spamlaws.com. Good luck, happy emailing, and stay away from the Spam!

We often have people ask us if it’s bad to copy somebody else’s articles and paste them in their blog.  I usually say, “It depends, but usually it’s not a good idea.”  High quality, original content is really good to have on your website for a lot of reasons.  I’m going to assume you know them.  If not, read our series on How to Blog for SEO.

Search engines don’t like duplicate content if it’s created to manipulate your search engine rank.  Read about how Google feels about it on their webmaster tools help site.  If one page title is being used on two different pages, you should change it.  If you’ve copied large portions of articles from other sites, you likely aren’t getting any boost from that content.

One of the services we offer is sorting through duplicate content and re-writing, deleting, or canonicalizing pages for the search engines (this means to notify the search engines which version of the content is the prime version by including a line of code on the page <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com” />)

This article is intended to be used as a high level overview for businesses and traditional marketers to better understand what to expect when planning an internet marketing strategy or when hiring somebody for internet marketing.

Ever heard of the “Project Triangle” model?  It illustrates the likelihood that a project will complete on or before the allowed time, on or under budget, and to meet or exceed the required scope.  I’d like to use this model to help us discuss some internet marketing strategies that a company might execute.  Specifically, I’m going to show you how their efficacy is directly tied to the amount of time and money invested, and when it’s okay to cut corners.

The sides of the triangle are: Fast, Good, Cheap.  Choose any two.  In most cases, when you choose to emphasize any two sides (one corner) of the triangle, any benefit from the third side will be excluded or diminished.

For example, if you’re building a home on a deadline, it can either be on-time, inexpensive, and low quality or it can be on-time, expensive, and well built.   If you want the on-time and well-built qualities, it won’t be cheap.  On the other hand, if you want it to be on-time and cheap, the final product will be low quality.  Let’s apply these principles to internet marketing strategies.

Fast + Cheap Internet Marketing (not the most effective)

• Facebook Fan page or other social media – Setting up an account is often fast and cheap, but the less time you spend, the less effective your presence will be.  Building up a strong following on social media is typically cheap and good, but it isn’t fast.
• Emails to existing customers – I’m assuming you have an existing customer database that you’re not using, which a lot of small businesses have.  You can set up a free, or really affordable, email marketing account through BombBomb (video email) or MailChimp.com.  This is a great way to stay in touch with your current customers or to bring in old customers that you haven’t seen in a while through promotional or informative email campaigns.  (Note:  Be sure to talk to somebody about CAN-SPAM compliance if your customers haven’t opted in to receive email updates).
• On-page SEO – Altering your title tags and headings can be really quick and easy, depending on the complexity of your business offerings (and the complexity of your CMS).  Perform some simple keyword research using Google’s Keyword Tool and go to town.
• Black Hat SEO – You can hire an agency in India to execute a link building campaign for a few bucks, but don’t expect it to get you to number one for highly competitive terms.  (Don’t forget that a real SEO firm will help you with your conversion rates, trends, and overall campaign and website improvements ,but they aren’t on the fast and cheap list).
• In-store Promotional Signs – Here’s an easy way to drive traffic to your site:  QR codes or posters in your store or on the back of your business cards.  Just don’t forget to give people a compelling reason to visit.

Fast + Effective Internet Marketing (not cheap)

• Pay-per-click campaigns – PPC search engine marketing can be extremely effective, but it sometime takes a little time to make the right adjustments.  This is one of the fastest and most effective strategies that I’ve implemented.  It may be difficult for some business to swallow the concept of paying for each click, but once you get the ROI formula dialed in with a strong conversion rate, it’s worth every penny.
• Piggy back on other audiences – When I say I say this, I simply mean leveraging somebody else’s channel, traffic, market share, etc.  There are endless possibilities here, from Groupon, to online media sites, to throw backs in somebody else’s email newsletter.   As with any marketing campaign, the goal here is to long-term acquisition: up-sells and bounce back offers can help you capitalize on this traffic.  If you’re not extremely well prepared and careful, Groupon can turn out to be the most expensive small business loan you’ve ever drawn up.
• Hire writers to create content – This is blogging the easy way, not the cheap way.  If you’ve got it in your budget, I would recommend utilizing professional writers to compliment and expedite your editorial calendar.

Cheap + Effective Internet Marketing (not fast)

• Social Media – This is the category in which social media belongs.  Many small business owners hear that Social Media is effective, they hear that it’s free, and they get really excited.  The reality is that social media campaigns are a big commitment.  They don’t run themselves.  It takes strategy,  creativity, and strong offers and/or calls-to-action just like any form of marketing.  The trick with social media is that you have to continually deliver perceived value to your fans or you’ll lose them.
• Email Marketing – You can build strong email lists through in-store efforts, social media, or lead capture and subscription forms on your site or blog.  Typically this takes time and creativity.  You have to “dangle a carrot” and give people something of value to get them to volunteer their email address.   It may be a white paper or a video series or even something as simple as a coupon.
• Blogging – One of the best website traffic building and SEO techniques out there.  The catch is that you have to actually create useful, informative content.  The most effective bloggers write with humans in mind first and search engines in mind second.
• Social Networking – I have several friends in the (heavily regulated) financial services industry.  Because of the regulations by which they are constrained, they can’t blog freely or even email freely.  Every bit of content on their personal web pages has to pass through several layers of underwriting.  The solution: LinkedIn. com.   They now use a thorough and highly targeted referral strategy with their clients using LinkedIn.com.  But, guess what?  It takes time.

The Most Effective

The most effective strategies are blended campaigns that use pay-per-click, social media, email, and search engine optimization to drive traffic to landing pages with focused calls-to-action and well constructed lead funnels.  We use A/B testing of various layouts, messages, headings, or offers to scientifically measure the most effective content

By Dale Warner