A recent study* on radio advertising showed that 80% of listeners who heard a relevant radio ad with a web address mentioned in it went on to visit the website. We postulate that the same would hold true for other forms of volatile advertising like TV and outdoor (including billboard advertising and car, van and truck signage).

Warning: When advertising, make sure that your web address is memorable.

If your web address is not relevant to your advertising message, it may be too hard to remember. So make sure that your web address relates to the key theme of your ad. Think about registering a domain name specifically for you advertising campaign.

For example, for one of our clients - Superior Mobile Mechanics – we registered www.superiormobile.com.au for use in advertising and vehicle signage in addition to the domain www.superiormobilemechanics.com.au.

The first domain is easier to remember and spell correctly, but the second domain was better for search engine ranking… so we use both.

* Source: commercialradio.com.au

From the author: If you use email marketing to reach your customers and prospects, then there’s are simple things that you can do ensure that you message gets through and gets acted on. They key is in your email marketing conversion rates.

We know that to achieve high conversion rates and sales from your email marketing you need a combination of the best email marketing tools and a team that includes the seasoned marketers, email designers, web programmers, copywriters, and editors. That’s why we created Bitemark.

Contact us on 1300 248 362 for a free conversion rate review of your email marketing.

Imagine that you are moving into a new office today. Your furniture is moved in, the phones are being connected, offices setup.

You’re all set, but for one detail. The landlord has decided that he’s going to keep the only set of keys. Does that sound crazy?

Well, you might be suprised to know who is holding the keys to your virtual office front door – your domain name.

We find that many web designers and IT geeks have a strange habit of not handing over the keys. Too many business people aren’t even aware that there are any keys, let alone how important they are.

What could be done with your domain name keys? Let me give you an idea. A person could: 

1. Shutdown your website
2. Intercept your email
3. Hold your company to ransom.

Sadly, we’ve actually seen it happen.

Fortunately, there’s a way you can find out who has the keys. It’s called WHOIS. 

If you don’t know who has the keys to your domain name (commonly known as the domain name password) then you need to go and check right now.

• For Australian .au domains go here: http://www.mywebname.com.au (WHOIS tool from the Australian domain name authority AusRegistry)  
• For other domains go here: http://www.whois.net/

What you will see when you search on your domain name is three sections: registrant, administrative contact and technical contact. Here’s a rundown on each of these records:

This tells you who owns the domain name. If someone else’s company name and address is not listed here, hit the big red panic button.

Administrative Contact

This should be you, or a trusted person within your organisation. If the administrative contact listed does not work for your company, you should get this changed ASAP.

Think about using a generic or group address within your company to ensure access to this part of the record. Ensure that this is kept up to date at all times.

Technical Contact 

It can be helpful to have your web designer, programmer or IT assistant people here.  This will be the backup contact for your domain.

1. Contact the company or contact that is listed on the WHOIS and politely request that they change the contacts to yours (I really hope you’re on good terms with them).
2. Contact the domain name registrar and apply to have the details changed. They usually have a policy to deal with these situations, particularly where the contact listed on the domain is no longer current and can’t be contacted.
3. Go through a dispute resolution process with the domain name authority. This can be long, drawn out and difficult. Not a good option.

It’s a shame that I have to say that 6 out of every 10 domain names that we deal with are not registered correctly, leaving the company at risk.

We have a strict policy within our organisation to never register clients’ domain names using our own contact details. Check to ensure that your web company has the same policy.

From the author: If you run an eCommerce website then you might wonder, “How do I know if I’m getting as many orders as I could be through my website?” The answer to that question is in your website’s conversion rates.

We know that to achieve high conversion rates and sales from your eCommerce website you need a team that includes seasoned marketers, web designers, web programmers, copywriters, editors, bloggers and search engine gurus. That’s why we created Bitemark.

And yes, we can get your website to number one in Google too !

Contact us on 1300 248 362 to find out how you could boost the conversion rates of your eCommerce website.