Four States Small Business Blog

Jason Dittmer

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Collect Secure Leads with Zimmer Marketing Spam Prevention

Posted by Jason Dittmer on July 9, 2024 at 7:00 AM
In today's digital landscape, capturing leads efficiently and securely from your website is crucial for business growth. At Zimmer Marketing, we understand the importance of protecting your data while ensuring a seamless customer experience. Our website lead capture service and our proprietary spam prevention technology offer a robust solution for your business website.

Fast and Efficient Lead Capture

Time is of the essence when it comes to converting website visitors into potential customers. Zimmer Marketing's lead form capture service is designed to be quick and user-friendly. Our forms are optimized to reduce friction, allowing visitors to submit their information effortlessly. Whether a simple contact form or a detailed inquiry, our system ensures that every lead is captured promptly and accurately. We store submissions safely and quickly notify you so you can respond while the lead is fresh.
 

Proprietary Spam Prevention Technology

Spam can be a significant nuisance, clogging your lead management system with irrelevant or harmful entries. Zimmer Marketing's multi-barrier spam prevention software is built to tackle this issue head-on. We use a sophisticated in-house system to detect and block spam submissions, ensuring that only genuine leads make it through. This saves you time and protects your business from potential security threats.
 

Benefits for Your Business

1. Increased Conversion Rates:  By providing a fast and user-friendly lead capture experience, you can increase the likelihood of visitors completing your forms and becoming customers.

2. Enhanced Data Quality:  Our spam prevention technology ensures that the leads you receive are genuine and relevant, improving the quality of your data.

3. Time and Resource Savings:  Automated spam filtering reduces the need for manual intervention, freeing up your time and resources to focus on nurturing genuine leads.

4. Peace of Mind:  With top-notch security measures in place, you can rest assured that your data and your customers' information are protected.

Why Choose Zimmer Marketing?

At Zimmer Marketing, we are committed to helping businesses grow by providing innovative and reliable solutions. Our website lead form capture service and proprietary spam prevention technology are designed with your success in mind. If you're ready to create a business website for capturing leads, we can help!

Get in Touch with a Marketing Consultant
 
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Topics: Website Design, Online Sales

Stock, Professional, or DIY? | Best Use Cases for Photography

Posted by Jason Dittmer on May 21, 2024 at 7:00 AM
In the world of branding and marketing, there is near-constant debate about the benefits of stock, professional, or DIY photography. While all types of photography have their benefits, each has its place where it's best used. This week, we've put together a brief guide to help you determine where to use each of these photography types.

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Topics: Website Design, Social Media, Digital Marketing

7 Marketing Ideas to Promote Your Products As Gifts This Holiday Season

Posted by Jason Dittmer on December 5, 2023 at 7:55 AM
The holiday season is not just a time for festive decorations and warm gatherings; it's also a golden opportunity to showcase your products as the perfect gift. For local shops and boutiques, the holiday season can be an essential moment for sales. To help you navigate December sales, we've compiled a list of marketing ideas to make your products the go-to gifts for everyone on the shopping list.
 

1. Gift Bundles and Exclusive Packages

Create curated gift bundles that highlight the best of your products. Consider combining complementary items or offering limited edition holiday packages. Exclusive bundles not only add value but also make the shopping experience easier for customers.
 

2. Holiday Messaging

Add a personal touch to your marketing messages. Incorporate holiday-themed graphics and create content that resonates with the emotions of the season. Highlight the joy of giving and emphasize how your products can bring happiness to the recipient. Be certain to differentiate your thoughtful, locally-based gifts from those of big-box retailers.
 

3. Include Holiday Wrapping

It can help in the holiday season to offer gift wrapping with each purchase. For those buying many gifts for friends and family, gift wrapping can become quite a chore. Consider also offering a customizable card with each gift.
 

4. Gift Guides and Inspiration

Inspire your customers by creating gift guides. Categorize products based on different themes or recipients (for example, gifts for him, gifts for her, and gifts for coworkers). Make it easy for shoppers to find the perfect gift for everyone on their list.
 

5. Social Media Contests and Giveaways

Engage your audience on social media with holiday-themed contests and giveaways. Encourage user-generated content by asking customers to share their favorite gift ideas or holiday traditions. This not only boosts interaction but also creates a sense of community around your brand. If you include your own website as part of the campaign, you will have the added benefit of boosting your site's visibility!
 

6. Collaborate with Influencers

Partner with influencers to showcase your products as desirable gifts. Influencers can create engaging content, share their personal experiences with your products, and reach a wider audience. For a local touch, consider a partnership with on-air talent from one of   Zimmer Marketing's six popular radio stations. Their recommendations can carry significant weight during the holiday shopping frenzy.
 

7. Virtual Shopping Events

Host virtual shopping events or live product demonstrations on social media platforms. Provide insights into your products, share behind-the-scenes stories, and interact with customers in real time. 

Gift Idea from Zimmer Marketing!

You're all set to promote your products as gifts this holiday season, but have you wrapped up your holiday shopping? Zimmer Marketing has created a unique gift opportunity for the beer lovers in your life: The Show Me State Beer Card! With your purchase of a 2024 Beer Card, your gift recipient will receive not one but two beers for just $1 a piece at participating locations across Southwest Missouri!

Get Yours Now
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Topics: Marketing Strategy

Empower Your Website with PocketBase

Posted by Jason Dittmer on October 17, 2023 at 7:00 AM
The web team at Zimmer Marketing is continually working to push the boundaries of what is possible for business websites, to increase capabilities for smaller companies, and to improve user experience for their customers. Most recently, we've been expanding our horizon with the power of   PocketBase  as a backend for our advanced Svelte websites!

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Topics: Website Design, Digital Marketing, Online Sales

Business Website Essentials: What to Put "Above the Fold"

Posted by Jason Dittmer on September 26, 2023 at 7:00 AM
A website is one of the most important assets your business can have. Because of it's importance, it's worth putting serious consideration into the design and content of a business website. Over the next three weeks, we will explore best practices for web layouts. 

In this first part, we will turn our focus to the area of your website most often viewed, your homepage. More specifically, we're looking at the area of the homepage that visitors can see before scrolling or taking any action on your website. In a nod to the old days of the newspaper, this area is referred to by web designers as "above the fold." Let's look at some common elements you should put near the top of your website's homepage.

Clear and Compelling Headline

The headline (or H1) is the first thing visitors see, and it should be clear, concise, and attention-grabbing. Use language that conveys your website's purpose to your audience, and include a strategic keyword for your business. It should instantly communicate what your website is about and why it matters. This will provide your web visitors a great experience and allow your website to perform better with search engines. 

Engaging Visuals

Humans are visual creatures, so use high-quality images, videos, or graphics that resonate with your content and brand. A visually appealing element can quickly draw visitors in and set the tone for your website. Consider using a hero image or video that relates to your message.

Concise and Persuasive Copy

The text accompanying your headline should be brief yet impactful. Explain your value proposition in a few sentences, highlighting the benefits of your product or service. Focus on the problem you solve or the need you fulfill, and use persuasive language to compel visitors to explore further.

Call-to-Action Buttons

Don't leave your visitors hanging; guide them toward the next step with well-placed CTAs. Whether it's "Sign Up Now," "Learn More," or "Shop Now," your CTA buttons should stand out and entice users to take action. Use contrasting colors and make them easily clickable. CTAs should be close to concise and persuasive copy to help the user understand the next step to access more information, products, or services.

Navigation Menu

Include a streamlined navigation menu that offers a clear pathway for users to explore your website. Keep it concise, with essential links such as "Home," "About Us," "Services," and "Contact" to help users find what they're looking for quickly. For mobile users, consider using a ' hamburger menu' to save space and make navigation easier.

Testimonials or Social Proof

Boost credibility and trust by showcasing testimonials or social proof above the fold. Positive feedback from satisfied customers or impressive statistics can reassure visitors that they're in the right place and encourage them to engage with your content.

Important Information

If there are critical pieces of information visitors need to know immediately, such as your contact details, operating hours, or limited-time offers, make sure they are visible above the fold. This prevents users from hunting for essential information and helps build trust.

Above the Fold on Mobile v. Desktop

When designing your website above the fold, it's important to consider various screen sizes. Most users these days use mobile devices to view your site. And these devices have a smaller above the fold area than desktop or laptop computers. Because of this, it's wise to make design choices that prioritize the experience of mobile users. Since space will be limited, it's essential that you prioritize what to put at the top of the page to both improve user experience and drive conversions.

Get Your Advanced Web Design

Zimmer Marketing's web development team is pushing the boundaries of website design and performance. Fast, visually appealing, and SEO-friendly websites are no longer the exclusive domain of multi-billion dollar companies. If you want to give your business a competitive advantage online, we're here to help.

Contact a Marketing Consultant
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Topics: Website Design

How to Interpret Your Website Data in Google Search Console: Troubleshooting

Posted by Jason Dittmer on September 5, 2023 at 7:30 AM
Last week, we covered the basics of utilizing Google Search Console to create and maintain your website's search engine optimization strategy. Now, we will offer some more detailed tips to help you address SEO problems as they arise, keeping your website competitive online.

Understanding the Coverage Report in GSC

Now that you have a solid understanding of improving your overall SEO performance, let's talk about GSC's coverage report, which provides valuable insights into page indexing issues. This report enables you to understand how well your site is being crawled and indexed by  Googlebot, which stops after it's  fetched 15MB of HTML or any supported text-based file.

The coverage report gives you an overview of the different categories of pages on your site, including:
  • Page Validation
  • Indexed Pages
  • Excluded Pages
  • Error Pages

By analyzing these categories, GSC will report any potential issues affecting your website's visibility in search results. But, one vital aspect of the coverage report is its ability to highlight crawl errors and warnings.

These errors could be due to various reasons, such as server errors, broken links, or inaccessible content. Careful analysis of crawl errors and warnings can help you take the necessary action to resolve indexing issues to ensure Google correctly indexes each page on your website. That helps improve your website's visibility in search results and enhances its overall performance.

Utilizing the URL Inspection Tool

Another powerful aspect of GSC is its ability to inspect specific URLs using the URL Inspection tool. That operation allows you to conduct a detailed analysis of a particular page on your website, giving you powerful insight into the indexing status and coverage details of your pages, helping you identify and resolve any issues affecting that specific web page's performance.

Properly utilizing and analyzing this tool ensures that web pages are adequately recognized and included in search engine results.

The URL Inspection Tool checks the indexing status for specific page URLs. It provides information about whether a page is successfully indexing across search engines. That's critically important to know as it determines whether your content is visible to users when they perform relevant searches.

Additionally, this tool helps identify any issues preventing certain pages from being indexed or affecting their visibility in search results. It provides coverage details that highlight errors or warnings that need attention. Addressing these issues can improve your website's performance and visibility.

Monitoring Mobile Usability and Enhancing User Experience Across Devices

Another vital aspect of GSC is its ability to monitor a user's experience across different devices, like desktop computers, mobile devices, and even personal tablets. The increased usage of these devices means websites must provide a seamless experience for these users, too.

One way to monitor mobile usability is through the Mobile Usability Analysis feature in the Search Console. The information provided here helps identify any issues affecting a user's experience on a mobile device. It provides insights into mobile screen problems, such as font sizes, touch elements, or content size.

To enhance a user's experience on mobile devices, optimizing your website with a mobile-friendly design caters to a growing number of mobile users in today's changing market.

Utilizing the Enhancements Report to Improve Structured Data

When optimizing your website for search engines, utilizing structured data markup is crucial. Because it helps those search engines understand the content on your site and display rich results in the SERPs. Analyzing the GSC Enhancements is essential to ensure structured data is error-free and optimized for maximum visibility.

The enhancements report provides valuable insights into  breadcrumbs  and sitelink search boxes. Within the enhancements report, you'll find a breakdown of different structured data types on your site, such as articles, events, products, recipes, and more. Each category will display information about any errors or warnings detected by Google's algorithms.

It's essential to pay close attention to these errors or warnings as they indicate areas of improvement. For example, suppose you notice errors related to incorrect formatting of some aspects of your structured data markup. In that case, this could impact your website's appearance in search results by as much as 25%.

So, regular monitoring and acting upon the information provided in the enhancements report will help improve your website's structured data markup so it's error-free and optimized for search results.

GSC for Better Performance and Improved Search Engine Optimization

In conclusion, leveraging the data from GSC greatly benefits your website's performance and SEO efforts. By analyzing and understanding the data, you can improve your website's visibility, user experience, and overall performance in search engine rankings.

It offers vital metrics into your website's clicks, impressions, click-through rates, and average position for specific keywords. By analyzing all this data, you can build better SEO strategies that improve your website's visibility in search results.

Get Support for Your Website's SEO

The digital marketing team at Zimmer Marketing utilizes GSC to monitor and enhance client website performance and advance SEO strategies. Through regularly monitoring and analyzing this data, the Zimmer web team can make informed decisions to  optimize your content strategy, improve your user experience, and increase the organic traffic to your website. Contact Zimmer Marketing today at 417-624-1025 to speak with a Marketing Consultant.
 
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How to Interpret Your Website Data in Google Search Console: Getting Started

Posted by Jason Dittmer on August 29, 2023 at 7:30 AM
In today's digital landscape, understanding the importance of Google Search Console (GSC) and website data is crucial for any business or website owner. With the ever-increasing competition online, it has become essential to leverage data-driven insights to optimize your website's performance and improve its visibility in search engine results.

Website analytic tools comprehensively view your site's performance by tracking user behavior, engagement metrics, conversion rates, and other vital indicators. These insights help you understand what content resonates with your audience and which pages need optimization.

But to make an informed decision about enhancing your  search engine optimization (SEO)  efforts, you should harness the power of GSC. By understanding SEO metrics such as  click-through rates (CTR), search query analysis, and page impressions, you can identify opportunities to optimize your website's organic content strategy and improve user experience.

In today's blog, we delve into the importance of utilizing GSC and website data for effective SEO strategies. In addition, we'll explore how to interpret GSC data and how to take actionable steps to drive organic growth and boost your online traffic.

So, let's dive in to uncover the wealth of knowledge within GSC website data--empowering you to make informed decisions that better your website's ability to appear in  search engine results pages (SERPs)  and enhance the success of your online endeavors.
 

Navigating Google Search Console

A verified website URL through GSC gives property owners unique access to review specific search engine data. From the GSC dashboard, property owners can review and develop a detailed SEO strategy and track SEO effectiveness over 28 days.

Owners can navigate the various sections from the Search Console dashboard using the left-hand side menu. Each section offers valuable insights into different aspects of your website:

  • Site Performance
  • Page Indexing
  • User Experience
  • Areas of Improvement or Enhancement
  • Security Issues or Manual Actions
  • Legacy Tools and Reporting
  • Link Reporting
 

Performance Data Analysis

Understanding how your website performs in search engine results is crucial. By analyzing performance data in GSC, you gain valuable insight into the efficacy of your SEO efforts for a specific timeframe or type based on the following:

  • Total Number of Clicks and Impressions
  • Average Website Position
  • CTR
  • Search Query Analysis

Clicks and Impressions

The total number of clicks and impressions on your website gives you a snapshot of how much your website appears in search results and how frequently users click on your links. That data helps you gauge the visibility and clickability of your web pages.


Average Website Position
The average position indicates where your website ranks on the SERPs for specific keywords. GSC monitors those changes in rankings over time to help you assess your SEO strategies' impact and identify areas of improvement.


Click-Through Rates
CTRs are the percentage of users who click on your website links when they appear in search results. A high CTR suggests that your meta titles and descriptions are compelling and relevant to users' queries, while a low CTR may indicate room for improved optimization.


Search Query Analysis

Here, you can look closely at what keywords or phrases drive traffic to your site. The information identified in the query also generates the number of clicks and impressions to help improve your content strategy to better align with user intent.

Next Week: GSC Troubleshooting

Now that we've covered the basics of utilizing the tools in Google Search Console to make informed SEO decisions for your business website, we're ready to tackle some more advanced troubleshooting that GSC enables. Next week, we will explain how to fix problems as they arise so your website stays visible and competitive.
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Topics: Website Design

Case Study: Building Customer Confidence with Your Website

Posted by Jason Dittmer on August 8, 2023 at 7:49 AM
The website for your business is the primary marketing material you can leverage to build customer confidence in your company. Think about it like this: your website's landing page is like the resume for your business. It should be clear, concise and highlight the unique attributes of your business to build credibility with your audience. This week, we'll demonstrate how you can do this with samples from a recent web development project for   Superior Roofing & Construction LLC.

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Topics: Website Design

Why You Should Embrace Mobile-First Web Design

Posted by Jason Dittmer on May 23, 2023 at 7:00 AM
A decade ago, many websites were viewed from laptop or desktop computers. But as the smartphone became more popular, web designers began seeing the need for mobile-friendly versions of their websites. Today the transition to a smartphone-dominated internet is complete. The websites Zimmer Marketing hosts receive about 90% mobile visits. That means rather than creating mobile versions of a website designed with desktop users in mind, it is now essential to prioritize smartphone users with mobile-first web design. This week, we'll discuss the best reasons for embracing mobile-first web design. 

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Topics: Website Design

6 Ways to Maintain ADA Compliance on Your Website

Posted by Jason Dittmer on March 28, 2023 at 7:00 AM
As a small business owner, you may be familiar with the   Americans with Disabilities ACT (ADA)  relating to certain aspects of your business, such as wheelchair accessibility. But did you know that the ADA also sets requirements for your website to protect those with disabilities? It's true, and as more business moves online, ensuring your company website complies with all ADA web guidelines is essential. 

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Topics: Website Design, E-commerce

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