How BiteMark teaches small and medium-sized businesses to reinvent their online presence to deliver dramatic increases in sales, leads and profits.

“We are really thinking like publishers,” says Brett Gilbertson of Bitemark.  In terms of content marketing,  “It’s been  a complete mind shift.”  This applies equally to websites and to eNewsletters.  Brett’s company are recognized today as online marketing experts Down Under.

For Brett and his clients, it’s all about driving measurable results.  Bitemark has made a study of what works and what doesn’t.  They are continually fine-tuning their efforts to be certain that they drive sales and profits on behalf of their clients.

We can learn a lot from their no nonsense approach to content marketing.

Melbourne-based Bitemark didn’t start out to teach their Australian customers how to create websites that prompted action, leads, and sales for their clients.  But they wound up filling a void they hadn’t known to exist.

They first offered software solutions that enabled web professionals to build sophisticated websites.  But technology wasn’t the answer to creating results driven websites.

Bitemark’s content creation expertise evolved only after they realized that the need for relevant content wasn’t understood by web developers or their clients. 

They learned that the vast majority of businesses were clueless about creating web sites that produced leads and sales.  In fact, Director of Marketing, Brett Gilbertson estimates that fewer than 10% of small to medium size businesses understand the importance of content marketing.

As BiteMark puts it on their website:

Unfortunately, most of the time…businesses do this with their websites:

• Talk about themselves more than their customers
• Use jargon and stuff that their customers don’t understand
• Make it difficult for their customers to find them
• Distract them with unnecessary sizzle and clutter
• Hide behind their websites by not giving out contact details
• Leave their customers wondering what to do next
• The list goes on…

It’s not confidence inspiring. The upside for you is that it’s not hard to stand out with your web marketing.

Gilbertson stresses that the ideal solution integrates a solution oriented web site, effective search engine optimization, and a blog.  “This is a very powerful combination,” according to Gilbertson.

He notes that it’s essential to understand what problem your target customers are trying to solve—and then to make it obvious on your website that your company is ready, willing, able to solve that problem.

Success Stories

The focus on content that assures visitors that you can provide solutions is delivering measurable results for clients such as a Ace Mobile Mechanics and Fort Knox Self Storage.  Each client was struggling with typical first generation websites that offered little incentive for visitors to move toward a purchase.

Fort Knox Self Storage now has a visually appealing, action oriented site that makes it obvious why you would want to store your stuff with them.  They have increased the number of leads substantially with an impressive 4-5% conversion rate.

Ace Mobile Mechanics suffered from a web site that presented them as “the cheapest in town” and lacked even a phone number to contact them.  At the time, their primary source of leads was the Yellow Pages in which they were spending $100,000 per year.  They invested $10,000 with Bitemark for a 10 page website that is delivering an astonishing 19% conversion rate.  Their web presence is now their lowest cost source of leads.  This year it will edge out the Yellow Pages in the total number of leads.

Relatively small online investments are producing dramatic results for Bitemark’s clients.  Their biggest challenge—and perhaps yours as well—is convincing traditional marketers to change the way they think about marketing. 

As Gilbertson says, “We are really thinking like publishers.” Convincing their clients to make that mind shift has not been easy; but it has been well worth the effort based on the bottom line results their clients are achieving.

For small to medium-sized businesses, it’s essential to provide great content before wandering onto  social mediopolis venues like FaceBook and Twitter

A powerfully pithy post on the Conversion Rate blog alerted me to some must-read content by web usability guru, Jacob Nielsen. 

According blogger, Brett Gilbertson, online marketing success is all about mastering the basics of providing relevant and accessible content. Done right that will lead to great conversion rates and growing sales. He quotes Nielsen,

“Instead of adding Facebook-like features that let users “bite” other users and turn them into zombies, the B2B site would get more sales by offering clear prices, good product photos, detailed specs, convincing whitepapers, an easily navigable information architecture, and an email newsletter.”

Nielsen’s article emphasizes the folly of following what either overly popular or overly unusual.  Good commonsense should prevail.  Nielsen’s  article walks you through what’s way too trendy for most of us. He helps you understand what’s out there and why you should almost certainly stay clear.

In fact, Nielsen has been crusading for web usability for more than 10 years.  He stresses in a linked post that companies must avoid 3 very common design mistakes by applying standards that have been in place since 1996.  They involve what he calls ’simple usability:’

• Communicating clearly so that users understand you. Users allocate minimal time to initial website visits, so you must quickly convince them that the site’s worthwhile.
• Providing information users want. Users must be able to easily determine whether your services meet their needs and why they should do business with you.
• Offering simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts things where users expect to find them.

Get these right and you’ll create much more value for your visitors–and for yourself–than by any wacky Java or Flash fireworks.

Related articles:

Read how Brett Gilbertson’s team delivers astonishing sales results for his customers: The Content Hunter: Aussie Experts Wrestle Sales Results from the Internet

Here’s an article on a very bad site that ignores Nielsen’s sage guidance: 3 Horrendous Mistakes Universal McCann Makes on its Website

Here’s an article on a great, visual blog that delivers $$ results for its business owner: Simple Success Strategy for Small Smoothie Supplier 

That’s what Brett Gilbertson of BiteMark makes clear in a recent post. His company makes its living by building websites for clients that generate plenty of leads and plenty of sales. He does it through effective content marketing:

Effectively dealing with the infinite choice of consumers on the web involves a mind shift from old marketing where commercial messages are thrust on people. The messages that work best on the web are chosen by them. There’s a huge benefit to making this mindshift – it’s easy to create content that your customers are looking for.

By the way, he practices what he preaches. His website is most effective. Strong relevant visuals. Text that gets right to the point.

Old-fashioned billboard marketing still works on I-95, but it doesn’t work on the web. You must offer content that is relevant to your buyers–or they won’t buy from you.