When you look at your website’s analytics, you may find that you have a traffic flow that you're happy with. You may even see a gradual increase in your numbers when you compare reports month over month. So you have people looking at your website. Whoop-de-doop. Those views don’t mean anything if you don’t have a way to retrieve their information and nurture those visitors into customers. How should you convert targeted website traffic into leads?

In honor of National Coffee Day, I’m drinking coffee and using words like “perks” in my blogging titles. I didn’t even know it was National Coffee Day until I opened my email this morning and saw subject lines with phrases like “Espresso Yourself” “15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee,” “6 Excuses to Drink Coffee Every Day of Your Life” and “Here’s Where to Score Free Coffee on National Coffee Day Today.” That got me thinking – the businesses that sent me emails know what they’re doing, or are working with an email marketing agency that knows what it's doing!

While I don’t have any free coffee for you I do have some free advice. Here are 4 P.E.R.Ks of working with an email marketing agency.

The subject line of your email could make or break your entire email marketing strategy, and there’s proof. The words and phrases that appear in the subject line are the only touchpoint you get with your email subscriber before they decide to either open, forget, or delete your email. Email marketing can be a powerful tool for a small business, and the subject line for each email you send can be the difference between success and failure. Here’s why.

You’ve been putting a lot of time and energy into implementing your online SEO strategy. You’ve redesigned your website, done your keyword research, wrote really helpful eBooks, brainstormed some killer blog topics, and created social media pages. You’ve cast your net out into the open online sea and now you have some bites. You’re so excited to get some interest that you failed to plan what you were going to do with the SEO leads once you captured them. If you want to keep reeling in the leads, there are 3 things you absolutely should not do.

Are you looking at your current marketing plan and demanding, “show me the money?" Then it might be time for you to consider a different type of marketing. If you are too busy to implement a new strategy you should look into hiring an inbound marketing company

As a small business owner you want to get the best bang for your buck. You’re willing to spend money on marketing, but you want to know that what you’re investing in will get you results – and not just the illusion of results in the form of fancy charts and graphs – but a real, legit return on investment in the form of leads and customers. Utilizing content marketing services is the surefire way to give your ROI a boost.

Alright, so you run your small business day in and day out. You want to have exciting goals and motivated employees. You want to see employees achieving key milestones and enthusiastic about success. Unfortunately, sometimes it seems like the goals of your business just aren’t tangible or exciting enough, and day to day accomplishments aren’t tied to the big picture. Here’s one thing you can start doing now that will help you be more efficient, and also can help to engage employees and keep them involved.

Are you in the process of roping in those business opportunity leads? Are you looking for a system that will give your business a strategy that is supported by data that proves it will increase your leads? Creating a business that is full of passion and provision while capturing leads can be difficult. But I have good news for you, inbound marketing is exactly what you are looking for.

So many marketers set goals of increasing website traffic, getting more visitors to your website and so on…

These are important goals when using internet marketing for your small business, especially when you implement inbound marketing strategies. This is all fine and dandy and a really great place to start if you are just getting on the web or if your website isn’t attracting visitors at all. But increasing lead conversion rates is where you will start to see a real impact on your ROI and allows you to grow your business full of passion and provision.

So, what if you have 2000 people visiting your website each month? The real question becomes, “where are the customers?” As internet marketers we work really hard to make our client’s websites as “findable” as possible as people use search engines to research products and services. Here at Half a Bubble Out, we do this for our clients through the attracting stage of inbound marketing.

How many times have you been invited to one of those home parties? You know the kind: kitchenware, make-up, jewelry, clothing, essential oils, purses, candles, and even weight loss coffee these days! How many times have you dreaded going, but felt bad saying no because you promised your friend you’d be there? You enjoy going to socialize, have a drink and some appetizers, with no intention whatsoever to purchase, but you end up making a guilt purchase anyway. You leave with buyer's remorse wondering, “Are they really a model for a successful small business?” Well, they probably provide passion and provision for some people, but they are a good example of how NOT to make people feel when they are a potential customer for any business. Let’s think of it in marketing terms.