As the co-owner of an Internet marketing services firm, you might think my answer would be “yes, you can and should outsource your marketing”. But I couldn’t disagree more: no entrepreneur should “outsource” their marketing. At least not the understanding or thinking behind it.

My definition of marketing is generating, converting, satisfying and re-selling customers. Which is really what any business, by definition, should do. On that basis, outsourcing your marketing would be like outsourcing your business.

Perfectly fine to do, but it would make you an investor, not an entrepreneur.

That does NOT mean you can’t or shouldn’t outsource a range of marketing activities to people or companies that specialize in those activities. But the thinking behind those activities should come from YOU.

YOU should ideally know the most about your target market, what they want, the best way to deliver it to them, and the marketing strategies and tactics to optimally generate, convert, satisfy and re-sell them. By all means engage coaches, consultants and other service providers to help you gain clarity over these issues.

But remember - advisers are there to advise, not to MAKE the decision. The decision making rests with you. And for very good reason… since the buck rests with you too!

Of course, I’m preaching to the converted: you wouldn’t be reading this newsletter unless you took an active interest in marketing. But let this serve as further reassurance that the time you spend learning about marketing is time very well spent.

Fun article by Jill Whalen in High Rankings Adviser. Ms Whalen admits to being a Google Analytics “junkie” and explains how she uses the website analytics tool for multiple purposes beyond simply tracking her search engine statistics.

For example, when she’s needed reassurance that writing articles for other publications has been worthwhile she’s simply checked her stats to see how much traffic she’s received from those sites, and what percentage have ended up subscribing to her newsletter.

I like the way she thinks. Nothing like the motivational boost you get from some cold, hard facts (or as close to “facts” as Google Analytics can provide).

On the other hand, I guess it could be depressing to discover that all those article directories you’ve spent months hand-submitting unique articles to… have delivered NO traffic, much less any converting traffic!

And then there are those traffic sources that have delivered a ton of traffic… which doesn’t convert at all. Ms Whalen mentions StumbleUpon as being a major culprit here.

Similarly, she notes that while 60 percent of her website traffic comes from search engines, a lot of it doesn’t convert. That’s to be expected. The more content-rich your site, the more people will come to it via all kinds of wacky and weird search phrases. If, however, you have optimized your website for the search engines, you’ll attract a significant number of search engine visitors who ARE your target market and who will convert very well.

Google Analytics is also great for revealing information ABOUT your target market (not just where they come from). For example, you can get a good sense of not only how advanced and elaborate your website should be, but also how technical your visitors are, by considering the percentage of visitors who use the various web browsers used by your website visitors. It was interesting to find, for example, that over 70 percent of visitors to a corporate site I’m working with use Internet Explorer, whereas only about 43 percent of visitors to the Kikabink site use IE. Different horses for different courses!

All in all, Jill Whalen’s article is a welcome reminder to set aside some time to analyze your website statistics. Regardless of whether you use Google Analytics or some other web statistics program, you may just uncover some “pearls” that could impact on your marketing, product development or other aspects of your business.

This is powerful information - real data about YOUR website - that may be far more pertinent and instructive than any general research study findings.

Source: Jill Whalen, “Measuring Success Beyond the Search Engines”, High Rankings Adviser, September 10, 2008

Okay, so you’ve got an enticing offer that will generate tons of subscribers to your email list.

But, it’s not just the OFFER that needs to be extremely persuasive… it’s also how you PRESENT the offer.

To use an extreme example, burying your subscriber optin form (i.e. the form where people enter their name and email address) at the bottom of your webpage, or even worse, within the depths of your website, is unlikely to attract many subscribers.

By contrast, having the optin form “above the fold” (visible when someone visits your site - so they don’t have to scroll down) and on EVERY page of your website will usually have a much greater response.

Other things you can do to increase your optin rate are to have an appealing headline and subhead, and include a reassurance that the subscriber’s details will be kept safe and secure.

We’ve found that including a “pop over” or “hover ad” - a layer that floats over the webpage and includes an optin form - can also substantially increase the optin rate.

Also some marketers say that including the optin box on the right hand side of the page is more effective than having it on the left, since studies show that (Westerners’) eyes tend to rest on the right side of the page.

And of course there’s the “name squeeze” page which is likely to generate the MOST subscribers (but not necessarily the most qualified subscribers. See: The Dirty Little Truth About Name Squeeze Pages).

These are definitely things to test!