Archive for January, 2010
9 Ways To Generate Traffic To Your Web Site
Posted by: | Comments9 Ways To Generate Traffic To Your Web Site
1. Search Engine Ranking – This is the Big Daddy for a lot of business owners. Why? Most importantly, if you know what you’re doing, it’s effective. And it’s also free except for the time you need to spend developing your strategy. High rankings in the search engines allow you to be in front of people who are actually searching for your product or service. So why isn’t everyone taking advantage of this strategy? Getting your site listed high up in the top search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) is not easy. There’s lots to learn and the search engine rules are always changing. If you want to use this strategy, my recommendation is to find someone who is a legitimate search engine optimization (SEO) expert. Do your homework. There are lots of pretenders in this industry.
2. Pay-per-Click Advertising (PPC) – Services like Google AdWords can be very effective -provided you have a thorough understanding of your target market. Basically, Pay-per-Click advertising works like this: You bid on how much you’d like to pay per click. There’s competition for certain keywords because they determine how often your ad is clicked on. The idea is to have your ad (you’ll see these ads on top and to the right of the free organic search results when you do a search for something) appear when people that fit your target market are searching for information. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The cool thing is you can have your ad up and running in about 15 minutes. And you can set a maximum limit on how much you’re willing to spend. That way, you can control your investment. The key to a successful PPC campaign is testing to find the right combination of keywords that get readers clicking on your ad on a consistent basis.
3. Use Your Own E-zine – If you publish your own e-zine, you already have a list of people who are probably interested in what you have to offer on your website. Keep in mind, your ezine readers may have signed up for your ezine without ever visiting your website. You can direct them to your site by letting them know about new content – maybe a new service or a free report. Consider offering a special promotion for your ezine readers only.
4. Distribute Your Articles to other E-zines and Web Sites – Many ezine publishers are on the lookout for interesting content. They are hungry for content and accept articles regularly. In exchange for your article, you get to put a resource box at the end of your article identifying you as the source of the article along with a link to your website. If you’re interested in going this route, invest in Charlie Page’s “Directory of Ezines” (DOE). It gives you contact info for ezines that welcome articles along with tons of other useful information about the ezine including, of course, who its readers are. Another great place to submit articles is EzineArticles.com.
5. Ads in Other E-zines – Use the Directory of Ezines to identify other e-zines whose readership matches your target market. The DOE will tell you if they accept advertising and what their rates are. If you do decide to try this, don’t just run your ad once. Try at least three consecutive ads. Usually ezine advertising is fairly inexpensive.
6. Public Speaking – If you do any public speaking, make sure you don’t say goodbye to your audience without letting them know your website URL. And don’t just sell your website, create a free report that you can tempt your audience with. There are lots of organizations who need speakers. You can contact them and offer to do a talk on your subject. In exchange, you’ll be able to use a few minutes at the beginning and end of your talk to make people aware of who you are, how you help your clients and how they can contact you. Check out SpeakerMatch.com or SpeakerServices.com if this appeals to you. Speaking is a great way to drive traffic to your site.
7. Online Forums and Discussion Groups – Identify popular forums and discussion groups that are related to your subject area and then sign up to participate in those where prospects in your target market are hanging out. Don’t sell in these forums. The idea here is to look for ways to participate in a meaningful way. eg. be helpful, offer advice, answer questions, etc. In your signature at the end of you post, include a link to your website. And, if you offer a free report, be sure to let readers know they can get it at your website.
8. Inform professional organizations and associations you belong to – Let them know about your site. They often make announcements in their newsletters or on their online bulletin boards. Many are glad to promote their members. Even if you have to pay for a bit of exposure, this approach allows you to leverage your affiliation with the organization when you communicate with other members. Instead of viewing you as an outsider, they see you as a fellow member and are likely to be more responsive when they are contacted by “one of their own.”
9. Use Your Business Card – Create a free report and advertise it on your business card. Using that approach, if someone comes across your business card, long after you’ve parted ways, your business card can deliver a compelling reason for someone to visit your site.
Are you selling what your prospect wants?
Posted by: | CommentsAre you selling what your prospect wants?
Have you ever given some deep thought to what it is your clients are actually buying when they decide to do business with you?
Sure they buy your services and products but I mean do you have a clear understanding of what problem they are looking to solve or what need they are looking to fulfill?
As business owners, this is an important question to consider if we want to maximize the effectiveness of our marketing .
So how do you find out what they’re thinking?
Simple. Ask them. Explain in an email or on the phone that you are revising your marketing plan and wondered if they could help you understand, in a sentence or two, the value your service offered them.
Here are a couple of unedited answers I got when I did it.
The most important ‘value’ I received from working with you Gerry was time. Time allowed me to concentrate on my business (using my entrepreneurial time wisely) while you used the info I gave you and weaved it into the ideal website for my business. Time management is something I support my clients with and I truly know the importance of delegating. In essence, that is what happened between us. You were the expert in copywriting and I have learned over the years to delegate to the ‘expert’!
You helped us give voice to the value of the services we provide with a consumer-orientation that helps differentiate us from others. You also offered the potential of a follow-up system that other marketing service providers did not offer or did not have a clear vision of its value. Your availability and follow-through is particularly appreciated.
When you analyze their responses, you can see they were “buying” different benefits.
The first found marketing very time consuming and unfulfilling. Why? Simply because that’s not this particular client’s area of expertise. In her case, she’s capable. But she determined that she would spend far more time trying to get a handle on creating an effective marketing message and strategy if she tried to do it herself.
And whatever time she could find was not of a quality that would allow for the timely creation of an effective selling story. It was crammed into and around other aspects of running her business. She determined she would be missing opportunities if she tried to do it herself.
In the second example, the client simply realized he needed to stand out from his competition. He’s in a real “me-too” industry. The economy is playing having with his industry. His competitors all say the same thing so of course, when that happens, it always comes down to defending prices. He didn’t want to play that game so he decided not to.
You’ll notice he didn’t even mention time. In his mind, as soon as he decided he needed some help, he made an instant decision to find someone to help him.
By asking our clients why they bought from us, we can take their responses and build our marketing message around them.
With some careful content creation on our websites and in our other marketing communication, we can make sure we mirror back this value in such a way that anyone considering our products and services will clearly see it and choose us over our competitors.
Gerry Black is a marketing writer based in Toronto, Canada who works with clients in the U.S. and Canada.
Is Your Marketing Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish?
Posted by: | CommentsIs Your Marketing Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish?
A colleague of mine and I were having a conversation the other day about a marketing mystery. Isn’t it odd that we spend so much time, money and energy trying to make a difference in the lives of our customers so we can earn a reasonable profit and yet, often, we’re our own worst enemies when it comes to doing the things that will help us achieve that objective?
Even though many of us become knowledgeable about effective marketing strategies, somehow, some of what we learn never makes it to the front line – the point where our sales proposition is laid bare in front of our prospect for consideration.
Here are three things that could be hurting your marketing results along with some suggestions on what you can do to correct them.
1. Thinking your web site is ready for prime-time because it was created by a “web site designer”. This can be a costly misconception. Many web designers rely on their clients to supply content.They have no idea how to write compelling copy. Nor should they. That’s why they’re designers.
But here’s the problem: Many have no basic understanding of how to create a home page that presents a client’s selling message effectively. Unless a web site designer is getting content from someone who knows how to write and present a sales argument or has the understanding to coach the client on how to do it, chances are the site will do very little other than occupy a spot in cyber-space for which the client pays a monthly hosting fee. Much of the content on web sites today has been cobbled together from brochures, competitors web sites and presentations that are equally as weak.
Don’t believe me? The next time you’re in surf mode, check out how many home pages – where the all important first impression occurs – are missing the most fundamental selling element of all – an attention getting headline that offers a clear benefit to the reader. Happy hunting. Many home pages don’t even mention the word “you” in the copy. It’s all about me. Them. You know what I mean.
So, why would companies lay out all kinds of dough to have a web site designed and then cram the home page with copy the reader won’t respond to? Many simply don’t understand that the best design in the world can’t make a web site with dull “me too” copy perform. If you think your home page copy falls into this category, it may be time to have it reviewed by a marketing writer. Otherwise, you may be spending valuable marketing dollars driving customers to your web site only to have them click away in search of a competitor who has a better answer to the question they arrived with, ‘What’s in this for me?’
2. Not marketing to existing customers. It’s amazing how many businesses will spend money trying to get new customers while leaving one of the greatest incremental revenue streams sitting untapped right in their own backyard in the form of their current customer list. To win a new customer, you have to somehow find a way to make your sales message stand out in a sea of marketing messages. Meanwhile, our existing customers, the people who have already done business with us, represent a prime audience predisposed to hearing about other ways we can help them solve problems. We may have added a number of new services or products since they first became customers. If we don’t let them know about how we can continue to add value to their lives, they’ll probably find what they need from a competitor.
Worse yet, the customer will probably end up being the new provider of what the customer originally bought from us. Keep your customers informed. Treat your customer list like the goose that laid the golden egg. By staying in touch, you’ll learn about new needs and wants and you’ll be able to minimize your cost of sales. If you have a list but you’re not sure how to go about creating a customer contact program, drop me an email and I’ll give you some ideas. If you don’t have a customer list with email addresses, it’s never too late to start developing one. For a little bit of effort, you’ll be well rewarded.
3. Not creating “pull” marketing material. None of us likes to be sold. But we love to buy. Your marketing material should be carefully crafted so it grabs the reader by the lapels and creates the feeling that doing business with anybody else would be a huge mistake. Every day, our eyes glaze over as we are hammered by ads, home pages, sales letters and brochures that just blah, blah blah us to death. And guess what? Millions of dollars go into creating these messages that don’t attract attention or create desire. You see this all the time on the internet. Web sites pushing products and services instead of working to develop a “know like and trust factor’ – the magical trio that usually forms the foundation of every sale.
You can’t push people into buying today any more than you could 20 years ago. But you can make sure you create the type of environment that gives you a chance to allow them to buy what you’re offering.
Start getting into the habit of analyzing the sales and marketing messages that come at you during the day. Try to distinguish between those that just bounce off your sales resistance armor and those that make it past and create a desire within to learn more.
To be successful in today’s marketing and selling arena, you need every edge you can find. Especially those over which you have full control.
Gerry Black is a marketing writer based in Toronto, Canada who works with clients in the U.S. and Canada.
How to Triple Your Email “Open” Rates
Posted by: | CommentsHow to Triple Your Email “Open” Rates
Came across this the other day and thought I’d share it.
Do you find less people are opening your emails? If so, you’re not alone. “Open” rates are dropping to new lows of 10-15%.
Here’s a clever way to increase the number of people who open your email marketing messages:
Create your email promotion and write out 3 subject lines.
Take your best subject line and include it with your first email. Let’s say you email 1,000 people and 150 open it. Delete those names off your “send” list and re-send the email using a different subject line. Once your open results come back from the second email, delete those names and do your third email using your third subject line.
Here’s the exciting part: you could TRIPLE the amount of people who open your email by using this strategy.
Why not give it a try and triple your chances of making a sale?
Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.
6 “Easy-to-Implement” Marketing Mindsets
Posted by: | Comments6 “Easy-to-Implement” Marketing Mindsets
1. Think and act like an effective marketer
Often, we spend too much time fussing about little things when we should be concentrating on the bigger picture. Focus on making a difference with your ideas instead of thinking about all the reasons something might not work. Think like the master marketers. Their mindset is simple: My services are valuable. I will do whatever it takes to get the attention and interest of my prospects until they see the value as well.
2. Look at marketing as a game
Part of playing any game is making mistakes. It happens. You miss the shot. Drop the ball. And what happens? No biggee. You just keep playing the best you can. The mistake many business owners make when it comes to marketing is they don’t play the game at all. They try to get everything just perfect. Sure, they avoid making mistakes, but they never have a chance to win.
3. Tell ‘em what they want to hear how they want to hear it
The key to effective marketing is communicating the right thing at the right time to the right audience. One common trap is getting caught up with trying to find exactly the right words. Instead, think about who your target customer is, what’s important to him/her, the problems you help solve and then, the solutions you offer. Do that and the words will take care of themselves.
4. Create and use a compelling marketing message
Work hard to develop a powerful marketing message. Something that instantly communicates to your target audience what value you offer. When you get it to a point where you think it hits the mark, “take it to the streets” like the Doobie Brothers did. That’s an effective way to get valuable feedback. Try out your marketing message on 25 people and you’ll get a sense of know if whether or not your message is working.
5. Create a marketing strategy, make a plan and get going!
Guess what? There is no perfect strategy. Many marketers get so caught up trying to figure out the best way to market their business, they don’t act. Do SOMETHING. Pick a strategy that you think would be effective, roll up your sleeves and dive in. A big challenge for many business owners is trying to figure the perfect to market their business. What usually ends up happening is – nothing.
6. Follow a written marketing plan
When you think about promoting your business, did you ever notice how the same ideas tend to pop into your mind over and over again? The ones you know you should act on but never seem to find the time to do so? Until you actually write it out so you can see the action items, it will continue to be “something you know you should do” instead of a game plan that will help you grow your business. You don’t have to noodle out your whole plan and then write it down. Just start getting some ideas down. During the process, your plan will become clearer and clearer.
Wrap your mind around the things effective marketers do and before long, you’ll be right there along side them.
Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.
Titanic Disaster Marketing Lessons
Posted by: | CommentsTitanic Disaster Marketing Lessons
The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.
Shortly before midnight on 14 April 1912, four days into the ship’s maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
How could that happen?
Afterall, the Titanic was designed by some of the most experienced engineers, and used some of the most advanced technology available at the time. It was popularly believed to have been unsinkable. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features, the Titanic sank.
You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression “that’s just the tip of the iceberg”. Well, the Titanic’s fate was sealed by what the captain and crew couldn’t see.
While they were focused on the visible part of the iceberg, it was other 90% of the iceberg lying below the surface of the water -hidden from view – that created the irresistible force that responsible for a lot of the damage.
So what does this have to do with marketing?
Simply this.
An effective marketing plan – one that produces leads and profits – is like an iceberg. Your web site. Your email sales messages. Your pay-per-click ads. These form the “tip” of your marketing iceberg.
But over time, your marketing program should be silently expanding below the “surface” -out of sight from your prospects and clients - as you add on additional strategies and systems that gradually transform your marketing into a powerful force that stops your prospects and results in an outcome that benefits both parties.
Here’s why this is critical:
The sales resistance your prospects have built up as they steam through a sea of daily sales messages - some studies say upwards of 1,600 – is like the hull of the Titanic.
It has been so hardened by countless cheesy come-ons, unmet expectations and failures to deliver that it easily allows new prospects to deflect one-time sales messages from your website, periodic emails and the odd PPC campaign.
This is called one-step marketing and rarely results in producing consistent results.
In fact, a high percentage of sales are lost with this one-time “here’s what I got” approach. And the reason is simple. No one proposes on the first date. And that’s exactly what we’re attempting to do if we simply use a series of unconnected tactics to try to sell services or products to someone who doesn’t know us.
This just doesn’t allow for the connection needed to move your prospect from interested prospect to satisfied buyer.
That takes time and repeated connections with your prospect. Which is why developing a marketing iceberg is effective for attracting qualified prospects and converting them into profitable sales. Marketing is a multi-step process and the systems and strategies we need to eventually “stop” our prospects so they will consider our offer form a powerful out-of-sight foundation that gets bigger and bigger as our marketing system expands.
How well is your marketing iceberg equipped to break through the sales resistance armor you prospect suits up in every day?
Do you have:
A compelling sales message? This is what gets your prospects to notice you in the first place. Does your marketing message stand out? Is it clear to your prospects what they get if they stick around and investigate your offering a bit more?
An automatic way to build a list of interested buyers? The simple, inexpensive sales lead generation systems available today allow you to easily create an audience of people who want to know how your services and products can help them.
A system to eliminate possible sales resistance? 80% of sales are lost due to lack of follow up. 80%! That’s incredible. Understable back in the day when following up was a tedious. But today, creating an effective follow up system is easyand effective in generating faster, higher profits. By anticipating potential questions and concerns in advance and using an automated sequence of emails to address them, you can effectively pre-sell your prospects and help them enjoy the benefits you offer.
A reason for your prospect to take action? Everyone procrastinates. Especially potential buyers. It’s human nature. They may need or want your services but just don’t see a need to act today. You need to give them one.
A way to make more with each sale? 90% of businesses don’t use this simple strategy. There is no better time to cross-sell or upsell than when your prospect has made a decision to buy from you. Why not try to help them with their needs even further? Afterall, we’re in business to help people. If you have additional services or products that create value for them, it’s your duty to make sure they know about it. We all have heard ( it’s never actually happened to us, of course!) the stories about clients and customers buying add-on products and services elsewhere because they didn’t know they could get them from the source where they bought the original product or service.
A system for generating repeat sales? It’s 8 times more costly and more difficult to attract a new client that it is to sell an existing one again. If you have a client base of any size, you are sitting on a potential goldmine. You simply have to implement a repeat sales strategy system.
Okay, so, how’d you do? Iceberg or ice cube? Don’t worry. Many business owners have 8-10 leverage points they are not tapping into to easily increase their sales results. And most of them have to do with implementing simple and effective marketing strategies.
If you have decided to make 2010 the year you take action to start building a marketing iceberg that pierces your prospect’s invincable hull of sales resistance so they are able to clearly understand the value you offer, great.
You can ease in or dive right into the deep end. The important thing is to do something to start creating a marketing system instead of relying on disconnected tactices that aren’t delivering the results you want – and need – to grow your business.
Remember, the iceberg that sunk the Titanic was a powerful force. But it started out somewhere as an ice cube and grew gradually.
Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.
How Does Your Marketing Stack Up?
Posted by: | CommentsHow Does Your Marketing Stack Up?
Standing out in a crowded marketplace is actually very simple.
If you know what to do. And if you actually make a point to do it.
I was reminded of this over the holidays as I was browsing through my “Old-Fashioned Ideas” Library that sits above my desk on THE SHELF. The books and tapes that make it to THE SHELF have to earn their way by virtue of the fact that they offer timeless truths.
Too often, as marketers, we find ourselves distracted by The Next Shiny Thing. Some guru pontificating about how he/she has discovered a new way to …whatever.
Bottom line: The basics never change. And if you put them in place, you will see the results you want – as this little story points out.
I was reading Ultimate Marketing Plan by Dan Kennedy, one of my old-fashioned (and extremely wealthy) mentors.
He tells the story about a trip to Montreal where he stayed at a hotel called The Lord Berri. (I know exactly where it is too because I grew up in Montreal.)
Next to the hotel is a parking lot. There’s nothing distinctive about it. And it’s not the kind of place where you’d expect anything above minimal service.
One evening, Dan and some associates decided to go out for dinner and went to the lot to get their rental car to go out in search of a good restaurant.
On the stool, leaning against a hut: an overweight guy with a beer, wearing a T-shirt. The Parking Lot Guy.
Nothing distinctive about him either. In fact, the kinda guy you might run into in any North American parking lot.
But this Parking Lot Guy is an exciting reminder that you dare not judge all books by their covers.
As they approached the attendant, he said, “Where do you gentlemen want to go with your car tonight?” Kennedy and his associates explained they were headed for an Italian restaurant they’d found advertised in a magazine.
“No,” he told them, “you do not want to go there. There are much better Italian restaurants much closer, even within walking distance.”
When’s the last time YOU had this kind of interest from someone. (Important point to remember here: The Parking Lot Guy already had their business.)
A 15-minute conversation ensued during which The Parking Lot Guy asked about the group’s preferences, he got out a telephone directory and called several restaurants to determine how late they were serving, what their specials were, even what wine they had in stock. Once the group decided on a restaurant, he drew them a map and gave them directions.
The Parking Lot Guy – for $7 a day – was taking better care of the group than the staffs at most of the hotels they stayed in at $100, $150 or even $200 a day! (This event took place 15 years ago but think about how timeless his response below is when the group thanked him for being so polite, concerned, friendly and knowledgeable.)
He said:
That’s my business; that’s what I sell. I’m in the service business. If I can help a person or make friends with a person when he brings his car here for the first time, then the next time he has to park his car downtown, he’ll remember me and my place. He may even tell somebody else to park their car here. If he comes back a number of times, then I’m building a stable business. Then he’s not worth a few dollars to me, he may be worth a hundred dollars to me in a year. In my lifetime, he could pay to send one of my kids to college for a year. If I have enough of that kind of customer, then I have a truly valuable business. You can’t do that just by parking cars. There are hundreds of car lots. They’ve all got parking spaces. We have to give service.
The Parking Lot Guy gives us a solid foundation around which to build our marketing stories.
Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.
