05/08/2010 by admin.

This is the first of a two - parter on Pay per Click Advertising.

If you’re already doing Pay per Click, I am going to ask you a favour and let me address those VIP members who are not doing it. (I’ll have some advanced tips for you next month.) Our research indicates that at least 50% of members are not doing Pay per Click. That figure is way too high and it means many members are losing out.

If you’re totally new to the concept, Pay per Click (PPC) refers to the sponsored links to websites that you can place on Google (and other search engines) at or near the top of the search results when people search for phrases (known as ‘keywords’) that relate to your business. Go to Google and do a search for ‘car insurance’ and you’ll see examples of those ads at the top and down the right hand side of the page. Here’s why you must at least test PPC:

1 It is a revolution in Marketing because it is the best way to find people who are searching, right now, for your particular product or service.

2 It is a revolution in Advertising because you don’t pay for your ad to appear. You only pay when people click on it - hence Pay per Click. You choose how much to pay for each click and that helps determine how high up the page you’re going to appear. This type of pay per performance Advertising is music to the ears of smart direct response Marketers (that’s YOU!)

3 There is a science to doing Pay per Click extremely well. I do not know of any other form of Marketing where becoming an expert on it can improve your performance so radically. It’s well worth you getting really good at this. And if you’ve tried PPC in the past without success, it’s worth re-visiting if equipped with some of the tools and strategies I’m going to share with you.

4 It’s more predictable than Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). One of the biggest problems with SEO is that Google can change its algorithm and your listings may disappear overnight. Although PPC has its challenges, it gives you a much stronger, predictable base to work from.

5 There’s virtually no downside to testing PPC. Google lets you set up an account in minutes and you can test it for a few pounds. Do a search for ‘Google Adwords’ to find out where to get started (or just click the ‘Advertising Programmes’ link on Google’s homepage.)

6 The first step to a successful campaign is deciding what your ‘keywords’ are going to be. These are the phrases that people search for on Google that you want your ads to appear for. There’ll be a few obvious keywords - plus, you should go through all of your Marketing material looking for good keywords - and there are online keyword tools such as Google’s and also www.wordtracker.com

This month’s Internet Profit Strategies has one, sole purpose. To sell you the idea that Pay per Click is something you should be testing TODAY.

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03/08/2010 by admin.

There is a famous marketing saying that goes, “Copy is Salesmanship in print”which means you can’t always be in front of the customer personally, so your writing has to do the selling for you. It never ceases to amaze me that so many Entrepreneurs are happy to spend a lot of money on designing a pretty website, but when it comes to communicating with the customer, it all falls apart.Good copy is not hard to write. But it can make the difference between a sale and a customer walking away forever. There are so many skills required to run a successful business, but one of the most important is being able to sell with words.

If you absolutely hate writing or would rather pay someone to do it, that’s fine, but you’ve still got to make sure they cover the 10 elements of Copywriting that Sells.Here are the first five:

1) Who is your customer? Many Entrepreneurs cannot tell you in one sentence who their typical customer is. It’s impossible to write good copy if you don’t know everything about your customer and can speak their language. You wouldn’t speak to a mechanic the same way you speak to a Beauty therapist. You want to sound genuine and authentic. The best way to do this is to know your customer – their needs, worries, fears and concerns. You can use surveys and polls to get this information.

2) Find the Ouch Point. Every customer has an ‘ouch point’. This is the big problem that they want to solve. It could be monetary, physical, emotional etc. Once you find the problem, provide a solution and make that a theme running through your copy.

3) Write a Powerful Headline. This is the most important part of your copy. You need to grab the readers’ attention before they click away. Be bold make sure they know you are speaking to them. Now is not the time to be vague or abstract. Don’t forget to use your keywords in your title and through your copy. Top copywriters often write hundreds of versions of a headline until they get the right one.

4) Tell your Story. People buy from people they know, like and trust. Let your personality and character shine through. If you have an interesting story about how you got to where you are, TELL IT. Customers want to know that you are real, flesh and blood with imperfections just like them. It breaks down barriers, which drives sales. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you sell something straightforward, you can’t be a personality in your business. In the current economy,you have no choice. You MUST stand out from the crowd.

5) Use the word ‘YOU.’ This is a great test of the effectiveness of your copy. By using the word ‘You’ throughout your website and emails, it forces you to have a conversation with the customer and it ensures that your words are about them, not you. The biggest mistake on websites is copy that is all about the company that owns the website – and ignores the needs of the customer

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28/07/2010 by admin.

This week’s Internet Profit Strategy might seem a little specific and esoteric… but I promise you it’s vitally important.  We often talk about copywriting in general terms, simply because most business owners get it SO badly wrong they can massively increase their results simply by applying some very general principles to the way they write their web pages (for example, by having a headline,
subheadings, an offer and a call to action).

But what we tend not to realise is we can vastly improve (or conversely completely destroy) response by using the wrong words. No joke: a single “wrong” word can stop your website visitor dead in their tracks just at the point they were going to give you their details (or even
their money!).

And the most common one of these is “form”, as in “Fill in the form below and we’ll send you the information”  The trouble with the word “form” is it sounds so official. We get forms from the tax-man and the government. They imply contracts, obligation and commitment. They put us off. So a far better way of phrasing this kind of thing is like this: “Just leave your details below, click the button and we’ll take care of the rest”

How easy and gentle does that sound compared to the other one? Here are some more “bad” words you want to avoid, and the ones you want to use instead.
Sometimes you might have to re-cast sentences, but it’s always worth it: “Sign up”. Instead write “join us” or “subscribe” or “claim” “Buy”. Instead write “When you own” (we want to own stuff… we just don’t want to pay for it) “Price” and “cost”. Instead use “amount” or “sum”. Caveat: you CAN use “price” and “cost” when you’re talking about your competitor. “Contract”. Instead use “paperwork” or “agreement”.
These might seem like small details, but believe me they all add up and make a huge difference to the way your website visitors are going to respond to your pages.

Ultimately it’s going to increase response and increase profits. So watch your words – and watch your bank account grow as a result.

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22/07/2010 by admin.

Businesses are always searching for the Holy Grail of Online Traffic.

The more traffic you have coming to your site, the more prospects you can convert into customers, which means more money. One of the most effective and cost efficient strategies to drive targeted traffic to your website is ‘Article Marketing’. Not only does this strategy increase your customer list, it provides links from other sites which are great for SEO, and it establishes YOU as an expert in your line of business.

Article Marketing is a powerful way to create relevant, quality inbound back links. When your articles are published in newsletters, this creates a highly relevant link back to your site, which will in turn increase your page rank and listings.

How does it work?

You write or hire someone to write articles on your products or service, then submit them to various article sites online with your contact information link. Your prospective customers surf the net looking for a solution to a problem, they read your article, they like it and click on your link, which takes them back to your site or sales page. Other publishers may want to re-publish your article on their blogs/sites. They can do this as long as they keep your contact links intact, which helps you to reach an even larger audience.

How to Get Started:

-Do your research and find out what your customers need and want. Do they have problems to solve? Find the solutions and make a list of articles to write.

-Write an article on each solution - make sure your articles are original, good quality and show a bit of personality. Don’t write an epic – 400 – 450 words is a decent length.

-If you hate to write, or would rather outsource this task, hire a freelance writer. Reputable freelance sites include www.elance.com and www.guru.com. Be sure to ask for previous samples of work.

-Remember your Keywords – Research which keywords are used by your customers when they search for your business and put them in your article title and body. Don’t over use them – 4/5 mentions in one article should work.

-Write a great resource box – Each article must have an ‘About Author’ box at the end, which links back to your site or sales page. Write a compelling offer to entice the reader to click the link.

-Submit your articles to Ezine and Article directories - This takes some time, because there are hundreds of them, but you can also use an automatic article submitter that will send out your articles to thousands of directories at once.

-Measure which articles get read more often. This will give you some clues on what your customers needs are.

-Continue to write articles on a regular basis. Having more content on the web that points back to your site, means more potential customers.

Article Marketing is one of the tried and Proven strategies to build your list, become known as an expert and offer value to your target market. The more articles you have out there, the more links you have, which raises your page rank in the search engines which means more traffic. It’s a win-win!

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15/07/2010 by admin.

Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you’ll ever have at your disposal.

Why?

Because it’s easy to say great things about yourself. Anyone can do that. But with a testimonial, you’ve got someone else doing it. And bear in mind this is someone else the reader can identify with, simply because they are in the same position as the person giving the testimonial was before they bought your product or service.

And virtually everyone who’s studied even the most basic courses on marketing knows this, which is why they’re used so often (although not nearly so often as they ought to be).

Now, one big advantage of having a testimonial on your web-page as opposed to having it just in print is the choice of media you have.

There’s no doubt at all video sells better than anything. This is no big surprise because face-to-face human interaction is the key to persuasion, and video is the next best thing to actually being there – meaning a video testimonial is the next best thing to actually having your past clients and customers sit down with your prospects and tell them how great you are.

And it doesn’t have to be difficult intrusive or expensive: a simple hand-held video camera you can slip into your pocket and plug straight into your computer will cost you less than £100 if you shop around.

Even getting the testimonials doesn’t have to be hard: if you’re running a local business, you can drop in on your customers and clients (by appointment!) or even get them to do it while they’re in your premises or at the sales meeting – wherever you are, it doesn’t matter too much.

Moreover, don’t be afraid to ask… and ask before you’ve done the work or made the sale in the same way as I encourage you to “set the scene” by asking for referrals in advance of the sale, using a form of words like, “I grow my business with testimonials, and if I do a great job for you I hope and expect you’d be willing to say a few lines into the camera here, just so I can help other people just the same way I’ve helped you”. This is a very nonthreatening and low-key way to ask for a testimonial. And because you’ve asked for it upfront, if you do do a great job for them, then the Rule of Reciprocity, and the Rule of Consistency & Commitment mean they’ll almost always follow through with it.

You can do a similar thing if you’re a solely on-line trader: set up the expectation of a video testimonial in advance, both in your marketing emails or on the sales page or even on the confirmation page with a check-box already ticked. Don’t underestimate the power of Reciprocity and Commitment & Consistency.

Then it’s simply a matter of uploading them to your website and you’re done.

But it gets even better than this: a video testimonial is actually three testimonials in one: you can transcribe it for your static media (along with a still-photo from the video); you can extract the audio (again, with a still-photo); and you, of course, have the video itself.

Video is big… and growing bigger. Video testimonials have the potential to be absolutely huge but as yet, few people are using them.

I strongly encourage you to give it a go before your competitors do.

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12/07/2010 by admin.

With the recession meaning customers, clients, and prospects are even keener to get more value for their money, it’s ever more important for us to do what we must toensure they see us as the people to do business with rather than our competitors.

That’s why I find it frustrating to see business owners wasting so much money withineffective websites.

It’s useful to consider your home page as the “concierge” of your business - it’s theplace they’re directed to when you place a PPC ad or offline ad to drive them online.It has to act like a concierge - because all your future business with your visitors depends on it.

So if you’re not doing everything you can to maximise the results you get from your home page, you’re wasting money.

Your online profits come down to two things: the amount of traffic you get, and then the percentage of visitors you convert to paying customers or clients.

With that in mind, here are some tips and strategies you can implement today, right NOW in fact, to make our home page more effective.

First, you MUST have a headline. It’s the first thing people see when they visit your site, and you have about 8 seconds to capture their attention and keep them there.So your headline needs to be big, bold and promise a huge benefit to them to keepon reading. Your logo and your company name is not a headline: it’s a cop-out and an example of either a lack of imagination or laziness. Perhaps both.

Secondly, your home page must have one purpose and one purpose only. Sometimes this is called the “most wanted response”. I strongly urge you to makeyour home-page’s purpose to get the email address and name of the visitor so youcan start marketing to them (see next month’s Strategies).

And thirdly, begin your relationship with them by giving. Most home-pages either askvisitors to buy something or, perhaps worse, say nothing at all (the page has no real purpose). Instead, offer something of value (free report, CD, trial-run of something,free sample, etc.) in return for their details.

Once this is all in place, the next step is to MEASURE the response to your newhome page and then TEST variations to improve that response rate. The goodnews: Very few people are doing this and those who take the time and trouble are well on the way to having a Recession-Proof Web site.

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07/07/2010 by admin.

In the last few years, the world of blogging has taken the web by storm, but it’s only recently that business owners across the world are taking advantage of this Marketing strategy to build phenomenal relationships with their customers. Businesses are reaching out to a much wider audience by blogging about their products and services, thanks to Social Bookmarking and online networking. They are not only creating great PR every time they update their blogs, they are building a priceless relationship with customers and connecting with them in a way that was unheard of in the past.

By opening a ‘two-way’ conversation with your customers, you are building a community around your business, so they feel involved, relevant and cared about. Gone are the days of ‘sterile’, bland marketing messages. People want authenticity and knowledge. Blogs give you the platform to deliver all this and more, whilst attracting and building a regular audience.

Top Tips on How to Start a Successful Business Blog:

1. Set up a blog about your business. You can use a free account at blogger.com or there are many upgraded paid versions such as typepad.com and movabletype.com

2. Write a great ‘About Us’ page. This will be one of your most read pages, make sure you make a great impression and get readers excited about your business.

3. Set up an RSS feed such as feedburner.com to capture email addresses. This is a free, but powerful way to build a list.

4. Write a post every day for about a month to give you some content and to get you into the habit of blogging regularly. You can scale back to twice a week later on.

5. Make your blog posts short and easy to read. Use colloquial language and add personality. Readers need a reason to stay and dull blogs just don’t work.

6. Don’t go for the hard sell. Readers find this off putting. Write about how your
   products/services are improving lives, solving problems etc…
   

7. Use your keywords in your post titles and content.

8. Encourage your readers to comment and always reply to comments. This builds a ‘community’ feel to your business and is a great way to find out what your customers think about your products/services

9. Remember the Call to Action. Have plenty of links back to your main site, or sales page.

10. Comment on other popular blogs in your niche. This establishes you as an expert, and gives you powerful backlinks that help with SEO

11. Use social bookmarking tools like stumbleupon and Digg to spread the word.

12. Have fun! Your blog is a great opportunity to connect with customers. Run polls, and competitions, make it interactive.

13. Put your blog link on your email signature and all your PR and marketing literature. A lot of readers prefer blogs to websites when they want to research a company.

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06/07/2010 by admin.

Search Engine Optimisation -or SEO, is a multi million pound industry in the UK alone. There’s no shortage of ‘experts’ eager to take your cash to assist in the task of getting you high up in the Free listings on Google and the other search engines.

These experts have a couple of key things in common. First, they virtually all refuse to be paid on results, or at least results that are worth achieving (I once offered one of the world’s ‘best’ SEO companies $50,000 if they could get me a number one listing for the keyword ‘Marketing.’ They politely declined.)

The other thing they have in common is that they want you to think that getting high up on the search engines is complex. The more complicated it is, the less likely you are to do it yourself and the more likely you are to hire them for this online rocket science.

Actually, I would not rule out bringing in outside help for your Search Engine Optimisation, particularly link building. But it’s not complex. Or to be more specific, most of it is straightforward and where it can be complex (in dealing with Google changing its algorithm) there’s a limit to what you can do to beat the system long term.

So here are the key principles of Search Engine Optimisation.

1 Your page title is very important. Google sorts by pages, not websites. The title of your page should be the main keyword or keywords for that page.

2 The content of your page has become increasingly less important. Filling the page with keywords will only make a difference in un-competitive markets.

3 The key factor is incoming links (other websites with a good reputation linking to you).

4 Two way, reciprocal links may well be devalued by Google (but they won’t do you any harm).

5 The words that are used to link to your site are very important. They need to relate to your main keywords.

6 Google gives every page on the web a score out of 10. This is called page rank. Use the Google toolbar to discover your page rank and the page rank of sites linking to you.

7 New websites may not rank as well as well established sites.

8 Small sites may not rank as well as larger sites.

9 The first step is to make sure that Google can easily find all of your pages. Include a site map that’s linked to from your home page.

10 WARNING Even if you’re doing well on the free listings, never become dependent on them for new customers. The smartest people on this planet work at Google and one of their jobs is to spend Google’s billions improving the search engine so that it becomes increasingly difficult for you and I to artificially create good listings. Focus on doing well on the search engines – but think of any customers it brings you as a bonus.

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01/07/2010 by admin.

You’ve done all the work and followed the tips and strategies and now you’re using your website to get your site
visitors’ details in exchange for some valuable free gift or information. And you’ve increased traffic, and even
knuckled down to some solid email marketing.

And, not wanting to miss any chance of a sale, you’ve also sent your visitors to a sales page after they’ve given
you their email details. You’re making some sales.

But, as always, it would be nice to be making a few more. In fact, it’d also be good to capture some of the details
of the visitors who “bounce” from your website and leave even before they’ve claimed their free gift.

What can you do?

Well, you can use what’s called an “exit popup”.

Popup windows are windows which your browser opens up in response to an action – say when a button is
clicked, or, more commonly, when you arrive at or leave a web page.

Now, I know popups have had some bad press.

And rightly so, in many cases. They can be intrusive, aggravating and, occasionally downright rude. For this
reason, while I wouldn’t say don’t use them, I would say be very careful about how you do use them and make
sure you’re doing some solid testing.

But exit-popups are a little different, especially as you have little to lose by using them. They appear, as the name
suggests, when the site-visitor navigates away from your site. If they’re navigating away from your page, then you
really do have nothing to lose by giving this a go – because they’ve seen your offer for the free report or whatever,
and at this point and on this occasion you’ve failed to make the “sale”.

Since you’ve paid for them to be there, either by using Adwords or the investment in your Internet Marketing and
SEO efforts, it makes sense to have one last go at winning them over, doesn’t it?

In either case, from your page, you should use the exit pop to politely repeat your call to action and restate the
benefits and any deadline. In essence, try to make the sale one last time. You can even “apologise” for using a
popup, and tell them you did it only because you didn’t want them to miss out. If it’s subtly done, this doesn’t have
to sound too cheesy!

One word of caution, though: do NOT make a lower-priced offer or throw in more and more bonuses.
In my experience if someone isn’t buying it’s not the price you’re asking –- rather it’s the value you’re presenting.
Cutting the price or throwing in bonuses at this late stage just seems desperate and even a touch dishonest.
If you feel you want to offer something more, your safest bet is to extend, strengthen or expand your guarantee.
This is easy to justify to them with words like, “I realise you’re sceptical because you’re leaving, so I’m willing to
take even more risk on my own shoulders”.

Rather than diminishing the value of what you’re offering by cutting the price, you’re actually increasing the value,
simply because you’re showing even more confidence in it.

As I say, popups can be tricky and they’re worth testing carefully, but in my experience exit popups are definitely
worth trying. You might just be pleasantly surprised.

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20/06/2010 by admin.

Last month we looked at the importance of increasing prices and why less than 20% of the population buy on price (despite what they might claim.)

Here are some tips on charging what you deserve to be paid.

Offer payment plans

This one is a gold mine because it appeals to every customer’s pocket, but you still get your average customer to spend more. Offer your goods/services with payment plans and bump up the price. Nine times out of 10, they’ll pick the payment plan for convenience, even if it means a higher price.

Powerful Guarantees

Don’t be scared of a powerful guarantee. Tests have shown that the more generous or longer the guarantee, the higher your conversion rate will be. People need to feel they can trust you and your company, and a generous or long guarantee is the final push they need to whip out the credit card. Of course you’ll still get refunds, but with a great guarantee, your retention rate will be much higher.

Offer a Deluxe version

Everyone wants a limited edition and they definitely want to be on that VIP list. Offer a concierge level of service or an exclusive edition of your products and present it as an exclusive part of your business that’s not for everyone. No one wants to be left out in the cold and you’ll make more money per customer on this part of your business alone.

Bespoke Service

Create a bespoke aspect to your business. Ask the customer what they are looking for and offer different elements to create the ‘perfect thing’, eg: faster, larger, more powerful, more attractive, personalised etc… by the time they’ve ticked all the boxes, you’ve create the ‘perfect thing’ and they’ll happily pay a premium for it, because it’s tailor made for them.

Bundling

Bundle a package of products or services together. Instead of selling a bottle of shampoo, sell  the ‘ultimate luxury bathroom pack.’ You can also make offers such as a year’s supply, club membership, or coaching programme and quote the price as normal and customary. Virtually nobody questions or attempts to dissect a bundled package.

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