Costly Web Copy Pitfalls
September 3, 2008
One secret to a site that sells: Look at your site from your customer’s perspective. Another secret: Watch out for these common web copy pitfalls.
Welcome to?nothing
Look at your site’s web copy. Does it begin with "Welcome to??" If so, get rid of it. It means nothing. It doesn’t speak to your customers. It’s just a waste of your customers’ time and space. Rather than the worn out phrase, "Welcome to?" try a statement that captures the essence of your company, explaining it in terms that’ll benefit your customers. Instead of "Welcome to Crazy Dave’s CD Emporium," try "Crazy Dave’s CD Emporium, where you can find quality CDs and crazy prices."
Where do I go?
If you track your site’s metrics, look at your customers’ paths. How many customers get past the home page? If it’s less than desired, there might be a problem with your site’s navigation. If you’re one of those people with mega-content sites, add an internal search to help your customers find there way. If you’re a smaller site, add navigation bars that update automatically when your site’s structures changes or evolves.
Modern Marketing With Postcards
September 1, 2008
Postcards may be one of the best kept secrets of modern marketing. They produce even better results now than in the past. That’s probably because postcards deliver information the way people want to get it today …fast and with little or no effort.
Use Postcards to Generate Website Traffic and Sales Leads
A brief captivating message on a postcard with an enticing offer sent to the right prospects will generate a flood of traffic to your website - or a large number of sales leads.
Keep your postcard simple. Make it look at first glance like a message from a friend instead of like an advertisement. This creates a pleasant emotional response from readers even though they quickly realize that it is a commercial message.
State the biggest benefit you offer to customers. Then briefly add a few other advantages or features you provide. End with a compelling reason for prospects to contact you …or to go to your website for more details. It’s that simple.
Tip: Don’t try to close sales directly from a postcard. There’s not enough space on a postcard to provide all the information your prospects need to make a buying decision.
A Forgotten Marketing Tool ? The Postcard
August 29, 2008
The postcard can be a very powerful marketing tool. Many of our customers and/or students use them in their business. The key is to set up the card to market effectively for you. Concentrate on a specific item or niche.
When used correctly a post card can become very powerful marketing tool. Be sure the front of your card is explicit. It should be clear to your customer what you are selling. A color postcard is a must, unless you are using black and white to your advantage, that is, to make a point.
The front should motivate your customer to turn it around and see what you are offering or what you can do for them.
The back of your card should make your points in a clear and concise manner. After this is done be sure to give your customer a number of ways to contact you: by phone, by email, by snail mail. If you have a website be sure you mention it here.
Remember you need to take a limited amount of space and address the main concerns that your customers have or to delineate what you are selling and its advantages. Give your customers reasons to contact you. For example, you have a solution to their problems, and remember make it easy for them to contact you.
Using Direct Mail
August 27, 2008
The advantages of using direct mail to promote your home-based or small business are:
Selectivity-the ability to send your advertising only to people and organizations who can use and pay for your product or service.
Flexibility-the freedom to use either the simplest or the most elaborate presentation, ranging from a single-sheet mailer to an entire package, and the flexibility to test all sorts of minor changes in your mailing pieces.
Control-unlike the random placement of a newspaper ad, your mailer stands alone, and you have room to tell the entire story with illustrations, testimonials and guarantees.
Knowledge of results-by coding every mailing, you can identify the source of each order as it arrives. To get the most out of your direct mail, be sure to pay attention to the following:
1. The outside envelope. Most direct-mail experts will tell you to place “teaser” copy on your envelope to encourage prospects to open it. Envelope copy such as “Look inside to learn how to save money at the grocery store” can be effective. But consider that if you put such copy on the outside of the envelope, you save the recipient the trouble of opening the letter.
How To Get To The Top of The Marketing Food Chain
August 22, 2008
Are you tired of living off handouts from big-name marketers, earning meager affiliate commissions?
If you truly want to live and breathe the rarefied air of the super-marketers, what you need is not a change in method, but a change in attitude and mindset.
You need to start thinking like a top gun and create your own identity instead of feeding off the efforts of others. Here are some ways of achieving that goal.
1. Be Unique. Write Your Own Content
Create, don’t copy. You are never going to become a top marketer or ezine publisher if you keep publishing regurgitated information from other top guns. The only people who benefit from that exercise are the top guns themselves.
Start writing about your own unique experience as a marketer and share it with others. Write your own unique website content, reports, eBooks if you want to become a “household” name in the marketing community.
2. Be The Content Creator, Not The Distributor
Instead of publishing other people’s newsfeeds on your website, think about how cool it would be to have YOUR own feed published on thousands of other sites. And then DO it. Create a feed using your own content like I did here and allow others to syndicate your articles.
The Beginners Mail Order Business Guide
August 21, 2008
No claim is made that the steps outlined would be successful for someone else. Each individual should obtain whatever professional advice may benecessary for his particular operation.
INTRODUCTION
The following is designed to provide a check list for new entrants into the mail order field. Each mail order business is different, but there are common elements that apply to most mail order businesses, as well as some specific characteristics that may vary from business to business. The following suggestions were developed to assist you in avoiding costly mistakes. Apply the various points as they relate to your specific business.
COMPANY NAME
* Select a short, easily remembered name.* Unless you are using your own name, it is required in most jurisdictions that a trade name is either registered with the county or the state.* Before you spend money for printing material, make sure that the name you choose is not already registered to another company. You can usually conduct a name search with an office of the appropriate jurisdiction by telephone.* You may consider using a name that describes your product.
COMPANY ADDRESS
Meaning and Marketing - The Eye of the Storm
August 17, 2008
It’s 1954. Yes, Mrs. Patricia Smith has been a good teacher today. She has remained on task and kept her Third Grade Pupils in line. But she doesn’t have to work too hard at it. She weighs 200 Lbs and if she ever grabs you and shakes you, and you can see the buttons on her blouse coming at you at almost the speed of light, so much so that you end up hypnotized and your brain feels like a pea soup - this is something you’re not going to forget any time soon.
It can happen. Believe me. It can happen. So you had better behave.
So the pulpils sit real quietly, very quietly at their desks, and look at the clock 3 feet up the wall above the black board behind Mrs. Smith’s large self.
Sometimes, Mrs. Smith, grows tired, sits in a chair in front of the class, spreads her legs just a bit so that you can see her thighs and a thin sheet of white to hide her crotch. The pupils sort of smile at each other as they lay their heads in their arms and peer away.
Referrals . . .The Secret Weapon
August 14, 2008
Are you getting referrals from you customers? If not, you are missing a lot of sales. Think about many of the sites you visit on the web. Many of them will ask you to tell your friends, families and others who might be interested about them. For doing so, they offer you an incentive, for example, free stuff, gift certificates, etc.
Let’s talk about off line. How about the book club or record club you belong to. When you get mailings from them, ever notice the card that says if you refer a friend they’ll give you a free book or CD. This is what is called an incentive.
Any marketing expert worth their salt will tell you that there’s no business like business you get from referrals. Why? Because for the most part, people who refer others know that person will be interested, and it also indicates that they are happy with your product, so word of mouth (or in this day and age, email) will be good.
How to Set Up & Organize Your Customer Mailing List For Optimum Results
August 10, 2008
Your list of customers who have previously bought from you isyour most important asset. These are the customers who willprovide you with return business, which is more profitable thanthe first sale. But, are you getting the most from your customerlist? There are some secrets you should know, so you can squeezethe most benefits out of your mailing list.
Most business’ customer lists consist of this information: Name,Address, City, State, Zip. That’s it. Unfortunately, thismailing list is almost worthless. You need to have moreinformation in your files than just that. I have 32 informationfields in my customer database! You should be able to set theseup in your computer’s database, or, if you don’t use a computer(you REALLY should), all this information should fit on a largesize index card in a card file. Here are some more useful fieldsto include in your customer database:
LastName; FirstName; Title; Position; CompanyName; Address1; Address2; City; State; Zip; PerPhone; BusPhone; FaxPhone; InqDate; ReferSource; FollowUp1; FollowUp2; SubDate; SubAmount; RenewDate;Purch1; Purch1Date; Purch1Amount; Purch2; Purch2Date; Purch2Amount; Purch3; Purch3Date; Purch3Amount; TotAmount; Comments; Cust#How to Make Profits With a Commission Mailing Business
August 6, 2008
There are many mailorder publications that will list your nameunder this directory… “Commission Circulars Wanted”…
List your name under this classification and dealers will mailbundles of circulars to you with a blank space at the bottom ofthe ad in which you stamp your name. You mail these out and theads “appear” to be your own. You receive money for whatever isadvertised on the circular. You keep 50% and the dealer whosent you the circulars will fill the order for you for the otherhalf.
Never mail out a single circular by itself. Mail as many of thedifferent circulars as you can, in the same envelope. Stuff yourenvelopes full. The more you mail to one customer, the morelikely you’ll make a sale and the less will be the per unitmailing cost. Mail order enthusiasts do read these circulars!
Next, run ads in different magazines saying that you mailcirculars for others. Charge whatever you determine is fair. Use the standard rate charged by others in the business. Youcan get this information easily by checking several dealersoffering this service in the various mailorder publications andadsheets. Then determine a fair charge based on the variationsof your services from the normal operations.
