What Rich Internet Marketers Know That You Don’t
Thirty years ago, I sold information via small classified ads in “ad-sheets” on how to make money teaching others how to make money. We sent out these packets of flyers called “Big Mails.” We sent them to people who answered out ads and sent us the postage or a self-addressed stamped envelope.
One of the most prevalent plans back then sold for $1. It offered to teach you how to make one hundred dollars a day stuffing envelopes. This plan cost you a dollar plus a self-addressed stamped envelope. When someone responded to your ad, you sent them a sheet of paper telling them to run the same ad and do the same things that you were doing. You also included flyers for other brilliant plans in the envelope 🙂
Fast forward 25 years, and I found myself in that same world transposed online.
They were the same because in both cases I found myself in a world where there were tens of thousands of people offering to sell others information on how to finally break free of the rat-race and create their own outrageously profitable businesses.
They were the same, because in both cases, most of the people marketing this information had never achieved any major success at what they were teaching.
However, things turned out drastically different for me the second time around. I was actually able to achieve my goals, and I’d like to share with you how and why that happened. I’d like to share with you, some of my major discoveries.
The how and why
The how is that a small voice in my head said, “What you’re currently doing is insane!” The incestuous marketing of “plans” that we’re all “pitching” to each other just has us all “running around in circles.” That small voice, that you hear too, said, “This is not the answer, so where is it.”
Unlike many, I listened to that voice, stepped back, and looked around for those who appeared to have discovered “the answer.” Then I made a point of studying and analyzing everything they did. I read all that they wrote. I attended live events to meet, listen to, and question them. Most importantly, I used my own power of observation to SEE who was “walking the walk,” and who just “talked a good story, but wasn’t there yet”.
I very quickly discovered that those who had uncovered some part of the real secret CHARGED you for teaching it to you. They had hundreds of people clamoring to be taught or given a helping hand. So they used their consulting fees to see who was serious AND as a means of allocating their most valuable asset – their time. So I became willing to pay for the guidance of those who could really teach me.
One of the first things I was taught was that I needed a radical shift in my belief system of what IS possible. Our belief of what we can accomplish is framed by what relatives and those around us have done. We need to frame it in terms of what those who have accomplished much more have done.
That re-framing occurred as I talked to online millionaires and saw how they actually viewed the world and interacted with it. My mentors and coaches had me feed my mind information and proof of what was possible. They had me totally saturate myself in the material, to the extent that even now I listen to it on my MP3 player while out jogging… it takes my mind off of the pain 🙂
Here’s the most significant discovery I made about what’s happening in the online world… The real money online is being made by those selling real world products that solve problems.
The real money online is being made by those who educate their markets and then make it easy for them to buy. That’s the most effective sales technique. Teach them and in the process bring them to the conclusion that your product is the only logical choice.
It’s a FACT that people use the Internet to research topics of interest and to comparison shop. Then they often buy the item that they’ve researched offline. If your website is the one that educates them, and helps make the research easy, they’ll flock to your website. It’s that simple. While there, they may purchase the item of interest from you 🙂
Another point that many online marketers are really missing is that people go online to buy ordinary tangible things! When one of my friend bought an motorhome (sight-unseen) over Ebay, that shocked me. When I heard that over 5 BILLION dollars worth of vehicles are sold over Ebay annually, that enlightened me.
People love to shop, and they get tremendous pleasure out of buying things for themselves and their loved ones. Offer them what they’re looking for and they’ll purchase it from your website. They purchase everything from cars and clothing, to computers and software, to books, to pet supplies, to vitamins and supplements, to flowers, and even houses over the Internet. If you’re offering these items, in the right way, you will do very well!
If you need proof of what I have just stated, read the book, Success Alert. It was written by my friend, John Evans, who interviewed over 60 people making up to eighteen million a year doing just what I described. Grab a copy today and devote an evening to absorbing the knowledge and business wisdom contained within these in-depth interviews.
Get a copy from: ==> http://WillieCrawford.com/finally.html
The very powerful examples in this book will make a believer out of many. They will show you how people are quietly making millions providing people with tangible products that they WANT.
This book won’t totally solve the problem for everyone. There will still be those who will say, “Yeah, they did it, but I can’t.” Some even go as far as to imply that God doesn’t want them to succeed in a big way. They believe that they are intended to suffer and never break out of the struggle.
Listen – we live in a world of unimagined riches! There is more than enough to go around. What keeps most of us from getting those things we want is that we aren’t open to receiving them. I don’t want to get mystical or anything, but every major religion, and way of thinking in the world, teaches that if you ask you will receive. There’s just a correct way of asking that we often don’t understand.
A good course for drastically shifting your thinking of what you CAN accomplish and what this world will give you is by Dr. Robert Anthony. This couse was life-changing enough that I devoted a full week exclusively to studying it when I first discovered it. rab a copy, and begin to understand many things in a totally different light by visiting:
==> http://eliteinnercircle.com/reports/c/6E
So… it takes offering the right products…things that people want. It also takes believing that you can do it enough to really go for it. For many of us, it also takes proof… we need to see examples of people doing it.
All of these are right before you. That’s why I needed to have this talk with you. I’m a little confused at to why so many refuse to see what is so obvious. I’m a little confused, but not totally confused. I acknowledge that some people “deep down inside” don’t want success. They’re afraid of it, or don’t believe that they deserve it.
If you want to know how to actually build a thriving online business, I’ve just revealed it to you. I speak with numerous shining examples of those doing it EVERY week. They share with me things that I can probably never share with you directly. I treasure their confidence and that’s a part of why they open up to me so. I’ve probably already shared too much… we’ll see if THEY stop talking to me 🙂
Author Bio:
Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build an on-line business since late 1996. Frequently featured in radio, magazine and newspaper articles and interviews, Willie teaches the average guy what the top marketers are doing but seldom talking about. Willie provides detailed how to information in his newsletter, through his personal coaching, and at his annual how to workshop. Subscribe to Willie’s free course at: http://williecrawford.com/
Write Better Web Content
If you’re reading this article, chances are that you, like most professionals these days, understand the value of the Internet. It may be where you go to buy movie or concert tickets, browse restaurant menus, or plan your vacations.
Most likely, you also turn to the Web to research business strategies, vendors and other companies.
But what about those surfers who are researching your company? When they visit your Web site, will they find what they’re looking for? Does your site provide the information they need in an interesting format that will keep them there long enough to convince them to do business with you?
While an attractive, professional-looking site is an important start, content is king. (What else would you expect from a copywriter?) But seriously, your site will never be truly effective without well-written content that answers visitors’ questions and creates enough interest to keep them coming back.
So how do you create effective content for the Web? It may be easier than you think. With all the bad writing out there on the Internet, even minimal effort can help set yours apart. Here’s a start: Good Web content can always be described by these four adjectives.
1. Consistent
There’s nothing like inconsistency to make your Web site appear amateurish. Some businesses spell their own company names two or three different ways right on the home page. If your company name is written in all lower-case letters or with unique spacing, be sure you write it the same way every time. But don’t stop there; strive for consistency in all your content ‘ from the use of abbreviations, fonts and numerals to the tone, style and voice of your copy. Having one person write all the content helps keep it consistent, but when this isn’t possible, at least try to have one person serve as editor. If several people are contributing to your site, develop a style guide to inform them of your rules for consistent content.
2. Clear
As in all writing, the goal of Web content is to communicate with an audience, and clarity is essential. Try reading your copy aloud before posting; hearing it out loud can help you determine whether it all makes sense. If possible, have one or two others read copy before posting it to the Web and if your subject matter is technical or complicated, consider using an outside editor to help eliminate techno-speak.
3. Casual
The nature of the Web is more informal than many other marketing venues, so make sure your copy fits the medium. Your Web content should probably be more conversational than your traditional brochure or company presentation, and because many readers scan Web copy rather than reading it word for word, subheadings and bullets are helpful. In most cases, Web content should also be brief, making your points quickly without losing readers’ attention. However, many effective sites contain brief copy on the front pages with more detailed information available through additional links, which works to keep the attention of the general readership while offering more for those who want it.
4. Correct
Don’t confuse “casual” with “sloppy,” however. Correctness is still important, even on the Web, and errors in spelling, grammar, or facts will give most readers a negative impression of your company. Don’t just use spell check; read and re-read your copy before posting it, and if possible, get second opinions from those who know what they’re doing. There’s nothing wrong with being a bad speller, but there’s no excuse for refusing to double-check your work.
Author Bio:
Nancy Jackson, owner of The WriteShop, helps companies better market their products and services with powerful written communications including Web content, newsletters, brochures and publications. Subscribe to her free monthly newsletter at www.writeshoponline.com.
Marketing Your eZine
The internet marketing “Guru’s” have been saying for years that the “money is in the list”. In other words, having thousands of subscribers to your ezine or newsletter increases your chances of potential sales. It is pretty hard to dispute that quote but how do you go about getting those thousands of subscribers to sign up for your ezine?
I use three primary ways to get interested subscribers to sign up for my ezine. Purchased leads and subscription services, ezine directories and article writing.
Purchased Leads/Subscription Services
Purchased leads and subscription services work with you to get subscribers to sign up for your ezine. You agree to purchase x amount of subscribers per month from a subscription service for a fee and they will advertise your ezine for you until they have filled the amount of subscribers you have purchased. Most companies will always give you more than the amount you purchased due to bad email addresses, removals, and undelivered emails.
Subscription services are ideal for anyone that is first starting out as a way to get quite a few subscribers in a relatively short amount of time. You will also have a choice of single opt-in or double-in subscribers. Double opt-in subscribers actually have to reply to an email to validate that they are interested in your ezine, where single opt-in will get your ezine automatically. There are many subscription services to choose from and I advise trying different ones because every list is different.
EZine Directories
Ezine directories are websites that will allow you to submit your ezine to their website. There are free and paid directories. You submit your url for your ezine and a short ad about your ezine and that is it. Here are few examples of some ezine directories I use.
http://www.bestezines.com
http://www.ezineadvertising.com
http://www.ezine-dir.com
http://www.ezinelocater.com
http://www.ezine-marketing.com
http://www.ezinesearch.com
http://www.ezine-swap.com
http://www.ezine-universe.com
http://www.ezinepublisher.org
You may also do a search at http://www.google.com for more ezine directories.
Writing Articles
Writing articles is a great way of promoting your ezine, website, or products. Simply write a short article of 500-1000 words on the subject of your choice, preferably about your home business and submit them to article directories. At the end of each article you get to use a author resource box to tell the reader about yourself. This is where you promote your ezine, website or product. Use four to six lines to give your name and details. Then submit your article to article directories that are always looking for quality content. Here are some of the article directories I use.
http://www.authorconnection.com
http://www.addme.com/nlsubmit.htm
http://www.allnetarticles.com
http://www.articlecentral.com
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.articles911.com
http://www.bestparentingresources.com/Article.html
http://www.boconline.com/sub-art.htm
http://www.business-dynamics.com/resource_library/index.html
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.bytesworth.com/articles
http://cerebuswebmaster.com/onsite/articles.html
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
http://www.clickforcontent.com
http://www.connectionteam.com
http://www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm
Tools
There are some tools you will need in order to deliver your ezine to your subscribers. A good autoresponder is a must if you hope to have thousands of subscribers to your ezine.
Autoresponders house your ezine and subscribers on one system and automatically send your ezine to your subscribers. The autoresponder takes care of when to send the subscriber the next addition of your ezine based on the intervals you set.
Another good tool to use is a pop-up or pop-over ad on your website for those that are visiting your website. The pop-up/over ad will capture the prospects name and email address and send it directly to your autoreponder. Once you have them in your autoresponder you start to develop a trust relationship with your subscribers, this is important because once your subscriber feels like they can trust you they are more likely to buy what you are selling.
Good luck with your ezine marketing!
Author Bio:
Dirk Wagner is CEO and owner of http://team4success.biz and the free, easy to install #1 home business toolbar with automated updates.A website dedicated to helping the home-based business entrepreneur start and succeed with there very own home-based business.
Choosing an autoresponder
Let’s give a definition to autoresponder first. So, what is an autoresponder? Think of it as a ‘fax on demand’ service. When a customer sends an e-mail to the autoresponder address, this smart ‘robot’ sends back an e-mail response, usually informative letter.
You can set up hundreds of autoresponders. You can use them literally for anything you can think of, including customer support, new product offers, ezine broadcasts and a whole lot more…
Autoresponders can save you a lot of your hard earned dollars. They can be your best marketing tool, therefore, it is important to have a reliable service under hand. There are quite a few autoresponder services around that you might consider using.
But before you do so, I want you to read the following tips that will help you to choose the right service for you. The following features are the basic ones that would be worth your attention.
Options to choose from
Personalized messages
Sending personalized messages is a powerful way to improve your customer loyalty, which will then result in better response rate, and better response rate leads to more sales. So, make sure you can do that.
Unlimited followup messages
Even if you don’t have a big subscriber list at the moment, your list will grow along with your business. So, you should look for autoresponder service that has unlimited followup messages feature included in the account.
In other words, you should be able to broadcast unlimited autoresponder messages to your subscribers who will become your customers, your most powerful buying force. It will save you a lot of time and hassle in the end.
Unlimited length of your messages
You might have a lot of news or a long article that you would like to squeeze into one e-mail. What if your messages are restricted in length? Of course, you can split it into two parts, and send the second part in the following month, if you run a monthly newsletter. It’s up to you to decide, but is it really worth your time? You should be able to write as long messages as your imagination allows.
24/7 technical support
It’s important to send your messages in a timely fashion, if there is any unexpected problem with your autoresponder, quick round the clock technical support is invaluable. So, having access to 24/7 technical support might be vital for your business. While checking out any service, be advised of this feature.
24/7 access to your account
Edit, add or make any other changes to your account at any time. In Internet things happen fast. Sometimes, while surfing the net, you might get a new idea popped up in your mind. And you say ‘hey, it’s a good idea, I think it might interest my subscribers’. And you want to jot it down when the idea is still fresh and insert it into your autoresponder to be sent in the next broadcast. Having unlimited access to your account will help you effectively manage your e-mail campaign.
Toll-free phone support
Today business is not business without customer service. If you get live support over the phone, it takes a lot less time to solve a problem than it would using other means of communication like e-mail. It’s a quickest and most reliable method in dealing with any issue. Be sure you have access to it.
Free trial
Trying a product for free is the best way to get the feel of it. It gives you a full picture if the product is the product it claims to be and if it meets your expectations. After the trial, you will have a pretty good idea if the product is worth your investment.
With all the above features present, there is no reason in the world that would stop you from giving it a try. So, give it a shot. I am sure you will find an autoresponder right for you in the end. Because a good autoresponder service will reward you in spades, making you more money every time.
Enjoy!
Author Bio:
Bob Kosimov offers helpful articles, free webmaster downloads and link pages you will enjoy. Visit his site at http://www.activeresponder.com/?ya
Communicating with Case Studies
A few weeks ago, a couple of colleagues and I discussed a new business idea. But, we had trouble expressing how this new business would provide value.
And, out of our discussions came the idea of writing a case study. If you’re not familiar with them, case studies are histories of business initiatives.
They’re like articles, but they put the reader into the shoes of a person making a difficult decision. Other professions also use case studies; you’ve probably heard of medical case studies, for example. Medical students get a set of facts about a patient, and perhaps some background or context, and then must diagnose the patient’s condition or disease.
Business case studies have proven popular at many university business schools (with the profs, at least). In some senses, the case study is the next best thing to being involved in a real case.
Now, how is this relevant for you? Well, if you have to persuade others to adopt your point of view, or buy your products, or vote for you, then you might find a case study useful.
In fact, you may be doing something like that already. Whenever you tell a story that’s designed to make a certain point, you’re using a form of case study.
During my brief foray into life insurance sales, for example, I learned that emotion sells policies, and not logic. That’s why people in the business have a raft of stories about people who did or did not have protection when they died.
The moral, of course, is that you should not only have life insurance, but you should have the right kind, and in the right amount. Now, if you sold life insurance, you would quickly find that no one listens when you explain the logic, but they will listen — and act — if you have your case studies (your anecdotes).
So, having gone through all that, is a case study just a fancy name for an anecdote or story? Yes, to a certain extent it is.
But, when you think of a case study, think of it as a more elaborate and more logically constructed story. And, it’s usually a real-life story. To illustrate the idea further, let’s go through the steps involved in creating one.
Your case study starts by identifying a person and an organization, along with relevant information that provides context to the issue addressed in the case.
It also introduces the decision or dilemma. In many cases, the writer sets out two or more possible options. One of those options may be to do nothing, to maintain the status quo. Another option may demand significant changes, and yet a third option would require more modest changes. However you set the options, they should offer distinct choices to the reader. Don’t allow a muddling-through solution that involves easy compromises.
Now that you’ve set out the choices, provide the basic facts and opinions the reader will need to make a logical choice. Like the writer of a mystery novel, you need to provide all the critical information without giving away the solution. And like a mystery writer, you may introduce a few false trails.
As you develop the case study, keep in mind that you’re trying to convey that the person or company in the case had to make a difficult decision. And the more the reader feels that difficulty, the more effective the case.
Finally, provide an outcome if possible. Let the reader know which option the person or company chose, and how that decision worked out. After all, you’ve been telling a story, and your audience will want to know how it ended. Ideally, you would not give the reader access to the outcome until after he or she makes that decision.
In summary, you can make your point more powerfully by creating a case study, a specially constructed story that puts the reader or listener in the shoes of a decision maker.
Author Bio:
Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott’s Communication Letter. If you subscribe, you will receive, at no charge, communication tips that help you lead or manage more effectively. You can get more information here: http://www.CommunicationNewsletter.com
The ESA/T Marketing System
The reality of online marketing is getting harsher every day. Ad prices are up, conversion is down. Visitors don’t buy. Pay per click bids are insane’ but only the top ten advertisers in each category care. The rest get barely any traffic at all.
It is time to go back to the business basics. You need to focus on accountability and improving the return on your marketing investment (ROI). What’s needed is a system to help you spend less money on traffic and consistently convert more clicks into sales. Enter the ESA/T marketing system.
ESA/T, which stands for Enhance, Select, Analyze, and Test, has been used with great success for several years by a select group of online marketers.
The four-step ESA/T cycle works like this:
1. Enhance the visitor’s experience of your web site. This will ensure the traffic being driven to the site can be converted into sales and actions.
2. Select traffic sources and marketing strategies wisely.
3. Analyze your website statistics and ROI tracking data using metrics appropriate for your business.
4. Test and tweak to improve performance. Using your metrics, find what isn’t working and fix it.
These four steps can be repeated over and over in a dialectic spiral towards optimum marketing performance.
Step 1. Enhance
Before spending another dime on driving traffic to your website, you need to make sure that your visitors will land in the environment that is professional, relaxing and does not make them think twice about doing business with you.
Good website usability is a process, not a state. Never stop improving yours. If you can’t afford an industrial strength usability makeover, use baby steps. Asking your grandmother to buy something on your website and watching her do it is an excellent budget alternative. You just need to put your mind to it.
The Neilson Norman Group studied the effects of usability on e-commerce conversions. They found that web sites that went from paying no attention to usability issues to making significant usability improvements doubled their sales or more.
Step 2. Select
The next step in ESA/T cycle is ‘S’ ‘ Select your advertising sources.
Let’s look at the possible marketing and advertising strategies. These may include: Pay Per Click (PPC), pay per action, paid search inclusion, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), link exchanges, email newsletter ads, sponsorships, article writing, press releases, affiliate programs, forum postings, and offline promotions.
Your goal is to develop the marketing mix that’s just right for you. The blend that brings you the right amount of sales for the right price.
Be creative and methodical. Try an advanced search on Google to find the sites linking to your competitors. This will seed your list of possible places to advertise.
Next, develop a list of your company’s internal resources ‘ advertising budget, human resources, and time. Based on that, create a plan for working with the traffic sources from your list.
Step 3. Analyze
The next phase of the ESA/T cycle, Analyze, is about tracking and analyzing the visitor activity that’s relevant to your bottom line.
There are plenty of metrics to choose from. Be sure to avoid the ‘information glut’ and use only the metrics that will help you improve your website usability and traffic quality. Some of such metrics may include: The number of orders placed, average dollar value per order, average revenue earned per visitor, number of registrations, number of specific page views like product detail pages, time elapsed between first visit and first order, visitors’ paths through the site, and so on.
Cumulative statistics for all visitors on your site are extremely important, but in order to be truly of value, stats should be tallied for individual traffic sources so you can compare and contrast their performance.
Step 4. Test
Remember the last time you wanted to buy something online and gave up? Remember the reason why? It was likely because the checkout process was confusing, didn’t answer your questions, or just took too long.
If that website’s marketing manager used ESA/T, especially Test, you likely would have completed your purchase and would be enjoying it today. Instead, that business not only lost a sale, but likely lost you as a customer forever.
Plot a bar chart showing the number of unique visitors and page reloads at each step of your checkout process. Suppose you observe a sharp drop in the number of visitors who moved from the second to third step of the checkout. At the same time, you note a high number of page reloads at the second step. This information could mean, among other things, that there is a consistent problem with the form validation algorithm — the system keeps on throwing visitors back to the previous step in the process.
The testing and tweaking you wind up doing to improve your site, your marketing campaigns, and ultimately your ROI, will be just as individual as your business and the metrics you choose to apply to it.
Even though we presented the four stages of ESA/T in sequence, you should return often to recheck and tweak any areas that need it. Your e-business will continue to evolve so constant monitoring of its vital signs is imperative.
As you can see, improving your ROI isn’t rocket science. It’s a simple matter of understanding these four steps and applying them to your daily marketing efforts. Those already using this system are reaping the rewards.
Author Bio:
About the author: Dmitri Eroshenko is CEO of Clicklab, an advertising ROI tracking service that gives you customizable metrics, usability testing capabilities, and click fraud protection. Sign up for our complimentary online ROI Marketing Mini-course: http://www.clicklab.com
A Powerful Structure to Search Engine Marketing
In today’s extremely competitive markets, sometimes search engine marketers try to “cut corners”, in an effort to save time and a bit of money. This is perfectly understandable, given the conditions they sometimes have to face, such as tight deadlines, limited budgets and overall difficult market conditions. However, neglecting to build a strong search engine marketing structure can seriously hinder any online ad campaign.
To be truly successful, plan for an initial trial period, followed by some benchmark testing, where you will be able to carefully measure each result of your online ad campaigns.
Any company, independently of its industry, should have a carefully prepared business plan where your search engine marketing foundation is accurately reflected and equally well spelled out, down to the last detail.
To truly achieve the best overall ROI and create the most impact, both with first-time visitors to your site, as well as repeat buyers, the four most important steps to the success of any good search engine marketing structure are:
1. Mission statement
2. Unique selling points
3. Targeting the right market
4. Finally, a strong call to action
Neglect any of these four important ingredients and you are wasting your time and your resources, while giving your competitors a chance to beat you to market.
Carefully writing your mission statement
A powerful mission statement that has a lot of “punch” can be summarized as explaining your single most important benefit to a prospect or client. An easy way to write this would be to accurately describe what your company does, using only one or two sentences.
A good example to this could be: “Our company produces powerful accounting software helping Fortune 500 companies get more work done in one day, while at the same time saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars every year”. Another good example could be: “Our company designs and manufactures highly accurate automated robots used in the automotive industry”.
Note the words that are the most important in each message are highlighted and in bold. Those are strong words that will remain in your prospects memory.
What’s important to note here is that anybody that receives such a mission statement could be a potential client or industry partner. It may not be right away, but some time down the road. The important thing is that he or she gets the right message, the first time.
You should always try to keep your mission statement short and to the point. If some of these people need more information, they will ask you.
Unique selling points
In writing your unique selling points, try to think of a unique fact or feature that truly places your company above all the others. Is your product or service really superior from the ones offered by your competition? Is it offered at a lower price? Maybe the warranty lasts longer or the product can be shipped the same day.
Using powerful facts similar to these will make your prospective client realize how different your company is, and will entice them to buy from you.
What’s also important is to prioritize all your strong selling features, beginning by the ones you think are the most important.
Targeting the right market
Try to mentally select what you think would be your ideal clients or customers. You might want to look at your current ones, or maybe look at your competitor’s clients, if you are a new company.
Important demographics such as age, marital status, sex, job title or geographic region of the country can play a significant role in this critical step at targeting the right market for your products or services.
For example, if you are a real estate broker and if you are trying to sell a house to a young couple just starting out in life, chances are that their needs will be substantially different than a middle-aged couple nearing retirement.
The more information you can find out about your potential clients, the better prepared you will be at accurately targeting your right market. Always remember that strong relationships play a key role in your first sales, as well as in repeat customers. It also becomes important for referrals, since these can be the best testimonials and, what’s more, they are totally free.
A strong call to action
This last step is one of the most critical, and usually the one that many online and search engine marketers often forget. Ask yourself the ultimate question: “What do you want your visitors and prospective clients to do on your website?”
When I ask this question to people that are rather new to search engine marketing, most site owners or online marketers will usually answer they want them to buy something. While this is great and certainly very satisfying to most business owners, sometimes another call of action would be to subscribe to your free online newsletter, or perhaps to send in a request to get more information, either by mailing them a brochure or having a sales representative call them.
Finally, you should carefully review your call to actions both before, during and after you perform a keyword research, either using Wordtracker or other keyword research tools. Remember that for each call to action, your ad copy, your keywords used and your landing pages can all be changed to permanently improve your online ad campaign’s performance and ROI.
Conclusion
A good structure or solid foundation to a well-planned search engine marketing campaign can make a big difference in the overall ROI of any online marketing efforts, and will continue to yield long-term benefits if done the right way.
Planning any ad campaign without the four basic and important steps mentioned in this article would be to take unnecessary risks, both with your ROI as well as the outcome of your work. You should carefully review these four steps, both with your marketing or sales department, as well as your SEM firm if you outsource your search engine marketing to professionals.
Reference: “Search Engine Advertising” by Catherine Seda. 347 pages.
New Riders Publishing. Indianapolis, IN. 46240.
Author:
Serge Thibodeau of Rank For Sales
Choosing the right keywords for maximum ROI
Today, for a company or ad agency to be truly successful in search engine marketing (SEM), choosing the right keywords that people are actually typing into Overture or the other search engines can mean the difference between a very rewarding online ad campaign, or one that fails miserably.
However, it is fortunate that selecting the right keywords that will drive targeted and qualified sales leads to your website is a fairly simple exercise. Using Overture, Google’s AdWords or any other similar PPC program, marketers can easily delete keywords that don’t produce the desired results, add new ones or modify the ones that currently exist, by simply accessing their accounts at any of these search engines. Companies can even experiment with certain keywords if they so desire, in an attempt at producing the maximum ROI.
Nevertheless, the initial start-up phase still needs close observation and requires a careful monitoring of the first results. The wrong set of keywords can seriously hamper the overall success of any online ad campaign, not to mention the frustration and the waste of time and resources. Additionally, launch an ad campaign with the wrong keywords and your PPC costs can quickly drive up a bill to levels you never taught possible. If an initial campaign only attracts casual browsers or “lookers” and not serious buyers, you should carefully review all of the keywords you originally selected.
In search engine marketing, keywords fall into two very distinctive and main groups:
1. Generic keywords
2. Branded keywords
How to manage generic keywords
As a rule, managing branded keywords is usually simpler than managing generic keywords, although this doesn’t mean it’s impossible, on the contrary. If your site visitors or prospective clients aren’t familiar with the brand names or trademarks of your company, then you will have to concentrate on generic (or organic) keywords for your website.
For companies or subsidiaries that wish to expand into new market segments, even they will need to concentrate in promoting keywords that will be directly connected with their business, but that may not be names of specific trademarks, service marks or traditional brand names.
The secret in managing generic keywords is to avoid keywords that are too broad. For example, if you are in the travel industry, the keyword ‘travel’ would much too broad. Is it air travel, by car, by boat, what? You would need to narrow it down further, in an effort to avoid what is called ‘junk traffic’. Junk traffic is determined by traffic that has no value to you, but that you will still need to pay for if you rely on pay-per-click (PPC) or pay-for-performance (PFP).
Generic keywords by topics
Most likely, your website is about one single topic or subject. Usually, in any corporate website, you have one major topic, along with a few subtopics, or secondary themes. Let’s take the example of a company offering travel packages to sun-filled beaches in the south. One effective way to group subtopics and make them keywords that you can advertise could be: Caribbean Travel, Pacific Travel, Florida Travel, Gulf of Mexico Travel, etc.
What’s important to remember here is, when writing up your keywords, think of what people would type in a search engine to find that nice sunny beach. A great tool to help you with this would be Wordtracker, or the free keyword suggestion tool at Overture.
How to manage branded keywords
The best way to manage branded keywords is to start with your company name, its products, services, trademarks, service marks or brand names if you have any. Since your company is the only one using a specific trademark or brand name, a good idea is to only bid the minimum price asked by the search engine you are using. There is no sense in bidding more for it, since your brand or trademark should always be unique and exclusive to your company.
In fact, since no other company is competing for the same search terms you will be using, this just explains why well-known branded keywords deliver such high returns on investment (ROI). Still, you should make certain that your branded keywords are really being searched by people, again using Wordtracker or the free keyword suggestion tool at Overture.
Trademarks and brand names
Surprisingly, a large number of companies don’t bid on their own trademarks or brand names. In fact, I still hear a lot of executives at large Fortune 500 companies say their brand is well recognized and they don’t need to bid on them. This is a very big mistake, since they are loosing out on very targeted traffic, and what’s more, that traffic costs very little, since they should be paying the minimum acceptable bid for it.
If you don’t believe me on this, try typing some well-known trademarks or brand names in Google or Yahoo and notice the large amount of them that don’t even appear on the first results pages, in the generic (or organic) listings.
Domain names
Sadly, it may not always be possible to register a Web domain name (URL) that matches your company name, trademark, service mark or brand name. To protect your own brand, you should register all domain name extensions. For example, you should register the .com, .net, .org, .biz, etc. extensions and have them all point to your website, using a 301 re-direct command.
For example, I know for a fact that many large chemical companies usually register their domain names, as soon as a new chemical product or trademark is about to be marketed. Additionally, if they have two or three sub-products they are manufacturing, and all those sub-products will carry different brand names, they will also register all of those domain names too.
Conclusion
Choosing the right keywords in search engine marketing isn’t difficult and can be done rather quickly once you understand the basics. What’s more, carefully selecting the right keywords that real people type in search engines will significantly increase your ROI.
Gain valuable market share at the expense of your competition, and boost your sales and increase your profits by implementing the right keyword strategy in your search engine marketing. If you follow the advice offered in this article, you should be well on your way of achieving these goals.
Reference: ‘Search Engine Advertising’ by Catherine Seda. 347 pages.
New Riders Publishing. Indianapolis, IN. 46240.
Author:
Serge Thibodeau of Rank For Sales
What lies ahead for local search engine technology?
No topic has received as much coverage recently as that of �local search� – the ability to find search results that are targeted to a users geographical preference. Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves are all making impressive advancements with local search, but there is another company that is vying for the local search crown.
InfoSpace is best known for its search engine brands like Dogpile.com and Webcralwer.com, but the company is building a reputation for itself as a provider of local search results, while at the same time building useful applications for the mobile user. As part of Andy Beal�s continuing look at �the future of search technology�, Andy had a chance to ask Arnaud Fischer, previously AltaVista product manager from 1999-2001 and currently leading search product planning for InfoSpace’s Search & Directory division, some questions about how local search will develop in the future.
Online yellow pages and white pages
[Andy Beal] InfoSpace recently re-aligned itself to serve online yellow pages and white pages customers. Can you tell us what most excites you about this space?
[Arnaud Fischer] I am most excited about the “local search” opportunity. Inktomi, Google, and others already serve country-specific search results today and geo-targeting at a more granular level will unlock a tremendous amount of value for local advertisers, in addition to serving more relevant content to end-users. The traditional yellow pages market is roughly a $25 billion a year global industry. Many small businesses are awakening to the efficiency and predictability of online marketing, increasingly shifting marketing budgets to Web search and Internet yellow pages. Unlocking that opportunity is no easy task, though.
Internet yellow pages sites such as InfoSpace.com and Switchboard.com are working hard to deliver an end user experience that will bring more of the billions of annual print YP (yellow pages) look-ups online. With the penetration of broadband, always-on Internet connections growing and increasing adoption and use of ‘data-friendly’ mobile handsets, the print yellow pages appear to be on the verge of becoming obsolete.
Some of the challenges
[AB] What are some of the challenges search companies face with local search?
[AF] Search engines are developing ways to disambiguate and adequately address location-specific queries. Geo-targeting Web search content, both organic and paid, requires search engines to better understand users and queries, inferring local intent by extracting geo-signals and leveraging implicit and explicit user profiles. Taking local search marketing services to market is also very different than selling paid listings to online businesses. The vast majority of local businesses still don’t have a Web site, nor the time and expertise to invest in managing sophisticated auction-type listing campaigns.
Paid inclusion services
[AB] There’s been a lot of discussion recently about paid inclusion services, where do you see advancements coming in this area?
[AF] Search marketing should keep evolving very fast this year. Although pay-per-click platforms have expanded match type flexibility, campaign targeting is growing beyond keyword analyses to include geo-targeting and day-parting. Search engines are leveraging smarter linguistic technology, concept extraction and contextual categorization, to optimize targeting of paid content, improving on relevancy, conversion rates and increase advertisers’ ROI. While advertisers might be losing control over guaranteed placement over time, paid search has made budgeting for traffic-generation programs increasingly predictable. Effectiveness metrics are evolving from impression counts, and click-through conversion rates to more sophisticated return on investment (ROI) methodologies. Some engines already provide advertisers with tools to calculate conversion rates from impressions to orders and ROI metrics.
Overture and Google go one step further, suggesting forecasted traffic levels and cost estimates for specific keyword combinations, match types and bid amounts. In a yield-driven context, where content targeting gets more sophisticated and matching more scientific, Paid Inclusion and Paid Listing programs will eventually merge into more automated bid-for-traffic models. Ultimately, advertisers will target impressions by dictating an ROI level acceptable to them such as “8% over advertising spend”. To meet these requirements, search engine marketers will increasingly rely on automation tools to target the right content to the right users at the right location at the right time.
Beyond the next few months
[AB] Let�s look beyond the next few months, what advancements do you see in the coming years?
[AF] One of the most significant developments currently underway in web search is the integration of search capabilities within a broad range of other services. Increasingly, this trend in creating a new competitive arena in web Search that is forcing established providers to adopt new strategies and creating new market opportunities.
As the #1 web application, search is becoming more ubiquitous as technology and business models mature. We are seeing more ISPs adding search capability to their portals; we are seeing more newspapers and community-type portals integrating local search and Yellow Page offerings as well, in order to retain users on their properties, and leverage what has become a very profitable business model.
InfoSpace has long offered its web search and online directory capabilities on a private-label basis that allows our distribution partners such as Verizon, ABCNews, FoxNews, and Cablevision to deliver these services under their own brand. The increasing level of search activity occurring at popular destination sites like these has been a key component of InfoSpace’s growth over the past year. In January, we announced that distribution revenue accounted for over half of InfoSpace’s search-related revenue in the fourth quarter of 2003.
The next big thing
[AB] We hear in the news that desktop search is going to be the next “big thing”, who do you see as being the key contributors to this area of search?
[AF] Both Microsoft Longhorn and IBM WebFountain will eventually make search a lot more transparent and integrated to end-users’ broader task-centric activities.
The Microsoft Longhorn operating system will have a significant impact on the overall information retrieval discipline and how users search. Microsoft is building centralized storage architecture around the next version of Windows that will make it much easier for end-users to retrieve locally stored information, no matter which application was originally used to author it. The subjective nature of users’ intent when formulating queries is complex. A better understanding of the task surrounding a search could make strides into serving more relevant results. The desktop and associated applications add a level of understanding of the user context that a browser cannot match. You could envision a world where users working on a document in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, get presented relevant related content leveraging text analytic technologies extracting concepts and themes of the document being worked on in real time. This is query-less search, relevant, in your face, all the time, without user interaction.
IBM has also been quietly working on the next generation of search technology focusing more on text analytic solutions, leveraging what some call the “Semantic Web”, including natural language processing, statistics, probabilities, machine learning, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence. IBM’s WebFountain technology goes beyond crawling and indexing the Web for the mere purpose of returning relevant links for a given queries. The technology actually tries to make sense of massive amounts of structured and un-structured content, extracting knowledge from the Web, Intranets, chat rooms, message boards, blogs, to isolate insightful and timely information that is not readily perceptible or available today. Applications could include identifying trends, monitoring brand perception, competitive activities, and monitoring other concept-specific “buzz”.
Commercial searches and informational searches
[AB] Let’s look at commercial searches and informational searches; do you see the two becoming distinct categories?
[AF] No. A central theme behind classical information retrieval theories is that users are driven by an information need. More granular search log analyses over the past years have attempted to categorize queries as “transactional” (Commercial), “informational”, and “navigational”. The immediate intent behind “navigational” queries is to reach a particular site; “informational” queries aim at acquiring information assumed to be present on web pages; while “transactional” queries usually result in some activity such as an online purchase. Andrei Broder, while chief scientist officer at AltaVista in the late 90’s demonstrated that queries at the time were roughly split equally among each category.
We don’t live in a binary world where queries (or content) are either inherently commercial or purely informational. The commercial-informational dichotomy looks more like a spectrum to me, where understanding user intent and the psychology of purchasing cycle is critical. The definitions behind commercial and informational content are fuzzy and personal; content perceived as purely commercial by some might be informational to others and vice versa. Clearly, the query “1819 treaty manuscript” could be considered “informational” in nature, but leading to a book purchase at Amazon about the United States-Spain treaty of 1819, or even the schedule of a trip to Spain or Florida.
[AB] So what’s the answer?
[AF] In focus groups, users have told us unequivocally that they would much prefer a search engine display an array of content types that may be relevant to their query, rather than try to guess what their intent was. Users also appreciate having tools available to help them narrow their results. Based in part of this feedback, InfoSpace worked with Vivisimo last year to deploy a ‘Refine Your Results’ feature on our three owned and operated search properties — Dogpile, WebCrawler sand Metacrawler. The feature automatically organizes and groups results by category for every search, providing a comprehensive view of web search results and allowing users to more rapidly get to the information most relevant to them. For example, a search on “flowers” groups results into subcategories such as delivery, gardening, arts and crafts, and more.
Reduced privacy and search habit monitoring
[AB] If search engine users gave up a little of their privacy and allowed their search habits to be monitored, would this allow the search engines to provide better, customized results?
[AF] There is no doubt that sharing personal data with search engines would result in better individual search experiences. The quality of search results is a function of two sets of variables: i) the user query and ii) the content indexed. Search engines are constantly crawling and indexing more web pages, more often, leveraging better entity extraction and concept recognition techniques, inferring document relationships in smarter ways. An enhanced understanding of user intents would certainly unlock more value from this semantic understanding of Web content.
Link analysis and other “off-the-page” ranking criteria have played an increasing role in relevancy algorithms over the past years. Monitoring navigation behavior at a user-level could conceivably be the basis to developing an understanding of users’ individual interests over time, in essence personalizing the equivalent of Google’s PageRank scores. If you consistently browse music-related content, search engines should become smart enough to understand that your query “Prince” most probably relates to the singer than to the royal family. Personalizing search relevancy algorithms presents some major scalability and performance challenges, though. It takes days, if not weeks to process link analyses and compute authority scores for individual Web sites after a crawl.
Privacy fears
[AB] Do you think search engine users will balk due to privacy fears?
[AF] Privacy concerns are certainly legitimate to some extent. I actually see some parallel between users� reluctance to using their credit card online in the early e-commerce days and giving up personal information to search engines today. It�s a constant trade-off between privacy concerns and the added value extracted from that data.
In the meantime, IP-sniffing technology might take search engines a step closer to personalizing search results without requiring users to compromise on very personal information. IP-analytic software associate internet-connected devices to geographic areas, domains (.com, .edu, and .gov), ISPs, connection speed and browser types with some level of confidence. Analyzing click popularity at an aggregate level along IP-associated parameters could be leveraged to extrapolate personalized ranking for clusters of users exhibiting similar behaviors. This technique would not be unlike Amazon�s implementation of collaborative filtering technology, in essence also reaching similar goals than social networks such as Eurekster.
Search on cell phones?
[AB] InfoSpace also offers wireless data applications. Do you think that search has a future on a cell phone?
[AF] Sending local content such as yellow page listings, directions, maps and business ratings to mobile devices just makes sense. I remember looking up on my cellular phone the nearest ice-cream parlor from the park a couple years ago with my kid. It worked! The experience was far from optimal, though, scrolling through about 10 to 15 screens I could barely read. Personalization features, geo-based services, faster networks, better handset resolution and color displays should significantly improve the experience over time. The navigation schema, whether search or browse modes, will be critical to make cellular phones a viable platform for both end-users and IYP advertisers. About 90% of mobile phones will be Web-enabled by 2006, making it a more attractive platform for content providers, developers, and information architects to invest time on.
The opportunity to deliver Web search and online directory information to mobile devices is something InfoSpace is well positioned to capitalize on. InfoSpace was a wireless data pioneer in the US and our mobile division today powers wireless data applications for every major US provider with the exception of Nextel. Going forward, we see a significant opportunity to increasingly combine our mobile and search and directory assets to accelerate the adoption of thee services on wireless devices.
[AB] Thanks Arnaud for taking the time to share with us your thoughts on the future of search!
Author Bio:
Andy Beal is Vice President of Search Marketing for WebSourced, Inc and KeywordRanking.com, global leaders in professional search engine marketing. Highly respected as a source of search engine marketing advice, Andy has had articles published around the world and is a repeat speaker at Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Strategies conferences. Clients include Real.com, Alaska Air, Peopleclick, Monica Lewinsky and NBC. You can reach Andy at andy@keywordranking.com and view his daily SEO blog at www.searchenginelowdown.com.
Is Your Search Engine Optimized Content Working?
In the past, most savvy website owners recognized the value of strong, compelling content; they appreciated the importance of copy that commands attention and persuades visitors with reason and with art to buy something or take a particular action.
But there’s a change happening. With the growing importance of search engine optimization, many e-businesses have shifted their content priorities. Satisfying the needs of human visitors has taken a back seat to keyword cramming and the scramble for higher search engine positioning.
And this has lead to some stilted and dysfunctional web content.
Search engine copywriting should help improve rankings, deliver traffic, AND convert it. Too many website owners employ search engine copywriting with the sole objective of driving traffic to the site. Period.
Then they cut that traffic loose to fend for itself. All those eager-to-buy prospects are dumped on the doorstep, facing a home page that offers them:
-No enticing headline.
-No benefit-driven, you-oriented sales message.
-No pitch explaining what makes this product or service superior.
-No irresistible call to action.
These visitors are clearly not getting the information or the motivation they need to make a buying decision. What they get instead is keyword-stuffed text that screams out, “Hey Google, spider this!” As a result, the site may get traffic but minimal or no increase in sales.
When it comes to search engine copywriting, doing half a job is worse than not doing it at all because you’ve wasted money on traffic that isn’t generating revenues and the substandard copy is damaging your company’s credibility in the process.
If you want to ensure that your web content is optimized correctly and that you will actually be in a position to convert some sales, here is a checklist to run on your copy after the keywords have been written in:
1. Does your optimized content offer useful information that’s compelling, informative, and easy to understand?
2. Does it flow naturally or are the keyword phrases stuffed in beyond the point of sense and sensibility?
3. Does your content obey the first commandment of good copy: “Thou shalt put thy customer before thyself.” In other words, does it talk benefits (“This is how we can help you”) or just glitzy features (“Look at me, look at me!”)
4. Could a first-time visitor arrive at your home page and be clearly guided to the information he/she seeks without getting lost or confused? Content is vital to successful usability.
5. Does each web page include enticing headings/subheadings and clear, persuasive body copy, wrapped up with a strong call to action (a link to another page, an invitation to make contact, or a buy button)?
In short, your optimized web content should adhere to the standards of good marketing communications that were selling products long before we became fixated on search engines. Because professional search engine copywriting never forgets that humans – not spiders – make the buying decisions.
To find out if your search engine copy is working at both levels, contact me for a complimentary website content analysis.
Author Bio:
Get a FREE website content analysis on your site with customized tips to make your content more compelling and search engine friendly. e-mail to heather@thewritecontent.com or visit http://www.thewritecontent.com/freereport.html
