Tracking IM Advertising
October 13, 2008
The beauty about internet marketing is that every advertisement you place can be tracked. For example every click that arrives at your web site can be tracked. For instance, you are able to track pay-per-click (PPC) ads down to the level of the keywords that the searcher typed in to see your advertisement. Moving a step further, you are able to track the resulting sale coming from that click. Irrespective of whether you’re using free or paid advertising to get traffic to your web site, it is important to be able to measure the effects of your campaign.
As a business organisation, you ought to know your return on investment (ROI) for your advertising campaigns. In the realm of offline advertising such as newsprint or magazine classified advertisements, you’ll frequently find that advertisers use a different department telephome number or postal box for each ad. They use the same mailing address just adding another departmental code. In this way, they can track how different ads perform based on the enquiries that get sent to the different sections.
This works also for the 800 numbers that you call to get more info about merchandise that you’ve seen or learned about. Companies can establish different toll-free numbers used for each ad and that’s how they can measure the effectiveness of multiple advertising campaigns. In offline promotion, it’s much more expensive to set up the tracking. Imagine the costs associated with arranging different phone numbers or multiple Post Office boxes.
In the online world, however, tracking becomes much cheaper as you are able to apply it using an mixture of scripts or software programs. With PPC advertising, you can easily use a simple PHP script to enable you to capture the keywords coming from a Google search referral - not to mention Google analytics.
Let’s examine another example. With a lot of web hosting packages, you’re allowed to set up multiple email addresses. You can set it up so that in each advert you use a different email address. Then when you get an email inquiry to a specific e-mail address, you’ll know where that enquiry originated from. Another way to do this is to establish multiple subdomains to use as the link in your ads. For instance, if you’re advertising in online newsletters, you are able to duplicate the same ad copy but send the readers to a different subdomain using a different URL for each ad.
When you’re able to track the efforts of all your advertising, you can sit down at the end of the business month and work out which campaigns are generating the best ROI. You can then scale those campaigns or fine-tune them to try and maximise your profits. If you’re not monitoring today.
Writing the Greatest Headlines
October 10, 2008
The headline is unquestionably the most important factor in most advertising.
Likewise-it is also the most singularly important element of any selling message “live or recorded, in person or by phone, audio or video” your company ever uses.
It is the opening sentence or paragraph you use in any sales letter or written communication you ever send out to customers, prospects, suppliers or staff. It’s the first words you or your sales persons utter, when they engage anyone in a sales presentation or one-on-one discussion.
Likewise, the “headline,” or its “equivalent,” are the first phrases you begin your conversation with when a customer or prospect comes in or calls in. It is also the first paragraph you state when producing a commercial or when meeting people at trade show.
The purpose of a headline is to attract your prospect’s ATTENTION. When I say your prospect, I mean that your headline should zero in on precisely whom you want to reach your target market. For example, if you wish to sell to homeowners, put the word “homeowners” in the headline.
The headline should serve as an advertiment for your ad. It should tell the reader immediately and clearly the essence of what you’re trying to say in the body copy. The headline should give the reader a Huge Benefit or Huge Promise. So, create a headline that tells the right people precisely the benefit you’re offering them.
When you write or decide upon your headline-or it’s opening equivalent-you have spent at least 80 cents out of your dollar. Stated differently, 80% of your outcome-four fifths of your result… all but 20% of the success of your selling effort is effected negatively or positively by how and what you communicate in the beginning.
A revised headline can make a 20 times improvement in response or acceptance by your prospect customer. Every headline or opening statement should appeal to the prospect’s or reader’s or listener’s self-interest. It has to promise him or her a desirable, powerful and appealing benefit. It is best to include “news” value or “educational” value into the headline also.
You may Download a Free copy of the “100 Greatest Headlines Ever Writen” at Jay Abraham - www.JayAbrahamSystem.com and learn how you can use these headlines to improve your copywriting and maximize your sales conversions.
You can learn more about Jay Abraham the super consultant that charges $5000 an hour whom consulted the famous Anthony Robbins at website Jay Abraham Business
12 Copywriting Tips To Skyrocket Subscriptions
October 10, 2008
It doesn’t make a difference the amount of visitors you generate to your website, if they do not translate, that means you don’t make any revenue. Thus here are a dozen web copywriting tips to enhance your sign-ups…
But before I go into the details, why sign-ups? Why not just push for a sale? That’s an excellent question. Here is the answer: Research have revealed that merely a very tiny percentage of prospects to your website purchase on their earliest visit. In fact, it requires nearly 7 subsequent selling before they will buy. It is, therefore, critical you obtain your visitor’s email address to follow up soon after.
Now that you get the why, let’s advance to the how. Here are the web copywriting tips to skyrocket sign-ups:
1. Always, always keep your forms as to the point as achievable. Whatever information you do not need at that moment in the conversion process, don’t gether it. Concise forms convert better than extensive forms… consistently.
2. If you coudln’t do without a long form, separate it into tiny sections but not more than 5 short portions. In my personal test, I notice dividing up lengthy forms into small forms enhance my conversions by about 5% but when it hits 6 chunks, people be inclined to discard the form maybe imagining it is never going to finish.
3. If you certainly have to utilize lengthy lengthy forms that splits into greater than 5 steps, utilize a progress bar to let them know at what time they will be able to complete the form…
4. If there’re any information that are not imperative but would be beneficial to acquire (for analytics ), tell your prospects it’s not compulsory.
5. Reveal your privacy policy awfully visibly in your form. If you have paid assurance services ( such as BBB), make sure you flaunt their symbols.
6. Eliminate that “clear” button if you still boast one because normal people don’t regualrly answer long forms using wrong information. What humans every so often do, is click the wrong button, cleared every single one of the information, gets upset and leave cursing you for placing that button there. So unless you’re looking forward to other animals than humans to fill in your form, it is best for your subscription rate if you remove it.
7. As for your “submit” button, label it differently. Use terms like, “buy now to get your free report” or “Why Not! Hand me my free e-book!”
8. Plus do not use regular buttons, employ graphics as your buttons to catch more awareness.
9. You must take care that people are aware your form is there and the 2 ways I recommend to do that are: implementing a unique background color for your form or use pictures to attract notice.
10. If you do implementing attention to catch notice to your forms, ensure the images are relevant to your website.
11. Finally, create it as easy for your visitors to fill out the form as doable. Don’t set limits on the way they should put in their information. For example, I come upon a number of forms that needed me to fill out my address in a precise format. Of course, it bothered me when they didn’t convey to me which format they choose. And incidentally…
12. If you do demand a particular format, make clear what you desire and why!
Want more copywriting tips? Then you should defintiely check out some of the killer web copywriting secrets I share here.
Critical Voice Blasting Technique To Rule OutThe Tire Kickers
October 5, 2008
If you’ve been seeing my other reports, you already know that if you’re using voicemail broadcasting, you are bound to get some worthless live transfer calls. And how writing a script with a higher response rate will lower the number of such calls. In this article I’ll dissect another critical method that will actually reduce your response rate, and grow your worthles live transfers. {Believe it or not}~Although it may be difficult to accept, you’ll want to use this method, that is, if you want less expensive lead expenditures.
I can explain with an example. Word to the wise - this is just a story, but this idea is normally valid.
Picture a voice broadcasting project to sell virtual offices with a Beverly Hills address to entrepreneurs. The broadcaster develops a pitch based on the benefits of having a Beverly Hills address, having a receptionist to answer your calls there, being able to conference with your customers in your Beverly Hills conference room, press one to speak to our rep…
We’ll take for granted that this script receives a 0.9% response rate. And that there are 0.3% of people who’ll “press 1 for no good reason” - the unavoidable worthless callers. So this script will produce 1 call out of 3 that is worthless, and 2 out of 3 will express some amount of interest. Seem fine so far?
Sure, but the script neglected to remark that this virtual office has a fee of $200/mo. And when the 2 of 3 interested people learn this, only 1 of them will consider paying that much. So, the marketer has found 1 caller in 3 that is both interested and qualified. These prospects are the broadcaster’s qualified leads. And if the marketer is paying $6 per call, his cost per qualified lead is $18. Not too bad…
Now think about this…the marketer writes a new pitch which observes that his service is priced at $200/mo. Since 1 listener in 3 was not interested in spending that amount, this is a very important qualifier. So, what will take place with this new pitch? First thing, a lot of prospects who aren’t going to to spend that amount will not press 1. So the general response rate will scale down. Let’s say it lowers to 0.7%. And we’re still stuck with the 0.3% of those “negative callers”…
Make the calculations and this means that with this new script, instead of getting 33 bogus calls per 100, the marketer will get about 43 - yuck! Just like we told in another article, when the response rate gets lower, the quantity of negative calls increases. My goodness, he receives ten additional negative live transfers! Why would this be any good in any way??
Well, hold the phone… From an earlier articlewrite-up, we determined that 0.3% of people are both interested, and willing to pay the $200 rate. So that means the marketer will also get around 43 positively interested AND qualified leads per 100 live transfers. That takes account of 86 calls of 100, who are the additional 14 calls? They are from leads who are interested but not willing to spend $200 - so why would they continue to press 1? Because they’re people, and people don’t always understand everything, or act predictably even if they do. A portion of the unqualified people will also press 1 every time, no matter how much qualifying information is in the message.
Anyhow, let’s work the calculations again - if the marketer was spending $6 per call in this story, he is now obtaining his “qualified leads” at an total cost of $14. So.if the broadcaster is able to endure a bigger quantity of worthless transfers, he will also enjoy a lower overall lead cost. Sounds like a contradiction in terms, but factual
Anytime you have a primary piece of qualifying information - it is critical that you include it clearly in your script, for just this reason.
10 Things to Look for When Choosing a Website Designer
October 3, 2008
10 Things to Look for When Choosing a Website Designer
Choosing someone to design and develop your website may seem overwhelming at the least. With more and more people getting into the web design business, your options grow more by the day. And not all designers are equal in price or services. You can pay as much or as little as you want for a website, and get as many or as few features as you want. So how do you know who to choose for your website designer and what services to go with?
There are a few basic things you can look for, and questions you can ask when choosing a designer to do your website.
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Remember who is in control. It is your website and your business. Ultimate, it is you who must be happy with it, not the designer. This does not mean you shouldn’t listen to their suggestions, but it does mean that you make the decision about who will design your website. If you are overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, or how it all works, it may be tempting to just go with the first person you find, or to let someone convince you that they are the ones who should do your site, but be careful and take your time. It will be well worth the extra consideration to get a website that you are happy with and works well for your business.
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Ask to see the designers portfolio. Any designer who is experienced enough to charge for their services, will have examples of other work they have done for you to see. If it is not readily available on their website, ask to see it. Look over what they have done and see if you like their overall style. Take note of designs and features that you would like to see on your own website.
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Look for customer testimonials. Find out what their previous customers are saying about their work! If you want to take it a step further, visit some of the sites they have done for other companies, and email the site owner and ask for their feedback. If they were happy with the work and the service, they will likely be more than glad to tell you about it!
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Visit the designer's site. How does their own site look? Are their layouts broken, do they have typos or broken links? Do they present their own site in a professional and attractive manner? If not, beware. If they can’t take the time and effort to make their own site good, how much effort do you think they will spend on yours?
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Look at their prices. While price shouldn’t be the only deciding factor, it can shed a fair bit of light on the design company. Does the price seem reasonable to you? Is it too high? Too low? You don’t have to pay huge amounts of money for a website, but you also should be wary of companies that only charge a very small amount – you get what you pay for! You may not know much about how a website is built or what is involved, but you may have a fairly good idea of what you want on your website. Is it ecommerce? You can generally expect it to cost a little more. Do you just want something simple, with some text, photos, contact form? Then it shouldn’t cost you over $1000 – if that! Think about the kind of features you want, the size of your site, and guess your costs accordingly. If the price seems to high or too low, ask them why they are charging that. It may be that they are charging less because they are new in business themselves, in which case, if their work is good and they seem trustworthy and good to deal with, it may be an excellent way to save some money, and help them build their portfolio. If they are charging a lot and it seems expensive, it may be because they are a big company and have several employees working for them, have been in business for years and are at the top of the field. In this case, you are paying for their experience.
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Find out what is included. Many web design companies will offer you a package – you get the website designed, along with a domain name, email address and web hosting for a certain period of time. They may have other benefits and features that they offer with a package as well. This can take a lot of the hassle out of the process for you. If the domain name, email and hosting are all included, it means you don’t have to try to set it up yourself or find it somewhere else.
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Do they do website updates? Updating your website on a regular basis is important, as it keeps it fresh and new, and gives your customers a reason to keep visiting! I recommend that you find a web designer who can do the updates for you, at a reasonable monthly/yearly fee. Some will even include the first weeks, months or year of website updates with the package. This is another way to take the hassle out of it for you, so that you can focus on your business.
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How fast do they respond to your emails and messages? Be reasonable, and remember they are busy people as well, but at the same time, if they value your business, they should respond quickly, within a day or two at the most. If they take a long time getting back to you, consider it a warning. You don’t want to be stuck with a web designer who does not pay attention to your concerns about your own website. You want someone who will respond quickly and have the work done quickly.
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Beware of templates. While they are quick and easy to use, and usually cheaper, they are still templates, which means that anyone else can also use them. It is far better to get a custom design, one that is unique and created for your business and brand.
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Look at their overall attitude and professionalism. Pay attention to your first impression. Do they seem shifty and untrustworthy? Is their appearance shabby or rough? Do they seem to know what they are talking about, or doing? Do they talk down at you, or do they treat you with respect and explain things in everyday language? You want a designer who respects you and your business and is going to put their very best effort into your website and ensuring that you are happy with it.
If you keep these tips in mind, you will be more likely to find a web designer that you will be happy with and that will create a website that will compliment and work for your business.
About the author: Advantage Website Solutions is a web design company that specializes in custom web design and development for small businesses. For more tips on developing, perfecting and promoting your professional online image, from building a website to marketing online, visit Tips by Advantage, where you will find more articles and practical advice.
How To Drive Up Sales By Cutting Down Your Work
October 3, 2008
Would you waste your busy life filling up an extended membership form just so you can buy an electronic adaptor on the web? I know I wouldn’t. The person selling it is obviously lacking web copywriting skills.
I would press “back” and search an alternative webpage.
But how many times have you been forced to do just that when you buy anything? Plenty! And if you desire to secure an advatage over your competitor, make it uncomplicated for your browsers to navigate and buy your goods. Here are some copywriting tips you should learn by heart:
1. Make sure that your webpages are undemanding to come across. White backdrop and black words are what the general public arecomfortable with reading therefore do not become “creative” and use red letters with black background as an alternative.
2. Make certain your letters are easy to read. Mimic the usual, such as verdana and you’ll be fine.
3. Make sure your forms aren’t too lengthy, like the example I talked about above. Gather only information you have to have at that stage.
4. Categorize. There’s a reason why stoes display enormous signposts guiding consumers where to get a merchandise and why libraries have digital directories where you can locate the book you desire. The reason is majority of us suck (and too lazy) at looking for what we want! Cataloging your articles makes it a no-brainer for users to find them.
5. Don’t give browsers a reason to turn back and leave. Every so often I still see a “clear” button exactly beside the “submit” button at the conclusion of a long form. Why do any web designer do that is past my understanding. You don’t want to leave it there! It is awfully odd for a user to fill in the whole form with wrong information! It’s more probable for him to press the wrong button, gets annoyed and disappear.
So there, 5 simple web usability (a tiny element of web copywriting ) issue that you must always keep in mind when planning your next website… if you desire some sales that is.