The Business Marketing Blog -: 09/01/2005

Are Small Business Owners Just In It For The Money?

Apparently not! Based on a recent gallup study, 47% would continue working even if they won $10 million in the lottery.

So if its not money which motivates small business owners to market their businesses, what is it?

Is your primary interest in helping others?
Is it beating the competition, playing the game?

What motivates you to succeed in business and then once you've made your first million or ten million, to keep on growing your business?

Pitch in with your answers.

- Charlie Cook

What's Involved In Increasing Web Sales?

"I want to get more traffic to my web site, generate more leads and increase sales. If I sign up with you can you do it?" - J. Bollard

Creating a web site that sells is like building a spec house. You need an architect to create the plan, a contractor to build it and a realtor to market it.

In the case of your web site, I can work with you to develop the plan and the marketing copy for the site. Next you'll need your web site designer to follow the plan and put the plan and copy in place. If you don't have a web designer, I can recommend a few I've worked with.

Once your site is built to spec, you'll need to market it to the search engines, sign up for pay-per-click advertizing and use your articles to pull in traffic. I don't do these tasks for any site except my own, but can refer you to a reputable firm.

In summary the three steps to creating a web site that sells are:
1. Plan & Write
2. Build
3. Attract Traffic

Discover how to improve your web marketing and increase your web sales with Creating Web Sites that Sell
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- Charlie Cook

How Does Your Web Site Rate?

"How do I rate different web pages?" - N. Parker

Rating web pages is easy. First identify the purpose of the page.

Do you want prospects to contact you?

Do you want them to buy from you?

Do you want them to read the page from the top to bottom?

Do you want them to visit the home page and then go to another page on your site?

Once you know the purpose of your web page or pages, then do the math. Look at how many people visit the page and how many do what you want them to do. This is your conversion rate. If you get 100 visitors per day and only one contacts you, you have a 1% conversion rate (not to good.) If twenty to thirty contact you your conversion rate is 20-30% (good).

Stop wasting your time and money on web sites that don't work and discover how to get a better response with your web site marketing with Creating Web Sites that Sell and see your sales soar.
- Charlie Cook

What Do You Need to Know About Creating Links to Your Web Site?

Here's a blog to check out on the top 4 things you need to know about getting links to your site by William Royal. Read it at http://www.royallmedia.blogspot.com/ - Charlie Cook, The Small Business Marketing Response Expert
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How to Solve the Web Site Marketing Puzzle

For most people marketing online can be a puzzle. The first step is to understand the pieces. Here's a roadmap of the key elements.

1. Gettting People to Your Site
- Search Engine Listings
- Pay-per-click ads
- PR
- Article Distribution
- Linking Strategy

Whether it's the description that appears in the search engines, your google ad, or the blurb you include with your articles, you'll need a killer marketing message that gets your prospects to stop what they are doing and click through to your web site. I explain exactly how to do this in the 15 Second Marketing guide.

2. Getting People to Read Your Web Copy
Once visitors arrive at your site you want them to instantly discover why they need your products or services then you want them to contact you or buy from you. I explain the web strategies and ideas that work to do this in Creating Web Sites that Sell .

3. Getting People to Buy Again and Again
Remember the first sale should be just the begining. Once a site visitor has made a purchase quickly leverage their interest and convert them into regular buyers.
- Charlie Cook

What's the Fastest Way to Build Your Small Business?

If you want to grow your business quickly there is one thing you'll need in abundance, more prospects. Sounds obvious but few small businesses have a reliable or cost effective system for generating a steady stream of leads and clients.

Here's the fundamental small business equation. More prospects, more people who know what you offer and how you can help them, equals more business profits.

Each month you want to contact more qualified prospects than you did last month. Do this and I guarantee you'll have more clients and more income.

How can you get started? Use the lead generation tools available on this site to start building your database of qualified prospects and converting them to clients.
- Charlie Cook

Which Web Site Will Your Prospects Pick?

Your surfing the web, looking for information to help you solve a problem. With a seemingly infinite number of sites to pick from your task is simple. You want to to scan sites as quickly as possible to determine whether they have the information, product or service that can help you. You want to minimize the amount of time you spend on each site and click on to the next web site until you find one that gets your full attention.

Your prospects do the same thing when they are searching for information online. If they can't instantly see that you can help them solve their problem or have what they need, they'll be gone to your competitors' sites.

You've got just a second or two to grab their attention, to let them know you can help them.

What do you do when you come to a web site that leads with the company name, a welcome message or worse yet is titled "home page"? Do you spend the time looking down the page to find the information you want or do you skip to another web site that leads with a headline that specifically identifies your concern and promises the solution you are looking for.

If you want more prospects to stop at your web site you need to make it stand out from the crowd with your marketing message You need to discover how to use the copy and the web design to prompt prospects to contact you.
- Charlie Cook

How to Evaluate Your Small Business Marketing

What's the first thing you look at to tell if your small business marketing is working?

You look at the response you are getting. Each ad, letter, call or web site you have is the equivalent of a marketing action. And each time you put time and money into one of these you want to get a huge response? When you put an ad in the newspaper you want the phone to start ringing of the hook with prospects. Is that what usually happens?

If you're not getting the response you want from your small business marketing, the first thing to realize is that the problem is not your advertising, sales letters, cold calling or your the internet. These are just the delivery vehicles for your marketing message and marketing information.

Typically a low response is directly correlated with how you talk about your products and services. If you're not getting a ton of calls from your marketing, the problem is your marketing message and your marketing information.

While advertising and promoting your business can cost a lot, changing your marketing message and rewriting your marketing copy is relatively inexpensive. Want to grow your business? Test out new ways or talking about what you do. With the right marketing message, you'll see your small business soar.
- Charlie Cook

How to Get Your Prospects to Buy and Increase Small Business Sales

Everyone wants to increase sales, but few small business owners do anything about it. What can you do to increase your sales?

Stop talking about your firm and your product.

Instead give your prospects a reason to read your marketing materials and then ...

... give them a reason to buy.

Include specifics about what your product can do and support these with testimonials from clients.

Discover the best way to get your prospects to buy with The 15 Second Marketing Guide.
- Charlie Cook

Marketing Blog - Ideas That Work