September, 2007

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Archive for September, 2007

Are You Breaking These Website Marketing Rules?

By Charlie Cook | September 25, 2007

“My web site is just breaking even. Despite getting an average of a thousand visitors a week, I’m just making enough sales to cover the cost of my pay-per-click ads. How can I increase my conversion rate?”
– Marla, online business owner

Are you struggling to get more visitors to your site to become buyers? Do you want to move beyond sluggish sales and transform your site into a real money-maker?

When I looked at Marla’s site I saw the problem right away. It wasn’t the products she was selling. Marla’s site was only getting a trickle of sales because she was…

Breaking the Rules!

No, Marla wasn’t doing anything illegal but she was violating the key marketing rules that anyone needs to follow to make money with their website.

Are you breaking the rules with your web site too?

Web marketing is just like any sport you play. Whether it’s golf, tennis, bowling or online marketing, to even be considered a player you need to know the rules of the game. Wouldn’t you agree?

Below I’m going to give you some of the most important web marketing rules to follow. In upcoming emails I’ll detail how to keep score and which techniques to use to become a master player so you can be a consistent winner and put yourself on the podium. It’s all about helping you become a winner – at marketing online.

Want to win with your web site? Start by discovering all the rules of marketing online. Use this link >>

To win online (and offline) you need to know the rules of marketing your business.

Imagine playing golf without knowing which direction to hit the ball, or not knowing when or where to file your taxes. When you don’t know the rules, not only can you lose, you can get into a heap of trouble. Discover which simple rules to follow instead and you’ll come out on top.

Web Marketing Rules
(I’ve included three below to help you get started.)

1. Lead With the Solution
One of my clients sells specialized skin care products. At the top of her home page she listed “Pimples – Scars – Blemishes – etc” Below this headline she had “before” pictures of some the worst cases she had treated. If you scrolled down the page, you’d get to both the “before” and “after” photos and the stories of her successful treatments, but the top of her page was literally scaring people away.

Clearly state the primary solution you provide at the top of your home page and you’ll attract a lot more clients.

2. Start Conversations
It’s rare that a first time visitor to your site will pull out their credit card and buy from you right away. After all, why should they? They just met your online business and they don’t know you or trust you yet.

Successful small business owners tell me that once they have a conversation going with a prospect, they can convert more than 50% to buyers. Think of your site as the beginning of a conversation.

You may not be able to convert 50% of visitors to buyers, but your site should prompt at least 7% to 25% to contact you and so continue the conversation. Start more conversation with prospects and you’ll convert more into paying clients.

3. Build Relationships to Build Profits
Unless you’re Amazon.com or Apple or some other large corporation, your competitive advantage lies in the quality of the relationship you have with your prospects. In most cases the brand your selling is you.

People buy from people. Continue to engage their attention, educate them and give them the solutions they need, and your sales will continue to grow.

Want to build your online profits. Use this link >>

Knowing how to play any game and how to play well are two different things. I know the basic rules of golf, but give me a golf club and you’d have to clear the course of anyone who wanted to avoid injury and give me couple of days to actually finish a full round of 18 holes.

You may know the basic rules of marketing online, but do you know what you need to truly succeed?

The good news is few if any of your competitors know or apply the basic rules to web marketing. They may understand the importance of getting traffic to the site and converting visitors to buyers, but few know how to do it well.

When you discover what to do and start to follow the rules with your web marketing, you’ll instantly put your online business far ahead of your competition. Winning online isn’t automatic but it’s a heck of lot easier when you know the rules of the game.

Want to win online with your website marketing?. Use this link >>

Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

How to Fix Your Web Marketing…

By Charlie Cook | September 18, 2007

“My web site gets hundreds of visits a day, but hardly anyone ever contacts me much less buys from me. How do I fix my site?”
– Phil S., a manufacturing equipment broker, Chicago, IL

Do you have a web site?

Wish it generated more leads and more sales? If your web site worked the way you wanted, your online marketing would work for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to generate revenue.

I looked at Phil’s website and found a professionally designed, good looking site, but it was missing the key elements that would let people know they are in the right place or help them discover the value of his services and products, and motivate them to contact him.

Phil’s problem wasn’t generating traffic; it was getting the visitors that came to his site to stay long enough so he could convert them to clients. Most web site owners focus all their attention on getting people to their site.

Big mistake.

In the last 7 years at our house we’ve had two wall ovens where the electronics went bust. The ovens looked fine from the outside. They opened, the electric coils were in there, but you couldn’t use them. They wouldn’t cook a cookie much less a turkey. Without working control panels, they was nothing more than large and costly wall ornaments in our kitchen.

A web site without a system for controlling where visitors go is the same thing, nothing but a costly online ornament. To make it work you need to have a system that converts visitors to buyers.

Want a marketing system to make your web site sell? Use this link to find out how >>

If you have a web site, your biggest concern should be converting the traffic you get to leads and to sales. You want to manage the flow of visitors so they move easily through your site and contact you and buy from you. Once you’re site works to do this then you can shift to focusing on attracting more traffic.

Phil had the same problem most of my clients have with their web sites. He was getting traffic but wasn’t converting it to leads or sales. A complete site makeover was in order, but Phil didn’t want to wait months while every page was redesigned, rewritten and rebuilt.

Here’s the quick fix that I recommended to Phil, one I recommend to many of my clients. This can usually be done with your existing page template design within a couple of weeks.

** Web Site Marketing Quick Fix **

1. Replace Company Name With Compelling Marketing Message

Most web sites put their company name or product name in large type at the top of the page. When a prospect first finds your site this is the quickest way to send them away. What you want instead is a marketing message that convinces site visitors to stay and read more. You’ve only got a few seconds to capture their attention; make the most of it.

2. Motivate Prospects to Give You Their Contact Information

One of the most frustrating marketing blunders is to have someone who is looking for the solution you provide – find your web site and then leave without at least contacting you, if not buying from you. The simple fix is to offer them something for free in return for their contact information. That way you can follow up with them and help them get to know you, trust you and buy from you.

3. Rewrite the Homepage Text With Copy To Engage and Educate

Ever have a teacher that put you to sleep? Just providing information about your products isn’t enough to keep your prospects’ attention or pique their interest or convince them to buy. What you want to do is create a dialogue with them instead of lecturing them about your products or services.

4. Create a Sequence Of Actions For Prospects to Take

Once you’ve worked out the key elements of copy on your homepage, use the information and design to move visitors to action. The secret to doing this is to use size, location, color and other design elements to lead visitors’ eyes around the page and get them to do what you want them to do – to contact you and buy from you.

Want to fix your website marketing? Use this link to find out how >>

Whether your site gets a trickle of traffic or a flood, the critical factor to your success is how many people you convert to buyers. Use the four steps above to fix your site and watch your sales increase.

Typically my clients have seen leads increase by 300% to 500% just by implementing this quick fix. After the quick fix, we go to work retooling the site design and every element of the web marketing process. The result? Additional increases in leads and sales by factors of 10 to 15 times.

Is your site in need of a fix?

If your site isn’t working to sell now, don’t wait. Each day you delay is costing you money in lost sales. Get the details on how to transform your site and start generating more leads and sales. Use this link to improve your web marketing >>

– Charlie
Web Marketing That Gets Results for Small Business Owners and Marketers

What My Wife Knows About Small Business Growth…

By Charlie Cook | September 13, 2007

Is it women or just my wife who knows this?

I hear it regularly from my wife. She keeps telling me I’m too busy and it’s time to get more help. I also hear the same thing from my male clients. They call me and tell me they just talked to their wives and want to go ahead with a project so they can focus on growing their business.

Yes, I and many men have the tendency is to go it alone instead of getting help when we need it. Do you do the same?

I don’t know whether its just my wife and the wives of the clients I attract but its good advice.

If you want to grow your business you have to stop being the business, doing every task and wearing every hat. When you do that you don’t have time to focus on the more important tasks, like growing your business.

Do you need to let go of some of the tasks you do in order to grow your business?

Here’s a simple way of deciding. Take out a piece of paper and divide it into 3 vertical columns.

In the first column make a list of all the things you could outsource or teach someone else to do. In the second column list the areas you could use some expert adivce – legal, accounting and marketing – so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. In the third column – list the tasks only you can do.

Then get the help you need to free your time up so you can grow your business. I had one client who was about to build ten pages for his web site when his wife brought him to his senses and prompted him to hire a web designer to build his web pages so he could focus on the next big profitable project instead.

Are you getting all the help you need to grow your business? Or are you wasting your time do tasks someone else could do for you?

If you want to succeed, take my wife’s advice and get help and you’ll see your profits soar.

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

What’s The #1 Lead Generation Small Business Marketing Mistake…

By Charlie Cook | September 11, 2007

“My business is like a roller coaster. When things are going well, I’m too busy working on projects to do any marketing. Then I finish those projects and don’t have enough leads to market to.

How can I smooth out these ups and downs and grow my business even more?”
– Bill, a management consultant Cambridge MA

Ever wish you had more leads to pursue when sales take a dip or you finish a project?

Or, even better, leads to pursue before sales take a dip or the work slows down?

With a steady flow of business, you could manage staffing and cash flow better and significantly increase your annual revenue.

When I asked Bill what he did to follow up with the hundreds of senior managers he worked with each year, he sheepishly told me, “nothing”. He didn’t have a follow up strategy. I asked him how many business cards he’d collected at the last talk he gave to over 50 senior managers. His answer? “None”.

Don’t be mislead; Bill is a successful consultant. He works with CEOs and top-level managers at Fortune 500 companies. But he was making one big mistake, and it was keeping him from being as successful as he could be.

What’s the mistake Bill was making? Bill didn’t have a lead generation system or a follow up system. When there was a drop in the demand for his services, he had to start his marketing from scratch.

Want to avoid making this common marketing mistake?

Use this link to find out how >>

How can you get off the roller coaster and bring in a steady stream of business?

Think like a squirrel.

As fall approaches here in Old Greenwich, CT the dozens of squirrels in my neighborhood are busy doing what squirrels do; they’re collecting nuts and storing them away. They instinctively know that the more food they gather, the happier and fatter they’ll be, come February.

They have a system for collecting nuts each fall that gets them through the long winter.

Weathering the ups and down of the business cycles requires the same kind of planning. To come out on top, you need a marketing system for collecting leads, storing them and following up on them. The more qualified leads you have in your database, the happier you’ll be.

What’s the easiest way to generate more leads every month? Use this link >>

A lead generation system gives you an organized way of contacting prospects, qualifying them, prompting them to contact you and helping them make the decision to buy from you.

Is your lead generation system working as well as it could be to bring in a steady stream of new clients? Is it providing you with new sales from long-standing clients?

Put Your Lead Generation Marketing System to the Test

1. Do you have a system?

Bill had no system whatsoever for generating leads. He was getting occasional referrals, but referrals alone weren’t growing his business.

2. Does it work to prompt 10% of all people exposed to you or your marketing to contact you?

Whether you are giving talks to large gatherings of your target market, as Bill is, or marketing online through your website, the basic concept behind a lead generation system is the same. You want to motivate as many qualified prospects as you can to contact you.

Most small businesses and service professionals have websites, but few sites generate more than a trickle of leads. The graphics, content and marketing messages on your site should prompt a minimum of 10% of site visitors to contact you. If this isn’t happening, your site is broken and you need to fix it.

3. Do you have a sequenced system of communication for converting prospects to clients?

In my experience, only 1 out of 10 small business owners have a system for converting prospects in place. So if you don’t you’re not alone but if you want to grow your business you need one.

Once a prospect expresses an interest, you’ve gotten them to take the first step in the process. It doesn’t mean they want you to sell them. Usually that is the quickest way to kill the sale.

Prospects want to get to know you, trust you and discover the value of your product and services. Whatever media you use, your follow-up communication should accomplish this.

What’s involved in setting up your lead generation system? Use this link to get the details >>

You don’t have to go nuts to develop a solid lead generation system. With a simple, strategic marketing system in place, your business can grow every month, whether you’re immersed in a project or on vacation.

If you don’t already have one, put your lead generation system into place this fall and see your business continue to prosper this winter.

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work