Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

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What I Like About This Commercial…

By Charlie Cook   |   August 25, 2008

Allstate has a commercial currently running that poses the “What If…” question. I can’t remember each one, but they included:
– What if someone rear ended your car crashing your car into another car?
– What if you had an accident with a car that was worth over $60,000?
– What if a friend borrows your car and trashes it… are you covered?
– What if a branch falls on your car… are you covered?
etc.

You get the idea. At the end it makes you wonder – heh am I covered?
If you have the youtube link to this video, please let me know.
(Want to view other great video ads? Here’s the best video commercials I’ve found >>)

Now ask yourself:
– What if when you sent out a mailing, instead of getting dozens of responses you got hundreds, or when you reviewed your web sales instead of just a couple of sales you saw thousands.
– What if your marketing actually worked?
– How much more money could you be making?
————
– Charlie
MarketingForSuccess.com

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5 Steps to More Web Sales – Advanced Web Marketing

By Charlie Cook   |   August 19, 2008

You’ve been working hard to get people to your site so you can generate sales. Are you frustrated yet?

Most website owners have spent more time and money on their sites than they want to admit — and they hardly generate any sales. Despite hours spent writing copy, getting the site built and struggling with SEO (search engine optimization), you’re still waiting for your site to kick online sales into gear.

Want to know the secret to making your website sell like crazy?

Traffic alone isn’t the answer.

I hear regularly from small business owners who’ve spent a fortune on SEO or pay-per-click ads and still aren’t making money from their sites. If you’re one of these, you know how annoying it can be. You want to be making money online, not losing it, and you want a good return on the time and money you’ve poured into your website.

What’s the secret to online success?
Get the answer >>

Your website needs to do four things to make money for you and your company. It needs to convert visitors to prospects; convert prospects into buyers; and to deliver the product or service and follow-up to get the next sale.

The first four steps to making your web site a money-making engine are to set up your:

1. Lead generation system
2. Conversion system
3. Fulfillment system
4. Follow-up marketing system

Is that all you need to do?

You’re almost there but you not only need an online engine; you need one that generates more money than it uses.

Which of the following scenarios describes your site?

A. Your site gets a hundred or more visitors a week but hardly generates any leads or sales.

B. Your site gets a modest amount of traffic, say, a hundred visitors a week, but at least 10% of site visitors sign up for your free offer (you do have one, don’t you?) and they give you their contact information so you can go to work helping them become buyers.

In example A. you’re probably spending more than you’re making. In B. you should be happily making money.

Ready to discover the secrets to turning your website into a money-making machine? Get started >>

What’s The Difference Between Sites That Make Money and Those That Don’t?

Every website that wants to make money has all 4 of the above elements but why then is it that some do a better job of making money than others?

In our family we own both a 1998 Subaru Outback and a 2005 Audi Allroad. Both have seats, engine and wheels. Both burn the same amount of gas. What’s the difference?

The Audi has an engine and turbo charger that converts gas into at least twice as much power. It accelerates beautifully, while the Subaru, chugs slowly up to speed. Now don’t get me wrong the Subaru is a great car but it’s slow.

Which would you want? The slow website that chugs along or the one that converts leads to sales at blinding speed?

Interested in turbocharging your website’s performance to increase sales? Find out how >>

The fifth step to making money online is maximizing your conversion rate. Many small business websites convert only a couple of visitors a week into prospects and sales. You want to convert at least several each day, if not each hour.

How much money in sales is your site bringing in each week? How much would your site bring in if you increased your conversion rate by a factor of ten? Or twenty? That’s how much money you could and should be making.

You can improve your conversion rates and convert more visitors to prospects and prospects to clients. Here’s how to do it:

1. Measure Your Conversion
Google provides a free, easy-to-use tool called the Website Optimizer. you’ll find in your Adwords account. With this you can set up simple trials to measure the conversion rates of key pages and compare them to variations on that page.

2. Change Your Web Page Copy and Layout
Once you’ve analyzed your existing pages, you can go to work on making changes to get a better response and generate more sales.

Small changes in copy, type size, and the location of these on a site page can make a big difference in the number of people who respond to your offers and to your conversion rates. I’m still amazed at how significant apparently minor changes can be.

After ten years of online success, I’ve found many ways to boost my conversion rates at every point in the sales process.

Want to discover how much more you could be making with your website? >>

To your success,

Charlie
MarketingForSuccess

P.S. Use these web marketing strategies to dramatically increase your conversions and your web site revenue. I did. Take action today and start closing all those online sales you’ve been missing.

Interested in doubling or tripling your web sales? Take action today >>

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Best Video Commercials – So Far

By Charlie Cook   |   August 5, 2008

What’s one of the most effective ways of getting people to your web site and your business? With a great viral video ad, one that your target market will share and help people learn about your products and services.

I just added 5 more videos to the list of the best video commercials. Take a look and let me know if you have a favorite you’d like to see included.

1. Is this ad the answer to the Apple airbook. See this video ad for yourself >>

2. Sometimes exaggeration works to demonstrate your product. Take a look at this video commercial >>

3. What’s the best way to demonstrate your product’s capabilities? Here’s how a good example of how to use fantasy in your viral videos >>

4. It’s all about demonstrating the problem. That’s what this video ad does with humor >>

5. And finally how to use a celebrity in your ads and make it funny too. See this video commercial with an unexpected ending >>

Have more videos you’d like included. Let me know and we’ll review them.

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Gets Attention and More Business

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The #1 Secret To Becoming a Millionaire

By Charlie Cook   |   August 5, 2008

Have you ever sat down with a friend or colleague and wondered why he is a millionaire and you’re not? Have you asked yourself what makes him different? You’re both successful, both enjoy life, both call your own shots… but he’s a millionaire.

What makes him different? What makes him a millionaire? You have similar skill sets, you have similar life experiences, and yet you have very different incomes. What sets millionaires apart?

Most people believe that the surefire path to becoming a millionaire is to make more money. Sure, more money helps, but it’s no guarantee that you’ll become a millionaire. In fact, many of your millionaire colleagues may actually make less money than you do.

So how do you become a millionaire? Here’s the answer: develop the habits of millionaires. It’s that simple.

Can Habits Really Make You A Millionaire?
Can you really become a millionaire just by changing your habits? Yes!

Millionaires aren’t any smarter than you. They aren’t born with mystical powers for making money. But they have discovered how to make money — and lots of it. They have habits–habits that you don’t have–that make them millionaires.

Almost every self-made millionaire has strong financial habits. Habits that help them earn money, habits that help them save money, and habits that help them to achieve their financial goals. Habits that you can develop.

These habits will give you the financial power to buy your dream house, take weeks of vacation every year, buy the car you’ve been dreaming of since you were 16 years old, and take care of your family and friends.

It sounds crazy – but it’s true.

Do you want to become a millionaire?
As I mentioned, you can learn the habits that will make you a millionaire. You can study the habits of millionaires around the world. You can interview thousands of millionaires to find out how they made their millions. You can compile all the information you gather and develop a way to become a millionaire yourself.

Or you can take the shortcut to developing the habits of a millionaire.

If you’re familiar with Brian Tracy, you already know that he’s one of America’s leading authorities on business, financial and personal success. Over the past 30 years he has interviewed and studied thousands of millionaires from around the world to discover what makes them millionaires.

In his 6-CD program Million Dollar Habits, he teaches you the financial habits that will turn you into a millionaire.

Change your habits today
Million Dollar Habits replaces your money draining behaviors with money producing behaviors. The habits that you will learn are the exact same habits that thousands of millionaires have used to get to where they are today.

In Million Dollar Habits you’ll be given clear and practical advice on how to get ahead financially. You will learn a series of step-by-step strategies, methods and techniques that you can use immediately!

Get Million Dollar Habits today.

Will You Become A Millionaire?
You have the opportunity to become a millionaire. A few simple changes in your habits–habits that are preventing you from becoming a millionaire right now–are all you need.

How can you develop the habits you need to become a millionaire? Use this proven strategy >>

To your success,

Charlie

PS: Becoming a millionaire isn’t rocket science… it’s habitual. Million Dollar Habits will teach you the behaviors you need to develop your true millionaire potential. Get your copy today >>

“Before I listened to this program I was really unhappy with my financial situation. I was working really hard, but never had anything to show for it. I never had enough money in the bank. After listing to this program I realized everything I was doing wrong. I changed my habits immediately and today my situation is 100 times better. Literally.”
–James Samuels, Sydney Australia

Get started >>

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3 Keys to Small Business Marketing Success

By Charlie Cook   |   August 4, 2008

You want to attract more clients, increase your sales and maximize your profits. And you want to do it in less time.

What’s getting in your way?

Working harder isn’t the answer! After decades of helping struggling small business owners be more successful, I’ve seen the same three issues emerge in every case. I see them with business people looking to make their first $100,000 as well as to those trying to make their next five million.

What are they? What are the three things that you need to do to be more successful?

To be truly successful in any business you need to have a vision that’s big enough, have the knowledge of what to do, and most importantly, you need to delegate responsibility.

1. Envision Success Not Just A Stepping Stone
When someone calls me to talk about my one-on-one coaching services, one of the first questions I ask them is what their goals are. Typically, they want to increase their income or sales by 10 or 15%.

99% of the time these business owners are running businesses that have much more profit potential than that. Too many of them think in terms that limit how well they’ll do; their vision is too small.

Plan to grow by 10% and that’s all you’ll do. Plan to grow by 200% and you can achieve that!

You can go to the grocery store hoping to find a few ingredients to make a sandwich, or you can go determined to find everything you need to cook a delicious 3-course feast. Create a vision and goals that will help you get there instead of ones that are getting in your way.

If you’re going to go to all the effort to grow your business, why not make at least 250,000 or if you’re already making five million why not aim for seven million?

Do this right now, before you read any further. Write a paragraph describing your success and make a list of your goals for the rest of this year.

2. Get And Apply The Knowledge You Need
I’m continually amazed at the number of otherwise savvy business owners who want to become masters of marketing and keep trying to do so by copying other’s failed marketing techniques. You need to know what to do and how to do it in order to grow your business.

Start by answering the following questions.

What knowledge and skills are required?
Do you need to discover how to attract more clients, close more sales or finally turn your website into a profit center?

What do you need to do to reach each of your goals?
A faster way of generating leads?

A system for growing your business?

To close more sales?

A web site that converts visitors to buyers?

What kind of advice do you need?
Do you need someone to help you organize your marketing and show you how to focus your efforts? Use this link >>

3. Delegate Your Way to the Top
There are only so many hours in a day; no matter how many of them you spend at work, you’ll never be able to do everything on your own. The third key to success is delegating administrative and operational tasks.

If you’re spending your day processing orders or setting up jobs for customers, you’ll never have time to focus on your primary job, growing your business. The sooner you stop trying to do everything yourself and start managing others, the sooner you’ll see your business grow in leaps and bounds.

Think big. Envision your success, get the knowledge you need to succeed and then delegate everything with the exception of your growth strategy. You’ll be amazed at how much more successful you’ll be!

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Success

P.S. No matter what you market and sell, you can eliminate the barriers to growing your business more easily than you think. Create your vision of your successful business and then develop a plan for realizing it. To reach your goals, you’ll need to know how to attract clients, and you’ll need a system to generate a steady stream of leads, close more sales and use the internet to maximize your profits.

Get started >>

To listen to a podcast of this article use this link >>

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On The Internet Marketing Index

By Charlie Cook   |   July 31, 2008

MarketingforSuccess is on the internet marketing winners list this week moving up the internet marketing index

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Works

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Are The Best Ads Politically Incorrect?

By Charlie Cook   |   July 31, 2008

Recently I was reviewing ads to see if I could find more great ones to ad to video ads. As I perused them I kept finding ones that made me laugh but “objectified women” were racist or in some way offended someone. Of course that’s why they were funny and got hundreds of thousands of views.

Am I right?

Are the funniest and most watched ads politically incorrect?

What do you think?

– Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Get Attention

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You Should Know…

By Charlie Cook   |   July 30, 2008

I know it’s Wednesday and I usually don’t post today but there is one important thing I wanted you to know about.

I had to close my marketing mentoring program early this year because I was completely booked but that has changed for the moment. As of today I’m accepting applications for two openings.

That’s right, I’ve only got two openings for my one-on-one, hold your hand and show you how to get it right marketing mentoring program. And these two spots may be gone in the next couple of days if you wait. If you’re interested please fill in the form here >>

But before you apply realize you may not qualify. I’m only looking for ambitious business owners, people who can show me a track record of success and are doers not talkers. People like Kris >>

I can show you what works and help you double or triple your business but be aware I expect you to take charge and implement the proven ideas I’ll be walking you through. If you do you can easily add $10,000 to $100,000 a month to your income, depending on your business.

Interested? Use the form at the bottom of the page to apply >>
Gotta go,

It’s a beautiful summer day here on the coast of Connecticut and I’m heading out for a lunch time paddle in my kayak.

Charlie
MarketingForSuccess

P.S. If you’re hot to get going with your marketing, get more leads, more interest, get people calling or increase sales with your web site, I’ve got just 2 openings in my mentoring program.

Interested? Apply here >>

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What Web Marketing Strategy Are You Testing Right Now?

By Charlie Cook   |   July 22, 2008

….
It’s awfully quiet.
….
Nothing? Really?

Making money with your website by leaving your profits to chance is like buying a lottery ticket. You might win — anything is possible — but the odds are against you.

If you’re serious about making money online, make testing part of your web marketing strategy. Let’s look at why testing matters and what to test and when.

Why Testing Matters
A couple of weeks ago I headed out after work for a quick 20 mile bike ride. Nice evening, not too much traffic – everything was going great until my rear tire went flat.

I thought, no problem, I’ve got spare tubes and a sleek, lightweight carbon fiber pump I paid a premium for. Within seconds I had the new tube in the tire. But when I went to inflate it, I discovered, much to my chagrin, that my pump didn’t fit the tire valve.

I’d never tested my pump. I didn’t know that I’d chosen a great looking and expensive pump that only worked on one type of tire valve. More importantly, it didn’t work on the valves I had with me. There I was by the side of the road with all the tools to fix a flat, but they didn’t work together to get me rolling again.

Is your web site broken down leaving you stuck?
Find out how to fix it >>

You have a home page, a couple of additional supporting pages, an email address for people to contact you. Your site looks great, but is it working to generate leads, sales and profits?

What’s the solution?

Testing!

You want to optimize your site’s performance so it brings in a steady stream of profits. Without testing, you won’t know what’s working and what’s not. Each element of your web site needs to be tested to see if it is actually doing the job you expect it to do.

Here are the top 3 things to test.

1. Your Marketing Message
Test the headline you put at the top of the page that tells people why they should stay on your site. You can use Google Ads to run split tests to two different pages and see which headline keeps people on the page the longest or which prompts the most number of people to contact you.

2. Your Free Offer
One of the fastest ways to generate leads with your site is to offer something for free, but just adding a free offer subscribe form on your page won’t get you the most leads. The key is to provide your site visitors with a compelling reason to give you their contact information.

Test the offers you provide, even if it’s just for something you are giving away, to see which offers generate the most leads and sales. The wrong offer won’t generate leads. Find the right one, and you can easily prompt dozens of people to contact you each day and double or triple your profits.

3. Your Page Design
The size, color and placement of different elements on the page determine how well your visitors understand what you want them to do. Changing the size and color of your headline and subhead, for example, can make all the difference in whether or not visitors take the action you want them to take.

For example, I recently did a test with the sign up form on my home page. Instead of asking people to sign up for my free report in two places at the top of the page, I designed a larger sign-up form and asked them once. The larger, single sign up form converted twice as well.

You could spend the next 10 years figuring out what works to sell online — or you could use proven web marketing strategies and techniques to get results right away.

Here’s the shortcut to online success >>

How Much Can Testing Improve Your Sales?
I had one client who was a big believer in testing. Every time I suggested a change to their site, they’d test it to see if they wanted to make it a permanent one.

Within the first three months that I worked with them, they tripled their lead acquisition and sales. Over the next three years we continued to test the elements of their site and ultimately increased their conversion rates by a factor of 17.

Want to increase your online sales by a factor of 17?
Here’s how >>

Testing is the key. To make it simple for you, I’ve spent the last 10 years testing what works to get more people to come to your site, to contact you and to buy from you.

Many web site owners leave their online profits to chance. I know you’re smarter than that and would rather put proven techniques and strategies to use to jump-start your sales.

Don’t get stranded beside the road, as I did when I forgot to test my bike pump. Discover what works to make your web site a success.

To your success,

Charlie

P.S. Try this one test to evaluate whether you’re web site is working. Is it making a profit of $10,000 or more each month?

Smart people like you know when to stop doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If your web site isn’t making as much money as you want it to make, you know it’s time to take action and get back on the road to success.

Here’s how >>

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Use This Marketing Strategy to Increase Web Sales by 300% This Month

By Charlie Cook   |   July 15, 2008

“My web site stinks! I’ve been spending thousands of dollars a week on pay-per-click ads but they’re not paying for themselves. I’m only getting a few leads and sales from my site. What am doing wrong? How do I get my web site to sell?”
Martha C., NY

What’s Missing From Your Web Site?
Are you wondering why all the people who come to your web site don’t contact you or buy from you? You know you’ve got top quality products and services, but few visitors to your site are staying long enough to read the details, much less contact you or buy from you.

Want to know the secret marketing strategy to making your web site highly profitable? Use this link>>

Shift Your Focus Away From Traffic
Most web site owners do what Martha did. They put up a web site and then they focus on getting all the traffic they can to their site. Typically the fastest way to do this is to spend money on pay-per-click advertising. That’s the first and biggest mistake!

I regularly talk to web site owners who’ve spent thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars a month on pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization. They’re spending money hand over fist on driving traffic to their sites and still not breaking even.

Imagine you have a relatively new car. It still has that distinctive new car smell, but it has a major defect. Every time you turn the engine on, all you can do is rev the engine. You can’t get the car in gear. Obviously your shiny new car isn’t taking you anywhere.

What would you do? You’d get your engine repaired immediately.

Find out the fastest way to fix your site >>

Like your car, if your web site isn’t doing it’s most basic job, you won’t move forward. No matter how much money you spend to bring traffic to your site, if you aren’t converting traffic to leads and sales, your site won’t be profitable. There are thousands of web sites selling products and services that customers want. Very few of them successfully convert traffic to profits.

Why Most People Focus On Traffic and Why You Shouldn’t
Most web site owners focus their spending on getting more traffic to their sites for a simple reason; it’s easy. Just cut the check for your SEO expert, or send the payments to Google or one of the other pay-per-click advertising services, and the problem is taken care of, right? Wrong.

Traffic Comes After Conversion
Do the math. If your web site isn’t converting visitors to sales now, how is sending more traffic to your site going to help?

On the other hand, by making a few simple changes to your marketing strategy and web site, you can easily increase your site conversion rates by 300%. Make a few more design and copy changes, and you could do what one of my clients did; increase your conversion rates by 1,700%.

Want to know how you can increase sales by 300%? Get the answer here >>

How to Convert Visitors To Buyers
You want the people who come to your web site to stay, read your pages and to either contact you by email or phone and to buy from you. What’s the fastest and most cost efficient way to make this happen?

1. Do you know anyone who owns an iPod? They’ve sold lot hotcakes and made Apple an unbelievable amount of money for two reasons: they look cool and they are amazingly easy to use. That’s what your web site should be too, appealing and easy to use.

Use the design of your site to make it clear what you want people to read first, second and third. Lead them to take the actions you want them to take.

2. Focus your marketing copy on your prospects’ problems and goals. Remember; your objective is to help people buy, not to hit them over the head with a sales pitch about your products or services.

3. Focus every page of your site on one or both of the following: generating leads (so you can follow up) and/or helping people get the product or service they want.

4. Remember that your site needs to establish you or your company as the trusted, expert source to go to for your particular product niche. Audio and video testimonials provide the social proof you need and with relevant, meaningful content are essential to establishing this.

I’m always amazed at how many web site owners expect to use their web site to increase sales by hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. and then spend so little time or effort creating a site that actually sells. And when the site doesn’t perform, they keep throwing money at advertising to bring traffic to a site that doesn’t work.

I know you’re smarter than that, which is why I want you to avoid this mistake. Discover how easy it is to increase sales from your web site. >>

To your success,

Charlie

P.S. Still on the fence about where to spend your online marketing dollars? Consider this. If you spent the same amount of time or money on increasing your conversion rates as you did on increasing traffic, you’d get four to twenty times the return.

Interested in finding out how to increase web sales? >>

P.P.S. Something is wrong with the math! Most web site owners spend more on advertising their site than they do on creating a site that sells. If you want your web site to make you your next hundred thousand or half million, isn’t it worth finding out how to do it?

Find out the secrets to creating a top-selling site >>

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