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Marketing Strategy

What Is A Landing Page And Will It Help My Internet Marketing Strategy?

By Charlie Cook | June 6, 2005

“I’ve heard the term landing page in regards to web sites. What are they and do I need one?” – Margaret F.

Landing pages are an internet marketing strategy some people use to increase sales. They are specialized web pages you can use for visitors to “land” when they link through from an ad or even somewhere else on your site. In general they include limited links and are designed to help your prospects take the action you want them to take, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. You’ve probably linked through to a few that consist of a long page of marketing copy where your only option is to buy the product.

For example you might use a Google Ad for your product or service. When prospects click on the ad instead of taking them to your home page where they have lots of options, you could send them to a product page that lacks any links to the rest of your site where the only option is to make a purchase. Some people even use separate URLs for their landing pages to keep visitors from finding their primary site.

Are landing pages a good idea?

It depends. Take out all the links to the rest of your site for a page and you may be able to force some people to make the decision you want them to make. The risk is that many others may want to explore your site in order to get to know you and trust your company prior to commiting to making a purchase or even signing up for a free newsletter. If you’re not careful your landing pages could result in a high cost, low return advertising campaign. Not what you want.

Your results will depend on what you’re marketing online, the price, the content on the page, and whether you know how to create instant crediblity and prompt prospects to buy.

Find out how to Create a Web Site that Sells your products and services with this step-by-step manual.

Add a comment and tell me what’s your experience with landing pages as a site visitor and as a site owner.
–Charlie Cook – Use this link to signup and get the FREE Marketing Plan Ideas Guide immediately.

How the Marketing / Sales Cycle is Like Farming

By Charlie Cook | May 16, 2005

This morning I was talking with a West Texas sales rep for an agriculture firm which prompted the following farming analogy.

Marketing involves the preparation of the soil, gathering seeds, planting them and then nurturing their growth.

Sales involves waiting for the right moment and then harvesting the results of your marketing endeavors.

Both are essential to making a profit. Without marketing you won’t have any leads to nurture, nor any relationships with prospects that can result in a sale. Without closing the sale you’d be leaving your crop of prospects out in the field.

Is your marketing and sales strategy balanced to generate the leads and nurture the prospects you need to generate enough sales?
– Charlie Cook

How Can I Double Sales and Profits?

By Charlie Cook | May 3, 2005

Want to double your sales and profits. Rethink the quantity and pricing of your products and services.

In 1987 Americans started eating twice as many carrots after baby-cut carrots hit the market. At twice the price per pound you’ll not only be seeing better in the dark when you eat these tasty carrots but the companies that produce them are seeing profits twice as large for a product that is less than half the original size.

Think about it. You could double your sales and profits by modifying the marketing of a product or service you sell – Charlie Cook

Marketing Strategies to Put Yourself Out of Business

By Charlie Cook | April 20, 2005

Want to learn how to lose a billion dollars?

Just follow the marketing strategies used by GM , Ford and Daimler Chrysler. Yes some of the largest corporations in the world are missing some basic tenants of marketing and its worth taking a look at what they’re doing wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes. You don’t want the following headline written about your company.

“GM Hits Billion Dollar pot hole” – Miami Herald
“GM shares fell to a 12 year low.” – New York Times

What are some of the most glaring mistakes a handful of car companies are making?

1. Discount Pricing
GM and Ford offer free loans and rebates worth thousands of dollars to prompt people to buy their vehicles. Good idea?

When you need to resort to bribing people to buy your products or services, its a sign that something is terribly wrong. The idea is to provide value, help your prospects understand the perceived value and charge enough to make a reasonable profit. When you start discounting your product as a means to get people to buy it you’ve entered an endless downward cycle.

The next time a prospect buys, they’ll want an even bigger discount and there will always be somebody who will undercut you on price. Eventually you’ll end up like GM, losing lots, maybe not billions, but enough to threaten the life of your business.

2. Making Products People Don’t Want
According to the New York Times, “General Motors and Ford have swerved off course for a far more basic reason: not enough people like their cars.” Whoops!

The objective is to market a product or sevice people want.

3. Not Paying Attention to What People Want
If you want to make money you’d pay attention to what your prospects want? Right?

In the case of Daimler Chrysler you’d be wrong. At the Detroit Auto Show crowds loved the two-seat 8 foot long “Smart Car”. So logically Daimler Chrysler decided not to sell it in the United States despite booming sales in Europe for years. Zap, a Santa Rosa CA firm saw an opportunity especially with rising gas prices and went direct to the European Daimler dealers to buy the cars. Surprise! Ten thousand U.S. buyers put themselves on a list to order over $55 million worth of cars in just a few months.

Avoid discount pricing, provide products and services your prospects want and you can avoid losing a billion or instead make 55 million. I don’t know about you but if I lose ten thousand dollars I get upset and when I make a million in a year I’m pretty happy. – Charlie Cook

Where Should I Spend My Marketing Dollars?

By Charlie Cook | April 5, 2005

“Where should I invest my marketing dollars to get the best return?” – Bill Nelson, Chicago

Most people worry about how much to spend on advertising, their web site, or mailings. If you really want to get the most from the money you spend on marketing, start with yourself. Invest in yourself and become a better marketer. Once you know how to market your business, how to get your prospects’ attention, position your firm as the experts and know how to convert prospects to clients you’ll be able to generate far more sales with less effort.

Invest in obtaining the knowledge you need to put your marketing in order so it does what you want it to do which is lead people to make a purchase and become loyal clients. To help you I’ve mapped out what you need to know in a series of marketing manuals, written for people responsible for marketing and attracting more clients. Learn more about the marketing tools you can use to attract all the business you can handle. – Charlie Cook

Finding the Best Small Business Marketing Opportunities

By Charlie Cook | March 31, 2005

Finding marketing opportunities is like finding the best places to ski for me. Let me explain.

Five years ago we had the good fortune to buy a ski condo at Sugarbush in VT, a mountain we had only occasionally visited. The first couple of years I headed for the trails, skiing where everybody else was. I found lots of great terrain, but also lots of others competing with me for the same runs and the same snow. With lots of people covering the same ground, the condition of the trails often became less than ideal fairly quickly.

Once I knew the mountain and had found the ski trails I liked best, I started exploring the spaces between the trails, in the woods. With the help of friends and family and my increasing abliity I found hidden paths through the trees where fresh snow lingered untouched just waiting to be skiied.

With new confidence in my ability to navigate the unmarked and unexplored parts of the mountain, I spent much of this year skiing the outback. Starting from the top of the lift, with friends I explored headed out beyound the area limits to enjoy the fresh snow and the solitude of skiing the backside of the mountain. So how does this relate to marketing your small business?

The most obvious place to look for marketing opportunities is where everybody else goes. The problem is you’ll find yourself competing with lots of other people for the same space, just as I was on the ski trails.

Instead of focusing all your time on marketing in the same places as all your competitors, look for marketing opportunities in between the common areas others sell their products and services and you’ll be pleasantly suprised to find many untapped sources of revenue, often untouched by your competitors. Learn how to discover all the small business marketing opportunities you’ve been missing.- Charlie Cook

Why an eBook Can Help You Market Your Business

By Charlie Cook | March 15, 2005

According to research by Bersin & Associates In 2004, the e-learning market grew 30 percent to a $14 billion dollars. Sent by colleague Kristie Tamsevicius .

$14 billion dollars and growing by 30% a year! What does that tell you?

Individuals and corporations are looking online for basic information as well as in-depth training resources. If you are an expert or want to become one, you can benefit from this to attract attention, position your services and grow your business. Learn how to get a piece of this fast growing e-learning market with “The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing” and “Creating Web Sites that Sell“. These manuals detail the marketing plan and web marketing strategies I’ve used to get a share of the e-learning market and how you can do the same.My Marketing Manuals and Marketing Tools sell well here in the U.S. and Canada as well as overseas from Australia to Germany to Sweden and parts of the mideast.- Charlie Cook

Do you enjoy marketing your business?

By Charlie Cook | March 8, 2005

When you wake up in the morning do you look forward to going to work, marketing your products and services and delivering them? Or do you dread going to work?

Yesterday I got a call from someone looking for help marketing her business who said she hated her work. It’s tough to promote something, even if its a valuable service if you hate doing it. My advice was to either find a way to really get excited about parts of the job or find a new one. Life is too short to spend it doing something you don’t enjoy when there are thousands of ways to make a living. Use your passion to help you find a way to love what you do.

Fortunately most of the people who call me for marketing assistance love what they do, it’s just marketing they don’t enjoy. The problem there is much easier to solve. Its easy to love marketing your business when you know how. The trick is to use your passion to drive your marketing plan and your marketing strategy. Learn how to talk about what you do so you attract more clients and build your business network. Learn how to use the internet to generate leads. – Charlie Cook

Is Imitation a Form of Flattery or a Sign of Success in Business?

By Charlie Cook | March 1, 2005

If imitation is a form of flattery, I should be unbelievably flattered in addition to being successful. Someone built a site that is almost a duplicate of mine, many of the same page headlines, same page layout and images by the same artists. Similar copy. Articles and books that make the same points, etc. plagiarism probably, copyright infringement possibly.

Unfortunately for my clone wannabe imitating others will only get you so far. If you want to be truly successful you need to learn how to leverage your own passions and knowledge. You can’t just copy what someone else does and expect it to work. Imagine pretending you were a doctor, lawyer or an accountant after a few conversations with one or watching one on TV. You’d fall flat on your face.

The same is true in marketing, you can’t just copy the site of someone else who is successful. And imagine what people will think of you when they see the site you copied. You’ll look foolish and lose the trust you’re working so hard to build.

To be successful in marketing your small business you need to know the strategy and tactics that work and how to implement them to grow your business. These are things that can’t be copied but I can teach you. Learn how to attract prospects and convert them to clients with your web site marketing and the help of a marketing expert. – Charlie Cook

Feedback on “Broker Leads” or Any Leads for that Matter?

By Charlie Cook | February 16, 2005

“What is your recommendation as to the efficiency and cost effectiveness of buying leads?” – Jim Lauraitis

If you buy leads you are working on the assumption that your role in marketing your business is to search out prospects. Hence, you are looking to buy leads. While you may find an occasional live lead, your can also waste a lot of time and money buying and chasing leads.

Wouldn’t you rather have your prospects searching you out and contacting you?

I don’t buy leads. Instead I use and help others implement an offline and online marketing strategy that generates leads. This marketing strategy results in qualified prospects, contacting me. My problem isn’t having enough leads, but rather, having enough time to follow up with all of them. With my lead generation system all I have to do is take orders and follow up on prospects’ inquiries.

This marketing strategy is mapped out in The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing and I’ve detailed how to implement it online in Creating Web Sites that Sell. – Charlie Cook

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