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Internet Marketing

What’s the Secret to Improving Your Small Business Internet Sales?

By Charlie Cook | June 21, 2005

Want to know the one idea that will make the difference between making your web site a success or a failure?

Of course you do.

Your website has one purpose, to get people to contact you, whether it is to buy from you or to give you their contact information so you can follow up and get them to buy from you later.

So what’s the secret to writing and designing a small business web site that sells?

Your web site and every page in it are ads.

So what?

Each page of your site should be written and structured to work as a well written ad. It should get your prospects’ attention in the first 3-5 seconds, keep their attention for the next 10 seconds most people spend reading ads, and get them to contact you. Both the visual elements and copy need to work together to create a path for your prospect to follow so they view these elements in the order you want to do what you want, buy from you.

Does your small business web site do this? Does it grab your prospects’ attention and then in less than 15 seconds explain to them why they can’t live without your products or services and motivate them to contact you?

If it does you are proably making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars from it. It it doesn’t work like a well crafted ad, stop wasting time and money and discover how to increase your marketing and your online sales with Creating Web Sites that Sell.
– Charlie Cook

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.

What Type of Web Site For My Business?

By Charlie Cook | May 31, 2005

“I’m a motivational speaker and trainer and work with community groups, churches, voluntary and professional organisations and individual clients. What type of web site should I build to attract clients worldwide?” – Trevor Carter, United Kingdom

The best type of web site to attract your prospects is one that your prospects will seek out and want to read. Instead of focusing your site on yourself and your services, focus instead on what the information your prospects want and are looking for.

Then when visitors come to your site give them helpful ideas they can use and they’ll want to learn more about your services. Of course you’ll want to use your site to help you with lead generation and to increase your sales. Learn which type of site to build to grow your business and how with Creating Web Sites that Sell– Charlie Cook

Want To Add A Thousand or More Subscribers Each Month to Your List?

By Charlie Cook | May 27, 2005

Have an email list of prospects you’d like to grow? One of the best ways to grow your list is to offer something for free that your prospects want and need. You proabably already know that. The problem is you don’t have the time or inclination to create the perfect giveaway. What do you do?

You could ask me to write an eBook you can use as one client is at a cost of over $6,000. Or you could offer my existing marketing guide for free.

My free marketing plan guide, “7 Steps to Attract More Clients and Grow Your Business” is what small business owners, marketers and service professionals are looking for. It prompts an average of 50 people a day to add their names to my mailing list and I’d like to help you use it to do the same or better for your business, for free!

If you provide a product or service targeted to small business owners, service professionals or marketing and sales professionals, your web site gets over a thousand visitors a day and your Alexa rank is 80,000 or less, I’ll create a co-branded version of this popular free marketing strategies ebook with a custom cover and insert that includes your products and services. I’ll show you how to promote it on your site and get 10-20% of your site visitors to give you their email address so you can market to them again and again.

Why would I agree to let you offer this guide on your site?

When you offer my free marketing guide on your site, your prospects get a great marketing tool, you get their email address and I get to add their names to my free marketing ezine mailing list. I’ll provide you with the code to include on your site and then send you the email address of each person that requests the free marketing guide. Depending on your site traffic this should generate 50-100 or more opt-in prospects each day.

Interested in using this proven tool on your site to capitalize on your traffic and build your subscriber list?

Contact me using this form with your questions and your web site URL so I can check your page rank and get a rough idea of your site traffic.

When you help your prospects improve their marketing for free, everybody wins. Please only contact me if your site gets over 1000 visitors a day and your target market is small to mid-sized business owners and marketing and sales professionals.- Charlie Cook

How Can I Ensure My Web Site Works With All Browsers?

By Charlie Cook | May 23, 2005

When people visit your web site you want them to see it at its best. If it looks good on your computer, you may assume that everyone else is getting the same professional view of your online business, but there is a good chance you’d be wrong. Each browser, browser version and operating system combination interprets your web site code differently.

It may look great in your IE browser, but columns could be squashed to AOL viewers or typefaces bold instead of not. Unless you own one of every operating system, each browser version and type, you won’t know how others view your site. Fortunately there is a simpler way to check your sites browser compatibility.

Thanks to an alert Ari at ximedia.net I was alerted that one of my primary pages had alignment problems in IE and was quickly able to fix the Marketing Tools Buyers Guide.

To see the problem I tested Browsercam.com. Within a couple of minutes it provides screen shots of your site from as many browsers and operating systems as you want so you can ensure your site looks its best for all viewers. Worth a try. – Charlie Cook

Can I Rely On Search Engine Placement?

By Charlie Cook | May 11, 2005

“I have a client who is generating lots of business from the top placement of his listings under his keywords in the search engines. Is this a risky strategy or should he be looking at pay-per-click advertising?” – M. Anderson, KPMG

Given the vagaries of the search engine algorithms and the volatile nature of the search engine marketplace I’d advise your client to develop multiple ways to generate leads over the internet. He could be doing very well with his Google search engine placement this year, but if Microsoft has their way, they’ll be putting Google out of business and his search engine placements could be irrelevant.

Even if his current listings continue to do well, why not invest in pay-per-click advertising and generate 30% more leads and business? – Charlie Cook

I’m Getting Lousy Leads, What Do I Do to Improve My Lead Generation?

By Charlie Cook | May 3, 2005

“My company provides me with 18 leads each week, they even schedule the appointments. All the I need to do is to make the visits to each of the companies. They problem is that few of these leads are qualified and after spending a half hour or more to get to the company I find most of these leads don’t meet the basic qualifications for our services. What do I do?” – Paul Shaw

Following up on unqualified leads is frustrating and a big waste of everyone’s time. Imagine instead that every call or appointment you made was with a prospect that was happy to see or hear from you. Imagine they were interested, already aware of your qualifications, credibility and the value of your product or service? You’d waste a lot less time, improve lead generation and close a lot more sales.

Paying others to generate leads for you is generally a waste of time and money. I use a lead generation system that each week provides me with more qualified leads than I can handle. Each lead arrives on my desk with enough information for me to determine whether the prospect is a likely match for my services and worth following up with.

Instead of accepting unqualified leads, its far more effective to put your own lead generation system” in place. Learn how to improve your lead generation with “Creating Web Sites That Sell“. – Charlie Cook

Am I On The Right Path with my Online Marketing Plan?

By Charlie Cook | April 15, 2005

“I would like to set up an email direct marketing campaign to generate mortgage leads. I want something that will allow the prospect to respond by giving some personal info such as name, phone number, mtg payment, etc. Where do I start? There’s a bulk email company that will blast 2.7 million email a day, but I don’t believe the prospects can respond. I would need a link to my website I think. Am I on the right path or would a $29.95 lifetime membership or is it be a waste of time?” – Dante

If you want to annoy and alienate potential clients, you can easily do so by blasting emails out to people who didn’t request them. Its the best way to kill your business and shut the door to ever building a positive relationship with your prospects. This course of action is unethical and will immediately get you labeled as a spammer. Once you’ve started blasting people they will quickly catch on and add your email address to their spam lists blocking any future contact.

Don’t do it! It is a waste of time and money, bad idea, to be avoided at all costs, etc. You catch my drift.

If you want to generate leads and grow your business, build a web site, provide content that helps your prospects solve a problem and month by month you’ll attract more and more people interested in your services. Learn how to improve your web site marketing with “Creating Web Sites That Sell“. – Charlie Cook

Why Isn’t My Web Site Marketing Working?

By Charlie Cook | April 13, 2005

“I’ve had a web site up for years but I’m not getting any leads or sales from it. What am I missing? Can I really expect to earn a living from business generated by my site?” – Chris, Sales Consultant

Marketing online can be frustrating especially if you don’t know know what you need to do to make it work. The first step for most people is to redo their marketing message and the content on their site so it focuses on helping instead of selling. Your prospects want help, not to be sold.

The second essential part of making your site work is structuring it to prompt prospects to contact you. One you know how to do these two things than you’ll need to drive traffic to your site. With enough visitors, you’ll begin to see a flow of inquiries and business. I’ve detailed how to write and structure your site to attract all the clients you can handle in “Creating Web Sites that Sell“.

If you do the above will you instantly be generating millions of dollars from your site? That depends. One company I helped was attracting 6,000 visitors each day to their site. With a few changes to their site they increased lead generation by a huge amount and started closing many more high dollar sales within the first week.

If you’re a small business without a steady stream of traffic to your site it can take months or even a year to build up a steady stream of prospects and buisiness from your site. Of course the sooner you put your site in order, fix your marketing copy and the site structure the sooner you’ll be generating profits from your site. – Charlie Cook

How Do I Create A Budget For Building My Site and My Web Site Marketing?

By Charlie Cook | April 4, 2005

“How do I create a budget for creating, marketing and operating a web site?” – Arthur Doglione

Here’s a brief overview of what to do to get your web site marketing in gear.

1. Identify the objectives for your site, what you want people to do when they visit it. Map out the steps you want them to take based on how people make purchasing decisions.

2. Identify the problems you solve for prospects.

3. Write your marketing copy, focusing on your prospects concerns.

4. Create a list of the tasks involved in building, marketing and maintaining your site, such as:
– url purchase and annual fees
– paying someone to build “design” your site
– purchase of sit graphics
– maintenace costs (who is going to regularly update the site?)
– site hosting fees
– if you plan to sell services or products include merchant card fees, online transaction fees and shopping card fees.
– if you plan on using a service to help you manage your list building and email broadcasts, include these fees too.
– identify how you plan on attracting people to your site, and the associated advertising costs.

5. Determine which of the above you will be doing yourself and which you plan to pay someone else to do.

Learn how to structure and write your web site to attract prospects, position your products and services and sell more with the manual I wrote for you detaiing how to build or fix your web site so it helps you grow your business. Use this link to order Creating Web Sites that Sell and use your web site marketing to be more successful.- Charlie Cook

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