Web Marketing

What’s The One Internet Marketing Mistake Most Website Owners Make?

Charlie Cook

“Charlie, I’m so frustrated with our internet marketing! We’ve tried sending out articles to get more visitors to our web site twice and didn’t get any response. Not even one publication used our news stories, much less provided a link to our site. What can we do? What are we doing wrong?”
Stephanie, San Jose, CA

Getting articles about your business published on the Internet is one of the most effective ways to get attention, demonstrate your expertise and increase visitors to your website. Why isn’t it working for Stephanie?

There is one simple technique that will get editors and prospects to read your articles and read the marketing copy on your web site. Let explain with the following call that made me laugh.

Tanya is Chinese and has a web site that sells various forms of Ginseng. Her site was attractive and professionally done but was only generating a trickle of inquires or sales. After all her hard work putting the site together, Tanya was frustrated and called me. She knew that she could be making more, if only her web site marketing worked.

Sound familiar? Could you be making more from your website?

In our conversation Tanya explained that she thought was a boring person and her web site was boring too. Have you ever had someone call you up to tell you they were boring? I had to laugh, but Tanya knew exactly what the problem was and I had to agree with her about her web site.

Are you frustrated with your web site? Are you upset that it’s only making you a fraction of the income it could be? Discover how to make it 5-10 times as profitable with these insider strategies. Get the details >>

Want an editor to read your article or a prospect to read your web page? If it’s boring, they won’t and all your effort will just be a waste of time and money. So what’s the secret technique to get people to read your articles and or your web site?

Give editors and prospects a reason to do what you want them to do, which is to read your article or your web marketing copy. Give them information about something that’s important to them. It sounds obvious, but 99% of the web sites, articles and ads I review make the internet marketing mistake of not providing the reader with a compelling reason to keep reading.

Start by reviewing the title.  For example:

“Growth of Home-Based Business – Part 1”

What do you think? Would an editor grab this one and say to themselves, it’s a must to publish?

If you thought the title was boring, you’re right. Some alternatives include:

“Why Home-Based Business Profits Are Skyrocketing”

or

“The 7 Secrets to a Successful Micro Business”

Whether it’s the title of your article or the headline on your web page the purpose is the same, to get the reader to read the next line, and the next and the next.

Without a reason, prospects won’t respond. Give them compelling reasons to:

  • Read your articles,
  • Go to your web site,
  • Read the first line of your web site,
  • Read the first paragraph,
  • Read everything from your individual product pages to your bio,
  • Contact you even if they’re not ready to buy,
  • Place an order today.

Just providing stellar products or services isn’t enough. To generate interest and to get prospects to buy you need to also supply them with the motivation to act at every step of the web site marketing and sales process.

Don’t kill your sales by boring your prospects. Grab their attention with a reason to read and motivate them to buy from you. Do this and you’ll generate more leads and sales than you ever imagined.

Each time you look at your web site and then at your sales figures, how to you feel? If your site currently isn’t bringing in all the clients you can handle its not all of a sudden going to start selling like crazy.

To ramp up your web sales, you’re going to need to make a few changes. Discover exactly what to do before another prospect leaves your site without making a purchase. Find out what to do >>


Why Most Web Site Marketing Doesn’t Convert Visitors To Buyers

Charlie Cook

There are two ways to make more money with your web site. You can get more people to stop by and you can increase the conversion rate of your site.

Most web site owners are focused on the first, getting people to their web sites… when the bigger bottleneck is converting visitors to buyers and buyers into repeat buyers. Are you making this web site marketing mistake? Remember, it doesn’t matter how many people come to your site if hardly anyone buys.

Ever have your heart rate checked? People monitor their heart rates if they have health concerns about their heart beating too slow, dangerously fast or if they’re serious athletes who want to maximize their performance.

The conversion rate of your web site is the heart beat of your online business. Unless you know it your site could be in mortal danger or at a minimum not performing anywhere near its potential.

According to The e-tailing Group’s recent survey, retail web sites convert only 3% of site visitors to buyers on average. 3% may not seem like much, but it can be enough to be extremely profitable.

One of my clients, Tom, made over $150,000 last year through his niche info-product site selling a set of 3 audio cds. And Tom’s site only converts at 2 ½ percent. (This is a site he built and manages in his spare time after working his day job. Imagine what he could be making if he worked on the site full time and had a full compliment of products.)

It would be great if your site converted visitors to buyers at 20% or more as some of the best do, but to make your site profitable you only need to make it convert at a couple of percent or more. Once your site reaches the norm of 3% there are lots of ways to safely push it higher.

I bet you’re frustrated with your web site marketing, and you should be. Most web sites don’t convert visitors to buyers. Ready to finally discover the easy way to attract prospects and clients to your site so they buy, again and again >>

Do you know what your web site marketing conversion rate is? Is it high enough that your site is making a healthy profit? If it’s only a percent or two or less, you’re not alone.<

Most web sites conversion rates are low, so low that Google built a free Website Optimizer tool to help you improve your site. Google recognizes that unless business owners start seeing results from their Google Ads in terms of sales, they’re going to stop spending money on advertising.

The Google Optimizer is a good tool, and I recommend that every web site owner check it out but it has limitations. You know the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Google’s tool can only test the elements and copy you presently have on your page. More frequently than not, it’s these basic elements which are the problem.

Improving Your Web Site’s Conversion Rate
The first step to improving your web sites profitability is to check it’s vital signs, to measure it’s current performance. Use the following indicators.

Web Marketing Success Indicators

  • Number of monthly unique site visitors
  • Number of monthly leads generates
  • Per lead generation cost
  • Number of sales per month
  • Average dollar amount of sales
  • Per customer acquisition cost
  • Gross dollar amount of sales
  • Net web sales

Once you know these, you can establish a base line for your web site and work each month to improve its performance by changing, tuning and testing the following key elements of your web site.

Web Site Marketing Elements

•The words in your headline and the body of your pages. The appeal of your marketing message and whether your copy strikes the right nerve in your prospects to generate the action you want.

  • The congruity of message and tone of your ads and your web pages.
  • The carrot you provide to generate a lead on your site.
  • Your use of upsell pages, exit pages, thankyou pages and follow up email autoresponders.
  • Use of interactive audio, video and flash.
  • The relationship between each of these elements.
  • The use of type style, size and color.
  • The selection of graphics and pictures on the page.
  • The organization of the page and placement of elements.

Getting all of these web site marketing elements working together to optimize your conversion rate takes expertise, time and work. To start – create a map of each part of your web marketing process from ad to landing page to site to sales page to upsell page to thank you page to repeat sale. And include in your flow chart how you use email and autoresponders.

Then add in the conversion numbers and you’ll have a snapshot of where your web marketing is leaking buyers. Increase your conversion rates at each step and soon you’ll have plugged the holes in your web marketing and have a healthy flow of sales and profits.

Want to discover how to use these website marketing measures and elements to make your site attract more prospects and convert more prospects into buyers? Ready to finally make your site into an outrageous success? Use this link >


Web Site Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Charlie Cook

Why is it that some web sites help sell products and services while most languish in obscurity and only serve as a drain on finances? Web sites are relatively low in cost to build and manage, and have worldwide reach. They can help you grow your business and in some cases be the primary source of new business. Yes, a web site can be the next best thing since sliced bread.

Why don’t most web sites attract prospects
, help convert them to clients or customers, or function as a source of revenue? To answer this question for your own web site marketing, focus on its purpose. For most independent professionals and small business owners, web sites are meant to:

  • Attract as many qualified prospects as possible
  • Build a target list of people who want you to market to them
  • Convert prospects to clients and paying customers
  • Convert clients to repeat clients

If your website marketing does these things, it’s a winner. If not, then its time to review what is working and what isn’t.

Why Some Sites Don’t Work

Most sites are, in a word, boring to others than the creators. They focus on the firm’s services, products, processes and credentials. They are a turnoff to prospects and can keep you from earning money. If your web site shouldn’t be about your firm what should be the primary content?

Start using your web site to improve your website marketing >>

Client Problem Focused Content Sells
Sites that work to sell products and services attract prospects because they provide information prospects want and can use to solve a problem or meet a need. If you’re a lawyer, your site should focus on legal tips and strategies your target market can use. If you’re a graphic designer, include ideas on using design to improve communications, or if you’re a computer systems expert, give your site visitors tips on keeping their computers from crashing. A writer could include a tutorial on writing with examples of copy makeovers of web pages, press releases or brochures.

This educational focus for your web site works for a number of reasons. People usually search the internet for free information. Prospects will want to visit your site because they know they can get a couple of ideas they can use, and by providing this information, you establish yourself as an expert in your field. Finally, your information educates prospects about opportunities they may not have been aware of.

Its content that pulls in prospects. Just take a look at The Drudgereport. No flashy, fancy graphics; just straightforward content. Yet it pulls in over four and a half million hits each day, five and a half million per day during this past month and has made Matt Drudge millions of dollars. Content brings customers to the site and keeps them there.

What’s the content your prospects would love to read on your site? (Hint: It provides answers to common client questions and problems.)

Site Design and Navigation

Many sites have some educational and client centered content on their site, but it’s buried behind uninteresting homepages or by flash movies or graphic full pages that turn visitors away so they never see the good stuff.

In some cases it’s simply a matter of moving hidden content to the homepage and augmenting it to give prospects what they want. Use your site’s design, navigation systems, graphics and links to ensure visitors view the content that will interest them and to take the desired action.

What do you want visitors to your site to do?

Does the site design move people to the desired action?

Start using your web site to improve your web site marketing and lead generation >>

How to Attract Prospects to Your Site
Once you have a web site prospects will want to visit and read, the next step is to find as many ways as possible to pull prospects to your site so they find your great content. Use these strategies to pull in prospects:

Distribute your articles, including your offer and site link, to every ezine, web site, publication and forum you


Small Business Web Site Marketing Ideas & Tips

Charlie Cook


Secret Small Business Marketing Ideas For Exponential Growth

Charlie Cook

How to Supercharge Your Blog and Flood Your Site With Free Traffic

What’s the Key to Lasting Online Success?

What’s the Best Way to Declaring Your Financial Independence

Are You Sticking to Your Marketing Plan…

How to Increase Online Sales by 15 Times or More

Who Needs a Marketing System?

Is Your Website Call to Action Helping Or Hurting Your Marketing?

3 Simple Ways to Increase Small Business Sales

Exceptional Marketing For Business Overachievers

What Not To Do To Grow Your Business

What Works Better Than Advertising to Market Your Business…

Articles Below For Distribution With Written Permission

Are Your Business Goals The Right Ones?

Should You Give Up Cold Calling to Market Your Business?

Why Most Web Site Marketing Doesn’t Convert Visitors to Buyer

… More Small Business Marketing Ideas >>


Marketing Ideas to Help You Generate Leads and Increase Sales

Charlie Cook


Setting The Stage For Sales With Your Web Site Marketing

Charlie Cook

Most web sites are more like stage sets than real buildings; they make a good impression and they look substantial at first, but when you open a door, you end up back stage in the dark. They don’t generate large numbers of leads, help build relationships with prospects or generate the desired volume of sales.

Is your web site helping you get attention for your business?

Does it prompt prospects to contact you?

Is it helping you build long-term relationships?

Does it generate the volume of sales you want?

Building a web site that works should be more like building your dream home than constructing a stage set. You want to build a solid structure to support the growth of your business, not a flashy facade. First, you’d talk with your partner about what kind of house you want and how it fits into your long-term plans.

You’d discuss your budget and the location, style and size of the house, as well as the functions of the rooms and the flow between them. When you were in agreement, you’d seek out an architect to help you plan your home.

The architect would consider your ideas and objectives, create a coherent plan to meet your objectives. You’d review these and then she’d produce drawings and blueprints to guide the construction.

You’d need a contractor to build your house, and the contractor would hire specialists to complete the job; carpenters, electricians, masons, roofers, etc. Once your home was completed, you’d need to maintain it; even a brand new house needs periodic attention.

Discover how to use your web site to attract prospects, generate leads and increase sales >>

Building or Renovating Your Dream Web Site
Can you imagine building your dream home without careful planning, or a clear sense of how the rooms would work together, or a blueprint?

Before you built your web site, did you define how it would function, how it would get attention, and how it would generate leads and build profitable relationships?

Did you have an internet marketing blueprint?

A web designer is like your building contractor. They will assemble your web site, but they can’t tell you what the site is supposed to accomplish or how it fits into your overall marketing plan. Before you use a web designer you first need to understand what you want your site to do and how to structure it to convert prospects to clients.

Diane Varner, a successful web designer in El Granada, California, asks prospective clients a series of questions about their marketing before she starts work for them. She wants to find out what their overall marketing strategy is and how their web site fits into it. Her expertise is web design; if a prospect needs help defining their web-marketing plan, she refers them to me.

4 Steps to A Web Site that Sells

1. Create Your Internet Marketing Plan
Before building or renovating your web site, you, too, should identify how your web site fits into your marketing strategy. Clarify and delineate the actions you want visitors to take and how to structure your site to get prospects to contact you and buy your products and services.

Organize site content and pages to mirror prospects’ decision-making process, moving them step-by-step towards a sale. Write content that motivates prospects to continue reading and browsing your site and includes appropriate use of keywords to help boost your search engine rankings.

Discover how to create a web site marketing blueprint for your web site >>

2. Hire a Web Designer/ General Contractor
Once you have a plan and the supporting marketing copy ready, find a web designer who can put these elements together to create an easy-to-navigate site whose overall look and feel supports your positioning objectives. Many web designers function as general contractors and will sub-contract the programming required to create forms, manage databases, email or online shopping cart systems.

3. Market Your Web Site
Most people make the mistake of waiting until their site is built to think about marketing it. If you started with the previously defined web plan, you will have avoided this money-losing blunder. But don’t assume that people will find your web site on their own.

Use free promotional activities such as distributing your articles to get attention. Consider advertising in newsletters and/or using pay-per-click advertising.

4. Maintain Your Web Site
Just like that dream house, a web site needs regular upkeep and updating. Allocate the time and money to see that the site is well maintained, whether you learn to update text yourself, have someone in your company do it, or give the job to an outside professional.

The beautiful home you carefully planned and built creates the physical context for you to eat, sleep, relax and enjoy family and friends. Your web site should create the marketing context to help you get prospects’ attention, build relationships, and generate leads and sales.

Use the four steps above to build or renovate your web site marketing and you’ll have a site that is more than a flimsy stage set; you’ll have a web site that will help grow your business.


The Selling Secret Your Web Site Marketing Needs To Use

Charlie Cook

You’ve got a web site, spent money on internet advertising and begun attracting lots of visitors, but hardly anyone is contacting you or buying your products and services.

What’s wrong, and what can you do to change this picture?

John from Wisconsin called with exactly this problem. He owns a firm that provides financial services to people planning to sell or pass on family businesses. Located in a small town, his business is steady, but, well, small. He built a web site to reach a broader market and signed up with Overture.com to advertise it and attract visitors. (Overture posts the sponsored links you see at the top of your search results on many sites.) This is when his biggest problem became apparent.

The problem wasn’t with John’s business idea or Overture. He had identified both a need and an underserved target market. His Overture ads worked so well they generated thousands of clicks to his site. In no time at all, John had run through his advertising budget but hadn’t translated any of the visitors into leads or sales.

What should he have done differently?

What can you do to create a web site that sells?

Discvoer how to structure and design your web site to generate leads and sales.

You want the people that visit your web site to buy your products and services. Making a purchase is the end point in their decision-making process. Do you know what the preceding steps are and how to move people through these steps?

If you are running a Web ad campaign, you will attract two types of visitors. The ideal prospect is one who is looking for a solution, one which hopefully your product or service provides. This should be an easy sale, but you still need to demonstrate that you understand their concerns and can solve the problem or meet their specific need.

The sequence of information you provide and the specific copy you use can either keep them reading and move them to buy or lose the sale.Take a look at your web site marketing. Is it obvious to you what you want them to do?

Can people see from the use of the page layout, use of type and graphics what they are supposed to do first, second and third?

You don’t have to be blatant in what you want visitors to do but the sequence should at least be obvious to you. Guide visitors by your placement of elements on the page and use of size, color and placement.

The majority of first time visitors to your site will browse your content following their whims or interests. If you don’t include the right elements on your site in the right places on the page, it may be the last time they visit your site. Even if you provide the perfect product or service, you can’t rely on people to make the effort to find what they need: give it to them.

Whether you sell consulting services, plus size clothing, business coaching, golf apparel, or manage recording artists, you can use your web site to generate leads and grow your business. The key is to guide prospects to take action to become qualified leads and clients.

Learn how to use your web site marketing to attract more clients and grow your business with ‘Creating Web Sites that Sell


Eliminate Obstacles To Sales The Easy Way

Charlie Cook

During the summer Olympics I watched the men’s and women’s hurdles. I’m always impressed by these athletes’ ability to run at full speed and leap the hurdles without breaking stride.

But each time I watch this track event, I have the same reaction. If they just went out on the track and removed those barriers, it would be a heck of lot easier to get around the track. The athletes could run faster, more smoothly and wouldn’t risk falling (as the accomplished Flo Joyner did).

If you are struggling to attract clients, you may feel like you’re running the hurdles. Obstacles like limited promotional budgets, ads that don’t sell, web sites that don’t generate leads, prospects that aren’t ready to buy or who think your prices are too high, all get between prospects and the sale.

Do you find yourself struggling to overcome hurdles to getting the sale?

You can clear the track of the hurdles that are getting between you and potential clients once and for all and create a clear path for prospects to become clients. If your target market knew you and how you could help them, understood the value of your services and contacted you when they were ready to buy you’d be rolling in revenue.

Is this how your business works?

Are you getting a steady stream of calls and new clients?

What can you do to remove these obstacles and increase your sales?

Learn how to eliminate obstacles to sales and grow your business. Open the door to more business with a small business marketing system that builds business each year.

Generate more leads and more sales with your online marketing. Learn how to use your web site and your emails to pull in prospects and convert them to clients.

If you haven’t already identified your small business marketing obstacles, start by doing so. The first step is to list them. Once you know what are your biggest obstacles to increasing sales, you can look for ways to get rid of them. (If you have other staff involved in sales, get their input too.)

Below are two common obstacles to sales For each I’ve included some simple strategies for removing these obstacles. Once you understand that marketing obstacles aren’t permanent you’ll discover that you can remove more and more impediments and clear the way for increased sales

Lack of Awareness
You’re just starting your business. No one has heard of you, and, given your lack of revenue you have little to invest in advertising. What do you do?

Use lead generation strategies that are free or almost free
During a severe downturn in the economy, a local financial services firm offered a series of workshops for free to private investors. Within a year the firm grew their assets under management from $5.5 million to $15 million.

Using an ezine I sent to librarians and online editors, I grew the value of a web site about search engines to almost a million dollars, without spending a dime on advertising.

This strategy works equally well for established companies. Les Schwab Tire Centers fixes flats for free, giving away over $10 million in repairs each year. Building goodwill with giveaways like this and an unusual dedication to customer service, this chain of 300 tire outlets earned estimated revenue of $1 billion in 2003.

Want to generate more leads and increase sales?

Discover how to use your web site to improve your lead generation and profits.

Lack of Results from Advertising
You’re not getting a positive return on your ads, should you buy more ad space? How much? Where?

In my experience, there are two obstacles to increasing sales with advertising. Its either the message or the audience. Both can be fixed and to increase sales

If you want people to respond to your advertising, get their attention and prompt them to contact you, write your marketing message, ads and marketing copy from your prospect’s perspective. Identify and address their concerns.

Learn how to get attention with your small business marketing message and your elevator speech. You’ll attract more clients when prospects know how you can help them.

No matter how good your marketing message is, it won’t help you unless its seen by people who want your products and services. Even if you do your homework up front, there is no guarantee your ad will improve your lead generation and draw sales.

Track each ad campaign and each sale to determine which ads sell. No matter how good your copy is or how many people see your ad, if the ad audience doesn’t include people who want your services and are ready to buy, it’s the wrong audience.

Drop those ads that bring in meager results and identify additional advertising opportunities, ones that will be seen or heard by people who want to buy your products and services.

Stop wasting your time struggling to jump over marketing hurdles. Instead, you can identify the obstacles that get in the way of lead generation and sales and eliminate them one by one. Make this shift and you’ll attract more clients and be more successful.


The 2 Numbers You Need To Track To Know If Your Marketing Is Working

Charlie Cook

Knowing where to start to improve your small business marketing can be a bit of a mystery. Is it your marketing message, the places you advertise, your web site or what? By measuring the results or your marketing efforts and collecting feedback, you can uncover the secrets of what is and isn’t working and learn what to refurbish or replace to generate more leads and increase sales.

Tom called me with a question about how to increase sales. from his web site. Despite having spent three thousand dollars to build an attractive web, he wasn’t generating leads from his site. Only a small handful of people had contacted him since the site went live two months ago.

Do you have a web site? Are you disappointed by the number of leads and sales. your site is generating?

I asked Tom what percentage of daily or weekly visitors to his site contacted him. He didn’t know the answer. I asked him how many people visited his site per month. He didn’t know. I asked him, how many sales. of his books and coaching services had been generated by his web site. He didn’t have that information, either.

If you want to improve the perf0rmance of any marketing effort, whether online or offline, make the effort to collect and evaluate the results. You can use easily available numbers to help you fix what’s not working and improve what is.

Ever go on a diet? How do you tell if your eating and exercise regimens are working? You step on the scale and look at the number of pounds you’ve lost or gained. This simple figure gives you the truth about the success of your dieting efforts. To improve sales., track response and conversion rates.

Discover how to generate more leads and sales with your web site with “Creating Web Sites that Sell”

1. Response Rates
If you spend m0ney on advertising to drive people to your business web site, you want to know how many people responded to your ad and visited your site. If you’re only getting a handful of responses, the problem could be your ad. Something as simple as changing the marketing message you use in your advertising or in your search engine listings could increase your response rate.

Discover how to write and use your marketing message to get more attention and prompt people to contact you so you can convert them to clients.

If you’ve had success with the ad in another publication, it may be that the particular ezine or web site isn’t reaching your target audience and you’d be better off spending your advertising dollars elsewhere. If you track your ad results you can quickly discover where to avoid spending on advertising that doesn’t work and make changes to get more out of each advertising dollar.

2. Conversion Rates
If your web site draws lots of visitors, you’ll want to know what percentage of those visitors are buying, and if not buying, at least signing up for your ezine. With these conversion rates you can determine how to increase your online sales.

Barbara has a subscription-based web site that pulls in over twelve hundred visitors a day, yet only seven people a day contact her and the site only generates sales. a couple of times a week. Is this the best she can do? Probably not.

You can prompt 10-50% of the people who visit your web site to contact you and then work on converting these qualified leads to sales. For Barbara, all it took was a few changes in her layout and copy for her to add two to three hundred people a day to her list of qualified leads and increase sales. to dozens each day.

One of the most important things to identify and measure is where sales. come from. If you advertise with Google or in ezines and see that an ad has more than paid for itself in leads generated and sales., you’ll know its worth running again.

Just asking people where they heard of you or how they arrived at your web site is useful. When I asked one client how they found my site, they explained how they had been searching the web using the phrase, “marketing services” and how difficult it had been to find the site.

My advertising hadn’t targeted the phrase “marketing services”, so I quickly added it to the list of keywords for my ads. The result? The next day someone came to my site via my targeted ad and bought every small business marketing manual I sell.

Here’s the link to order “Creating Web Sites that Sell” to help you generate more qualified leads and increase sales for your online or offline business.

Don’t let marketing be a mystery. Start analyzing what is and isn’t working so you know what to fix. If your small business marketing is working, use these same numbers to set new goals for lead generation and sales. conversions and be even more successful.