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Posts Tagged ‘sales’
Friday, November 26th, 2010
Marketers have a strange language. We use words like “socratic method,” “analytics,” and “call to action.” We also use acronyms like AIDA, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
That’s “action” is in Call To Action.
So what’s it all mean?
Well, the idea, of course, is to get your prospect to take an action. You want to inspire a move, one that is favorable to you. For instance, on your newsletter sign up page your call to action might be, “Join our mailing list.” There is a definite art to writing a call to action.
It should be the last thing on the page. You first capture your readers’ attention. You do that with your headline. Then you spark their interest with a carefully crafted sales letter that focuses on the benefits of your product or service. Really drive those benefits home. If you do that part well then you’ll you’ll spark a desire – a desire for your product or service. Really whet their appetite. And, finally, you close the deal with a strong call to action.
A strong call to action will inspire your prospect to take the action you want them to take: Join your mailing list, whip out their credit card and buy your product, or visit your store.
Whatever your call to action, you know it has worked when you start seeing the results.
Tags: AIDA, call to action, marketing, sales, writing
Posted in Business Writing | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
If you are new to online marketing and new to social media marketing then you might be wondering just what the benefits are to marketing your business through social media channels. It’s a legitimate question. Here are 5 ways that marketing your small business through social media can benefit you.
- Increased Traffic – Social media can send you more traffic to your website. That’s not say you’ll automatically see an increase in sales, but if your website is optimized for conversions then you should see your sales go up as well. Using social media like Facebook pages, Twitter, social bookmarking and LinkIn can help you drive new traffic to your website and if it doesn’t increase your sales then you need to rewrite your sales pages.
- Establish New Relationships – You can often forge new relationships by engaging people through social media. Not only can you gain new clients for your business, but you’ll find that you’ve made new friends.
- Branding – Social media branding is a new method of online marketing that involves using the social media channels at your disposal to create and strengthen your brand.
- More Sales – Yes, many social media marketers have increased their sales through social media. You can too.
- Broader Reach – Through social media you can expand your company’s presence further and wider than you’ve ever imagined.
- Reputation Management – With social media you have greater control of your reputation online. You can monitor what other people are saying about you and your brand and respond much more quickly to potential problems. You can also control your talking points so that your audience knows what you stand for.
There are more benefits to social media marketing, but these 6 benefits are basic and within anyone’s reach. I highly recommend that you start using social media to market your small business today.
Tags: Branding, online marketing, Reputation Management, sales, Social Media, traffic
Posted in Social Media | 4 Comments »
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
You’ll hear the word “Authority” a lot with regard to online marketing. The gurus encourage you to make yourself an authority in your niche by marketing yourself in certain ways, namely, through you blog, articles and other content that establishes you as an expert in your field. But is that enough?
Simply writing articles, blogs and other content and putting your name on them does not establish you as an authority. You have to back up the first impression with impressive results.
Authority is a word that means you have power, a kind of power that involves influence. It means that you command respect for no reason other than your power to influence others to follow your lead. But where that come from? Your byline? Your name? Your reputation?
In essence, authority comes from perception. People perceive you to be a knowledgeable expert. To establish that perception in the minds of your audience you need three things:
- Knowledge – Yes, knowledge is important and you can demonstrate articles with a byline, but that is only the beginning.
- Skill – You must possess a definable and valuable skill, one that people need and that you have. The must be marketable and valuable.
- Sales Panache – You need to have an ability to sell yourself. All perception is based on the perceived having the ability to sell the perception. If you want others to view you as an authority on a subject then you’ve got to be able to present yourself as an authority. Knowledge and skill and alone will not do that.
Being an authority is important to being successful. It takes creating a perception and that involves sales work. Knowledge and skill are only the beginning. The wrap up in the sales process.
Tags: authority, content, sales
Posted in Reputation Management | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
E-mail marketing is still one of the most used forms of Internet marketing and it’s easy to see why when you consider that it offers one of the highest conversion rates. Think about it. People on your e-mail list are on your list because they’ve requested to be there. If you are doing e-mail marketing the right way then you have a double opt-in process, which I recommend. That means your e-mail recipients have told you twice that they want to receive your marketing materials. If you send them something they like then they are as likely to buy it as anyone.
I like e-mail marketing. If you have a responsive list then you’ll make the sales. You’ll get conversions. And that leads to more success.
Of course, e-mail marketing includes a newsletter, but that’s not all it means. It also entails e-mail postcards, brochures, sales letters, and other types of marketing done through e-mail. The key is send out a newsletter with a consistent schedule. You don’t want to send out e-mail too often or send too little. Too much and people will get annoyed. Not enough and they’ll forget about you. So once or twice a week is enough.
And if you do it often enough with just the right offers, you’ll see the conversions. Guaranteed. E-mail marketing works.
Tags: conversions, e-mail marketing, sales
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Friday, September 18th, 2009
The most important thing to know about sales letters is that they must convert. A sales letter that doesn’t convert traffic into sales is like a school bus that stays parked. It’s job is to deliver children to school. If it isn’t doing that then its purpose isn’t being fulfilled. Is your sales letter’s purpose being fulfilled?
There are many ways to write a sales letter. There’s not just one way. But the strange thing about sales letters is that two of them written in the same manner could have diametrically different results. One can convert extremely well while the other flops. That’s because there’s no magical formula for writing them.
But there are proven techniques that work on most types of sales letters. If you employ the right techniques then you can get creative in the delivery. The bottom line is knowing your market and what appeals to them. If you can hit the right hot buttons then your sales letter will convert. It takes study, practice, and persistence. If you are having trouble writing your own sales letters then perhaps you need to hire a professional.
Tags: conversions, sales, slaes letter
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 Comments »
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Yesterday, I talked about different Internet marketing channels and which ones are most important for small businesses. What I didn’t mention was how one of those channels could the most important one of all.
In fact, I didn’t even mention it as one of the important ones at all. But I should have. So why didn’t I?
I left out Conversion Rate Optimization yesterday so I could talk about it today in more expansive terms. Conversion Rate Optimization, or CRO, is one of the most important Internet marketing channels for any businesses because without landing pages that are ready to close sales, you really have no Web business. You can perform the best SEO or social media campaign in the world, but if your landing pages aren’t converting sales, all the traffic in the world won’t be of much help to you.
CRO is the practice of working on your landing pages to make them the best converting tools they can be. The process involves more than SEO; in fact, it may not involve that at all. It may be something as simple as moving an image from one side of the page to another. But the heart of all CRO is in testing. The CRO professional tests various elements of a landing page to ensure that they all work together to close sales and increase conversions. After all, it is conversions that make you money, not traffic.
Tags: conversion rate optimization, conversiosn, CRO, landing pages, sales, traffic
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
There is no substitute for good copy. Copy sells. And if you don’t have the right copy, or the best copy for your business, then you may not make the sales you want.
A good copywriter will pay for herself over and over. A bad one will cost you. Whether online or off line, it is very important to ensure that your copy is the best that it can be to sell your business and attract new customers. But what does that mean?
Here’s a short list of what good copywriting can, and should, do for you:
- Be honest about who you are and what you stand for
- Brand you and your product or service so that you are recognizable at a glance
- Sell the benefits of your product or service to new clients
- Make existing clients confirm in their minds that they chose the right business
- Answer every question your prospects will have about your product or service
- Present the best features of your product or service in the best light
- NOT be deceptive
Is your copywriting passing the test? Why or why not?
Tags: business, copywriting, marketing, sales
Posted in Business Writing | 3 Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
Have you ever tried to communicate without words? Unless you and the receiver of your communications understand the same signals – whether they are hand signals, facial expressions, dots and dashes, or fire and smoke – then communication is impossible. Written communication is based on the same principle. In order to facilitate real communication, both parties – writer and reader – must understand what all the symbols (letters, punctuation, etc.) stand for. But sales writing has an added dimension that information-only writing doesn’t. That is, persuasion.
Sales is all about persuasion. Whether you are selling through oral communications or written communications, you are trying to persuade your audience – whether it be one person or a mass of people – to some action. You want your listener, or reader, to respond.
Words are powerful. Written or spoken, they can inspire action, positive or negative. Online, most of your communications will be written, although you can make some powerful statements with audio and video. Still, the most effective use of your online communicative efforts will be in writing. And that’s why hiring a good copywriter is perhaps the smartest thing you can do. Because content is king, and online most of your content will be written content, if you expect to close sales then your chief communicator must be able to lead your site visitors down the right path to close the sale. In other words, copywriting is your best sales tool. Do you have the right copywriter?
Tags: copywriting, online marketing, sales, small business
Posted in Business Writing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Tools for Small Business, Traditional Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
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