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Marketing strategies for the recession

November 13th, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Lead Generation, Traffic Generation | 1 Comment »

During a recession, there is generally a reduction in discretionary spending by businesses, as well as of course consumers.

And one of the first things to often be reduced is, you’ve guessed it, a marketing budget. Hmm, big, big mistake!

Now I know you’re possibly all thinking “Well he would say that, wouldn’t he?” but let me explain why I feel it is a huge mistake.

First of all, pretty much every business will be thinking the same way, so by continuing to market your business relatively aggressively you could pick up additional business from your marketing budget cutting competitors.

Secondly, the single biggest challenge in a recession is getting people to spend money and if you’re not advertising special deals, services, packages – whatever it is you’re doing, you’re not going to bring in the level of sales that you need.

I’m not talking about throwing silly money at advertising (in fact, this is something I would NEVER advise, let alone in a recession) but strategic, targeted and focused campaigns with a specific goal in mind.

A recession can sometimes help a business

Strange statement some of you may think eh? Well, let me tell you that in the leaner times, a business often has to adapt much more stringent and focused tactics and strategies – and these can often set a good tone for future business.

To succeed in a recession, every part of your marketing campaign should be accountable so that you know how to react in a down market, to get maximum returns for all the money you invest in marketing. Equally though, this should be your strategy when the good times return too. You need to test, tweak and improve everything, and know where your sales are coming from (ie: which form of advertising).

Know your unique selling proposition

Next, you have to take a look at your unique selling proposition, as this is what helps grab the attention of prospective customers. It helps differentiate you from your competitors. So if you find that your USP does not clearly tell prospects how they will benefit from using your product or services, you may end up an irrelevant commodity.

It is important that your USP be prominent, easily found and is updated in your TV, direct, mail, website and all other marketing media. In fact, before you start your new marketing campaign, you should place your USP at the forefront of your marketing campaign – this is absolutely critical to success and something that many of your competitors will NOT be doing.

Ok, so that’s it for this post. I’ll be back in a few days with some more strategies and as ever, if you have any questions then please do contact me.

Quality or quantity in email marketing

November 6th, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Lead Generation, List Building, Traffic Generation | No Comments »

As I have alluded to in previous posts, email marketing is a great tool for effective internet marketing. By sending out emails to prospective customers, whom you have pre-qualified and educated about your products or services, there is a decent chance that a good percentage will consider buying or using your product or services.

So obviously, the idea would be to have a list of prospective customers to send your emails to, right?

It’s an old adage in the internet marketing world that “the money is in the list”. This is most certainly true to a degree, but a word of warning in that a large list is not necessarily best.

That may shock a few people. Surely a large list is better than a small list? Well yes, but it all boils down to the quality of that list. It can be quite easy to build a large list but what I opt for is a list of educated, highly targeted prospects, not a list comprising of dozens of ‘tire kickers’ who are not really interested in your business, or your emails for that matter.

I have learned this over the years, and so I can now pass my knowledge on to you.

What the professionals do

The art is in ensuring that people that opt in to your email list have a valid reason for doing so. Sure, you’re always going to get some time wasters and ‘tire kickers’ as they’re called, but it is very possible to minimize that.

Having a quality, valuable call to action that your prospect is genuinely interested in is a great way to get them to opt in to your list. Once you’ve got them, you need to give them more quality, valuable content – not too much, but just enough.

You don’t want to bombard them with emails, but educate them on your products and services and let them get to know you better. This develops trust, credibility and rapport.

Ok, well I think that should keep you motivated until my next post, so see you all soon.

Quality or quantity lists in email marketing

October 8th, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, List Building, Traffic Generation, Viral Marketing | No Comments »

When you think of email marketing, most people are of the impression that the larger is their email list of subscribers, the more successful they are going to be with their email marketing. However this is not necessarily the case, as it is always better to have a list of qualified, quality subscribers and not a large quantity of subscribers who are not really interested in you or your product.

Quite often the email addresses that are entered into forms on web pages and squeeze pages (a form of web page that solely prompts you to give your name and email address) are false, as people provide this information just to gain entrance to sites or to see what comes next. The people who are in this email list will not have any interest in whatever you have to sell. So sending them emails about your company or product proves to be worthless.

At the most, and if you are lucky, you may only find about 1% of them clicking to your site through the link you send in the emails. However, I believe that it is better to have a quality list of people where you are sure that anywhere between 20-80% of them will click to your site when you send them an email.

Factors affecting list quality

When you speak of list quality, you have to realize that this is a trait in email lists that is determined by various factors. This is why to maintain your list quality; you will have to follow an effective and proven strategy when you sell products that lead to subscribers subscribing to your list.

So if you have a product to sell, it is often more effective to send prospective clients two emails that have links which lead to high quality information, or perhaps some audio or some software before you actually send them an email that leads to the page that will be selling your products.

This is because the clients on your list who will be most responsive to your offers will be prepared to wait to see what comes next, and they will hopefully appreciate some quality, free information or audio as a ‘thank you’ for signing up to your email list.

Of course, most autoresponder systems now allow you monitor which emails are opened and which links within that email are clicked, so you can easily and effectively monitor your list to see how responsive it is.

How to use testimonials as an online marketing tool

October 1st, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Traffic Generation | No Comments »

In my last post I discussed the use of referrals as an effective marketing strategy. Today I will talk about another under-rated strategy, testimonials.

Testimonials are generally taken lightly, as just the feedback provided by customers about your product or services and is often not used to its full potential. Today I will discuss why you should use these at every opportunity to increase your customer conversion rates.

Did you know that one of the key factors that will ensure the success of a sales letter is having testimonials. This is because these testimonials add further credibility and efficiency to the product or service that you’re offering.

This is because testimonials form part of what is known as ‘social proof’. As human beings, we love social proof and either following other people in what they do or having someone reccommend something to us.

Place testimonials on your site

It can be extremely worthwhile to place your customer testimonials on your website, so that all potential clients can see for themselves what others think of your products or services.

I always try to use as much information as possible about the person giving me the testimonial, so their full name and town/city, plus their full testimonial – rather than using a condensed version of it.

The more specific a testimonial, the better. One that goes into detail about why your product/service is so valuable and exactly what you did for them will really stand out to your prospects, and they will be able to start visualizing themselves using your company’s services.

Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials

This is something that few businesses actually do, and that is to ask for a testimonial. And it is so easy to execute too.

All you have to do is once a client has bought your product or used your service, you simply send them out a ‘thank you’ card/letter thanking them for using your company’s services, and you then ask them to tell you about their experience with your company.

You could also mention that this may be used on your website or in your shop/office and most people will like that too, as it gives them some kind of recognition as a customer.

So you can see how easy it is to get testimonials from clients that will serve as social proof to prospects as to why they should use your company. So, what are you waiting for, get writing to those clients who have used your services this past month!

Marketing strategies with the help of referrals

September 23rd, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Traffic Generation | No Comments »

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I am going to reveal today some strategies about how it is possible for you to use the traditional offline marketing technique of referrals.

Referrals, particularly in the current economic climate where competition is fierce and businesses are falling by the wayside every week, are a crucial part of staying one step ahead of your competition.

The main benefits of referrals are that first of all, they are a very cheap (in many cases free) means of acquiring new clients to add to your business, but perhaps more importantly, there is the credibility factor to consider.

If the referral is coming from a business owner to another business owner, this can be hugely significant. Even if the referral is coming from a friend of the business owner, it still carries a lot of credibility and can help your cause no end.

So now you may be wondering how you can actually get referrals for your business. Referrals are mostly available from three sources; existing clients, your networking, associates and (as I’ve already mentioned) people that you know on a social basis like your family and friends.

As far as family and friends are concerned, you simply need to talk about the business that you have (if they are not already aware of it) and ask them if they know of any other businesses which may be interested in your services.

If they do, would they be able to mention your services to this business? You can also offer an ethical incentive for friends and family, such as a £50 gift for each converted referral.

You will often find that amongst all your family and friends, that most will know a business owner – and of course that business owner will then in turn know several more business owners – and so it goes on.

Provide optimum customer service

However in case of existing customers, you should use a slightly different approach. You have to aim at providing optimal service (as you want to any way) and if they’re happy (which they should be) they may refer your product or services to their acquaintances.

Or, you could always ask them. Based upon their experiences, you could say to a ‘happy customer’ “Well Mr. Business Owner, I would be more than happy to give the same quality service to other businesses in the area, could you please recommend any that you know/deal with?”

A referral from a fellow business owner, particularly one who is singing your praises, is hugely valuable in terms of your credibility.

Similarly, if you visit social networking sites (Linked In and Facebook to name a couple) on a regular basis, keep a lookout for business professionals and people who will benefit from your product and services. Tell them about your business and what you can offer, and they will not hesitate from referring you to others and even to use your services themselves.

Incentives to mention your services

A great strategy that you can use to get referrals is to offer some type of an incentive. These incentives may range from a referral fee for successful conversions to a small free gift or service – depending on the circumstances and the type of referral.

In terms of gifts, you often don’t need to send anything expensive, even a gift card or free sample of your products is more than enough. Just the thought that you remember them will make it obligatory for them to refer your product or services to someone they know.

So remember to strive to always offer high levels of customer service as this leads to happy customers which can eventually lead to a goldmine of referrals. It is such a powerful strategy with proven success that I encourage you to go out there today with the aim of getting referrals for your business.

Tips for choosing search engine friendly merchandising

August 26th, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Traffic Generation | No Comments »

Now that you know the importance of using online marketing for both offline and online businesses, I thought it important to give you a few pointers about choosing and using the right search engine friendly merchandising in your website.

The first thing you have to remember if you wish to generate sales from your website is to ensure that your products get listed in your website in a search engine user-friendly manner.

Ensure easy navigation

This means that the navigation in your website should be easy, where each of the products that you have to sell has to have its individual page. It would be better if you included tabs leading to these pages in your home page. This makes it easier and faster for visitors, and probable customers to reach your products.

Not only do you have to provide easy access to your products, you also have to make sure that the checkout process of your website is a really easy and smooth one where the customer can check out with as little input as possible.

It is better to include emails or notices in your site that just instructs the buyer to mail an email to a third person, with which the checkout process is taken care of. Though this addition to a site costs more, in the long run, you find it much easier to add and remove products from the site. This will in turn make it easier for you to update the products you have to offer on the site.

After implementing all these tips to your website, I have to remind you that not all websites will start converting visitors into customers immediately on going live. It is not however impossible as it is quite possible with some careful preparation and great marketing plans which will be mentioned in the next post.

How to use an autoresponder in your business

June 12th, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Traffic Generation, Useful Software or Tools | No Comments »

One of the perhaps the most important tools used in an internet-based business, whether it’s for a pure internet-only business, brick and mortar business or e-commerce site, is what is called an autoresponder.

An autoresponder is basically a piece of software that collects the contact details of prospects and website visitors for you. It also enables you to preload emails, newsletters and other communications so that you can keep in contact with the contacts that you have in your database.And if you have a special launch planned, a promotion on a particular product or a sale planned, then you can send an email to your entire list of prospects quickly and easily by using an autoresponder on your site.

There are several products on the market that are considered the best by many experts, names such as Aweber, Autoresponse Plus, Get Response and Email Aces to name but a few.

My personal favourite is Aweber, and you can visit their site here for more details. I use them because their service is easy to use, effective and renowned in the industry plus, you can track who opens the emails that you send and a host of other crucial data that is so very useful as a business owner.

Collecting names is SO important

To use an autoresponder to help you with your business, you need to have a little form on your home page that will help you capture names and email addresses from visitors. This is both very easy to do and extremely effective as a marketing tool.

The data that is collected in this form is automatically sent to the autoresponder, and so there is very little work for you to do, which is the beauty of this software.

The autoresponder then sends out a confirmation message (that you will have already pre-written) to visitors, welcoming them to your site and perhaps explaining a little bit about the business and how it could benefit your customers.

It is better to write your own message as it is more personal, and makes it more friendly and easier to be related to your website.

Although this sounds like quiet a basic thing to do (capturing the email addresses of prospective customers), do not underestimate how powerful this is, as most businesses I see do not even think of doing this.

Now that you have learned a little bit about the advantages of using an autoresponder in your online business, my next blog post will give you more details and elaborate a little more with some juicy tactics that you start using immediately.

Legitimate white hat tips for search engine optimization

May 19th, 2009 | By Simon In Lead Generation, List Building, Traffic Generation | No Comments »

The previous post gave you an insight to some of the most common, and effective white hat SEO techniques to use for optimum search engine optimization (SEO). Here are a few more tips you could and should use.

Besides uploading your website files on the server, you can also upload the robot txt file, because this file is effective in telling crawlers which directories to crawl or not to crawl. This way, you can prevent the crawling of pages of your site that you don’t want, such as a “terms of service” page or a “policies” page, or even other pages that don’t actually give value to users from search engines.

The pages you make should be meant for users, and not for search engines. This does not mean you have to try displaying different content to search engines and users. This is considered a form of deceit, and is called ‘cloaking’.

Web spammers are of no use

Though web spammers may have sites with a decent page rank at the moment, it is very short term focused, and therefore not advisable to link up with them. Any alliance with them will only lead to your ranking and PR getting affected by the links.

Similarly, you should not take part in any link schemes that seem to increase your site rankings and PR, these do not work either.

It is always better to submit your website to directories and search engines manually. This way you are sure of where you submit your website, and are sure you are not involved in any black hat techniques.

Never attempt to use hidden text or links on your website as this is a black hat technique. Similarly, don’t attempt using cloaking or any other form of sneaky redirects.

Doorway pages only block your passage

Though it is better to have more web pages in your website, you have to ensure they are unique. Creating various pages, sub domains and domains that lead to duplicate content will only end up with your site getting blacklisted in Google.

In the meantime, don’t create any ‘doorway’ pages that have little or no original content in a bid to increase the number of web pages in your website. This is not entertained by Google.

Don’t attempt sending automated queries to of any form to Google and don’t attempt to use any unethical tricks to improve your search engine rankings. It may create a momentary increase in your page rankings; however you eventually end up blacklisted in Google.

Tips for optimum Google optimization

May 15th, 2009 | By Simon In Lead Generation, Traffic Generation | No Comments »

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the best ways to ensure long term quality racnkings in the search engines. Though there are many legitimate forms of search engine optimization, there are many webmasters who use unethical methods.

This type of strategy, often called “black hat” can lead to the removal of the site from Google rankings and even getting penalized by reducing the site’s page rank. A penalized site will not show up in Google rankings as prominently, if at all, and so you may want to take a look at these tips for a legitimate means of SEO.

• The site you create should have clear navigation, text links and hierarchy. Make sure all its pages can be reached from a minimum of a static text link while other relevant sites link to your website.

• Include a site map in the website which your users can easily use to link to all parts of your website. However, limit the number of your links to less than 100. It is better to create an information rich website that has pages which accurately and clearly describes all the contents of your service.

• It is always better to include words in your website content that users will most probably use first to find your pages. It is also better to use text instead of images to display the important keywords, links and content of your website.

• The site HTML has to be correct, whilst there should be no broken links around. In addition to this, your Title and ALT tags should be accurate, descriptive and relevant to your website content. However avoid JavaScript, frames, cookies, Flash and DHTML as with all this on the website, search engine spiders find it difficult to crawl your site.

• It is very important that you submit your site to Google, while submitting an xml sitemap file at Google. This way, Google can learn about the structure and coverage of the site.

• Besides Google, you could submit your site to relevant directories like Open Directory Project and Yahoo Directory and other related expert sites. Failing that, if your site is good quality (in terms of content) then the other search engines will more than likely find and index your site anyway, so this is worth keeping an eye on.

There are many more tips you should follow for legitimate, “white hat” SEO, and these will be discussed in coming posts.

Simon Paul Thurston

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