The Silent Avatar Speaks

Happy New Year and let’s hope you don’t buy into the doom and gloom sayers and have a prosperous 2009!

So let’s get into my first post of 2009…

The silly season of 2008 is now behind us , however I wanted to share with you my observations as I went about my shopping with the throngs while paying particular attention to the marketing strategies being used amongst the retailers to win business, and how that can translate to online marketing.
Quite obviously, Christmas is a bumper time for retailers as they vie for the largest slice of the pie they can when people are willing to open their wallets and spend. The same can be said for online marketing.

Pay particular attention to these strategies for boosting revenue and customer numbers:

1. The first thing I noticed was the big, bold claims which literally jumped out at me from the shop windows. If the “offer” (like 20% to 50% off everything” was good enough shoppers would be attracted to come into the store and spend. This mirrors the strategy of capturing the site visitors attention with the view to keeping them on your site.  So what does this tell you? Make your offer compelling. Words really matter.

Learing to write good sales copy is an art, and it takes time, patience and skill to put together compelling sales copy which converts to sales. Top internet marketers will tell you that long sales copy converts better than short copy. though more and more I see video being utilised to deliver the message (and backed up with written copy).  This has a two fold effect by a) drawing in the site visitor by giving the site credibility (OMG.. there is a “real” person attached to this website”, and b) using emotive copy which has an effect on the reader.

2. Another thing I noticed was the “add ons” to lure purchases.  Offers like “buy one, get one free”, or additional products which were given free if you brought a certain product. Again this mirrors offering your site visitors your premium product for a fixed price, and then including additional products to entice them to buy your main product.

3. For customers who didn’t know what to buy as a gift, gift certificates were freely available. This is one area I felt could be utilised by Internet marketers to gain additional sales. Why not include gift certificates on your site? Those who are interested in a particular Internet marketing product could let friends and family know that your product/service you are offering is something they would appreciate as a gift and therefore sending a gift certificate to the recipient would give additional revenue.

4. One thing I found which was completely under utilised was the lack of capturing email addresses from the shoppers. At a time where there is an influx of buying customers not once did I come across an outlet which took advantage of increasing revenue by getting their staff to obtain email addresses to send promotional offers to their customers after the sale.  I find this lack of awareness by business owners and franchises quite astonishing, as in Internet marketing having a list of prospects (and your best prospect without a doubt is customers who have purchased from you before), is guaranteed money in the bank!

5. The other area I felt was extremely under utilised was “up sells”. Again, not one outlet when I purchased an item promoted additional products at the time of the sale. Maybe the staff had no incentive to sell additional items or just couldn’t be bothered, but without a doubt this is sales going begging. McDonald’s would have to be the king of up sells using their “will there be fries with that?” tag to customer orders.  Others call up sells “suggestive selling” and getting into the habit of offering (or suggesting) additional products at the time of sale will significantly increase your revenue turnover. It’s obvious that staff have be trained, or you havr to integrate this trategy into your web site, however with little effort this strategy can be implemented with great results.

One person to bring up sells to the front of Internet Marketing was Mike Filsaime. Mike launched the Butterfly Marketing Script with all the fan fare of a Royal Command Performance, setting the pace for successful Internet product launches. So impressed by the script and the ability to up sell to customers I purchased the script myself (when I purchased it it was significantly less to buy than it is today).  You can get a copy of the Butterfly Marketing script by clicking here.

6. Offering a “gift wrap service”. Again, offering a service like gift wrapping at this time goes a long way to show that you care about your customers, and this type opf service can mean the differnece between whether the customer recommends you, or returns for additional sales.  Gift wrapping can be brought quite cheaply when you are buying in bulk, and having a person whose sole job is to gift wrap and get email addresses can significantly increase customer perception of your business.

Any online business can offer this service as an “addon” either by charging a small additional fee, or using it as a selling point to increase sales.

7. Last but not least it was plainly obvious that the larger stores started planning well ahead for this time of the year and the additional revenue it would bring. It just makes plain good sense to plan your promotions well in advance to give your business every opportunity to succeed.

I’m the silent avatar… and I have spoken

Did you notice any other areas of marketing which were used (or not used) which impact sales? Let me know by posting a comment.

Tags: Advertising, Business Tips, Copywriting, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Online Business, Promotion and Marketing, Web Development by the silent avatar
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Looking for ideas for small business? There are endless ideas the problem most face is, picking one and sticking with it.

One of the impending boom ideas for small business is writing. In other words, writing for other small business owners. Content is one of the most sought after prizes on the web. It’s almost like gold. The search engines are fueled by content and people go online seeking it.

But how does this affect or benefit you? Easy. You offer your services as a content writier. Internet marketing is an area where fresh content is sought on a daily basis. If you have even an ounce of writing ability you’ll never be short of work.

Content takes time to produce and many internet marketers have a variety of tasks to perform on any given day with mosty of their efforts directed to prom otion and marketing.

Ideas For Small Business

Writing in the internet marketing field can be quite lucrative but only until you develop a good reputation. Here’s the beauty of writing in online marketing. The niche choices are great and varied. Starting is not difficult and if you develop a good reputation for writing quality content then word spreads fast and your rates can be pushed up.

But at the beginning, be prepared to “write for peanuts.” With competition coming from cheap outsourced labor in several non-English speaking countries, rates can start as low as $3 for a 300-400 word article. Yes, that’s not a lot of money but by producing good work, you can quickly raise those rates with some online writers making up to and over three figures for a solitary article.

Announcing Yourself As A Writer

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. While the idea will appeal to many, just be aware there is some work to be done initially but once you announce yourself as a writer of some substance, then the pay-offs can really be impressive.

Writing is one of the ideas for home business which is not new but many overlook it as a serious home business investment. It’s a skill which you can develop even if you think you have limited writing ability now. Also, writing for the internet marketing field is a lot different to having to produce a prize winning literary piece.

Writing for internet marketing needs to be informative more than it has to be prize winning. If you think you can describe solutions in words you’re half way there. It’s definitely one of the better small business ideas you’ll come across.

Tags: Copywriting, Online Business, Promotion and Marketing by the silent avatar
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No two ways about it… An eye catching headline is a MUST is you want your site visitors to read further, after all if the headline “speaks” to your visitor they are more inclined to dig deeper into what your site has to offer.

The battle for getting visitor’s to your site is won or lost with the headline.

Sadly statistics show on average 8 out of 10 will read a headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read further. Pretty sobering stats, so it makes sense to give your headline the attention it deserves in order to get your visitor reading further.

Your headline is your first opportunity (and maybe your only opportunity) to turn a browser to a reader.

Am I offering a foolproof way to rake in the big dollars? Well.. no, but what I am have shown you is how a good headline catches attention.

Great Headline Formula 101
So is there a formula I am using to “bait” you that you can use to effectively capture your site visitor? Read on…

There’s a saying.. “if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it”, and this saying rings true for creating a great headline. You only have to surf Internet marketing sites to see great examples of good headlines which capture attention, and the truth is a lot of copywriters “steal” great headlines, change a few words here and there and Viola! Great headline to go!

However writing great headline is not difficult if you start utilizing known tips and tricks for creating a great eye catching headline.

Use “you” in your headline.
Using “you’ personalises the headline and increases the level of your reader’s interest since yu are aiming the headline to them personally.

Use powerful and engaging words
Your title should be able to tell people that they “need to do something” or they “need to act immediately”. Prompt your readers to do so will cause them to read the content of your post or site.

Write “How To” headlines
“How To” headlines are particularly useful when you want to target readers who are looking for instruction or guidelines for a specific subject or topic.

Write “Reason’s Why” headlines
Use “Reasons Why” when you want to address specific questions or topics.
10 Reasons Why You Need to Drink More Water
5 Reasons Why

Use numbers. People identify with numbers, percentages and statistics. Using numbers like…
10 Ways to…
101 Ways to…
$30K in 60 Days!

Write “Question” titles.
Think like a reader who wants to find out about something interesting on the internet.

• “What Are the Simplest and Most Effective Exercises That Can Help You Lose Weight Fast?”

• “How Can You Save More Money Without Taking The Scissors To Your Credit Card?”

Write headlines that address your readers problem/s.
Your headline should address your readers specific problem and offer a quick, easy solution.

• “Finally! The Quick, Easy Solution To Nail Biting”
• “5 Surefire Exercises to Alleviate Your BackPain”

Use “How I Did It”Headlines
Readers respond to titles that have a personal appeal to it. A title that says “how the writer did or found something” by himself is a unique way of delivering the information to your readers.

• “How I Lost 20 Pounds in 5 Weeks”
• “How I Made $3000 Per Week Using XYZ Software”
• “How I Got Promoted in Less than 10 Months”

Write about “Myths”.
Readers love demystifying conventional ideas. Your content should clear the myths that surround your topic.

• “10 Marketing Myths that Marketers Will Not Tell You”
• “5 Myths about Opt In Pages”

More headline head-starts

• Who Else Wants…
• The Secret of…
• Little Known Ways To…
• Get Rid Of [Problem] Once And For All
• Here’s A Quick Way To [solve a problem]
• Do [something] Like [world class example]
• What Everybody Ought To Know About [Blank]
• Learn [something] and increase your [blank]
• Discover The Truth of [blank]

Tags: Copywriting by the silent avatar
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If you’re just starting out in business and don’t have the cash to splash around on a copywriter and struggling to write your own, here’s the formula for creating great sales copy for your product. Whilst the steps are simple, refining the copy can take quite some time.

I good idea is to brainstorm all of the steps on paper first so you can build your sales copy from all of the ideas you have gathered.

Here are the steps:

1. State the problem
2. Agitate the problem
3. Propose the solution (sell the benefits)
   
4. Prevent and invalidate very solution but yours.

Remember: Sell the benefits not the features. That is sell what the product can do for them. (Remember ‘What’s in it for me?’)

For example:
A feature of of an e-book is it can be downloaded instantly.
A benefit is they can be reading it within minutes

A feature could be a 30 day money back guarantee.
A benefit is no financial risk to the purchaser.

It also pays to know what words “hook” your site visitors, and use those words through your sales copy. A resource I use constantly is one put out by by Strategic Profits called “Phrases that Keep Attention”. You can download the PDF here

Another worthwhile resource to help with copywriting is “Copywriting For The Web” Download the PDF here

Oh yeah… one more thing. If you would like a critique of your sales copy just post a comment with a link to the URL.

Tags: Copywriting by the silent avatar
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