The following is a guest post from David Lindop. Enjoy!
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It’s always so tempting to get wrapped up in the advanced tactics and techniques of online marketing. There’s the potential to plan and strategise without actually doing something that will make a real difference to your results. Today however, I want to go back to basics and encourage you to revisit one of the most crucial and overlooked elements of converting customers online: the Landing Page.
Consider what happens when a user clicks on an Google AdWords link and ends up on your site. The first page that they see when they click that link is your landing page. A landing page is a lot like a first impression - and we all know how important a first impression can be, especially for online businesses.
A successful landing page seeks to do one of two things: to inform the visitor, or to persuade the visitor to complete some manner of transaction. The former type, known as a reference landing page, displays text, images, links and other informational elements. For the most part, reference landing pages may just be a way for the hosting site to generate advertising revenue. If you’re a business owner looking to generate revenue through your own products or services, then the second type of landing page is more suited to your needs. Known as a transactional landing page, its purpose is to get website visitors to buy a product or at least complete some sort of form. The goal of the page might just be a simple as keeping the user there long enough to click through some ads or other site content. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the weekend I was at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas. Talk about a great event. I’ll talk more about that later, but right now I want to talk about the importance of the program known as Twitter.
I’m sure that a lot of you are not familiar with this tool and what it can do for you. So let me explain really quickly what it’s all about.
You might call Twitter ‘micro-blogging.’ The idea is that you give little updates (140 characters or less) about what’s going on, things you’re doing or whatever. Now, I’m sure that some of you are thinking, “why would someone care that I brushed my teeth this morning?” Well, they wouldn’t. That’s not what you use Twitter for.
More than anything else, you can use Twitter as a chance to network with people that you couldn’t network with otherwise. Think about it, there are people all over the country (or world) that you’ve read their blogs or followed them in some other way. Well, you now have one other way to connect with them.
One of the big topics at BlogWorld was finding your audience and connecting with it. That’s another use for Twitter. As you gain more followers you can send out polls and get responses about different questions that you have. You can get feedback from your followers about certain topics, etc.
You see, the internet is all about connecting with people, and Twitter is one resource that can help you do it. Twitter was HUGE at BlogWorld, and I’ve seriously underestimated it in the past.
Be sure you don’t waste your time posting silly stuff. Use it as a tool.
Here are a few articles you can read about how to use Twitter better. And by the way, you can follow me: www.twitter.com/dan_patterson. Tweet tweet!
In this blog I mainly focus on ways to market your business online. Whether you’re doing pay per click, search engine optimization, social media advertising, or anything else online you might be missing out if you aren’t also doing some offline advertising as well.
Now honestly, for an online business you will probably focus a lot of your time doing your online marketing. But have you noticed that a lot of online businesses do a ton of offline advertising as well? Look at sites like LegalZoom and others that always have radio and TV ads going.
One simple way that you can advertise your business offline is through brochures. Granted, this depends on your type of business, but you can create some brochures and have them displayed around town and possibly drum up some business that way.
The other good thing about doing brochures and some of the other printed means of advertising is that you can do brochure printing for pretty cheap these days. There are plenty of companies such as PsPrint.com that can help you with all of your online printing needs. These guys are one of the leaders in online brochure and business card printing, so if you’re looking for a quality company to help you get started in this arena they are one to look into.
Here’s the thing: you need to have some money to advertise your business appropriately. Whether you’re doing SEO, PPC, or any other type of marketing, you need to have a budget for it.
One thing I’ve found is that a lot of people that are just getting started online don’t have much of a budget to use towards advertising. Well, you can just focus on SEO and take time to get to the top, but things would go so much faster if you had an advertising budget!
So, if you’re on a limited budget, is there anything you can do to help build up some capital that you can turn into marketing money? Definitely! Here are a few ideas:
eBay
Simply put, eBay can be one of the fastest ways to make some money online. Some people love it for the long term, but if you’re not one of those people you can at least use it to sell stuff for the short term and then funnel that money back into your advertising budget.
Why do I say that eBay is one of the quicker ways to make money? Because the system is already set up for you! There are already millions of people going to eBay every day! You just need to find products you can sell and get them sold! Use tools like www.TeraPeak.com to research your items first.
If you run an online business that involves processing credit cards, you need to be aware of what is involved in getting chargebacks. To put it simply, a chargeback is when a customer decides for some reason that they did not authorize a charge on their card. This is bad for you as a business owner to say the least!
I think this is an area that a lot of online merchants (whether you’re doing dropshipping or wholesaling or even selling your own ebook) are not fully aware of. You see, if you get a chargeback you will lose your product or service to that customer, and if you get to many of them you run the risk of having your merchant account revoked. Not good no matter how you look at it!
Well, I came across a chargeback e-book the other day that will teach you how to avoid the problems with chargebacks. The fact is that chargebacks to ecommerce companies is on the rise, and you need a chargeback guide to help you navigate these waters!
In fact, did you know that in a chargeback it is the consumer’s bank that determines the outcome of the chargeback? Not you, not your bank, not your merchant account, the consumer’s bank!
This official chargeback e-book is becoming the standard when it comes to handling chargebacks. With the book and their chargeback tutorial, you will be well equipped to deal with any chargebacks that come your way. And the book is only $19.95! Anyway, it’s something you really should consider picking up if you’re going to be processing orders online.
I know it’s been a very long time since I’ve written, so if you can’t tell I’ll be adding to this blog on a rather sporadic nature. But I had an email come in the other day from Perry Marshall that I thought was very interesting and wanted to share some of his key points with you.
I know that a lot of people are very afraid of getting involved in pay per click advertising because they’re afraid they’ll lose money on it. Well, it’s one of the ways of doing advertising that you really should consider. And for a couple of reasons.
Here’s a quote from that email by Perry Marshall that I feel illustrates this point well:
I was in a meeting with Chris Cardell who is one of the best-known marketing consultants in the UK and he said, “Most of the online successes I have seen built their business on Google AdWords - not SEO, not social media, not YouTube videos, not blogging, not affiliate ventures. Google ads bring steady, reliable traffic day in and day out. It allows you to perfect your sales process, scientifically.”
Makes you think for a second doesn’t it? If it’s really that important, don’t you think it’s worth learning?
Later in his email Perry mentions his “Expanding Universe Theory” for online marketing. In other words, what are the things that you should be involved in as time goes on. As fas as I can tell, these are listed in order of importance according to Perry:
1. Google AdWords
2. Search Engine Optimization
3. Other PPC’s like Yahoo and MSN etc etc.
4. Email promotions
5. Affiliates
6. Press Releases
7. Direct Mail
8. Print Advertising
The fact is that you have to be doing different things to really market your site. It’s not the best idea to only focus on just one strategy. Start with PPC and SEO, then as time goes on add in other things to really market your business effectively. And that’s today’s online marketing tip!
I came across these videos a few weeks ago, but I’m just getting around to posting about them. Now first of all, I really don’t like rap, but this is awesome. How about a little SEO Rap? Check this:
Over the weekend I was at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas. Talk about a great event. I’ll talk more about that later, but right now I want to talk about the importance of the program known as Twitter.
