Internet Marketing Tip Archive #1

What do Internet marketers most need in this unsure world of on-line marketing? Reassurance that the components of their Internet marketing strategies will produce results.
Ken Evoy's Make Your Site Sell is a straightforward, unparalleled guide to devising an Internet marketing strategy.

You are your own best source of wisdom about how to market your Web site. If you can observe and analyze your own experience with the Internet, you will know what works and what doesn't. When do you read, when do you click, when do you request information, when do you buy? Watch yourself closely to see what sells you on another company's offerings. That's the technique you'll want to use to sell your own product or service.

Put complete contact information on every page of your Web site. Whenever your content inspires your users to act, they'll be able to e-mail you, dial your number, or scrawl your address on an envelope. And if they print out a page of your site, they'll have your phone number, address, or any other information they might want right there with the content they found valuable enough to print.

Salesman Charlie Hulls, veteran of 45 years, 5 mergers and 9 different positions in the electrical industry, says sales success depends upon these three requirements: 1) Know your product. 2) Sell yourself. 3) Meet your commitments. To succeed in Internet business, your Web site - and the products and services it represents - must meet the same requirements. While Internet technology may be new, building a comprehensive, trust-building, responsive Web site puts a tried and true sales veteran to work for you.

Take a marketing tip from the Salvation Army - If you want to sell products or services, you've got to go where the people are. The Salvation Army doesn't place its buckets where it's convenient for bell-ringing Santas to sit and have a smoke. Buckets and Santas are positioned strategically and prominently in high traffic areas where their target market - shoppers on foot who've just made purchases and have a few bills left in their pockets - are likely to chuck change as they pass. To get visits tossed in the direction of your Web site, find a Web site highly trafficked by your prospective customers. Become a partner with that site through advertising, sponsorships, or affiliate programs. To get the people to come to you, you have to first go where they are to let them know about you.

Be a pundit. Offer articles, reviews, tips and advice based on your unique experience and expertise. Establish yourself as your Web site's authority in your product or service category. Just as we consult our favorite movie reviewers for advice on which films to see, your visitors will begin to consult you for your opinions as well. They will come to trust you and, as a result, be more likely to do business with you.

Make your on-line copy distinctive. Differentiate your site from others by creating a recognizable tone and voice as you describe your products and services. You, the individuals in your company, and what you offer are unique. Convey that uniqueness through the words you use on-line. If you are definitive about who you are, you will attract customers looking for exactly what you offer.

With the current national average price for banner ads at $35 per 1000 impressions and the current national click-through rate at less than 1%, Internet marketers must consider carefully whether banner advertising will yield the results they desire. My advice is to experiment first and find a site that offers a free trial period of banner advertising. Set up the banner to click through to a specifically addressed page so you can track results. If the results please you, buy banner advertising. If not, spend your marketing budget on advertising techniques that produce the results you want. For more information, read Hard Questions to Ask Banner Advertisers.

Understand the whimsical unreality of search engine placement. Getting listed well or at all takes time, tenacity and luck. For best Web site results, count on search engines not working at all. Focus on alternative promotional strategies.

Understand that a Web site is not a self-contained advertisement. It doesn’t launch with a "Ta-Da!" and automatically get visited or automatically produce sales. And its just sitting there a little longer won’t help. To produce results, your Web site has to be worth visiting and it has to be promoted both on-line and off.

Make the subject line sparkle on solicited e-mail you send to current and prospective customers. Alert Internet marketers will note that e-mail has lost the charm it had when we first got on-line and wrote lengthily and soulfully to friends and family members. Now we scan subject lines for spam and sales notices and reply as briefly as possible to business and personal messages. Internet marketers can no longer count on e-mail as a novel promotional technique. Be sure to include your company's or product's name in the subject line to at least get a little branding done before your message gets deleted.

Triple the value of new content added to your site by 1) posting the content as an update to your site, 2) providing it to subscribers through an e-mail newsletter, and 3) offering it as content to a portal or niche site related to your business. Your content will receive much greater exposure than if it remained solely on your site.

Do market research by signing up for spam. Well, it's not exactly spam since you'll receive solicited rather than unsolicited e-mail. But if you choose to receive e-mail advertisements through companies such as yesmail.com or PostMasterDirect.com, you'll be able to study your competition. Most opt-in advertising lists allow you to select the categories in which you would like to receive news of products, sales or special offers. Select your own product or service category, assess the competition, and consider whether or not opt-in e-mail advertising might be a useful technique to add to your own Internet marketing strategy.

According to published in Nature, September 1999, Web sites are so interlinked that any two randomly selected sites are only an average of 19 clicks away from each other. What this means for your Internet marketing strategy is that links to and from your site increase your chances of being visited by Internet surfers whose sole means of transportation is that all-powerful click. Request reciprocal links from sites you frequent or admire and list those sites on a generous links page on your own site.

Instead of selling your product or service on your Web site, sell answers to questions. Design your site to help visitors find what they're looking for and how your product or service fits into that discovery. To satisfy your visitors, organize your site according to their desires, not according to your inventory.

You have 24 hours, no more, to respond to an e-mail request from your Web site. If a letter, fax or phone message arrives on your desk, you may find yourself waiting a day or two to respond. Move this practice on-line at your peril. Web users point, click and receive immediate gratification. They expect the same from e-mail queries. If possible, reply immediately to each request through an autoresponder and then follow up as quickly as you can with a personalized reply. If you aren't attentive to your visitors' e-mail, they'll keeping clicking until they find someone who is.

Take an Internet marketing lesson from the stack of newspapers and magazines that accumulated while you were on vacation. You keep meaning to conscientiously read each issue, but old news simply isn't compelling. If your Web site isn't updated continually, visitors will treat you as they do their motionless piles of old paper - they'll neglect you in favor of sites offering lively, fresh content.

In a global marketplace with global competition, the reality is that anyone can sell the exact same products and services that we do on the Internet - and probably at a lower price. But what Amazon.com sells, according to its founder Jeff Bezos, is not books - which many have, do, and will sell - but "customer ecstasy." Given our unique expertise and experience, what can we offer our potential and current customers that no one else can? How can we uniquely create "customer ecstasy" for our clients? Answering that question, or even attempting to, will increase the focus and competitive edge of our Web sites.

We may strive unsuccessfully in our personal lives to be all things to all people, but a Web site lets us get close to providing for all the needs of all of our visitors. Simply by virtue of its essentially limitless space, a Web site can offer every bit of information about our business, products and services that a visitor might desire. If we design sites with all visitors in mind - from those who want highlights and entertainment to those who prefer comprehensive treatises and interaction - we increase the likelihood that the diversity of visitors to our site will become new customers.

Especially if your Web site has products or services for sale, visitors are looking for clues that they can trust you. Your site’s content, therefore, must convey in tone, text and typography that you mean business. Use humor sparingly. When it’s our credit card that’s swiped, we feel uneasy when the salesclerk jokes about being error-prone. Treating each visitor as a potential customer will help insure that your site’s content is appropriately business-like.

When designing your Web site and creating content for it, envision your true target market not only as your dreamed of customer, but as what he or she really is - a lone person staring at a glaring screen about the size of a sofa pillow. To sell your product or service, your site must take into account a surfer's isolation, eye strain, and sitting fatigue. If your site is slow to download, poor in content, or difficult to read or navigate, you've added to the negatives associated with surfing and probably lost a sale. Be sure to offer prospective customers Web site features and content that make time spent on your site worth it.

Do you offer a product or service that might benefit from the exposure offered by an online auction? Even if your product or service does not sell for the minimum price you set, auction sites that allow you to add your URL to the description section can be a valuable source of quantity click-throughs to your site. One of those click-throughs may become a new customer or client.

Nothing undermines the credibility of a Web site more than poorly edited text. To make sure your text is flawless, 1) paste your text into a word processor and use the spelling and grammar check functions; 2) print out and edit a hard copy version; 3) ask a colleague to edit it; 4) change the font face and font size and read it one more time; 5) read it backwards word by word. The result will be polished, error-free, confidence-inspiring text.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported (7/8/99) that one of the most comprehensive search engines accesses only 1/6 of the more than 800 million Web pages on the Internet. Conclusion? Simply registering with search engines is an insufficient means of getting the word out about your Web site. Use both off-line and online strategies for promoting your site and include your URL with every print and electronic communication associated with your business.

Internet users complain they are unable to find what they're looking for or that they find too much. Provide a cure for information overload by supplying reviews of Web sites and category-related books, services and products. If you make your site "information central" about your area of expertise, visitors will be relieved to find your site and will return happily.

Your Web site isn't about you, it's about me - me as your prospective client, me as your repeat visitor. The more your Web site anticipates my needs and provides for them, the more likely I am to buy your product or service. You may be tempted to design your site to inform me about your business. Switch your focus from "all about you" to "all about me" and you'll have a site that sells.

If you've got a business Web site, what you most want when marketing face-to-face is to encourage prospective clients to learn your URL. Make a positive contribution to society and to your business by sponsoring a charity event in exchange for a program advertisement featuring your Web site address.

On your Web site, list all of the professional, trade and civic organizations in which you and your company have memberships. Then contact the Webmasters of those organizations' sites and request a reciprocal link. Most Web sites are found through search engines or through links from other sites. When building site traffic, every link counts.

For potential customers or clients to visit your Web site, they’ve got to know where it is. At trade shows, conventions, open houses and fairs, hand out specialty items such as free pens or calendars featuring your Web site address, or URL, in bold print. Give generously and widely. You’ll want a useful reminder of your Web site address in as many offices and homes as possible. The more they see your URL, the more likely they’ll be to type it in for a visit.

An often overlooked but wonderfully price-effective (free!) technique for promoting your business is to include your company's full contact information and Web site address at the bottom of each e-mail you send. Not only will your signature expose the recipient to your company information, but if the message's content is valuable, you'll benefit from word-of-e-mail promotion when your message is forwarded to the recipient's colleagues and friends.