Coaching For Success
Posts tagged Business Marketing
Encouraging Call-To-Action In Your Business Website
Sep 2nd
These are examples of the most commonly used colours for 'Call to Action' buttons
Internet business marketing is an effective but time consuming technique for online business promotion. Constant monitoring and improvement is required in your online promotional campaigns in order to ensure maximisation of your efforts and naturally you want to have a good return on your efforts and investments.
This can sometimes be easier said than done, however it is possible to achieve if you are able to convince your target audience to take some positive action following your ad campaign in Google, landing page promotion, or web squeeze promotion tactics on your main site. Today’s post discusses the importance of a ‘Call-to-Action’ function in your website to help you get results from your internet traffic.
Call-to-Action on your website
A good internet business website should have a clear objective and strategy for attracting prospective customers. All of the content should definitively be written and promoted with the intent of bringing customers to an end goal on your website.
Consider this, if you have spend time or money (in most case both) to obtain traffic and if you are able to drive traffic to your website, then you must want those visitors to take some action which not only will benefit them but you also.
It is amazing how such a small point can become such a major problem to many internet business online, who simple forget that a website in itself does not bring sales, nor does all the traffic generation in the world. Instead it is that definitive, quietly understated, subliminal call to action message embedded on your site that turns a website into an internet business website that does real business sales.
The action does not have to be drastic or flashy, it can be simply subscribing to your website, signing up, purchase via a button or it can just be the wording of your webcopy, in any case these things need to be your irrestible voice to a potential client. Your call to action should woo your potential customers by appealling to their personality, pain/ problem.
It should not be sales patter or business speak necessarily as many people find that off putting, but if it can get them identifying with your product or services as well as feeling an overwhelming need to take some action then you know you have done a good job.
Call to actions should always have a proper function for both your own business and that of your end purchaser, it is therefore important that each individual page of your site have a clear call to action function set out from the beginning.
How to approach call to action in content development
You should always atempt to boost any advertising you do with supporting content call to actions, even if you do not use ads you should ensure your web copy for each page uses them. This is a key mistake many companies make and it cost them dearly in lost revuenue.
Your homepage should be optimised to a single set of call to actions, do not try to have call to actions for lots of different products or services as this will only serve to negatively impact your efforts. Once you have decided what these are you need to write your webcopy from the perspective of your typical customer.
Do not assume anything in the copy, do not do a sales pitch allow the copy to be a thread with a sharp concise opening to capture attention and then unfold. Each paragraph should make a call to action statement toward the end goal and the final paragraph should be where you make your invisible close – call to action.
The keywords which a user will look for must be incorporated throughout the content on the page. Basic rules for Search Engine Optimisation should be used. If you have not researched your keywords properly then try Google’s keyword tool to help you.
You should also structure the information given on the website by strategically using navigation links from your homepage to redirect visitors to the page which is relevant to them. This redirect is indirectly a call to action as it is making your visitor get involved with your site by compelling them to click the link to get the right information. A call to action really only works if the potential customer is interacting with your internet business site and each page should have an objective which prompts users for further action.
Search engine techniques for Call-to-Action
An ‘action’ can be generated right from when a potential customer clicks a url and follows your webpage from a search engine result. The ‘description tag’ which describes your page in search engine results can be used to encourage click-throughs by using popular keywords in the description.
You can also put your special offers and unique selling proposition (USP) in your site page description tag which can be used to prompt potential customers to go for instant subscription or purchases that you may have discounted for example. If you use WordPress for your site this can also be done by using the excerpt displayed on the category pages.
Promotional tools and call-to-action
If you are doing article marketing you can get targeted traffic visits for your website. You can use a compelling call to action that directly relates to the individual article you have posted. The other option is to link to an internal (specific) page on your website that the reader would be most interested in related to the article (use a backlink) once back at your site on the specific page a full blown call to action can ensue on that landing page.
Call-to-Action in ‘Newsletters’ or ‘Email’ refers to the response which you wring from your potential target audience. Their response can be in the form of feedback, an RSVP to any event or similar actions. The content in the message must explicitly mention what action you expect them to take i.e. ‘click here for your FREE report’.
As you can see from the above tips call to action’s are very important and should be an integral part of your internet business strategy. Online promotions follow a pull strategy by attracting customers to your products and inducing their desire to make a purchase. Desire is no good if it is not converted into action. A ‘Call-to-Action’ function is an explicit way of converting the desire of customers into final action and hence achieving the ultimate objective of generating sales for your internet business.
Online and Offline Marketing Coexisting to Your Business’ Benefit
Jul 16th
It is interesting how many Internet Marketers tell you offline marketing is dead, Even more interesting to note is the amount of online marketers not reaching their market due to lack of correct marketing whether online or off. There seems to be this big debate about which method to follow and how it can improve a companies bottom line, the biggest debate against offline marketing being the cost and the biggest debate against online marketing is it is impersonalisation.
But personally I see no reason why these two very good and proven marketing systems can not coexist in such a way as to work in harmony in order to improve a businesses visibility in both arenas. Think about this carefully if you could use your budget to both utilise both online and traditional markets then where would this place your company. Instead of debating which to use more business owners need to move towards a more unified marketing effort in order to get new clients. Everything is not just about SEO or about Press Releases it is about the enhancement of one to benefit the other and do better customer conversions ultimately.
When doing offline advertising think about how to bring people to your online sites, it is not enough these days to simply give people your website url, people want more and need more if your business is going to stand out from the crowd. Equally online it is not enough to say hey I am here; people still have a need to identify with something physical.
In order to make your budget stretch further think about where would be the best place offline to place an ad for your product or service that would give the desired reach i.e. if you only want local business you may decide to use your local radio station. Radio ads not only have the advantage of giving both a physical location and an online location it also is very personal as people can identify with a voice. You may choose to advertise during a drive time show for maximum reach of your ad and the best time maybe morning or evening depending on what you have on offer.
When trying to get advertising online look for sites that sell complimentary services or products to your own rather than a site with many unrelated products. If you think on this it is common sense it is better to have one well placed ad rather than ten ill placed ones and the one well placed one will probably give you more throughput than the others not so well placed ones altogether.
There are many ways to make these two areas of advertising work together for your benefit. Take time to look at what you are doing and see how they can be integrated not only to save time but to help your business get better throughput and hopeful more customers.
Using Publicity for Lead Generation, Sales and Visiblity Online
Jun 19th
‘Publicity for Promotion’
Publicity is Your Shout Box to Better Lead Generation
A marketer understands the importance of promotion for its business. Without promotion, a product cannot sell. There are a lot of ways to promote your product ranging from offline techniques to the online routes. One such technique ‘Publicity’.
Publicity is simply put a way to create visibility for yourself, product or service among public. This is very crucial in today’s competitive business scenario as potential customers now have more options to which they can switch their brands to as and when they like. Thus, it is imperative for a business to stay visible in the market.
If your business remains in the news (newsworthy); it can get automatic promotion without paying for or doing any expensive ad campaigns.
Publicity is different from an advertisement as the former is achieved by creating newsworthy items for the public while the latter does not require any news item. Here are some ways to get publicity for your business.
‘Publicity through news’
You have to show something different or novel to make yourself stand apart to become a part of daily or weekly news. Try to think against the conventional methods like launching a website or broadcasting a simple infomercial. You can start by ‘writing a regular column or an article’ in local newspapers or magazines, online you may wish to guest blog on someone elses site or write for an online magazine.
You can also publish newsletters and distribute them among your customers using both print and online mediums to do this. The content should be relevant in the ontemporary world and must be of interest to the general public or a particluar section of the public (i.e those interested in your area of expertise).
Remember that you cannot create a sales pitch here; you are establishing your brand name by getting publicity. Once brand is established, the sales automatically follow it.
‘Publicity through media coverage’
You can invite media to cover any promotional event you are involved in or run to get publicity. ‘Issuing a press release’ can make news on all TV channels, radio and newspapers.
All you need to do is to make the event ‘Newsworthy’. For example, you can hold a green environment day in which you showcase how to go paperless and invite the press media to cover the highlighted features of the day which are environment friendly. By doing so you showcase your concern for the environment and at the same time get publicity for product yor service you offer on paperless offices.
The tip is to give the media content which they can publish so it can be a win-win situation for you and for them. You can also create a newsworthy event by launching some contests and inviting your prospects and thus get the media coverage that way, in this scenario you can reach the target prospect customers effective and easily.
‘Publicity through social responsibility’
Businesses are becoming active in Corporate Social Responsibility by aligning their business goals with the social causes. These social causes can be related to the benefit of lsick children i.e alignment with for example Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital so they are seen as a business of overall benefit to society in terms of giving back. This establishs goodwill among prospective and current customers and thus gain their trust about your brand (this is known as your ‘human-face’).
‘Write about yourself’
Apart from newsletters or articles you can write and publish your own work. You can even ‘write a book’ where you can express your ideas and opinions. You can write your success stories and can also express your anger at your critics.
By distributing such books among your clients and business counterparts, you gain respect in their eyes and also establish a connection with them. If you are too busy to write then you can use ghost writers, transcribed books etc. Again the important thing is to write relevant contentor do it online using blogs, podcasts etc.
Always remember, in the times of tough competition it is likely that your customers will look for an easy, quicker, possibly cheaper option to switch to, all you need do is try to remain visible on your prospects and customer’s radar so that they remember why they use you or why prospects should use you.
Marketing Strategies Part Two
Jun 17th
Marketing Planning
In part one we discussed the different between what business owners percieve customers want and what potential clients want and need this was a case or product/service V people/brand allure. I discussed why people/ brand allure was a natural winning combination for any business and hopeful gave you some food for thought in changing the strategy you maybe using by looking at whether your business was inline with customers wants and needs. Today I want to look briefly at the process you need to follow to plan an effective marketing strategy for your business.
The objective of your marketing plan is to grab the customer and retain them for as long as possible, this is easier said than done, however following a step-by-step approach can guide you in the right direction. Below I have broadly set out a marketing plan.
1. Define business objective – You would be amazed at how many business owners we at The Internet Business Coach speak to who just can not define the objective of their business (Note: STOP! if this is you before continuing to read do this). How can you approach a potential customer if you cannot answer this. Your objective/s need to be short and succinct – if you can not do it in 100 words or less something is wrong and you need to rethink!
2. Establish market environment variables like competitors, customers’ behaviour. If you never study the competition, your business stands to lose, ask yourself if they are more successful than you what is it that they are doing that you may not be doing or getting right, what brand allure are they using to attract customers, how and most importantly where are they marketing? Is their marketing targetted at specific groups? All of the answers to these questions can help you overcome any current issues you have with gaining new business. Customer behaviuor is very important and as mentioned yesterday customers do not buy products/service but people and brand.
3. Define your market and customer profile. – to define your market you must first define your customer profile, i.e. where are they,? what is their key problem? then you can look at the market, where can you find them?, how do you reach them and so on.
4. Define your positioning, branding, pricing and promoting strategies – We discussed your positioning and marketing brand in part one and will discuss in more detail pricing and means of promotion in part three.
5. Establish an implementation plan. – At this stage you have already done most of the true hard work and now you need to think about how you use all of the data you collated to implement and execute your marketing plan of action. This in itself is no easy feat and if planned incorrectly can cost you time and lost money. Take time to write this down look at the time period over which this specific plan will be implemented and how this will get done i.e. your marketing mix.
6. Allocate financial and human resources. – The key here is to ask yourself how much of this can I do myself, what do I really know and could someone else do it better. If you know in your heart that you cannoot give this task X hours per week/month of undivided attention because your business demands are great or you simple do not know enough or the learning curve for you will be to steep then you really need to allocate enough money to your marketing campaign to cover outside help and the acual marketing itself ‘ it is better to plan to cover this cost in your product/service sale price then to try to do everything and end up doing nothing or half doing it where you ultimately end up with no new business and financial loses.
7. Identify the metrics for plan evaluation. – Basically this is a fancy way of saying what method/s you will use to monitor your plan and by what will you measure it i.e. collection of data, resources, schedule, quality, scope and problems. Keep reading the posts on this blog for how to do this.
8. Implement the plan. the D-Day of your hardwork is finally here in the words of Nike’ Just Do IT’.
9. Evaluate its effectiveness based on the set metrics – Now you are at the stage of checking to see if what you thought was going to happen and if not why not and how to change it, if it did go according to plan, how to contniue to do it or get potentially better results.
10. Define opportunities for long-term market development on the basis of the results. – This one speaks for itself, if it did not work well tweak, if it did rinse and repeat. In part three we will look at online and offline marketing, see you then. If you like this article and wish to republish it please leave it intact crediting it with a do follow link back to http://www.theinternetbusinesscoach.co.uk/blog
Making Seminar Promotion Pay
Jun 14th
Not All Seminars are Classroom Led
Some of the conventional marketing tools never lose their relevance with changing times. Seminars are one such medium of promotion which has been in use for a very long time. They have advanced with changing times and a lot of innovative techniques have evolved to make them as useful as possible. This article discusses various techniques that are used to build a successful seminar for promoting your business.
‘What is a seminar?’
Basically a seminar is a presentation made in front of an intended audience with the aim of promoting your products or services and add customers to your business by adding value to them in the form of knowledge. A seminar revolves around a message which you wish to convey to the audience. The more effective the message and the way it is communicated, the more likely the semiar will be a success. So, there are some basics which must be followed while developing its content.
‘The content’
A presentation is always identified by its title. In order to get the attention of the maximum number of people, the title should be very catchy tagline. There must also be a sub-heading explaining the benefit your product/service offers and explaining what you intend to convey from your catchy title. If your seminar is informational i.e added value at one level in order to get people to buy higher priced products you must ensure the content is very good and useful to them, the expression is ‘an eyeopener’ or an ‘a ha’ moment.
The body of the content must carry forward the effect of the catchy title. The content must be as concise as possible and must be presented in an effective format. Wherever it is possible, you should use bullet points instead of wordy lines. The words used in the content as well as used by the presenter during the presentation must be persuasive in nature, yet light and not sales pitch like. The words should spontaneously create an attraction, for example-’Please’, ‘Free’, ‘Save’ etc. Through persuasive words you can hold on to the attention of the audience. The content must end with a thanks note along with a call to action like highlighting benefits of early purchase.
‘Add-ons’
In order attract the audience to become customers you can offer them additional benefits. ‘Early bird offers’ can be made where you can offer special discounts or gifts on early purchases. You can also mention ‘Money back guarantees’ to give them reassurance. Online ordering facilities always work well especially alongside easy finance options given to facilitate the purchase. These simple offers can get many customers attracted to your product. You can publish the testimonials of successful customers which authenticates your product.
‘Different forms of seminars’
A seminar may not be always a presentation in front of a sitting audience. It can be in various forms like- a flyer intended for pitching with a cover letter; an e-mail campaign where the content is mass mailed; an advertorial, which is content in form of an advertisement; an online advertisement; a referral campaign where you can ask your old customers to refer your product to new customers and offering them incentives in return; a simple radio or TV infomercial where the content of seminar is moulded as an infomercial. The seminar presentations can also take place in PR events. Whatever the form of seminar is, the intention is to convey an effective message to a target audience.
A successful seminar ends up generating a lot of customers for your business and moreover it builds up a long term relationship with them. Once you develop a relationship with your customers, you start expanding your network. The most important thing is to hold on to your network by constantly following up with them. Remember, a successful business runs on a successful network.
