By Carl Weiss
You know, it doesn’t take a
phone booth and a red cape to turn Clark Kent into Superman. All it takes is the will to thwart evil day
in and day out. Believe it or not,
online marketing is a lot like that as well.
Think about it. When you create online
content, it's all too easy to lose the spark of inspiration that keeps you
churning out blogs, social posts and videos on a weekly basis. That being said, if you hope to generate super results, all you
really need are the skills to continue the fight.
Leaping tall buildings in a
single bound is no easy feat to accomplish, but neither is getting onto page one
of the major search engines, particularly Google. The secret to leaping onto page one is to
have multiple routes to the top. Just like websites, it's possible to optimize blogs, social posts and
even YouTube videos. This means wrapping your posts and videos with the keywords and phrases that you would like to see on page one of
Google. While it may not be faster than
a speeding bullet, I have seen posts on Google+, Blogger, YouTube and even
Merchant Circle leap to the top of Google in less than twenty four
hours.
Of course you still need to keep in
mind that the only thing harder to accomplish online than generating traffic is generating sales. Having one
without the other is great for bragging rights, but it won’t do much to augment
the bottom line. Statistics show us that the average visitor to a website will
only view 3.6 pages and stay on site for 2.45 minutes. So you had better provide the visitor with
compelling content if you hope to generate either a lead or a sale.
Use Grabber Headlines to Steer Prospects
If your intention is to steer
your audience to watch a video or read a blog, the
first thing you need to do is whet their appetite by providing a killer
headline. On average, eight out of ten
people will read a headline, but only two out of ten will read the copy. The key to writing killer headlines is to
state the biggest benefit in the boldest way possible. “Create an Instant Audience in Just 1 Click!” “Blog your way to Online Succe$$.” “How FREE Offers Generate Results.”
Features Inform and Benefits Sell
If you want visitors to read
beyond the headline, you need to spell out the benefits before describing
the features. The public
doesn’t purchase automobiles because they can travel from point “A” to point
“B”. They buy them because they are
sporty or fuel efficient or because they can ford a stream to reach that
secluded camping spot. The reason that most people read a blog or watch a video
is to save time or money, cure a pain, or to be entertained. The last thing they want to do is read a tech
manual. So keep your narrative
interesting by injecting human interest stories and showing the audience what’s in it
for them.
If you want to hook a fish, then dangle some bait
Circle this item in red. The main reason that most online marketing
campaigns don’t succeed is due to the fact that they don’t provide a compelling
inducement to click or buy. Or, they
hide the offer so that it is nearly impossible to find. Remember, the goal is to generate a new
customer. In order to prime the pump,
you need to offer something of real or perceived value that is going get the
prospect to take action. You need to feature the offer prominently, not hidden at the bottom of the page below the fold.
For the most part, you need to offer something free or at a substantial discount in order to generate either a registration or a sale. The bait doesn't always have to cut into your bottom line either. Intangibles such as white papers or free reports have proven immensely successful in generating registrations over the years. If sales are your goal, try offering free shipping or a coupon that offers 10% off the next purchase. Above all, the secret to successful marketing is to answer this question:
For the most part, you need to offer something free or at a substantial discount in order to generate either a registration or a sale. The bait doesn't always have to cut into your bottom line either. Intangibles such as white papers or free reports have proven immensely successful in generating registrations over the years. If sales are your goal, try offering free shipping or a coupon that offers 10% off the next purchase. Above all, the secret to successful marketing is to answer this question:
Why should I do business with you versus every other
option available to me, including doing nothing?
While this principle is right
out of the Marketing 101 playbook, you would be surprised at how many people
fail to acknowledge the fact that the operative word in online marketing is “Marketing.”
How to make the fish nibble twice at the bait.
Another intangible that can
be of great value is a free webinar. The
webinar can either be taped or delivered live. (Personally I prefer taped,
since you can deliver the goods as soon as you generate the registration.) Either
way you get a second shot at the prospect.
Add to this the fact that a webinar will give you a far better
opportunity to enhance your credibility and prove your authority than a printed
report ever could.. More importantly, this mechanism could become one of your best closing
tools ever.
Don’t make it hard to act.
One of the main reasons that
many online marketing campaigns fail is due to the fact that it is sometimes
difficult to fill out the form that is required to accept the offer. The last thing someone wants to do is fill
out a survey that is five pages long.
Rule number one in selling online is “Make it Easy to Accept the Offer.” Once you have the prospect’s attention and
given them a solid reason to do business with you, don’t fumble the ball on the
one yard line by making the acceptance of your offer as painful as root
canal. Make the acceptance form short
and to the point. (If you desire more information than name, email address and
phone number, you can get this more easily in a follow up email.) Remember the letters WWW
still mean Wild Wild West to many people.
This means that credibility is the biggest hurdle to pulling the trigger
and accepting an offer and/or buying anything online.
Don’t drop the ball once you have generated a lead.
The final linchpin in the
effort to acquiring new customers is that once you generate a lead, you need to use it. Obviously everyone that opts
in for your offer and/or listens to your webinar is not going to make an
instant buying decision. Does that mean
you should discard the lead?
Hardly. If you want to make real
money in online marketing you need to take the long approach and set up a drip
marketing campaign that automatically sends out a newsletter replete with offer
every couple of weeks. As they say in
sales, persistence beats resistance.
While it may take Kryptonite to
thwart Superman’s efforts, for the most part the thing that foils most wanna be
online marketers are their own inconsistencies. In other words, far from
turning into Super Sales People, they shoot themselves in the foot somewhere between
enticing and acquiring an online lead. So if you want to turn your inner Clark Kent into Superman, put down that red cape and pick up some white hot online marketing strategies. Besides, where are you going to find a
phone booth to change in anyway?
As president of W Squared MarketingGroup, Carl Weiss has been Supercharging his clients online marketing efforts
for more than 16 years. If you want to
learn more about Working the Web to Win, tune in Carl’s online radio show of
the same name on Blog Talk Radio.
It's important to stay in touch with your customers once you have generated a lead. Customer service should be on top of everyone's list. Good article!
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