Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Mistakes of Pay Per Click Advertising: The Terrible 10

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

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by Josh Prizer

Vigilance, micromanaging and attention to detail can help you avoid some common and costly mistakes of PPC advertising. What are those mistakes? Here are the terrible 10 that are typical to most pay per click campaigns.

Too Many Keywords Per Ad Group

Creating relevant, targeted ads are important. Avoid placing all your keywords into a couple massive ad groups. Build them tighter. With tight ad groups you can control more of your ad customization to increase relevancy.

Ignoring Negative Keywords

Pay per click advertising has placed more importance than ever on click through rates and quality scores. It is vital to fine tune your impressions by getting rid of the non-relevant phrases that are lowering those CTRs. If you are selling an item such as “software for widgets” then be certain you also have those negative keywords like “-free” if you don’t have a free trial version. One way to find irrelevant keywords that are costing you is to check your log files of your site.

Not Doing Enough Testing

Split-testing your ads is critical. Even the smallest of changes can boost results. In addition to testing your ad copy’s “call to action” or value statements, every ad has multiple variables to test. The titles, the two lines of copy, and display url all can be optimized. If you don’t have time for hands-on testing, a good professional pay per click management company can run daily split testing for you. You’d be surprised how well this can pay off.

Poor or Non-Existent Tracking

If you do get into testing ads and fine-tuning your keyword lists, it’s only as effective as your tracking. Any PPC search engine will give you your ad spends and click through rates, but what about the bottom-line success? Knowing that you made $14,000 off of a $7,000 ad spend is fine, but if you dig deeper with your tracking you might be able to make that same $14,000 with only $6,000 a month in spend. That savings ads up.

Not Getting Keyword-Level Tracking

Good analytics or a good pay per click management company will get your data down to the keyword level. Why pay for keywords that are not performing? That money could be better spent on keywords that are doing well or on other marketing expenses. If one keyword has an earning per click of 45 cents and another keyword has an earning per click of $1.45, you need to know. You can lower the bid on one and raise the bid on the other to drive more profits. If you aren’t doing this, you likely have under-performing keywords that are leaking your account daily.

Keywords That Are Too Generic

Negative keywords may not be enough to keep you from trouble on too generic a keyword. While these generic keywords are often more highly searched and can even be among your best…they can also be riddled with bad traffic. Users who perform a search on a generic keyword may often be at a very early stage in the purchase process. Are you able to turn an effective profit on them? Once again, this is yet another reason why you need keyword-level traffic. It’s especially vital on a generic keyword.

Avoiding the Dirty Work of Building Long-Tail Keywords

This dovetails into the previous item. Building out lists and ads for long-tail keywords can be a time-consuming process, but worthwhile if done right. You are going to have different earnings per click for the keywords “dvd player,” “sony dvd player” and “sony dvd player model DVP-NS57P/B.” One consumer is doing research, while the other is likely pricing for the specific model they want and is ready to buy.

Not Separating Content and Search Networks

You can get stung by poor quality traffic or click fraud if you do not separate your content network advertising from your search network advertising. If you don’t understand those above items, there is a good probability that you are not separating the two in your accounts right now … and you are very likely losing money. A better solution is to build separate campaigns for each and … track with precise analytics the results from each network. Again, not knowing is probably costing you now.

Failing to Geo-Target if You’re Local

If you draw most of your business from a local area, the big three PPC engines allow you to geo-target your keywords to that area. This will bring the local market to your doorstep on non-local keyword phrases. This can be hugely profitable.

Not Continually Monitoring Your Campaigns

Alright, so maybe you do not frequently monitor your EPCs at the keyword level (you should). And, you don’t conduct split tests every day your ads are up (you should). It is still surprising that there are a high number of pay per click advertisers who don’t continually monitor their accounts. The big three PPC engines are cracking down on poor performing ads more than ever. Many advertisers are getting stung with the “Inactive for Search” label on their keywords. If you don’t monitor your accounts, Google, Yahoo and MSN may have plucked some of your keywords off their networks. And, with that, some of your profits.

The Terrible 10 of Pay Per Click Advertising is a lot to consider, but it’s vital for healthy pay per click campaigns. Whether you can actively manage your PPC accounts at this level or you need to hire a pay per click management company to do it, vigilance and precision can make a huge impact on your bottom line.

Mesmerize Audience Using Conversational Hypnosis

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

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by Future Focusinc

Using everyday conversation to communicate with the subconscious mind of someone sums up what is conversational hypnosis all about. The desired results are achieved by motivational speakers who are able to mesmerize their audience using conversational hypnosis. It is practiced by advertisers, businesses and professional speakers who use tones and cues in a casual, unassuming way that will control the actions of those listening.

A hypnotist who masters what is conversational hypnosis has the power to manipulate fellow workers, friends, colleagues and family members. Using subconscious persuasion techniques, the hypnotist can watch as an idea is suggested and implemented without the subject ever knowing they were exposed to hypnosis. All it takes is a rapport with person, and then specific words and techniques can be employed to control the intended subject.

You will develop these techniques as you learn what is conversational hypnosis. Your friends and family will be unaware that anything unusual is taking place when you practice these new skills on them. In fact, they will be utterly oblivious to what is conversational hypnosis and the trance that will be woven over them through the power of verbal suggestion.

Marketers, copywriters, and salespeople will find that what is conversational hypnosis especially useful for is the power of suggestion. It will allow you to subconsciously instill your audience with the confidence and motivaiton to purchase your product. You will also be able to foresee how your clients will behave even before they act.

In case you have a particularly difficult time communicating well or don’t do well at establishing interpersonal rapport, you might want to find out what is conversational hypnosis and how it can help you.. Actually, it could make you much better at person-to-person interactions and make those you care about feel you are a force to be reckoned with. This safe, easy hypnotism technique can totally alter the quality and content of your exchanges with friends, relatives, co-workers and employers.

Conversational hypnosis infiltrates modern advertising, sales letters, and marketing campaigns, and is much more common that most people realize. The power of persuasion hypnotizes the audience and appeals to human emotion. Influencing human behavior by using the power of language is generally what is conversational hypnosis focused on. Conversational hypnosis techniques rely on the fact that words can be powerful. You will see your relationships improving when you use the power of words more effectively.

Conversational hypnosis can be a great way to overcome issues in relationships and to improve your standing in your career or business. By using what is conversational hypnosis in your daily interaction with others, you will find that your communication skills will skyrocket and help you achieve your desired results.

How To Increase Your Online Sales Anytime

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

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by Kim and Charles Petty

Hold a discount sale on your web site. Use the sale to get rid of excess inventory, gain new or repeat customers, and increase your sales. Most businesses pick a theme for their sale, like a Halloween Sale. Below are six unique sales themes you could use:

Nobody’s Visiting Today Sale

Every online business has low visitor and sales day through the week. My days are Tuesdays and Thursdays.You could sell your products or services for cheaper to increase and sales on your slow days. You could have this advertised right on your web site.

Time Of The Day Sale

Periodically , pick out a time of the day like 5 to 7 pm to lower your prices. With online sales you need tell people the time zone. Announce your scheduled times ahead of time in your e-zine. This will give people enough time to plan when they will visit your web site.

Product Or Service Of The Day Sale

Each day offer different product or service at a lower price. This will draw people back to your web site everyday. This is a high traffic generating sale. If you don’t have a lot of products and services you may want to run the sale weekly or monthly.

Niche Group Sale

Hold a sale for a niche groups of people. Students, senior citizens, single people etc. This really works if your introducing a new product or service for the first time to a new target audience. Announce your sale in a targeted e-zine, e-mail discussion groups, message boards, etc.

Holiday Or Seasonal Sale

Offer lower prices on holidays and during seasonal changes. These type of sales let your visitors and customers know your no scrooge. Be creative and go as far as decorating your web site. You could upload holiday and seasonal graphics. Change the color of your text to match. Get in the spirit!

Get More For Your Money Sale

Give customers more products or services for their money. People relate these kind of sales to getting a bargain or saving money. You could offer a buy one get one for half off sale, a buy two get the third one free, two for the price of one sale, etc.

Know The Answers with the Four Ps of Marketing

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

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by Linda P. Morton

Everyone is always trying to find the new strategy that will allow them to turn their product from blah into Bam!, but it’s harder than it looks. But you can to produce a product that people want, by answering 20 questions about the four ps of marketing.

By determining the answers to the 20 questions in this article, you can start discovering a tried and true approach that thousands of businesses have used successfully - the four ps of marketing.

The four ps of marketing are product, package, price and promotion.

Four Ps Of Marketing: 1. Your Product Is Your First Major Marketing Decision

Creating or selecting your product is one of the most important decisions that you’ll make in your business. It’s dictates the type and amount of marketing that you’ll need to make sales.

Your product is the most important part of your business. It partially determines your markeing and how much profit you get. Ask yourself these questions regarding your product:

1. Who is the target market for your product?

2. How well does its features provide target market members’ desired benefits?

3. Does your product have something that competing products do not?

4. Is this product in line with consumer trends?

5. Is the market strong enough to warrant producing your product?

6. How much volume of product will it take to meet demands?

7. What’s the likely time frame for the most orders?

8. What inventory is needed for the product to meet demands?

Once you’ve answered all the product questions, you’re ready to consider the package questions.

Four Ps Of Marketing: 2. Packaging Is The Second Of The Four Ps

Once you know the product, how will you package it to the consumer? There is a saying that you don’t judge a book by its cover, well people do and when the packaging of a product does not match what the consumer wants, they move on. It’s the 10 second sale, and it has to be done right.

Packaging can increase or decrease expenses so it affects the third P of marketing - Price.

So give your package some thought by answering the next four questions.

9. Does the package provide any advantages over your competitors’?

10. Are the dimensions of the packaging appropriate for the product?

11. Does your package provide enough protection for your product?

12. Is your packaging excessive, requiring increased handling?

Now you’re ready to consider pricing your product.

Four Ps Of Marketing: 3. Your Price Must Match Your Market And Product

The price of the product is important. It has a big influence on whether they buy it. Too high and they pass it over, too little and they buy it, but you don’t make enough money. Ask yourself these questions:

13. What price do the forces of supply and demand dictate?

14. Does the price of producing the product decrease as you produce more?

15. How does your price decrease as volume increases?

16. What is the best price for the product?

Now that you’ve answered the first 16 questions, you can start thinking about promoting your product.

Four Ps Of Marketing: 4. The Final P Is Promotion

Promoting a product is how you sell it, so it has to be done right or you won’t sell one product and your business will go under.

The remaining four questions will then leverage your marketing strategy and tactics.

17. How much do should you spend on different promotion tactics?

18. How well does your promotion mix match your business’ other marketing practices?

19. How does the marketing of the product match its current life-stage?

20. Is the promotion in line with what your customer’s want?

After you’ve answered these last four questions, you’ll be ready to develop a marketing plan.

Four Ps Of Marketing: Synopsis

The Four Ps of Marketing build from answering the 20 questions. Answer all of them before deciding on a product, pricing it, packaging it and selling it.

Your answers establish your marketing budget, generate your marketing strategy and reveal the best marketing tactics to jump start your marketing efforts.

An Old Concept with a New Strategy

Friday, June 20th, 2008

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by James Featherstone

If you want to succeed with your online business, then you will have to look at article marketing in order to drive more targeted traffic to your website. Article marketing is a great way to give the people what they want while drawing them into your website in order to see what you have to offer. You can surely increase your customer base by using good article marketing strategies.

Article marketing is easy to learn how to use. You will need to know that most people get bored spending their time searching through the same thing all the time, so you will want to write or purchase articles that will give your traffic a new reason to visit your website and learn something new about what they are searching for.

Article marketing is not a new concept to advertising. Article marketing has been around since printing was available. But with the internet, article marketing takes on a whole new job. Not only does it help to promote your site with the people that view it, it can also work for you in order to get your link higher up in the search engine results.

You can use article marketing with a variety of different strategies that will help to advertise your website. You can put the articles directly on your website in order for people who search for the right keywords to be able to find your website. This makes the concept of keywords even more important. You will want articles with all the right keywords so that you can get the most targeted traffic.

The other way that article marketing can make a difference for your website is the concept of writing articles for posting on an article directory. While not directly related to your website, the article will be able to direct targeted traffic to your website in order to get the most out of the article marketing that you are using.

With article marketing, you will want to target the most people that you can find that will be interested in the products and services that you offer. Targeted traffic and article marketing go hand in hand. Article marketing is a great way to get targeted traffic to your website by using the right keywords to get them to come over from the search engine results page.

Here are a few more tips to get targeted traffic from article marketing. First, you will want to choose carefully the keywords that you are using for your articles. If you want to receive the right results, you will want to fill your website with articles that utilize all the most important keywords. The articles should be well written and the content should be relevant to those that are searching for it.

Article marketing is a low cost way to advertise your site and generate traffic to the most people that you can reach. Since article marketing is so popular, you will want to hurry and get on the bandwagon while you still can. Article marketing is an important new way to get the most traffic, so why not try it?

20 Possible Reasons Why Your Business Is Failing

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

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by Kim and Charles Petty

1. You don’t offer free original content.

2. You don’t use a signature file on your e-mails.

3. You don’t offer free software.

4. You don’t have your own domain name.

5. You don’t offer a free contest or sweepstakes.

6. You don’t test and improve your ad copy.

7. You don’t offer a free web site directory.

8. You don’t give people any urgency to buy now.

9. You don’t offer a free e-zine.

10. You don’t attract the target audience that would buy your product or service.

11. You don’t offer a free community.

12 You don’t let people read your ad before they get your freebie.

13. You don’t offer a free affiliate program.

14. You don’t make your web site look professional.

15. You don’t offer a free online service.

16. You don’t give people as many ordering options as possible.

17. You don’t offer free current information.

18. You don’t let people know anything about your business.

19. You don’t offer free samples of your product or service.

20. You don’t make people feel safe and secure when they order.

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5 tips for Business Marketing with Less Time and No Money

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

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For years I have seen small business owners struggle to grow their business. Most business owners think that they need lot of money to market and grow their business to next level. I agree that it takes money to advertise and hire a sales team but I can argue whole day about money and marketing.

Going back to basic, marketing is a system to present your offer in front of your customer. You can go out and present the offer using different advertising channels or you can create a system to attract customer to your product or service.

There are tons of ways that you can use to market your business without burning a hole in your pocket.

Most business owners feel that they don’t need marketing because they are doing ok. They forget the natural system of business. If a business is not growing each day then it’s shrinking. Nothing in this world stands still. It can either grow or become extinct. What you choose to do will decide the fate of your business.

Here are five ninja marketing techniques that you can use to market your business both online and offline. It only takes few minutes each day and you don’t have to spend any money. This is not some old school marketing approach. These techniques are measurable and solid.

1. Blog – Blog is a web diary where you can post the daily activities of your business and marketplace. These posts should be more directed towards your customers.

You can create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Blogs can become an automated customer attraction system because search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs.

2. Simple SEO – Most people think that search engine optimization is too technical and scary but its not. If you can create an email account and login to your email then you can perform basic seo to your website easily.

If you have your web hosting details then you can change the following in 10 mins without reading any technical manual. Just get access to your index.html or index.htm page

Title tag – Your offer with a main keyword (no more than 60 word count)
Meta description – Your offer explained in more detail with your phone# (no more than 200 word count)
Meta keyword – few keywords related to your business ( no more than 60 word count)

3. Social Media – Most people use Facebook and MySpace for fun but you can easily use these free tools for business. You can create free facebook groups and MySpace pages with your business details. Add new content each week to these pages and watch your network sky rocket.

4. Articles – One of the easiest ways to generated tons of traffic to your business website is by writing articles. You must writer 2-3 articles every week and submit to popular article directories like Ezinerarticles.com. Article positions you as expert and build credibility.

You can go to news.google.com and search for new content related to your business.

5. Google Analytics – Marketing is not only about getting new customers but it’s also about measuring current conversion.
Google Analytics is free and most powerful tracking system. You can install analytics on a 5-10 page website in minutes.

To quick install Google Analytics you must go to google.com/analytics and create a new account. It will ask you to enter your website address and then it will give you a code. Copy the code and paste it every where before the tag on your website.

Now you can track your website and get tons of data on customer value, loyalty and conversion.

Sameer Khan is a ninja marketing expert helping business owners to grow their business by 10-100% or more in less than 60 days. After managing the marketing department of two successful multi-million dollar companies Sameer started his own consulting firm and he helps business owners to get fast traffic and business growth using proprietary Ninja Marketing techniques. To learn more about him and his Ninja Marketing techniques go to Houston Marketing Agency or call 1-281-940-1568

7 marketing tips to create a customer buying frenzy

Friday, June 6th, 2008

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by Sameer Khan

It’s getting tough everyday to differentiate your business and stand out from the competition. Especially for service business it all boils down to improving customer service to create competitive advantage.

One of the most successful ways to make your business an attention attractor is to make an offer that people can’t refuse. It could be freebies, special consultations, unbelievable discount offers and limited time offers.

Here is the list of seven tactics you can use to increase sales rapidly.

1. Free sample – One of the easiest ways to get customer to your door is to offer something for free. If your product is really what you say then it can create automatic word of mouth marketing and get more people to try your free offer

2. Free trial – Free sample can be good for a business selling a product but for service business you can offer a free trial of your service. The free trial can be for 30 days, 14 days or any duration that you are comfortable with.

3. Payment plan – Why do you think most companies on TV talk about payment plans. Simply because they work. If you offer a payment plan to your customers it puts them at ease and establishes automatic credibility.

4. Discount on volume purchase – If you are selling individual products and a package deal then you can entice your customers to purchase the package by offering substantial discounts. This will increase your revenue as well as create happy customers.

5. Customer Rewards – Loyalty rewards program are more popular these days and most companies are implementing them. One twist to loyalty rewards program is to offer rewards that can be used by your customer’s family, friends and relatives. This can not only increase the customer loyalty but also add new customers without spending a dime on advertising.

6. Buy one give one – Another cool twist to buy one get one free is to offer a product to your customer and then give the same product as a free gift to any one contact of your customer. Let the customer know about this offer and they will be happy as ever. Giving a gift to their family or friends without spending any money is best deal for them.

7. Bonus offer – Offer gift or discount certificates to your customers for the next purchase. This ensures that they will return or give it to someone who can benefit from the offer.

About the Author:

Sameer Khan is a ninja marketing expert helping business owners to grow their business by 10-100% or more in less than 60 days. To learn more about him and his Ninja Marketing techniques go to Houston Marketing Agency or call 1-281-940-1568

10 Killer Ways To Sell Your Back-End Products

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

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by Kim and Charles Petty

A back-end product is a product you attempt to sell your customers after they have recently purchased a related product from your business.

If you’re not trying to sell back-end products to your customers, you’re making a big mistake. It is easier to sell to existing customers than it is to sell to new ones who don’t trust your business yet.

Below are ten killer strategies you can use to sell your back-end products to your existing customers:

1. When you ship people the first product they bought, insert a flyer or brochure for your back-end product in the package.

2. Give customers a free subscription to a customers only e-zine when they buy your product. You could include your ad for your back-end product in each issue.

3. Send your customers greeting cards on holidays or on their birthday. Include a small advertisement inside the card for your back-end product.

4. After people order your first product from your web site, take them to a “thank you” web page and include your back-end product ad on that page.

5. Send customers a free surprise gift after they order your first product. You could attach another ad with the free gift for your back-end product.

6. If you’re selling an electronic product, like an ebook, include your ad for your back-end product somewhere inside the electronic product.

7. Give your customers a free membership into your “customers only” private site. You could include your ad for your back-end product somewhere inside the private site.

8. Contact your customers by phone and ask them if they were happy with their purchase. You could tell them about your back-end product.

9. Send your customers a thank you letter by mail or e-mail. You could mention your back-end product somewhere on the letter.

10. Ask your customers if they want to be updated in the future when you have new product offers. You could have them sign up to receive e-mail or snail mail updates.

Your business will have a greater chance of surviving when you attempt to sell back-end products to your existing customers.

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Search Engine Marketing: How Search Engines Rank Web Pages

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

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by Terry Stanfield

Getting your webpage ranked as high as possible on a search engine results page is one of the goals of search engine marketing and using search engine optimization on your website. But do you know how the search engine actually ranks and indexes web pages? Most search engines use a complicated process to index and rank the web pages that the search engine spiders find when they are scanning the web. Using search engine optimization and putting articles written with search engine marketing in mind will get the search engine spiders to your site but once the search engine spiders find your site they have to index your site and then assign your site a ranking within the thousands of other sites that contain information on the same topic that your site has.

Different search engines use different methods to assign a weight or rank to each web page that the search engine’s spiders find so using different methods of search engine marketing and using different percentages of search engine optimization is a good idea. If you do several different types of search engine marketing and utilize more than one kind of search engine optimization tool then it’s more likely that a search engine spider will find your web page and assign it a higher weight or rank.

One of the ways that search engine spiders determine the weight or rank of a particular web page is to index the number of times that a particular word or key phrase appears on a site. The search engine spider will assign a weight or rank to the web page based on how many times that word or key phrase appears within the web page. This is a very common method of assigning rank to web pages that is used by a lot of the most popular search engines so it’s important to use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to make sure that those search engine spiders give your site a high ranking or weight.

Another way that search engine spiders assign a weight or rank to a web page is to take note of where in the web page a particular keyword or key phrase is located. For search engines that use this kind of ranking system just using standard search engine marketing or traditional search engine optimization techniques might not be enough to get your website noticed by the search engine spiders. In order to draw the spiders of search engines that rank web pages based on the location of the keyword or key phrase on the page it’s necessary to use those words to tag your page. Tagging a page is putting that particular keyword or key phrase in the meta tags of your site, using them in the heading or home page of your site and using those words or phrases systematically through the rest of the site. If you think of your website as a tree in order to get the attention of spiders from the search engines that use this type of ranking system you have to have a particular key word or key phrase on every branch of the tree in order to get a higher ranking.

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