The Art of Online Business Marketing

The Art of Online Business Marketing

by: Arthur

Marketing is a mind game where the advertiser seek to grad your attention with their advertisement.

Traditional advertising are via Television, Cinemas, Newspaper, Popular Magazines, Posters, Radios, Buses, Taxis etc.

Online Marketing via the Internet are Banners display, Text links, Email, FFA, Classified Ads, Search Engine, Pay Per Click Search Engine etc.

In order to understand more about the creature Marketing, it is best for you to start paying attention to the various form of advertisement that surrounds you wherever you are. Keep a little marketing note book with you and write down what attract your attention, why it attract you, how it influence your purchasing decision etc.

The concept of Marketing whether Traditional or Online is the same.

The challenge of all Online Marketer is to attract as many traffics to their sites as possible via the various means of Online Marketing Method.

There are no straight answer to successful marketing and you just have to keep learning and trying until you find a method that is suitable for you.

Many says that Banners are lousy and attract little clicks through but why does it still exists today. There are people who are successful in using Banners and those who are unsuccessful. A lots depend on the design of the banners. It is just like posters advertisement where you make used of colors, famous movies star, funny or interesting quote to attract attention.

For others, it may be Pay Per Click Search Engine. Pay Per Click Search Engine like Google Ads word provides you a constant flow of traffics if you make used of it wisely. You can start playing with it with an initial registration fees of 5.00. There are smart PPC expert who bids for certain keywords for 10 cents or lower while others bid it for 50 cents or higher. They do it by researching and bidding for less competitive keywords. They bring a constant flow of relevant traffics and sales by studying and researching on how people search. With PPC Search Engine, you don’t have to worry about the ever changing Search Engine Ranking algorithm anymore.

For example, Assuming you are selling Power Ranger related products, instead of the competitive expensive keywords Power Ranger, you can try different combination of less expensive keywords such as:

power ranger sports

power ranger song

free game power ranger

blue power ranger

power ranger white

As you can see, different people can be good at different Marketing method. There are no one size fit all method. It is all about trail and errors no matter which method you used.

Wishing you success in your Online Business Marketing.

By © Arthur, The Online Biz Home

About The Author

Copyright © Arthur

http://www.sapbasisabap.com/homebusiness/

Grow Rich by Operating a Successful Work At Home Online Business.

This article was posted on September 14, 2004

by Arthur

Attract Your Dream Customer

Attract Your Dream Customer

by: Wendy Maynard

Have you clearly defined your target audience? These are the prime buyers of your products or services. It is the people or organizations you are pursuing actively as customers. You don’t need every customer in the world! You need the ones who are a good match for YOU. The more specific you are, the more effective your marketing campaign will be.

But, let’s take this concept one step further. You can develop specific strategies that will attract your DREAM customers. These are the people who are best suited to purchase your product or service.

A dream customer is someone who:

You want to work with and enjoy. For example, if you’re wild about horses, why not specialize in the riding industry?

Needs and values the product or services you provide.

Is willing and able to pay what you need to charge.

Views you as an important resource an expert.

Has problems and goals you care about.

Is loyal to your business and not easily swayed by competitors.

Is delighted to do business with you!

I can hear you asking: กIs it really possible to attract dream customers?ก The answer is a resounding YES! The key is to absolutely know what sets you apart and to make a DIFFERENCE for your customers. In all of your marketing materials, be professional, creative, and consistent. And, always focus on the exciting benefits you offer to your customers. Don’t fall into the trap of using boring featurefocused marketing phrases.

Here are some examples of boring, featurefocused marketing:

We provide excellent customer service.

Our firm has been around for 25 years.

We’re a fullservice company.

The XYZ product is the best of its kind.

Why is this boring marketing? Because there is nothing unique or remarkable about these statements. They focus on features, not benefits. And, they are the exact same messages your competitor is using. Yes, these sentences may be true. However, they do nothing to set your business apart. These phrases are not going to magnetize your dream customer.

Instead, you have to THINK like your customers. Meet their specific needs and solve their unique problems. In your marketing materials, tell them about the unique benefits your company provides. Make sure your business is memorable. If your customers can’t remember you, they can’t tell others about your services or products.

Examples of benefitbased statements to attract your DREAM customers:

Sales Trainer: กWe will take the fear out of selling.ก

Cosmetic Dentist: กA smile makeover can make you look years younger.ก

Mortgage Company: กWe’ll find the right loan for you at the best price.ก

These statements work because they are focused on what a customer will get. They solve a problem. And, they show an understanding of people’s challenges and plans for the future. If you want to be a magnet, ask your current customers what they like about you. Also, ask them what you can do better. Feedback is a great way to build your dream customer base.

Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. So, be proactive in your marketing. What do your current marketing materials say about your company? Are they creative? Do they look professional? Is your branding consistent and based on a theme? If you answer กnoก to any of these questions, your marketing may not be working to effectively pull in your dream customers.

ACTION ITEM: Write down the characteristics of your DREAM customer and then write down the unique ways your business can meet their needs. This week, take one step toward making your company a customer magnet.

About The Author

Copyright © 2005, Wendy Gray Maynard, Kinesis

Wendy Gray Maynard is the coowner of Kinesis. Kinesis specializes in marketing, graphic design, and business writing. Visit http://www.kinesisinc.com for more articles and free marketing wisdom.

Want to harness the power of kinetic marketing? Sign up for Kinesis Quickies, a free bimonthly marketing enewsletter: http://www.news.kinesisinc.com.

This article was posted on April 08

by Wendy Maynard

Grow Rich With Your Thought

Grow Rich With Your Thought

by: Michel Richer

Our brain is a marvelous creation. It receive and transmit information like a wireless phone. Our thought are made of wave. We call that brain wave. It is around 10 to 40 cycle per second when we are awake.

In fact our thought are MAGNETIC. Like a magnet we attract circumstances and opportunities. We litterally ATTRACT the life we want with our POWERFUL thought like a magnet !

You might say :ก But Michel i have been thinking about wealth all my life and the only thing i got is 5 cents in the banks !ก

Do you think about wealth or the lack of wealth ? This is different my friend. When you think about not having enough money what do you attract ? Not enough money of course !

This is a spiritual law ! Itกs the law of attraction or sameness or harmony. You cannot have, what you don’t think you can have. Like attracts like. Like criminals with criminals and saints with saints.

We join a group because they share the same ideas as ours (the law of sameness). We won’t join people who doesn’t thing the same as us ! Like attracts like you get the point ! Iกm sure you do now.

We have to replace our old thinking if we want to succeed. Think about success and wealth and not: ก Not enough money ก or ก I cannot succeed ก . Replace this with : ก I will succeed litlle by little, day by day ก.

Our action follows our thinking. If we don’t believe we can start a business we won’t start a business. Period.

But if we believe we can start a business here is what happen : First our thought will attract information on how to start a business. So we first learn how to start and grow a business.

After that we start taking action like maybe getting a loan, finding a location (if we have a physical business). After that finding good employee, good marketing, good products etc.

We do what we think. Everything we do comes from our thought. Our thought form our belief. We have to believe to succeed. We act from our belief.

Itกs not diificult to believe in wealth ! Look at all the people who succeed and have succeeded. There are not different from you. There are flesh and bones and not some space alien !

To become wealthy you have to think like them. Learn from them. If they have done it. You can do it too.

You don’t need to have come from a rich family or to be a crook to be wealthy. The crook will one day get caught.

The simple formula to succeed is this. The ultimate truth of all ages and all the universe is : THOUGHT.

Taught your way to success.

Think and act. Act and think. Use your crative thought to create wealth or anything you like in your life. What you like you attract easily. Remember like atract like.

Copyright © Michel Richer

PERMISSIONS TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in its entirety free of charge, electronically or in print, provided it appears with the included copyright and author’s resource box with LIVE website link.

Link to : http://hombyz.com

About The Author

Michel Richer is the Business Manager and Webmaster of http://www.hombyz.com.

He is DEDICATED to helping you succeed on the Internet. With over 10 years experience in internet business and a solid REPUTATION in the industry.

You can take a look at his website at: http://www.hombyz.com for Your Home Business Success !!!

This article was posted on November 02, 2004

by Michel Richer

Open the Door to More Business with Your Ideas

Open the Door to More Business with Your Ideas

by: Charlie Cook

Visualize your business as a building. Whether you are an architect, lawyer, coach, graphic designer or accountant, to bring in more clients, you need to make it easy for them to enter. The more doors you create and open the more prospects will come in and become clients. Too many small businesses inadvertently put up walls instead of opening doors to new business.

People buy products and services from firms they know and trust. If you are trying to attract new business by advertising, cold calling and direct mail you may be creating barriers to communication instead of opening doors.

Networking and referrals are a couple of doors that let new business in based on familiarity and trust. The problem with these two approaches is that they are limited to the people you’ve met or worked with.

If you want to increase the number of people interested in your business you need to find a way to open many more doors. One of the most effective and low cost ways to do this is to position yourself as an expert and demonstrate your expertise through an article or series of articles. Chances are youกve got dozens of ideas that would be helpful to prospects. Each time you put one of these ideas in writing and share it, you open a door to more business.

Articles help you attract people who are interested in your services, establish your firm as experts, and, if you give them at least one idea they can use in each article, builds trust. A handful of articles can attract hundreds of people interested in your services each week. If you have a web site, incoming links from your article placement are the best way to boost your ranking when people search for you site using Google, Yahoo, or AOL, bringing you even more prospects.

Of course your article needs to be well written and effectively targeted and distributed to motivate prospects to action. Use the following steps to build more doors to let business in:

1. Target Your Market and Their Needs

Focus your article on the primary concerns and specific needs of your market. To generate ideas for articles, jot down your observations and reactions after every client meeting or conversation. Cull your list of ideas and start with the ones that will be of the most help to prospects. If you can’t come up with any ideas at all, use a survey to ask questions that will generate more information for articles.

2. Write Compelling Copy

No matter how helpful your ideas are, if you don’t have a headline that grabs your readersก attention, they won’t read it. Next, your lead sentence needs to capture their interest so theyกll read the rest of your article and let you demonstrate the value you provide. Generally, youกll spend 50% of your time crafting your article title, then another 25% on your lead sentence, and the rest of the time writing the body of the article.

Find someone to read your writing. Even great writing can profit from editing. And don’t count on the กspell checkก on your computer to find all the errors.

3. Distribute Your Article Everywhere Your Prospects Read

Sending out a copy to your existing clients is a good idea but to attract prospects you need to get as many of them as possible to read your article. If your market is business executives, placement in Forbes, Fortune or Harvard Business Review would be ideal, but isn’t realistic for most authors.

Send your article to the hundreds of ezines, newsletters, and newspapers that are looking for fresh content they can use to meet publishing deadlines and attract more readers. Online placement has the advantage that with a link included at the end of your article readers can easily be connected to your web site.

4. Motivate Readers to Take the Next Step

Motivate your prospects to take the next step to learn more about your business. At the end of your article, offer something they will want for free, and tell them how to get it. For example, a short report or tutorial that provides inside advice or research will entice them to contact you.

Most small businesses mistakenly lock out many prospects with their marketing. Instead you can turn your ideas into articles and open doors to new business. Once youกve written and published a handful of articles you can use the same content to become a featured speaker, demonstrate your expertise in person, and open even more doors to attract prospects and convert them to clients.

2003 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

The author, Marketing Coach, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners who are struggling to attract more clients. He can be contacted at In Mind Marketing via [email protected] or visit www.charliecook.net to get a copy of the free marketing guide, ก7 Steps to Get More Clients and Grow Your Businessก.

This article was posted on September 10, 2003

by Charlie Cook

Make Your Web Site Work More So You Can Work Less

Make Your Web Site Work More So You Can Work Less

by: C.J. Hayden

Do you know how your web site fits into the overall marketing strategy for your business? Do you have a strategy for your web site as a marketing tool? If you’re like many entrepreneurs I speak with, you probably don’t.

All over the world, small business owners are spending thousands of dollars on building and maintaining web sites without being able to answer one big question: What do you want your web site to do?

Creating a web site without a marketing strategy can be an expensive and timeconsuming mistake. Hereกs an illustration from the more familiar world of paper and postage. Imagine that you hired a graphic designer, printed 5000 fourcolor trifold brochures, and when the boxes arrived, you asked yourself, กGee, what shall I do with these?ก

That scenario may sound a bit embarrassing as it stands, but letกs take it further. Suppose the first idea that occurs to you is mailing your new brochure to a list of 500 names you collected by exhibiting at a trade show. But then you realize that you didn’t design the brochure as a self mailer all 6 panels are filled with graphics and copy.

To mail your brochure, you will now need 500 envelopes. Of course you want to use the ones printed with your address and logo, but how much do those cost a piece? And do you have 500 in stock? What will be the cost in money or time to get envelopes printed, addressed, and stuffed? How long will all this take? Was any of this in your budget when you had the brochures printed?

The brochure example can tell us much about what goes wrong in creating web sites. Many sites are constructed to be simply electronic brochures. Entrepreneurs often get their sites designed by sending their printed brochure to a web designer, and saying, กPut this on the Web.ก

So hereกs what is wrong with that. If you want your web site to attract traffic, your web site must be DESIGNED to attract traffic.

You have a choice in designing your site and integrating it with your overall marketing strategy. You can choose to make your site an electronic brochure with no consideration of how to attract visitors built into the design. If you do this, it means that you must direct traffic to your site by other means advertise, promote, exhibit, speak, write, network, prospect, mail, call, etc.

Unfortunately, most small business owners find this out after the fact. They put up the site and then slowly realize that no one is seeing it. So they start spending time and money on banner ads, online malls, classifieds, postcards, bulk email, posting articles, exchanging links, and more.

The alternative is to design your site to attract traffic in the first place. If you’re going to spend all the time and money to build a web site, doesn’t it make more sense to have the site bring you customers rather than you having to bring customers to the site?

To create a hightraffic web site, it must be searchengine friendly. 8590% of all web site traffic comes from search engines. When a customer types in a keyword phrase you hope will bring them to you, your site needs to be one of the top 1030 results shown or that customer will never get to you. To earn top positions in the major search engines, you or your web designer must know the guidelines each engine uses to create its rankings, and mold your site to meet them.

Some of these guidelines relate to the content of your site, and how it is organized. Others have to do with the technical details of how your site is constructed. If you don’t want to know these specifics, youกd better hire someone who does. Thatกs the problem with letting just anyone who calls themselves a web designer create a site for you.

Looking at a designerกs portfolio of completed sites will tell you only a small part of what you need to know about their abilities. Who wrote the content for those sites? Who designed the page layout and navigation? Where did the graphics come from? And hereกs the most important question: What did the designer do to make those sites searchengine friendly?

Itกs a rare person who possesses the fourway combination of design ability, technical expertise, marketing knowhow, and search engine savvy to create an attractive, useful web site that will attract traffic AND generate paying customers. You know which of these capabilities you already have, and what new skills you’re willing to learn. Make sure you hire people who have the rest.

About The Author

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Since 1992, C.J. has been teaching business owners and salespeople to make more money with less effort. She is a Master Certified Coach and leads workshops internationally. Read more of her articles at http://www.getclientsnow.com

This article was posted on July 02, 2003

by C.J. Hayden

Let Your Mistakes Improve Your Marketing And Your

Let Your Mistakes Improve Your Marketing And Your Profits

by: Charlie Cook

Have you ever sent out a sales letter and received little or no response, or put up a web site and found hardly anyone visiting it. Have you worked hard on an article only to find that few people read it and even fewer contacted you as a result?

Letกs be honest; everyone makes mistakes. The difference between the winners and the losers in business is that winners recognize their mistakes and avoid making the same blunder again. Each time you can recognize a marketing mistake and correct it your marketing will be that much better.

Marketing experts got that way by working full time at making more marketing mistakes than you can imagine and then learning from them. Common marketing missteps include:

Starting your marketing with a focus on your credentials, products and services instead of on client problems.

Using a label to describe what you do instead of a ขmemeข or value positioning statement that tells prospects which problems you solve in a sentence or less.

Developing a tagline, article title or web page title without taking the time to discover which words will attract your clients.

Wasting time on pushing information about yourself out to prospects instead of pulling them in with ideas they are interested in.

Not providing prospects with a free offer to get their contact information.

Forgetting to regularly follow up with prospects.

Building a web site without a clear stepbystep map of how you will attract visitors to the site, and what you want them do once they visit your site.

Not having offers and strategies to turn prospects into clients and clients into repeat clients and sources of referrals.

If youกve made any of the above marketing mistakes, you’re not alone. But if you want to grow your business, don’t repeat these blunders again and again. If you’re not getting the results you want, look for a new strategy, modify your tactics and change your materials.

Strategy Base your marketing on a clear set of principles. Have a clearly defined strategy and marketing plan. Use approaches that work for independent professionals and small business.

Tactics Plan your marketing so its organized and individual efforts are additive and contribute to building your business.

Materials Make sure individual marketing pieces resonate with your target market, get their attention and move them to the action you want them to take.

Fix your marketing tactics and materials by testing ideas, keeping the ones that work and throwing out the ones that don’t. If you self published a book, but its not flying off the shelves, identify the variables that could be affecting sales.

It may be the bookกs title, the sales letter, or the price and bonus offers. Pick one of these and make some changes. Test a different title, rewrite your sales letter, or the price and bonus offers and see what happens.

Depending on your timeline and goals, you may want to avoid making all the marketing mistakes on your own, and get expert advice from someone who has made or seen most of the mistakes before.

In the process of growing your business you’re bound to make marketing missteps. The more you make, identify and learn from the faster your marketing will improve and the more clients you will attract.

2003 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

The author, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners who are struggling to attract more clients and grow their businesses. To get the free marketing guide, ก7 Steps to Get More Clients and Grow Your Businessก visit www.charliecook.net or write [email protected]

This article was posted on October 22, 2003

by Charlie Cook

Think of Wealth and Become Wealthy

Think of Wealth and Become Wealthy

by: Michel Richer

Our thought are magnetic ! Like a magnet we attract circumstances and opportunities. We litterally attract the life we want with our powerful magnetic thought !

You might say :ก But Michel i have been thinking about wealth all my life and the only thing i got is 5 cents in the banks !ก

Do you think about wealth or the lack of wealth ? This is different my friend. When you think about not having enough money what do you attract ? Not enough money of course !

This is a spiritual law ! Itกs the law of attraction or sameness or harmony. You cannot have, what you don’t think you can have. Like attracts like. Like criminals with criminals and saints with saints.

We join a group because they share the same ideas as ours (the law of sameness). We won’t join people who doesn’t thing the same as us ! Like attracts like you get the point ! Iกm sure you do now.

We have to replace our old thinking if we want to succeed. Think about success and wealth and not: ก Not enough money ก or ก I cannot succeed ก . Replace this with : ก I will succeed litlle by little, day by day ก.

Our action follows our thinking. If we don’t believe we can start a business we won’t start a business. Period.

But if we believe we can start a business here is what happen : First our thought will attract information on how to start a business. So we first learn how to start and grow a business.

After that we start taking action like maybe getting a loan, finding a location (if we have a physical business). After that finding good employee, good marketing, good products etc.

We do what we think. Everything we do comes from our thought. Our thought form our belief. We have to believe to succeed. We act from our belief.

Itกs not diificult to believe in wealth ! Look at all the people who succeed and have succeeded. There are not different from you. There are flesh and bones and not some space alien !

To become wealthy you have to think like them. Learn from them. If they have done it. You can do it too.

You don’t need to have come from a rich family or to be a crook to be wealthy. The crook will one day get caught.

The simple formula to succeed is this. The ultimate truth of all ages and all the universe is : THOUGHT.

Taught your way to success.

Think and act. Act and think. Use your crative thought to create wealth or anything you like in your life. What you like you attract easily. Remember like atract like.

Copyright © Michel Richer

PERMISSIONS TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in its entirety free of charge, electronically or in print, provided it appears with the included copyright and author’s resource box with live website link. Link to : http://www.hombyz.com

About The Author

Michel Richer is the Business Manager and Webmaster of http://www.hombyz.com.

He is dedicated to helping you succeed on the Internet. With over 10 years experience in internet business and a solid reputation in the industry.

You can take a look at his website at: http://www.hombyz.com for Your Home Business Success !!!

This article was posted on October 09, 2004

by Michel Richer

How to Get the Right Clients and Avoid the Wrong O

How to Get the Right Clients and Avoid the Wrong Ones

by: Charlie Cook

If you are like most service professionals and small business owners one of your primary concerns is generating as many leads as possible. And that may be your biggest mistake, resulting in wasting time on unqualified prospects and working with to many clients you wish you didn’t have to.

Bill is a financial advisor looking for clients. Working from his stack of leads he picks up the phone‘ and starts making calls. The first person he gets on the phone‘ has lots of questions and it turns out is just looking for free advice. After a half hour Bill finally gets him off the phone‘. Billกs next call finds a highly interested prospect. After fortyfive minutes, heกs ready to sign her up, when he discovers she only has a couple of hundred dollars to invest.

At the end of the day, Bill has spent eight hours on the phone‘ and still hasn’t signed up any new clients.

Do you ever spend time chasing leads that are just a waste of time?

Martha is a graphic designer who has plenty of clients but her profits have been shrinking instead of growing lately. One of her longterm clients calls her daily with a question or a complaint. Just when Martha thinks a project is done, this one client changes her mind and wants it redone. And while the customer is always right, this customerกs lack of respect and professionalism is starting to get under Marthaกs skin.

Have you ever had to deal with clients who waste your time or are unrealistic in their demands?

A common mistake is to try to appeal to everyone, with the result that you attract to many people who don’t want to pay for your services and clients youกd rather not work with. A more profitable marketing strategy is to position yourself and your firm to attract just those clients that want to work with you and who youกd enjoy sharing your expertise.

Imagine that every lead you pursued turned into a client, one who you could be honest and direct with, a client who you looked forward to working with. Youกd make more money and have more fun.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could pick and choose your clients?

While you can’t completely control who contacts you, you can use your marketing to position yourself to attract promising prospects and people who would make good clients. Hereกs how.

Define Your Ideal Client

If you want to attract the perfect client, you need to know who they are. Take out a piece of paper and write a couple of paragraphs describing their characteristics.

What business is your ideal client in?

What is their role in the organization?

Where are they located?

What type of person are they?

What is their situation?

What are the problems they want solved?

What are other characteristics that are important to you?

Use Your Marketing Message

People are far more likely to contact you whey they have a clear idea of who you help and how. Increase the number of qualified prospects who contact you with an effective marketing message and youกll reduce the number of ‘tire kickersก who waste your time.

Use Articles

Write and distribute an article and/or provide it on your web site, to help people understand your approach, who you help and how you can help them. Prospects who like and agree with your thinking will want to contact you and work with you.

Use questions to Qualify Prospects

You can’t be everything to everybody and itกs a waste of time to try. Create a short list of questions to qualify prospects. Use these questions when you call them on the phone‘ and in the service inquiry forms you provide on your web site. If prospects don’t meet your criteria, you can keep them on your mailing list, but avoid wasting your time by calling them.

If youกve called one of them and they don’t seem like a good prospect, get off the phone‘ in 3 minutes or less and move on to a more promising prospect.

Clarify Expectations

It is tempting to want to sign up every prospect that wants to work with you. This is particularly true when you are just starting up your business or when business is slow. But before you close a deal or sign an agreement, make sure they clearly understand what you will do and when. You don’t want them emailing you every five minutes or expecting youกll answer their phone‘ calls at two in the morning or provide additional services for free.

Make a short list of questions to ask that will help clients define what they are looking for. When you talk with clients use these questions to clarify their expectations. If you can meet these requests, use their answers to provide a summary of services. That way you will both be working from the same script.

Get Rid of Problem Clients

With only a limited number of hours a day and years in your life, youกll be happier and more profitable if you focus your marketing on clients that understand and appreciate your expertise. Theyกll be far more likely to return and refer you to others. If you have clients who are unpleasant to work with or are taking up too much of your time, find a way to tactfully get them to look elsewhere.

Use these marketing strategies to position your firm to attract the prospects you want so you can pick and choose your clients. Youกll have more fun, increase your profits and be more successful.

2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

Charlie Cook helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing Plan eBook, ก7 Steps to get more clients and grow your businessก at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 29, 2004

by Charlie Cook

Do You Know Who You Attract to Your Web Site?

Do You Know Who You Attract to Your Web Site?

by: Catherine Franz

There are five types of people that browse the web:

Specific Information Seekers

Current Information Seekers

Bargain Hunters

Entertainment Seekers, and

Specific Buyers.

When you identify the type of people you want to come to your website, or the type of people coming now (for those who already have a site), as well as what gets them there, what keeps them there, then and only then can you design your site to attract the type of visitors you want.

Specific Information Seekers (SISers)

To convert Specific Information Seekers into prospects, you will need consistent marketing and multiple trust building strategies. SISers usually search for a particular piece of information. If you have it, they will visit and might stay. If not, they want to find out fast that you don’t and poof they are gone. This group is after timely and relevant information. It is an either/or decision either you have it or you don’t. If their search engine searching continuously sends them to your site and you have on several occasions let them down on having the information, they will see the URL link in the search engine and not ever return.

SISers like to ask questions, usually diving right into the question, giving little or no background to the question. If they have a deep sense that you have the answer, they will generate a quick email to you. They are frequent visitors to the FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages. If you want to attract the SISers, track all the questions customers and prospects ask, provide answers, and post on your site. You can make them happy by placing the answers in larger or bold print.

SISers like several different levels of information. With each click you can barrel down the details. You can do with an overview page and then in a separate page add the full description and other details. Design the overview page for online reading (large font, white space, and fast, flowing language) and the detail pages for offline reading (printable).

They also like an uptodate websites with changing information. If the กlast update dateก is older than one week, or if your articles have old dates on them, they usually will not even enter the site. First impressions mean a lot to them and determine if they will ever return. Credibility is the second decision maker for this buyer. Do not compromise the integrity of the information you provide. If you’re an affiliate just say so, they don’t mind.

Their decision to buy is usually immediate if you have what they want. This group reads by scanning on the Net. They will scan and read bold, colored and highlighting in long sales letters.

In a retail store, SISers browse the aisles. They know what they are looking for before they enter a website or store. Retailers call these people aisle browsers. In a store, they walk through a store, first checking the aisle platforms for bargains. Men do fall mostly in this category.

Even though this group only reads what they need from a book, the next group, CISers read the whole book.

Current Information Seekers (CISers)

Current Information Seekers are curious people who find everything interesting. They can be reading about Mars and next learning about cooking, and later into something different. They purchase material based on whatever is hot in their life at that moment. Usually they over purchase material and get behind in their reading. Yet, that backlog does not seem to bother them, they would feel empty without it.

CISers enjoy reading a high portion of the newspaper and read the whole book. They want something interesting…something useful…something they would not have found on their own. They want something that will give them an edge, an advantage, an insight, something unexpected.

Use caution, this group does make suggestions that can lead you astray. They also cannot understand why others pigeon hole (their viewpoint) themselves with their businesses. They value exploration and freedom.

To use this group to your advantage define one or two topic categories that fit in with your niche. Then change the material daily or weekly. In addition, since they are so busy running after the latest and greatest, you will need to make sure they are consistently aware of those changes. Send them updates. They will find the frequent updates useful, interesting, and amusing even if theyกve heard them a million times before. They will return frequently. Frequent updates will keep you on their hot list and bookmarked.

CISers compare before buying. If everything is the same and your shipping is 3 cents less they will buy from you. However, they make sure they are exact offers. If you have something that looks more attractive, whether it pertains to their needs or not, they will also purchase from you.

CISers aren’t a great group to receive testimonials from unless they have used your material and it has worked for them in some BIG or EXTRAORDINARY way.

This leads us into the next group, the group that chases free.

Bargain Hunters

Bargain Hunters shop free for anything. Converting them to customers is tough because of the กfree blindersก they wear. As long as they think they can find it somewhere free, they will keep searching for it. Time to money ratio for them is distorted even if they spend 40 hours looking for it and the offsetting cost is $10. They relish in the challenge of finding it free. They also like to brag about how they found it free (use this to your advantage).

Add a monthly giveaway at your site and you will attract these visitors. It does not always need to apply to anything they are interested in they want it because it is free. They may print out a 200page free ebook and still think it is a bargain because it was fr*e*e. They don’t make a connection that printing equals cost.

The upside to this group is that they are easy to please just offer them bargains. The downside is that there is less than a 1% chance you will convert them to customers unless you offer them free for a long time. Sometimes you hear them comment something like, กIกve been checking out your web site for years and Iกve finally decided to buy from you.ก

Since กdealsก travel fast, be assured that if you offer a deal they will pass along the message at lightening speed. Great viral marketers in this sense. They can create noise to other ready buyers.

Contests and games attract them as well as giveaways that accompany an order. Adding lots of free bonuses to your deals work well with this web browser. Suggestion: Make the bonuses available after a purchase. Freebies are great pullers to get them to visit your sales page. Pile it on, they have a weak no threshold.

Like the SISers, Bargain Hunters also respond to detailed product information. They also like to justify what they are buying to others. And for this they need to know the benefits very clearly.

Bargain hunters are completely different from the next group. The next group age range is from teenagers to 30 yearolds. Between 30 and 40 the need for fast entertainment begins to subside.

Entertainment Seekers (ESers)

Entertainment Seekers get bored easily. They frequently browse the web when bored. They like interactive games, interactive contests and flash. You can attract them if you provide animation, sound clips, contests, games, and the latest and greatest in technology deliveries.

They frequently visit the horoscope, recipe, sex, drugs, and music pages. They begin browsing at their favorite sites, then move towards searching for new latest and greatest stuff, and then return to playing their computer game. If the first page seems flat, they don’t even go past that page. They assume the rest is boring as well. The exception occurs if they enter and can transition to SISer mode seeking a specific piece of information.

Bright contrasted pages, black and multicolored backgrounds pull them in. Holding their interest is tough because of the Internetกs relatively flat presentation. If you want to convert them to customers, your product has to offer them the same type of perceived entertainment before they will buy. Keep the same color palette as well.

You will need to provide them with กadvertainmentก. Provide advertising that sells your product while providing entertainment value similar to the infomercial strategy used in television advertising.

Unlike the next group, this group likes cleverness, however, the next group is the one that most independent professionals want to attract.

Specific Buyers (SBers)

Specific Buyers have something in mind that they want to buy. They demand an easy ordering process and fast delivery. They want it now. Prefer ebooks to the wait time of a book purchase. Make the benefits of buying very clear.

SBers like ideas and creativity. Add a กwhatกs newก page or some type of interactive shopping helper (help them to make a selection) to your site and they love it. For services, you need to offer a phone number they can call, preferably 24/7 and 800, where they feel free to ask questions without obligation.

SBers also like to purchase things in complete packages – a package with all the answers to their challenges. A package that gives them everything from AZ so that they do not have to look any further. Because of this, they usually do comparison shopping to find the best package for the best price.

In Conclusion

Now that you can define who you want to attract, keep in mind these five overall steps to get people to buy on your web site:

1. Know your current customer profile well.

2. Know what they are looking for on the web and how they browse the web.

3. Choose the best approach to attract these buyers.

4. Deliver what you want to attract on your site. Like attracts like with all energy.

5. Make it easy for them to buy from you.

About The Author

Catherine Franz, a Certified Professional Marketing & Writing Coach, specializes in product development, Internet writing and marketing, nonfiction, training. Newsletters and articles available at: http://www.abundancecenter.com

blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 11, 2004

by Catherine Franz

As a Realtor, How Do I Attract Listings?

As a Realtor, How Do I Attract Listings?

by: Barrett Niehus

Have you ever noticed that despite the massive number of Realtors in your area, only a hand full are making a fortune selling real estate? Regardless of who these realtors work for; GMAC, Century 21, REMax, they are extremely successful where others in their office are barely scraping by. What is the secret to their success? First and foremost, it is their approach to marketing themselves and their customers.

So what techniques do they use to attract listings? Well, while the rest of us are placing door hangers and mailing out notepads, these super sales people have perfected marketing techniques that attract motivated buyers and sellers, and motivate them to take action. An example of one of the strategies that the best seller in my city uses is as follows:

1) Specialize: Despite the policy of never turning down a listing or qualified candidate, focus on specializing on the type of property that will best suit your performance goals. For the person in my area, single family attached homes provide the greatest return on investment and are turning over the fastest. This is where she is really making her money.

2) Geographic Specialization: When a person decides to sell his/her house, they will find a realtor either through referral, recognition of a local representative, or through the yellow/white pages and internet. By focusing your promotional efforts on a specific geography, you can increase your market presence so that you are the first phone call if a target client decides to sell their property, as well as first on the list if they ask a neighbor for referral. In addition, if you specialize in a specific area, people will recognize your name and be more inclined to trust you with their listing and to negotiate their deal.

3) Grow and harvest your area of geographic specialization: Focus your marketing message on the area of geographic specialization that you have chosen. If your area has a high rate of property turnover, then you will do very well. The most successful realtor in my area papers my door with her picture every Monday afternoon. In addition, she includes a list of properties in my neighborhood that are listed or for sale. Looking at the sales price of other properties is a good motivator for me to list my own home and take advantage of the capital gains.

4) Create a continual presence: Once you have chosen the type of property to specialize in, and the neighborhoods to cultivate listings, begin promoting. As a marketing manager, I am a big fan of postcards that are sent to target clients on a weekly basis. Generally, it will take about fifteen pieces of promotion before a client will remember your name, but when they decide to list, you will be the first phone call.

The overall goal is to attract as many viable listings as possible. Regardless of who eventually buys the property, as the listing agent, you get to take advantage of the commission. By focusing your time on marketing yourself to your most promising targets, you will save time and increase your listings substantially.

+++++++++++++++

About The Author

Barrett Niehus is a Marketing Manager for IP Ware Residential Real Estate Investment Software http://www.realtysoftware.org for Realtors and real estate investors.

This article was posted on May 04, 2004

by Barrett Niehus

Reach Your Web Site Goals By Attracting the Right

Reach Your Web Site Goals By Attracting the Right Visitors (Part 2 of 2)

by: Bobette Kyle

An important question to answer when creating or revising a Web site is กWhat are the goals of this site?ก because the answer will drive your site design and marketing decisions.

In Part 1 (http://www.webmarketingarticles.com/CustomerDecision.htm), I took a look at understanding your site visitorsก decision making process and providing them with the right information, thus converting more visitors to purchasers.

Here in Part 2 I will present some tips for attracting the right customers to your site and ideas for profiting through information sites.

Breaking Through the Clutter

If you are like most of us, getting people to pay attention and understand how you can help them is a daunting task. Repeated exposure is one way to catch your target customersก interest.

James Maduk has a unique system for doing just that, without becoming a pest. He has what he calls a search engine กSite Meshก consisting of a hub and spoke family of Web sites (The hub and spoke concept is explained further in Part 1.).

By structuring the sites so they are related, but with each spoke a highly targeted, onepage site selling only a single product, he is able to achieve multiple listings on competitive key words in the search engines.

James explains, กWhat this means is that instead of having one chance of someone finding my site, I now have 55 chances or as many chances as I have sales pages.ก

As an example, James owns three of the top 15 sites currently listed in the Google search engine under กsell audio ebooksก, including the #1 and #2 listed sites. These same results appear in the Yahoo! engine as well, all at no cost.

Managing Sales Sites

In Part 1, Karon Thackston explained the multistep buying decision and why many of your visitors may not yet be ready to purchase. If you own a sales site, those early in the decision process are not likely to buy from you.

There are ways, however, you can attract visitors to your site who are approaching the purchase stage. One is to have a presence on information sites that attract visitors in your target customer groups. On the information sites, visitors are gathering information and evaluating options. In other words, they are preparing to make a purchase.

Michelle Horstman, owner of Choice Promotional Products, www.choicepromotionalproducts.com, says, กI do get hits from advertising on กinformativeก sites such as www.barmitzvahfindit.com, where they have a vendor area.ก

For those on a limited budget, Michelle suggests purchasing advertising on sites that participate in payperclick programs like Overture or Google AdWords.

กWhen you list with Google and others on your own, you may have to pay more than your ROI would justify.ก She explains. กHowever, when you advertise with an informational site, that site can afford to pay more for the clicks, since they are supported by multiple vendors/advertisers. Ask the site if theyกll offer a trial period so you can see how much traffic it is producing.ก

Managing an Information Site

If you run an information site, the majority of your visitors will be too early in the decision process to purchase. So how can you both attract visitors in the early decision stages *and* earn revenue?

You can attract information seekers by structuring each page in your site so it gives information on a specific topic. This expands the list of key words through which searchers can find your site.

Other ways to earn revenue from an information site:

Initiate the two step selling process James recommends in Part 1.

Participate in a few select affiliate programs, which you can promote on topicspecific pages in your Web site.

Join a targeted advertising network such as Googleกs AdSense.

Sell your own advertising space.

In any case, coordinating your Web site marketing to attract visitors in the กrightก decision making stage creates a winwin situation. Your visitors find the information they need and you profit through sales, advertising, or affiliate revenue by meeting those needs.

About The Author

Bobette Kyle draws upon 10+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Her book, กHow Much for Just the Spider? Strategic Web Site Marketing for SmallBudget Businessesก, shows how to better find, target, and attract Web customers. Read about it at WebSiteMarketingPlan.com http://WebSiteMarketingPlan.com.

This article was posted on November 18, 2003

by Bobette Kyle

Magnetize Your Business Success

Magnetize Your Business Success

by: Michel Richer

Our brain is a marvelous creation. It receive and transmit information like a wireless phone. Our thought are made of wave. We call that brain wave. It is around 10 to 40 cycle per second when we are awake.

In fact our thought are MAGNETIC. Like a magnet we attract circumstances and opportunities. We litterally ATTRACT the life we want with our POWERFUL thought like a magnet !

You might say :ก But Michel i have been thinking about wealth all my life and the only thing i got is 5 cents in the banks !ก

Do you think about wealth or the lack of wealth ? This is different my friend. When you think about not having enough money what do you attract ? Not enough money of course !

This is a spiritual law ! Itกs the law of attraction or sameness or harmony. You cannot have, what you don’t think you can have. Like attracts like. Like criminals with criminals and saints with saints.

We join a group because they share the same ideas as ours (the law of sameness). We won’t join people who doesn’t thing the same as us ! Like attracts like you get the point ! Iกm sure you do now.

We have to replace our old thinking if we want to succeed. Think about success and wealth and not: ก Not enough money ก or ก I cannot succeed ก . Replace this with : ก I will succeed litlle by little, day by day ก.

Our action follows our thinking. If we don’t believe we can start a business we won’t start a business. Period.

But if we believe we can start a business here is what happen : First our thought will attract information on how to start a business. So we first learn how to start and grow a business.

After that we start taking action like maybe getting a loan, finding a location (if we have a physical business). After that finding good employee, good marketing, good products etc.

We do what we think. Everything we do comes from our thought. Our thought form our belief. We have to believe to succeed. We act from our belief.

Itกs not diificult to believe in wealth ! Look at all the people who succeed and have succeeded. There are not different from you. There are flesh and bones and not some space alien !

To become wealthy you have to think like them. Learn from them. If they have done it. You can do it too.

You don’t need to have come from a rich family or to be a crook to be wealthy. The crook will one day get caught.

The simple formula to succeed is this. The ultimate truth of all ages and all the universe is : ก Your Thought Create Youre Reality ก

Taught your way to success.

Think and act. Act and think. Use your crative thought to create wealth or anything you like in your life. What you like you attract easily. Remember like atract like.

Copyright © Michel Richer

PERMISSIONS TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in its entirety free of charge, electronically or in print, provided it appears with the included copyright and author’s resource box with LIVE website link.

Link to : http://hombyz.com

About The Author

Michel Richer is the Business Manager and Webmaster of http://hombyz.com.

With over 10 years experience in internet business and a solid REPUTATION in the industry. He is DEDICATED to helping you succeed on the Internet.

Start Your Internet Business For FREE! Complete Details at : http://hombyz.com/homebusiness.htm

This article was posted on February 16

by Michel Richer