Internet Advertising Options

Internet Advertising Options

by: Nial Robbins

Your online business will likely require more advertising than a contemporary business downtown, yet some new to the world of online business do not spend the time and money to advertise their business appropriately and are, in turn, loosing money. Your online business is crammed into the world wide web along with thousands of others selling the same product or service as yourself. Consider this scenario: In your hometown you want to open an art supply store. In that same town there are thousands of art supply stores. In order for your business to be successful, it will have to stand out in some way from the others. This is exactly what is happening when a business is opened online. There is so much competition, that you must take drastic measures to ensure that you are getting noticed. Advertising can be done in so many ways online. These are some of the most successful ways that you can promote your online business.

Advertising in ezines is a popular way to promote your online business. Ezines are the magazines of the internet; they written on a particular subject and read by those interested in that subject. Therefore, ezine readers are already potential customers and advertising your site in ezines that are related to your business is almost guaranteed to help drive traffic to your site and increase sales for your product. You should be sure when advertising in ezines that you are not advertising along side competitors. Ask the ezine producer if there is a policy concerning posting competing ads. It is also a good idea to subscribe to the ezine before making a decision about whether or not to advertise in it. An ezine that runs fewer ads is a better choice than one that runs many ads. You can look at the online Directory of Ezines to find publications that are relevant to your company.

Payperclick programs are an excellent way to advertise your business without taking a risk that you have advertised in the wrong place. With payperclick, you can advertise you site and only pay for those who click the link and go to your site. Another popular payper program is the payperlead program that allows you to only pay for leads. Usually this means that you pay for only those who download a trail, fill out a form or enter a sweepstakes; whatever you choose. Lastly you can display payperclick banner ads in which your company would be allowed to place a banner on their site and you will be charged for every click that your banner receives.

OptIn email is a great way to advertise your business, however it is expensive and it can be misused very easily. Using optin emails, you would submit your sales copy to the company that will in turn email it to those on their mailing list. You should be very careful since some of the companies that advertise their mailing lists as optin email service is sometimes really SPAM. It is essential that you have a perfect and effective sales letter when using optin mailing lists. Without and effective sales copy your money and time have been wasted.

About The Author

Nial Robbins can help YOU start your own profitable business on the Internet within the next 24 hours… To learn more, visit: http://www.NDRHomeBiz.com/pips.html.

This article was posted on September 08

by Nial Robbins

5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Websit

5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Website’s Success

by: Robert Boduch

Without a powerful headline, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn’t capture attention and pull prospects into your sales copy, than your marketing effort is a total waste of energy and resources.

Nothing is more important to getting your message noticed than your headlines. If you’re not allocating a sizable percentage of your time and creative effort to the headline used on each page of your website, you could be losing out on a large chunk of business.

Top copywriters understand this concept well. They know how essential it is to capture attention by literally stopping preoccupied prospects in their tracks.

Here are five good reasons why your site headlines deserve greater emphasis and attention:

1) Headlines Are Natural Attention Getters. The majority of online prospects are quick scanners. No one reads the body copy of a page without first reading and being pulled in by the headline. Headlines are the first thing your visitors see. They jump out visually and command attention. Headlines are leads set distinctly above the rest of the text. Often the typeface, size, and style used for headlines contrasts with that uses in the body copy. It’s a proven approach that naturally attracts eyeballs, virtually forcing interested prospects to grasp the message of the headline and to read on.

According to advertising legend David Ogilvy, 5 times more people read headlines than body copy. Although Ogilvy was talking about print advertising in general, the observation is certainly applicable to websites as well.

With 5 times the readership, headlines have the power and capability to make any message many times more successful.

2) Site Headlines Serve As Valuable Guides To The Busy Surfer. Headlines reveal key details. They tip off readers as to what follows. They provide clear signals to help readers decide whether they should stick around for the full message, or dash off to something else – something better suited to their own special needs and interests.

As a quick summary of the entire piece, headlines either attract continued interest and readership, or they repel it. Without a headline, the reader is forced to wade through a portion of the text to understand the meaning. Forcing readers to do this is to risk losing them altogether. It’s sales suicide. In effect, having no headline will cost you at least 80% of your potential audience.

3) Headlines Prepare The Reader For What Is To Come. Headlines stimulate interest. They captivate, arouse curiosity and stimulate the desire for more. It’s the headline that starts the reader’s motor running. A good headline sets up a feeling of expectation as the reader anticipates discovering more and can’t wait to get it!

Successful headlines address specific audiences. They open prospects minds to new possibilities and expand their level of enthusiasm and interest. The best headlines involve prospects, virtually guaranteeing their sustained attention for the time being.

4) Headlines Simplify The Learning Curve. Every headline serves to introduce whatever follows. As an opening or leadin, the role of the headline is to succinctly communicate the essence of the message it precedes in a n interesting and compelling way.

Effective headlines and subheadings reveal key bits of information often with the added power of emotion. A review of the various headings alone can often provide one with the gist of a given message. This makes it faster and easier to understand, remember, and review.

Use your headings to generate emotional involvement and you increase the chances prospects will go back and read more of your copy. When you make it easier to read and comprehend your messages, you increase the chances of making the sale.

5) Headlines Allow You To Deliver Your Biggest Bang Right UpFront. Capture attention and interest at the outset, by using your most appealing selling point. If your strongest, most desirable product attribute (benefit) fails to pull prospects in, surely nothing else you could ever say would do the trick, either.

The stronger and more compelling your headline, the more readers are likely to read on and spend more time at your website. Create every headline to grab attention and inspire interest. The more alluring and irresistible you can make it, the more genuine prospects you’ll attract and ultimately, the more sales you’ll record. Headlines are powerful marketing tools when used effectively. Take a good look at your site headline. Could you add more intrigue, curiosity, or interest?

Test different headlines by trying various appeals and offer combinations. Keep an eye out for additional headline opportunities throughout your sales letters, as well as on other pages on your site. Make your headlines impossible to miss and difficult to ignore… then, watch your results soar!

About The Author

Robert Boduch is the author of Great Headlines Instantly! How To Write Powerful, AttentionGrabbing Headlines That Pull In More Prospects, More Customers And More Profits, NOW! This fulllength manual features hundreds of helpful tips, techniques, strategies and handson formulas for writing successful headlines of every kind.

Visit the author’s site at: http://www.headlinesecrets.com

Or email him at: [email protected]

This article was posted on May 25, 2002

by Robert Boduch

Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work

Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work

by: Martin Day

Why bother?

Good customer service is the life blood of any business. Although new customers are important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With each satisfied customer your business is likely to win many more customers through recommendations and remember, if you are not taking care of your customers, your competition will.

A Customer Satisfaction survey will help you not only identify problem areas but will also demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.

Where to start?

Objective Before you start compiling your survey you should first consider what the objectives of the survey are, in that way you will remain focused and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis In addition to the objective consider also how you will analyse the answers having completed the survey. Keep in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where the respondent is asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are easier to analyse than ‘open’ questions (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want). Much will depend on the volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analysing the results.

Opportunity – Keep in mind that as well as obtaining valuable market research data customer surveys are also a good way to publicise aspects of your service that your customers may not be aware of. After you have drafted your survey read through the survey from a market research view point and check that you are asking the right questions in the right way and that with the feedback information you will be able to make informed decisions. Then, read through the survey from a marketing view point, check that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business? The ideal question will perform the following three functions:

Market research – provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business

Marketing – promote aspects of your business

Information/Education – advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:

Do you find the instore baby changing facilities useful?

By asking this question not only will the store receive good feedback on the facility they provide but they will also advertise their baby changing facilities and promote themselves as a family friendly store beyond those customers who have a specific need for the facility provided.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to dig deep and accept the worst. A customer satisfaction survey should be designed to highlight problems so that they can be addressed; regular customer satisfaction will prevent complacency and will also give early warning on where your competitors initiatives may be loosing you business.

What to ask?

Although each business is likely to have specific and unique factors that are important in providing good customer services there are common areas that are relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, Internet based or a service industry. The following are some key areas to providing good customer service.

Communication Do you make it easy for the customer to communicate with you? When a customer telephones is the phone answered promptly; are enquiries about products or services properly handled? A good business will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, quickly, politely and fairly. If a problem is not resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise? Use a customer satisfaction survey to confirm that all your staff are perceived by your customers as being helpful, courteous and knowledgeable.

Location – Do your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical store, is it conveniently located with good access?

Making it pleasant, making it easy For a virtual business it is important to ensure that your website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. Physical store or website, is the store properly laid out, can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?

The right quality products – Not only should you measure the quality of the service that you provide but you should check that the products and services that you market are what the customer wants and closely match their expectations.

Value for money – Cheap or expensive is not always a good measure, value of money is. Do your customers equate your business with value for money, if not, why not?

Speed and attention – No matter what the business, the majority of customers will want to be dealt with quickly but attentively. Are you doing everything you can to avoid delays? Good businesses will try to treat each customer as an individual, does yours? Attention is one thing but this has to be hand inhand with a quick and satisfactory resolution of the query.

Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example where do they live and what is their age group? The more you try to understand your customers the better you will be able to target your business. Within the survey allow customers to highlight specific problems and provide contact details.

What next?

Having completed the survey analyse the results.

Trends – Look for common and specific areas where the service is failing. Ask yourself if the criticism is valid and is there anything that can be done to resolve or minimise the problem?

Training – Are the staff properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge? Where staff training programmes have been implemented have they had a positive impact on the business?

Followup –If a customer who has completed a survey has raised a specific issue ensure that they are contacted and their complaint addressed. Don’t loose an opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.

Continuously Monitor Makechanges and then measure by issuing further surveys.

The following sample customer satisfaction survey for a store demonstrates some of the areas discussed please visit:

http://www.surveygalaxy.com/surPublishes.asp?survey_id=1140

About The Author

Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy Ltd a website that allows anyone to create, design and publish online surveys. For more information visit http://www.SurveyGalaxy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 17, 2004

by Martin Day

Top 10 Rules for Small Business Success

Top 10 Rules for Small Business Success

by: Brian Grinonneau

1. Target

You are not all things to all people. Decide on your nichenarrow your focus and broaden your appeal.

2. Be Different

If your competitors are doing it, don’t. Stand out from an overcrowded marketplace where so much of the advertising and products look the same.

3. Build a Team

Don’t hire an employee to fill a position. Employ a person to be part of a team to build your business.

4. Be Fast

Time is the most precious commodity. When delivery is expected Friday, show up Thursday afternoon. Return calls and emails now.

5. Say Thank You

A lot. Tell your customers and employees how much you appreciate them. Better yet, do it the old fashioned way: take pen to paper and write them a note.

6. Be Consistent

Make sure your business has a consistent look and feel. A customer must get the same flavor from everyone within your organization. Always.

7. Smile

Throw out the reasons you think people buy from you like price, product quality or your warranty. They buy because they like you.

8. Fanatical Optimism

The glass must always be half full. Attitude will always win out in the end and infect all of those around you.

9. Sell Soft

Don’t ever hard sell. Solve problems. Satisfy wants. Do what is truly best for your customer.

10. Leave Your Comfort Zone

Never accept the idea that this is the way youกve always done it. Never accept that a new idea or technology could never work for you.

About The Author

Brian Grinonneau is the general manager of McMann and Tate Advertising in Perrysburg, Ohio. His firm specializes in helping small business owners cut through the clutter in a crowded advertising marketplace.

mcmannandtatesite.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 25

by Brian Grinonneau

13 Killer Ways To Multiply Your Sales

13 Killer Ways To Multiply Your Sales

by: Kusuma Widjaja

1. When you make your first sale, followup with the customer. You could followup with a ‘thank youก email. That way, you could followup every few months and build your own lists and include an advertisement for other products you sell. You can build a massive list in minimum time at http://www.whycity.net/coregistrationservices.html

2. You could upsell to your customers. When they’re at your order page, tell them about a few extra related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.

3. Trigger your readerกs emotions in your ad copy. Example, if you sell a book on gambling tips, tell them the feelings theyกll get when they win money. Hypnotic sentence like :’the more you keep reading our ad the more you feel it would be a waste to let this opportunity slip byก will usually trigger prospectกs subconscious mind to bring out these feelings or actions. Learn how to dramatically increase your traffic, your sales, your conversions, and your business at http://www.whycity.net/hypnoticsellingsecrets.html

4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.

5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.

6. You could cross promote your product with other businessesก products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you. There are some tactics at http://www.whycity.net/psychologicaltactics.html for you to use to multiply your sales anytime.

7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

8. Send your customers a catalog of addon products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra addons.

9. Design your web site to be a targeted resource center just like direct sales web site at http://www.whycity.net/directsales.html. Choose one subject and build on it. Youกll gain repeat visitors that are interested in that topic. Then, invest a percentage of your profits right back into your business. Spend it on marketing, product improvement, customer service, advertising, etc.

10. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, tshirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

11. Use Referral Strategies just like at http://www.whycity.net/instantreferralsystems.html to get lots of order.Referral system can also be a good way to increase your sales if you can give incentives to motivate people to refer and tap deep into peopleกs network of friends, family, and associates. They don’t just stop at the occasional, oneoff referral.

12. Sell gift certificates for your products. Youกll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.

13. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.

At last! You can Control the Mind of Your Prospects

And Influence Them to Buy What You’re Selling

http://www.whycity.net/psychologicaltriggers.html

About The Author

Kusuma Widjaja is President of Yahoo Cyber Technology, CV., based in Surabaya. He has over 2 years experience in Internet Marketing Arena, Custom Web Site Design and Graphic Design Services. For more information go to http://www.whycity.net or you can reach us at +628315838474.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 20

by Kusuma Widjaja