Need Website Sales?

Frequently when I look at print magazine which focus on start ups or small businesses, I am disappointed in the inadequacy of much of what is written in many magazine articles.

However, once in awhile an article will really be golden. Today's recommendation is just such an article.

From the Entrepreneur magazine website, here is Derek Gehl's "3 Secrets to a Site that Sells."

Slow and Steady Wins The Race

Many sales and marketing people could learn a lot from the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. There marketing comes across like a jack rabbit, both by trying to cram too much into each communication and by the sporadic nature of their communication.

A much more effective method of communication is audience development and nurturing.

Another metaphor for this same idea is "watering a cactus."

If you provide just a little marketing, on a consistent basis to people who have given you permission to communicate with them, you will build an audience of clients and allies who will recommend you to others.

But if you "flood" your prospects, you will kill your cactus.

Ardath Albee wrote a great article on lead nurturing.

Analyzing why the prospect says No

Just as their are motivating factors which can close a sale. There are also factors which can demotivate the prospect and hinder the sale.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith wrote "Seven Ways To Get Rejected."

When Good Falls Flat

Have you ever had a really great home made meal? Have you ever eaten the absolute best 5-star Restaurant meal. Both of these are great experiences.

But what happens if you try to mix them together? What happens if a down home cook serves a meal in a five star restaurant? Its the same meal that was great at home - but suddenly its not so great.

Why Not? And what does this have to do with running a business?

Seth Godin wrote a brief but powerful article entitled "The Dead Zone of Slick."

The World's greatest little leaguer should not be asked to play at age 12 in a major league game!

Understanding Online Community Development

Developing alliances and community on the internet, is not the same as networking offline. There are factors to consider in order to develop a strategy which accomplishes that which you desire.

Crystal Williams provides a very nice introduction to virtual communities in "Online Communities 101."

Lower Your Google Bounce Rate

One of the smart technologies which Google now incorporates into its search engines measures how dissatisfied your website visitor is when he or she first lands on your web page. (If you are unfamiliar with this topic, see Google's Bounce Rate explanation.)

Michael Fleischner wrote an article detailing Seven Tactics for improving the amount of time that visitors spend on your web site.

Preventative Business Health Check

As humans get older, it becomes more important to have preventative health checks. Keeping track of certain physical criteria can help prevent illnesses.

Businesses can also be headed for trouble and yet the warning signs are not always heeded.

Jonathan Farrington wrote: "Ten signs your small business may heading for trouble."

Four Out Of Five is not Bad

There are many mistakes which website owners make. I have frequently done indepth evaluations of websites which have included many mistakes.

However, some mistakes are more visible and obvious to the casual visitor than others.

Corte Swearingen wrote an article entitled: "Five Prominent Website Mistakes." However, I recommend only the first four of Corte's tip.

The fifth tip is good for personal websites and for some websites which already have a well developed audience base. But it can adversely affect the load time and bandwidth of a website which is still seeking growth.

A guide to creating and publishing Press Releases

Today's recommendation is a real winner.

Vera Raposo wrote: "Publicity & Media For Your Small Business."

That depends upon what your definition of the word "We" is

If a book of quotations written a century from now contains any William Jefferson Clinton quotations it will probably quote his "depends upon your definition" quote.

But this posting has nothing to do with politics or presidential trials.

This summer an author sent out a newsletter in which he suggested banishing the word "We" from sales communication.

Another author has a sales communication book entitled "We."

But the thing is, you see, that the two authors were using the word "We" with two completely different meanings.

Thus I find myself agreeing with the points which both authors made.

Confused? Good.

If you would like to know why you should use the word "We" and why you should also banish the word "We" then visit Steve Yastrow's article which explains.

Boost Effectiveness of Communication through Structure

Sometimes its not what you say, its HOW you say it that makes the difference.

As someone who is interested in Marketing, you will occasionally need to write an effective sales letter. (That may, in your case, be an understatement.)

Understanding how to structure a sales letter may make the difference between a successful letter and an ineffective one.

Mark Ferguson wrote "The Anatomy of a Single Page Sales Letter."

BTW, at the time of this writing, this web page contains a sales offer. You may want to know that I tried to contact Tina about three weeks ago by email and did not get a response back.

I'll Give You A Daisy A Day, Dear.

Apparently, one of the hardest tasks for most small business in house marketing is, looking at your content from the perspective of the outside world.

In order for your internet marketing efforts to be successful, you have to avoid the head on approach to promoting yourself.

Winning a prospect has some similarities to courting a sweetheart.

If you are going to win someone's heart, then you have to convince that person that he or she will benefit from dealing with you. But you also have to convince the person that you hope to win, that he or she is special. If you come off sounding to your prospects as if anyone will do, they may seek someone who will make them feel as if they are the most important people in the whole wide world.

But you also can not come across as if you will wait for your prospect forever, or your prospect may take you for granted.

Ardath Albee wrote an article about "Back Story."

Karon rejects an SEO inquiry

Too many entrepreneurs and corporations think that they know what causes ranking in search engines. Most of the time, they are wrong.

Quick Note to anyone who wants good search engine ranking: Pleasing the site visitor is the modern solution to SE ranking. Keyword Density is NOT!

Karon Thackston wrote: "Please Don't Do This."

Tell it like it is, Karon - and everyone else - LISTEN up.

Reframe it as a Narrative

Today's recommendation is unusual for this column. The author of the article is not writing for a business audience.

However, any business owner who will read this article with the attitude - "How will this information help me to connect better with my internet audience?" - will benefit greatly from reading this article.

Narrative is one of the most powerful tools in connecting to your audience and it is also rarely used effectively by small business owners.

I strongly recommend reading the Scientific American article, "The Secrets of Storytelling" by Jeremy Hsu

Twenty Plus Tips for Good Website Design

Web Design is not primarily about Graphics.

Design also includes how your website "works" for your visitor. Many first time website owners focus on trying to impress their visitors. This is usually a mistake. Instead focus on satisfying your visitor.

Henriette Martel wrote an article entitled "Design Tips for Your Website" which focuses on three main categories: the text, the layout and the navigation.

Her tips are concise and relevant.

Design Tips for Your Website

Don't Reason With Your Visitor

It is rare to find a "Did It In House" website that does not attempt to present logical evidence for using the company's product or service.

The right approach is to focus on the Wants, Dreams and Pains of your prospect.

If a guy wants to buy a diamond for a gal - Which do you think is foremost in his mind: Logic or Emotion?

Well, believe it or not, many purchases of services and products are based on Alleviating Pains, Fulfilling Dreams and Acquiring Wants.

Jennifer Horowitz wrote "Add Emotional Impact To Your Content."

Have You Tied Your Hands Behind Your Back?

Getting into Internet Marketing involves choices some of which are more expensive than others, but even among the expensive choices there are often low cost alternatives.

Some of the questions to ask about websites are these:
Is it scalable?
Can I edit or add pages?
Can I easily change hosting companies?
Does the website help to build a brand identity?
Am I using content disseminating technology to build traffic?
Does my content create conversions?

Dawud Miracle discussed one of the problems inherent in some low cost choices in his article, "Do You Own Your Website?"

Without Numbers, its not a Value Proposition

Every so often, I run across an article that contains some great ideas, but it does not adequately address the announced topic.

If the author of today's article had stated that the topic of the article was "How To Differentiate Yourself Effectively From Your Competition." This would be a fantastic article.

But instead he announced that the article is about writing Value Propositions. There's only one small problem. Nowhere in the article does he address tangible, measurable outcome.

Without he NUMBERS, its just differentiation and positioning. What is sometimes called a USP. But a USP and a VP are not the same thing. You have to be able to give verifiable statistics of the value of your service or product in order for it to be a value proposition.

Nevertheless, the article is still very good in covering the ground which it does cover.

Corte Swearingen wrote "Creating A Value Proposition."

What's in your Ears?

About 15 years ago, I heard a silly children's song called "Beans in My Ears."

The last verse of the song said "I think that all grownups have beans in their ears."

Sometimes in selling, entrepreneurs have beans in their ears. The beans are things like biases and perspectives. Frequently there is a focus on "telling" and not on "answering."

In order to be come good at Answering, an entrepreneur has to first be good at listening.

Jonathan Farrington wrote an article entitled "Secrets of Effective Communication."

Economic Slowdowns favor certain Businesses

During a booming economy people are more likely to take risks than they are during a slow economy. Those companies which are perceived as being less risky and more trustworthy have a better chance of prospering during a slow economy than do edgy and avant garde companies.

The Brooks Group wrote an article containing three sets of three items each that focus on how to improve sales during an economic slowdown

Calculating the ROI of being Loyal to your Client

A lot of companies create customer loyalty programs to try to encourage their customers to keep buying from them. However, many of these companies make no attempt to be loyal to their customers. This has a hindering effect on their efforts to encourage loyalty in their customers.

However, if it were possible to calculate how much each customer is worth in revenue to the company over the lifetime of the customer, companies might be more inclined to being loyal to their customers.

Crystal Williams wrote an article entitled "How Much Is Your Customer Worth?"

How big is your Booster Club?

Do your Fans brag about you?

Do you even have any Fans?

Would you like for your business to have a lot of people who champion your Brand?

Ed Roach wrote "How To Make Brand Champions."

Nurturing Relationships

I am a big believer in business relationships. Unfortunately, those who believe the way I do about business relationships are few.

I believe that business relationships should be two way. Some businesses have Customer Loyalty programs but they are not loyal to their customers.

I believe that business relationships should not be based on being transactional but rather on character. Transactional business relationships are like affairs and flings, they tend to focus on selfishness and a year later are awkward.

I believe that today's small potatoes may be tomorrow's King of the Hill. Businesses that treat their small clients differently than their big clients are sacrificing long term brand loyalty for quarterly profits.

I believe that sharks should be avoided. Any business person who betrays an ally is very likely to betray me.

I believe that takers are not worth the investment of time and energy. A taker is one who demonstrates over and over that he "is only in it for himself."

I believe that givers are always worth more than I can ever invest. A giver is not simply someone who gives to me nor is a giver someone who does something for personal glory or satisfaction. A giver can be impoverished and still be a giver. A giver is a giver in their heart and character, one who possess a generous spirit.

Another thing about business relationships is that, unfortunately, there are also "rules."

Mark F wrote an article about the rules of vendor-client relationships.

How is a Stopwatch like crude SEO

I love this quote from today's article.

What gets measured, gets done.

And guess what, when the thing that you measure does not improve your ROI, wonders of wonders those things which get done are also not the things that improve your ROI.

Listen Up - If you measure conversions, your profits go up. If you measure only site arrivals, your profits go down.

Bill Hogg wrote "Avis And Their Three Minute Promise."

If you don't understand why Avis is making a mistake, please read the article. And if you do understand why Avis is making a mistake, then why are you just measuring SE clicks?

Avis And Their Three Minute Promise.

Quit Marketing Your Product (or Your Service)

One of the biggest mental roadblocks in dealing with small business owners is that they try to cut corners when it comes to textual content. Instead of paying a professional writer of business copy to write their marketing text, they attempt to do it in house.

Now this would not be so bad, if it were not for the fact that many of them proceed to write copy which focuses on telling how good their product is, how great their services are and what a great company they run.

This is the wrong approach to marketing.

Your task as a marketer is to provide a solution to a problem. You need to focus on identifying the client's biggest headache and then show them how you can remove that headache.

Ben Jones wrote: "Small Business Marketing: The Secret Revealed!"

P.S. Ben also recommends another article on this topic as well.

Make It Happen

On Tuesday afternoon, my recommendation was about Idea Generating.

Now that you have an idea, how do you effectively make your vision successful?

Ritu Pant wrote an article entitled "Are You Ready To Turn Your Ideas Into Reality?"

A Two-Fer: The One Thing that Can Improve The Effectiveness of Articles

Today, I am recommending two articles from different writers on the same topic.

When you write an article, you probably are aware of the structure of the article. You might even create a formal outline before you write the article.

However, many times readers of articles indicate that when they read an article they can not always follow the flow of the writer's thoughts.

One of the greatest resources for improving how effective your articles are, is to use headings and subheadings.

If you don't use subheads, you may want to read Sonia Simone's article first.

If you already use Subheads and want to improve your use of them, then read Alexandria Brown's article.

Word! What He Said!

Quotations are like money in the Bank, when they are testimonials concerning your company.

One of the most powerful resources that your company has are the testimonials which your customers have given you.

But did you know that HOW you present those testimonials to the public affects how effective the testimonial is?

Dean Rieck wrote: "10 Quick and Simple Ways to Power Up Your Customer Testimonials."

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

Do you ever get what authors call "writer's block?"

Every successful entrepreneur has the ability to imagine a vision and crystallize that vision so that it can be turned into reality.

But every once in awhile those of us who rely on our mind's ability to come up with new ideas, find that we have a dry spell.

Recently, one New York consulting firm did a survey poll in order to discover how business people generate new ideas.

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Today's recommendation requires just a bit more patience than normal. I am recommending a PDF from Idea Champions. However, since this is not a Web Page but rather a download, when you click on the link, you will be taken to a page where you have to click on another link.

"Sorry About That, Chief."

At BNET's Team Taskmaster in this article, in the first sentence, click on the words "which catalysts spurred its clients’ brightest ideas."

Again, This is the LINK.

Creating category tags for your Clients

In the internet world, keywords and tagging is used as ways of searching by categorization.

When it comes to your clients, not all of them have the same relationship with your business. At least that is the point that Corte Swearingen expounds upon in "Marketing To Your Customer Types."

Sometimes, its all in how you package it

Sometimes, even the best content in the world will only be considered by your audience if the packaging is right.

Let me illustrate:

Would you believe that some of the top read writers on the internet compete to have their content "re-packaged?"

Every month, writers send proposals to ChangeThis.com. These proposals are then posted for public voting on the Change This proposal page. This link goes to that page.

Whichever five proposals gets the most votes that month, then gets the chance to be featured as a Change This eBook.

End of Illustration.

The point is that the Media in which information is presented affects the optimal format of the information.

Have you ever been to a Power Point presentation where the speaker attempted to put the entire text of his speech on the screen. Bad Decision.

The substance of the speech might be GREAT and yet placing it on the screen ruins the speech.

In the early days of the web, there was no professional looking page layout. When websites started being designed to resemble printed documents, many websites were mis-designed to scroll downwards through more than a dozen screens or more. This was a mistake for the same reason that putting all the content of a speech on a projection screen is a mistake.

Content needs to be formatted for the medium in which it is being presented and the limitations, as well as the advantages, of the medium used need to be understood and respected.

The amount of content which you need to present, should have an affect on your media choice. If you are presenting a lot of content, it is frequently a good idea to present this content as an eBook. A professionally designed eBook can be used as a Premium in lead harvesting, as a community development giveaway or as a product for marketing.

(Disclosure: My consultancy provides typography and page layout services for eBooks and other electronic publications including eNewsletters and Presentations.)

Vera Raposo wrote an article on how to market eBooks. (The Ebay suggestion is obsolete. see the comments below the article.)

How To Transform Case Studies into Sales Tools

While case studies focus on convincing prospects that your company has experience and expertise. However, prospects identify with your company's past clientele.

When a past client tells their own story from their own point of view - it is much more compelling to your prospect than any story which is told from your point of view.

Ardath Albee wrote an article which explains the process for converting your case studies into stories which sell your services.