TheAlphaMarketer

You need to Woo your clients

2006-06-13T20:19:43Z

There are two main streams of thought about building email lists and how to market to them. In the marketing area you have those that tell you that once you get your leads, then hammer them hard until they either buy or unsubscribe from your list.

The other school of thought is that you woo them and start a slow, long-term relationship that gains trust and lets them know you're human and what is you're all about.

The first way of doing things is usually done with people with more money to burn than others and endlessly do exactly what they say: hard sell. This works, but short-term. They don't mine their customers over years, they get a couple of sales out of them and their done. There are some big name online marketers that do this that you may even be on their ezine list.

]]> The soft-sell approach, in the current online climate, to me is the much better way of growing your business successfully. Get your audience to know and trust you. Show them a little of your human side and your personality. I subscribe to a lot of ezines to track what is happening out there, and I get some that don't really have a lot of "leading edge" stuff in them, but I like to read them because the writers show forth a sincerity that I really appreciate.

In a way what I'm doing is waiting for them to grow and offer something that I'm interested in so that I can buy from them.

How to build word-of-mouth fast

2006-06-13T02:58:51Z

The Alpha Marketer

The greatest challenge to online marketers when they want to expand there horizons by creating new online businesses is how to get viral marketing working quickly for them.

Unless you have a lot of money to spend on SEO, or have an inhouse expert, that's not going to help you in the short-term very much. Also because it takes a long time for you web site to be found by search engines, other than buying an old domain name that already has traffic going to it, this is going to take time also.

One of the best ways to get things going virally for you is to build your community. The best way to do that is to get your visitors and consumers empowered to talk.

]]> A great and proven way to do this is through an active forum. It gives people the opportunity to grip, complain, encourage and even chew each other out for complaining. The point is to get it active.

You may have to get it active, but once that is done, it takes on a life of its own. This is one of the most powerful user-generated content tools available, although many online marketers don't think of it that way.

Still, an active forum is one of the quickest, fastest ways to get viral word-of-mouth going and spreading.

Teen online statistics

2006-06-13T00:55:19Z

The Alpha Marketer

According to a recent Burst Media survey, 37.4 percent of teens aged 13-17, say they spend 3-4 hours each day on the internet - this is in addition to school.

Teen males who spend that much time number 39.9 percent while teen females are at 34.7 percent.

Another 17.9 percent say they spend from 2-3 hours online outside of school; 25.1 percent spend 1-2 hours online; and 19.6 percent spend less than an hour a day online. Still the numbers are quite impressive on how important a role the internet is playing with teens.

A common thread that runs through their usage is that the majority of teens are also consuming some other form of media while they are online. That is the key problem to solve in marketing to teen online users. Marketers must come up with compelling ways to minimize the distractions and disruptions.

]]> The strategy for any teen market is to create some type of meeting point where teens can congregate online. The way to do it is to offer numerous subjects and and things of interest that teens are looking for and develop campaigns around that.

Over 60 percent of teens join the social networking sites they visit and create an online profile. The higher percentage are females 67.5 percent while 53.7 are males of those that join.

Chuck Moran, manager of market research for Burst Media adds "Marketers should use the Internet to create a central content point for teens on a variety of subjects and interests. By doing so marketers can then develop integrated marketing campaigns with advertising creative and programs referencing a central platform and working in tandem to get teens' attention."

Other major online activities teens do are play online games, download music, download video clips, create website or personal pages, download cursors and ring tones.

E-newspapers could be here next year

2006-06-13T00:16:44Z

We have heard talk of the e-newspapers for close to 30 years and how it is just about read to be introduced to the consumer. The time for its arrival may finally be here.

Some of the biggest newspapers in the world are planning on offering some form of an electronic newspaper that will enable users to download the online editions to flexible, reflective digital screens that is said to be much easier on the eyes than current laptop or cellphone devices.

The flexible versions of these readers could possibly be available in 2007.

The early forays into this area failed because of high prices and there not being enough online content to justify its price. That and the non-flexible devices that didn't suit consumers. Now there are inexpensive digital screens that will be able to be rolled up and put in your pocket.

]]> With the newspaper industry circulation dropping every year for the last 20 years, they feel that this could be the key to competing in the present news and entertainment climate.

From the cost point-of-view, it is said that this could cut expenses by 75 percent. This may actually be the biggest benefit of the technology if it is accepted by consumers.

I'm not sure that another device that can download data from the Internet will be embraced in a large way by consumers. With all the current devices, will one more be welcome? I don't know. Just like cell phones, maybe they'll be more of a vanity item.

Is this something that you would want to use for your news viewing?

Higher conversion rates in your Email campaigns

2006-06-12T20:53:53Z

Research has confirmed what hopefully most of us already know, that in your email campaigns you get far better conversion rates when offering one choice of services versus multiple choices.

One recent test sent emails focusing on one product with one service and another that offered four separate services.

What were the results of the test? The email sent with one offer ourperformed the other by over 450 percent!

]]> This may not surprise most of you as those who create landing pages know that it is the only way to make them by putting one product or service on it and promoting the heck out of it. In email we don't see very many studies that reveal the same results.

So in our emails, we need to strongly consider that making more than one offer may hurt more than help you bottom line. Try a couple of tests with your list and offer your best product alone and see what the results are. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised.

The end of "push" marketing

2006-06-12T01:15:07Z

We talk about the need for compelling content in our writing and ad copy at thealphamarketer.com, and it's true how much we need that.

There is one area in marketing that is changing almost overnight and that is that marketing is no longer the in-your-face, take-it-or-leave it method anymore. That is the old push strategy. Now consumers are demanding more of a "pull" marketing model in advertising.

What is "pull" marketing? It is making the offering unintrusive to the point where the consumer isn't really sure that they've just been marketed to. It is making the ad so it doesn't obstruct what it is the consumer is trying to do. That's why Tivo and other DVR products are so popular. But finally it must be very appealing to the point where the consumer 'requests' your message. That's the end of all of what "pull" marketing is: pulling the customer into the process so much that they want to see what it is you're presenting.

]]> One way of doing this in online marketing is to offer PDF downloads with great value in them that people download from being "pulled" toward the content and initiate the download from its high appeal to them.

It is within the PDF file that you can add you marketing mixed in with the tremendous content you're including for free. This is a trend that will be here for a long time. Think of the creative ways that you can "pull" customers into what it is you have created.

Sifting through the Information Maze

2006-06-11T02:02:55Z

The Alpha Marketer

If you're anything like me in marketing and business, you're always looking and searching for another tip and idea to give you an edge.

In our information age, there is, well, too much information. How many times have you started doing some research and found that two hours later you've been reading and bouncing back and forth between an endless array of interesting stuff and not getting any work done?

So how can we do our research, stay on topic and sift through all the noise? Here are three things you can do to keep focused and not get overwhelmed by data and information:

1. We must know absolutely what our purpose for our business is. What is it that makes us unique. This will help you to stay focused and look for only that which applies to you.

]]> 2. Use your unsubscribe: If you have RSS feeds and tons of newsletters coming into you, and if they don't offer value to what you're doing, simply get rid of them. It's a waste of time to go through something that isn't helping your marketing efforts.

3. Skip the first several paragraphs of articles. Most people that write have been trained to open up with an interesting lead paragraph or two to capture your interest. If the headline of the article sounds like something you want to read about, go down two or three paragraphs and get to the core of what's being written. This can save you a lot of time.

Time is your most important unrenewable resource in life. You can't afford to squander it away. Use these tips to discipline yourself to focus on what really matters in your marketing efforts.

3 Online Networking Tips

2006-06-10T21:37:28Z

One thing that doesn't change, whether you're marketing online or off, is the need to grow your network.

In the online world, I think there is even greater opportunity to connect with other people, whether you may end up doing business with them or not. A good point to keep in mind concerning networking is that even if you connect with someone who you don't see yourself doing business with, you never know who they may know or may be talking to the next day.

Personally, I have even searched all over the place in my online wanderings to find unique interesting things for my ezine list and other contacts. The reason I do that is to find interesting things for my readers and customers. So when you contact someone, they could very well not need what you have to offer, but know others that would love to take a look at it.

If you contact another marketer, here are 3 things you can to when contacting them the first time:

]]> 1. First you must know what they are about. Look at what they're marketing and what their web site is about. In other words you're looking for a point of contact.

2. Take something that was interesting or new that you learned from their web site or articles, and comment on it when you contact them.

3. In the various things that you have found online, offer them some resource, idea or anything that you think might help them in their business.

Another thing not to forget is to make sure you have your contact information available every time you do this.

Are you offering high priced items? Part 2

2006-06-09T20:28:50Z

The Alpha Marketer

Continuing our conversation about offering higher priced products or services, let's look at one of the great benefits and competitive advantages of doing it.

More Marketing Money

If you were offering a $300 private online membership, and you had a competitor offering something similar for $50, who do you think has more money to spend on marketing?

You can spend up to $300 and your competitor can only go up to $50. Why is that such an advantage? Because you can go out and get all of those looking to resell, and they will want a piece of a pie that is bigger. Do you want 50% of $50 or 50% of $300? Not too hard to figure out the math is it?

]]> More Effort?

Some marketers are intimidated by higher priced goods because they think it's a lot harder work to sell them. This has been found to be not true at all. The effort is the same for low or high-priced items.

The difference in the two is in the marketing itself. The high-end product can't simply be slapped on a webpage or be sent once through a sales letter. Very few buy high-priced items that way.

The first thing that needs to be done is to generate leads through getting people to let you know that they're interested. Then, once you know who they are you can take the extra money to market them. You should have all sorts of marketing tools in place like postcards, direct mail, email, telephone contace or even voice broadcasts. I also think online video or email video may play a larger role with this in the future.

One thing in all of this is that you must overdeliver on these products or services. And I mean overdeliver by a lot. Give value far beyond what is expected and you'll make a lot of money and make a lot of people glad you did it.

Are you offering high-priced items?

2006-06-09T20:10:12Z

The Alpha Marketer

Many online marketers have an insecurity streak, and as a result don't put together products and services in the higher price ranges.

Obviously its not something you just decide to do regardless of what you're offering. When you offer high-end products you not only must deliver, but you must over-deliver.

What are some of the benefits of offering high-end items?

First of all, you deal with a lot less customers. Do you want to deal with customers who you've sold 50,000 pieces of your product or service at $20 or 100 customers that you've sold your offering for $10,000 each. The result of both is $1 million. Let's face it, it's easier to deal with 100 customers than 50,000.

]]> Another interesting thing about lower priced items is that the person buying the $20 offering is in most cases harder to work with than the one buying the $10,000 product. The reason is because the the higher price puts more value in the customer's mind and makes them work with it more than those buying the lower price one. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes - would you pay more attention to something you're spending $10,000 on than something you're spending $20 on?

Next post we'll look at more benefits of higher priced products or services.

Try these new Adwords features

2006-06-09T19:46:06Z

The Alpha Marketer

There are a couple of new Adwords features that are definitely worth trying out. The first one called... "Position Preferences" which is in the advanced options area under the edit campaign settings - lets you keep your ads turned off until they reach your position criteria.

For example, if you don't want your ad to ever reach the first position, but also don't want it to be shown if it is lower than position 8, you can now input that you only want your ads to show in positions 2 through 8. This is a great feature as a number of online marketers do better in the lower positions than on top.

Another feature that Google has added is called "Content bidding" - if you have your "content targeting" turned on (ads shown on websites related to your keywords, not the actual search results), you are able to bid less by enabling "content bidding" and submitting lower bids for the content inventory. Those that have used this before know how hard it used to be.

A couple more ways to enhance your campaigns.

Most European internet users buy online

2006-06-09T04:14:45Z

The Alpha Marketer

According to an article in DMeurope.com, more than half of European internet users have purchased items online in the last year, citing a study by European research agency InSites.

In the survey it was found that 70 percent of Swedish and Danish respondents had purchased goods or services online, more than any other country measured.

Right behind them came the Netherlands and France with 67 percent and 64 percent, who were also among the top online shoppers.

]]> Other countries in southern Europe such as Spain and Italy had 44 percent each, and Belgium had 47 percent. These had the lowest European totals. The average European online shopper made 7-8 e-purchases a year.

The French, English and German online shoppers purchased about one product or service a month. Belgium and the Netherlands came in last in this statistic with only five online purchases a year.

Keyword, Subject and Content Tip

2006-06-09T02:17:01Z

The Alpha Marketer

Does a place like Alexa have any value since it's powered by Google. If you do one search don't you get the same results. If that's the case why bother?

Alexa does have one little thing that adds great value to online marketers: It's called "Site info." Once you get the search results just look for it next to the cached url. You don't even have to click on it, just roll over it and it'll show you what other people also like to visit in connection to the topic your researching. It'll say "People who visit this page also visit."

What's the value of that? It provides instant information that can show you what the overall marketplace in interested in. This allows you to write content, make products or add information to your products or writings that you know readers want to know about.

]]> That's one of the secrets of those that search through amazon.com do all the time also. They look for subjects and search the ones that others are also interested in part of the results. These are great research aids that offer up immediate results that show you how valuable or deep the subject you're researching is.

Take advantage of these built in research results. It's another tool to use to set you apart from your competition.

Give yourself an edge with your testimonials

2006-06-09T00:20:51Z

The Alpha Marketer

If you have a lot of people looking at your site and offerings without buying, one of the things keeping them from making the decision could be your testimonials.

A new company called Trusted Testimonials has been formed to deal with this specific issue.

Dave Taylor recently asked one Trusted Testimonial executive about the new service. Here's what he said:

"If you haven’t already done so, you can increase your testimonials’ effectiveness by including the full name, city, state and country of the customers providing testimonials (with their permission of course). Photos of your satisfied customers and testimonials from experts in your industry are also great site conversion boosters. Once collected, in addition to your testimonials page, you should sprinkle testimonials throughout your site to maximize impulse purchasing.

]]> "For maximum effectiveness, when soliciting testimonials, you should request that in addition to reinforcing key benefits of your product or service, they should also quantify those benefits. For example, “Product X is less expensive and more effective than other similar products on the market. It cost 20 percent less and has helped my company save 30 percent in labor costs.”

Testimonials are a big part of online marketing for the big reason that they work. To add a objective 3rd party verification to your testimonials is another step that you could take to set yourself apart from your competition. This has some potential to add trust to your business.

More Web Design Mistakes

2006-06-08T22:02:41Z

The Alpha Marketer

We've talked about a number of web design mistakes before. Here are a few more that I continue to find in my online surfing.

Web Pages way too long - One way of getting somone to leave your site very quickly is the long, continuous page. When they scroll and scroll to get to the bottom of your page, you've already make them irritated and want to leave. Research has also shown that most people will not want to read articles more than 1000 words. They will scroll just to make sure it is a short piece that they can read quick.

The exception to this rule is in ad copy. When you're selling something it needs to be long enough to get your message across and assure the visitor. People don't mind long ad copy at all.

]]> Under Construction Pages - This is one that I don't understand at all. You'd be surprised at some of big name marketers that have this on their sites. I even rechecked one of the biggest marketers to see it his site still had this on it, and it did. This is somewhat of an unprofessional look to me. Some I've seen have this on their sites for months.

Plug-Ins - Have you ever come across sites that require you to install a plug-in to even use it? This may be possibly the dumbest mistake people make. And yet I come across these real often and never load any plug-in, or enter their site. Most others feel the same way.

There you have three more things that you need to be sure aren't part of your Web design. Everything you do to make it easier for a visitor to partake in the purpose of your site, the better.