Archive for November, 2011

Twitter – Weekly Updates for 2011-11-25

Friday, November 25th, 2011 at 8:15 pm  
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What Do You Offer?

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 10:06 am  
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Special offers are like a super-secret code for unlocking new sales opportunities and introducing yourself to new buyers. I say “super secret” because so many companies fail to use them effectively. And many others don’t use them at all.

Some businesses don’t want to make offers. They think doing so will undervalue their product or company. To those headstrong owners, let me ask this: how much value will your product have to someone who never buys it? Someone who never takes a leap and becomes your customer at all?

Think of offers like this. They remove the barrier to entry in working with you. They make it easier for a buyer to give your business a try. Use offers to get them on your website, on the phone, or in your door the first time. Then use offers to keep them as loyal customers. And if they ever do cease being loyal, use an offer to incentivize them back into the fold.

See how offers can and should be used in your sales process to make more sales, keep more customers and make more money?

Instant motivation

Customers need a good reason to buy from you. And, like it or not, the quality of your product alone isn’t enough. Offers are one of the most useful marketing vehicles of all to create real, honest-to-goodness sales. But it gets better. Offers motivate buyers immediately and drive sales quickly.

Marketing is most powerful when it motivates the customer to buy—NOW! The motivation has to be something they care about. It has to be something of value they get for free or that saves them considerable money. Besides coupons and price reductions, you can offer entry into a high value drawing like an iPad.

The ideas for offers are endless. You have to make the buyer care about the offer.

Offers for referrals

Apply offers to customers who refer you! This is a wonderful way to say “thank you,” and it’s ROI for you. After all, you can use more referrals, can’t you? Always be thinking of reasons for people to give you referrals. Offer discounts for qualified referrals, entries into drawings, “thank you” [link] gifts and more. This helps build good will with the customer and keeps you where you always need to be—right in front of them.

If selling is important to you, then offers should be too. Use offers that your customers will care about effectively and frequently, and they will pay off in big ways.

If you’ve found this post useful or thought provoking I’d love to hear your comments – also please feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn and +1 it too

Twitter – Weekly Updates for 2011-11-11

Friday, November 11th, 2011 at 8:15 pm  
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Twitter – Weekly Updates for 2011-11-04

Friday, November 4th, 2011 at 8:15 pm  
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The Key to using Keywords

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 at 10:44 am  
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Everybody knows keywords are important. But in my experience, there’s a whole lot about keywords business owners don’t know. And that means they’re missing out on something important.

What works in keyword techniques and strategies is always changing (like everything in business). The methods that got you to the top of the search engine results just a few years ago have changed and your business has to be able to keep up with the latest trends if you’re going to be win today’s business battles.

If keywords are going to grow your business, you’ll need to be smart, thorough and consistent. Too many small businesses are zero for three here.

Let’s take a look at the types of keywords to start with. There are three categories and you need to know about and use them all:

1. Highly competitive keywords. Just about everybody whose looking is using these keywords. This is the easy part.

2. Keywords indirectly related to what you sell. Use these to capture buyers on the margins of what you’re selling. Be creative and pull these people in to make them paying customers.

3. Less-competitive words searched less frequently. These keywords have the highest overall quality. They’re that balance of the most searched for, but the least targeted, by your competitors’ websites. This is the goldmine!

4 Biggest Mistakes

Too many business owners make too many assumptions. This kills the results of their keyword strategy. They think that because certain keywords are important to them that they will be important to their customers. Wrong! You need to get clear on what people are actually searching for, not what you THINK they are searching for!

1. Keyword “strategies” aren’t about guessing about your customers’ searches. You simply must know what real, live searchers are looking for online. The real results will surprise you. There are some excellent tools that can help you do this. Look into Wordtracker, Google AdWords’ Keyword Tool and KeywordSpy.

2. Many business owners are still forgetting the importance of local search too. This is disastrous! Your website has to liberally use all relevant geo language. How are people searching by location? Are they keying in your town name, region name or landmarks?

3. Another big mistake is assuming the web developers understand how to use keywords for SEO. This is a dangerous assumption as so many don’t! Too many! Your keywords must be coded properly and appear in your meta-tags, page title tags, anchor text, images and page URLs. If your developer isn’t up to date on these, you will pay the price in lost traffic and sales that don’t get made!

4. Once and done just isn’t good enough. Keyword strategies must be ongoing and consistent.

Your competitors know that keywords are a dynamic of the new age of marketing that is always changing. These businesses are getting smarter and more sophisticated in their use of keywords every day. Are you? If not, it’s time to get on top of your keyword strategy!

If you’ve found this post useful, it would be great if you’d +1 it and share it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And I always enjoy reading your comments too!