You ALL need to get better at marketing...

Hi All,

It's a great myth that just because you've got a nice website and some cool bsuiness cards and nice brochures that you're ready to launch you're amazing business onto the masses.

A website and all your great promotional material is nothing if what you're saying isn't addressing your customers needs. It sounds simple doesn't it?
You'd be amazed at how many websites I come across everyday (and you probably do too) that scream "ME!ME!ME!" instead of "how can I help you".

Don't forget that your customers are as selfish as you are. That sounds really harsh, but analyse it - it's true. They are in it for themselves and they want to know how you can benefit them. They're not that bothered about who you are and why you're doing what you are.

Make your homepage direct and tell them how you can help them straight away.
This can be visual aswell as text (better to use both methods for a better response).

If you do PPC (Google Adwords etc) make sure the search terms people have used and the ad they have clicked on take them to a page they expect to see and read and hear about.
IE. If your ad says you're selling the greatest carrots this side of Cheshire, DO NOT take them to your homepage about your lovely farm business! Take them to a page specifically written for your ad - about THE BEST CARROTS THIS SIDE OF CHESHIRE!

Oh, and please make sure you're having a great time doing what you're doing - if you're not you might want to take a look at something else

Phew, glad I got that out of my system!
Happy Business Building.


http://www.TheTargetizer.com

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Yes - addressing customer needs is what it should all be about. It's surprisingly easy to get distracted from this though!

Dan
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Web Design

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Thanks for the good advice. We have a relatively new website and find Google adwords pretty difficult to get to grips with. Finding the right keywords especially. We're particularly having problems getting people to give their name and email address in order to sign them up for factsheets and reports. Any advice on this please?

Look forward to hearing from anyone.

Thank in advance
Sue
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www.weald-business-solutions.co.uk sue@weald-business-solutions.co.uk

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Common ways to get people to sign up is to incentivise them - for instance by giving them a free ebook that is relevant to their needs on sign up. Or perhaps a competition where one person to sign up to the list each month gets a relevant prize that will be of value to them. People get so many messages in their inbox these days they usually need a little coaxing to part with their details to one more list!

Dan
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Web Design

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Thanks Dan, we'll try that. I have to admit I don't readily sign up to something unless I know I'm going to get something out of it. This wasn't from an email though, it was from an Adword. WE will have to try to put a 'freebie' onto the sign up page to add 'incentive'.

I'll let you know if it worked!

Thank for the advice.

Sue
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www.weald-business-solutions.co.uk sue@weald-business-solutions.co.uk

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Getting to know Adwords is a whole business in itself, in that there are companies that offer and manage client accounts and 'advise' accordingly as to what to do and why, and run the whole show.

However for a smaller operation it is all about experimenting and split testing.

Try lots of different keywords, titles and so on over the course of a month, then sit down and check which worked best in terms of ratio of clicks vs purchases - and that's the combination to go with long term.

Tim

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Thanks Tim,

Would be interested to know if anyone has tried Adwords with success. How long should it take to make it work properly?

Sue
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www.weald-business-solutions.co.uk sue@weald-business-solutions.co.uk

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

I don't think there's any exact answer to your solution other than the annoying vague 'it depends!'

Some get lucky and find keywords that work for them straight away. I think for most it is a process of learning and fine tuning through nothing more grand than trial and error:

...try one set of keywords, monitor cost, amount of traffic, and take up
then try some more keywords, and monitor their effectiveness

...repeat until you hit a ratio you are happy with.

Some businesses will find this harder than others. If each product sale is worth thousands, for instance, you may have more slack in terms of what number of clicks you need to convert. If the margin is a small percentage versus cost per click, then you of course need to convert a much larger percentage into warm leads at least.

Tim

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Tim

That's a really clear description - I've wondered about that sort of thing many a time, thanks

Lianne

Re : You ALL need to get better at marketing

Tim outlines a sensible approach, certainly trial and error is key and probably the best way to eventually find the optimum strategy for you.

There are several keyword tools out there you can use to gain an informed impression of how often particular searches are performed and also information as to how much you should expect to pay per click on those search terms which can then be used as the basis for the trial and error, so you shouldn't need to guess at all stages of the process!

Dan
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Web Design