Accelerate Online Sales

Writen by Rosemary Brisco

Many companies believe that the process of optimizing your website by adding keywords to the content, title, and meta tags is the silver bullet to generating sales leads.

That isn't an optimized site.

Driving prospects to a website is only the first step in a successful search-engine-optimization program. Unfortunately, 90 percent of businesses only focus on this first step, while a successful online campaign actually has three critical components:

• Drive prospects to your website.
• Keep them there by creating a compelling benefit-based message.
• Generate sales leads, ensuring the site turns visitors into customers.

Search engines provide an opportunity to increase sales leads by 25%-50% in the first months provided your website follows site optimization and web usability best practices as outlined below

Assess your audience and identify what actions lead to sales.

• Success lies in understanding your customers. Who are you trying to attract? What content would attract each of these key audiences? How can you encourage website visitors to interact with your company?

• Talk to sales. Identify the best type of lead for the sales team. Take into account how the salespeople describe your products and services to prospects, and the objections they receive.

• Evaluate customer buying cycles and potential "call-to-action" items that could be incorporated onto the site to engage prospects. Do you have relevant content for prospects that are in the early research stages? Do you also have relevant content for those ready to engage with your sales team?

Assess your site.

• Evaluate the content on your website based on the needs of your audience. Do you have content for all audiences? What types of content will keep prospects on your website?
• Research the competition. Review the websites of your top competitors and assess how well they rank in the search engines for your top search phrases. Identify competitors that you may not even know about by using the "similar sites" feature in Google. Search engines know what sites are similar based on the site's content and the links pointing to a site.
• Assess your website traffic activity. Where is the traffic coming from? How many visitors leave after viewing the home page? How long do visitors stay on your site? What are the top search phrases used to find you? What is the most visited content?

Identify the right keyword phrases.

• Identify the most valuable keywords for your company based on relevance and popularity. Being found for unpopular search phrases is of little value.
• Think like your prospects. Understand how they would conduct searches for your products and services. There are several ways to identify the right keyword phrases:
  • Brainstorm with existing customers.
  • Analyze website statistical data.
  • Review site search results.
  • Research keywords with special tools and search engines.
  • Explore competitors' websites.
  • Test with a Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaign.
• Research the popularity of your search terms and the competition for those same words. Good tools for this are Wordtracker and Overture.

Optimize your site.

• Create keyword-rich title and meta description tags.
• Optimize each web page for two to three keywords, using your keyword phrases in a natural way.

Dispense with marketing fluff and jargon.

• Include keywords in internal anchor text links.
• Include an extensive site map and link to it from the homepage.

Track performance and re-evaluate.

• Your company will spend considerable resources creating its online lead-generation program.

Tracking is the key to defining the effectiveness of this program.

• There are multiple ways to evaluate effectiveness including the:
  • Number of unique or new visitors

  • Increase in the rankings of your site for top keyword phrases
  • Opt-in email sign-ups
  • Information requests by phone or email enquiries
  • Visitors taking online product tours or signing up for webinars.

Getting a prospect to click on your listing in a search engine is only the first step in an effective online lead generation program. What happens after they arrive on your website is just as important as how they get there.

Rosemary Brisco of ToTheWeb, LLC creates customer-oriented websites designed to attract qualified sales prospects from the search engines. Their clients include venture capital firms such as Mohr Davidow Ventures, Selby Ventures and Mayfield Fund, as well as organizations such as Stanford University, Adobe, Kodak and numerous Silicon Valley start-ups.

Written by Rosemary Brisco © 2005

Why Would I Want To Market On The Internet

Writen by Bryon Zirker

When starting a business or looking into an area to market to it is essential to investigate that market. You are saying ya ya I have heard this over and over. So why the internet?

From the reading that I have done to date (2005) regarding the internet and the number of businesses and users who use it, I must say it is nothing short of incredible.

The internet boasts some 55 million web sites on line. That number is supposed to hit the 600 million mark by the year 2010 and beyond. Incredible. And the actual user/buyer base will be well beyond 600 million. Do you understand what this means. That kind of market is astounding. The potential of accessing it and marketing to it is very great.

With some decent regulation and policing which is needed to protect businesses and indivduals from fraud, the sky is the limit you might say. So why would you want to market on the internet. Aside from what I stated above which are very good reasons, here are some very powerful reasons that are to be considered as well.

A biggy here is the cost to get started. You can put together a very small budget to start with and if you stick to it and stay consistant you will see results. One of the best ways to get started and get your feet wet is to become an affiliate and market an affiliate business or product. This way you can learn alot of the things you need to know and do in order to be successful online. Once you have mastered some strategies and you have gotten to know your way around you can apply what you have learned to other project businesses of your own creation.

Another very good reason is the amount of people that can be targeted with your advertising. You would be hard pressed to get hundreds thousands or even millions into your hardware store in a month or your candy store or pet store. But an online store could have millions visit it in one month.

And then there is the selling factor or face to face networking with potential customers. Alot of people will not take the step into owning thier own business because they can not or do not do well marketing or selling to other people. So the internet is a great place to build a presence that does not rely totally on ones selling abilities alone. In fact some people might build a presence that reflects a personality that they could otherwise never pulloff face to face with a customer.

One of the best reasons which goes along with the small budget aspect is that you can test your ideas quickly and inexpensively on the internet. This is key because you do not sink alot of your money in until you see that it will work.

So the point is that the internet is a very large (and getting larger every day) arena for business. It is dynamic and fun. It takes work like any thing else worth doing and the potential for success is huge and not just monetarily either. It is a great place to share information and ideas too.

To Learn More Home Business Tactics Visit:
http://home-business-tactics.blogspot.com

About The Author:
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Copyright © Bryon Zirker Bryon Zirker is an Entreprenuer who is interested in
starting internet businesses. Bryon has owned offline
and online businesses for over ten years.
http://home-business-tactics.blogspot.com
http://www.easyworkathomebiznow.com
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Sending A Joint Venture Proposal

Writen by John Kovacs

When forming a joint venture with another business, your most important step is the approach you use when contacting your potential business partner.

Participating in a joint venture with another prominent business can be extremely beneficial to ones business. The biggest reason why most webmasters do not get a reply back when sending a proposal, is the approach they use.

I cannot begin to tell you how many proposals I personally have received that get deleted almost instantly. There are some that address the proposal with "Dear Webmaster" or as simple as just "Hi". Some do not tell me anything about themselves or their business (I guess I'm suppose to guess at this one). While others may be run-on, have misspellings, or just plainly unprofessional.

A joint venture is not as simple as lets say a link exchange. It requires a little more research and commitment by both parties.

Although you can send a joint venture through standard mail, consider sending your proposal by email in your first approach. If they have provided their phone number in their contact information, let them know that after a few days, you would like to follow up with a personal phone call to go over the details. Stipulate a time frame that you would like to call and asking them to reply back if the time frame is inappropriate.

Here are some guidelines when sending a proposal by email:

Be precise and clear with your proposal.

Make sure to personalize your email by using their name.

Write an email that shows professionalism and trust.

Complement the positive points you found on their website.

Include information about yourself, your website, your customer base and the services and products you offer.

Point out how you feel your customer base would have an interest in his/her products or services, as well as their customers having an interest in yours.

Highlight how both of you can benefit financially from this joint venture as well as gain added exposure.

Be sure that all spelling and grammar is correct.

When contacting a potential business owner on a joint venture, the key is to highlight the financial benefit to both parties.

If you are approaching a joint venture whereas the other party is just an endorser of your products, (such as an ezine publisher) a larger percentage of each sale should go to the publisher. In this case you have to keep in mind that they are doing all the work while endorsing your product to his/her established customer base.

Once you have found a party that is willing to form a joint venture with you, you may want to consider putting an agreement in writing and getting it signed by your new business partner. Just make sure you outline each of the terms in the agreement, such as precisely what you both agree to, terms, commission, time frame of the venture, how each of you are to get paid, etc.

John Kovacs is the CEO and founder of "A Home Business Opportunity". His website mainly focuses on supplying free marketing tips, resources and support for home startup businesses and Internet marketing. To get a step-by-step guide in building an online business, visit http://www.ahomebusinessopportunity.net

4 Reasons Why You Need Testimonials To Sell More

Writen by Neil Sagebiel

The other day I was writing a sales brochure for a West Coast manufacturer. As I got to what I'll call the "proof" section of the brochure, I was rummaging around for testimonials. The company already had a full-blown Web site and a solid PowerPoint presentation. So I was hopeful that I'd find some ready made testimonials or at least some material I could use to create some.

As it turned out, they had one case study with a couple of customer quotes. I pieced together the material to create one measly testimonial. It was less than adequate.

Well, maybe it's no big deal. After all, I wrote strong copy. Why even bother with testimonials? I'll give you four good reasons.

1. Credibility

Testimonials give your company, product, or service credibility. Everyone is bombarded with advertising messages every day. It's a brutal marketplace. If you want to sell something to somebody, you stand a much better chance if you can convince them that you're credible. Testimonials are like references on a resume. They're the people who vouch for you.

2. Identification

Your prospects identify with your customers who are providing the testimonials. They have similar concerns, problems, hopes and desires. They commiserate. This is good. You want this in your marketing. (Sorry, but your prospects don't identify with you. Not really. You're trying to sell them something!)

3. Proof

Proof, alone, is reason enough to gather and use testimonials. This is where your customers say, in effect, "They're right, Mr. or Ms. Prospect. They can save you 50% ... or make you feel 18 again ... or make you enough money to retire at 50. They did it for me and I'm thrilled!" Testimonials notarize your marketing speak.

4. Closure

Testimonials help close the sale. Sure, they can be used throughout a marketing piece. But they definitely come in handy toward the end. You've introduced the problem or need, your product or service, the features and benefits, and more. Then you line up your testimonials, all the customers whose heads are nodding and saying, "Yep, it worked for me." Soon after, you ask for the order.

For many reasons, testimonials give your prospects the confidence they need to buy from you for the first time. And once your prospects turn into new customers, the door to repeat sales swings wide open.

(c) 2005 Neil Sagebiel

Neil Sagebiel is a veteran copywriter who has served clients such as Microsoft, The Seattle Times, Lucent Technologies, March of Dimes, Airborne Express and Unisys. To sign up for his FREE expert tips to help you write better and sell more, visit http://www.neilsagebiel.com

10 Rarely Used Bonuses That Can Triple Sales

Writen by Rojo Sunsen

1. Announcement Alerts - Give customers e-mail alerts about critical information or product releases before your non customers find out about it.

2. Discounts - Allow your customers to get lower prices on your products and other related products other businesses sell.

3. Expert Call Ins - Set up a date and time when your customers can call up and talk directly with experts that are related to your industry.

4. Private Invitations - Give your customers private invitations to customer events that non customers cannot attend.

5. Online Rolodex - Compile a list of web sites or online contacts that are related to the product. You could publish it on CD-ROM or on the web.

6. Archived Information - Bundle together some older information that's no longer available. It could be e-zine back issues, articles, transcripts, etc.

7. Mentor Program - Give your customers unlimited consulting with their purchase. Allow them to contact you by e-mail, phone, fax, in person, etc.

8. Audio/Video E-zine - Give customers an upgraded version of your e-zine in online audio or video format. Non-paying customers could only get it in e-mail.

9. Freebie Announce Board - Offer your customers a message board were they can announce freebies they offer from their web site.

10. Barter Discussion List - Offer your customers the option of joining a barter email discussion list. They can barter goods and services with others.

About the author:

Rojo Sunsen is a specialized bounty hunter who prefers to work quietly/confidentially for the benefit of her clients.