I dont know everything and if I have learned one thing about doing business on the Internet it is that the more you learn the more you dont know. However, I have been doing business on the Internet since 1999 and Ive managed to carve out a successful enterprise for myself with several profit streams. The largest percentage of my marketing and promotional efforts has been conducted through one simple method-Ezine Advertising.
These are the 8 important lessons Ive learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:
A common mistake many advertisers make is to attempt to do too much, or rather sell too much, in one ad. Sure you have lots of great products but you cant sell them all in a few lines-at least not individually. Instead focus on the benefit your customer can achieve from all your products and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.
For example, Help your child reach their maximum potential instead of Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs
More importantly, tell the customer what your product or service is going to do for him.
It is important that you identify your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why What benefits does your product offer them
Dont go for the sale in your ad! You are at a disadvantage because you cant list all your products wonderful benefits in the space allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isnt the time they want to buy then they arent going to buy, end of story.
But it doesnt have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is much more likely to click on your link and then youve got the chance to go for the hard sell-again and again!
Heres an example. Im selling a product called the Preschool Prep Power Pack. Its an educational CD for preschoolers. Now I could go for the hard sell in my promotion and I would make some sales but a lot of people who really might be interested wont even look at my site and product. However, Ive chose to go the soft sell approach. Instead of selling my product in my ads, my ads offer two FREE items. I offer a free newsletter (Preschoolers Learn More) offering tips about preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. This is my target market for my product. The folks who subscribe also receive a free ABC-123 coloring book. Why wouldnt the parent of a preschooler subscribe, right
But whats in it for me as a business person A lot! Think about it. I now have the freely offered contact information for my target market. Now I can regularly email them information about my product. Im confident they will buy eventually because my product provides a solution to something that concerns them-or they wouldnt have subscribed in the first place!
Another common mistake is not giving your ad campaign enough time to work.
Studies show it takes prospects an average of seven exposures to your promotion before they take the bait. Even after they have clicked through to your site visitors may need to visit your site as many as three times before they buy from you. So make sure you keep that offer in front of them. That means it may well pay to take the long-term package versus a one-shot ad.
People run through their emails rapidly and delete things they wish they hadnt. Make their wish come true! Give them a second, third, fourth chance. The formula is--when youre sick and tired of it, the public is just beginning to hear it.
Just because youve bought ad space doesnt mean you have to utilize every pixel or character-space. Short, punchy lines that do not use up every available space are more effective. Think about the reader scanning down the page or screen. What will catch their eye and make them stop scanning and actually read White space is your friend so dont squander it. Use it to set off your important message.
Make sure you apply the same principal to your urls and e-mail addresses as well. Nothing can make an ad look more cluttered than giant web addresses with a complicated string of numbers and letters. If you have to use an address like that (perhaps for your affiliate code, for example) then it might be wise to use a redirect. There are numerous free services out there (http://snipurl.com for exmple) although perhaps it might be a good idea to use a page from your own web site with a redirect programmed in
USE YOUR HEAD
Your headline is the most important part of your ad. This is usually the line that determines whether the skimming reader will stop or skip ahead.
Some of the proven headline formulas include:
1. Ask the reader a question: Are you worried about filing yourtax return this year
2. Tell the reader how to do something: How to buy acar without getting a lemon.
3. Provide a testimonial: Big Al saved me $200 last month. Thanks, Cindy Lou from Paducah, Kentucky.
4. Make a command. Turn your most important benefit into a commandingheadline. Stop rushing through life. Make more money this month. Feel better about yourself.
5. Important news makes a good headline. Max Electronics just went international!
6. Start the clock: Buyers who act before midnight Tuesday will save an extra $50!
7. Give the reader something free: Free whatsit for the first 100 visitors!
DONT FORGET TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO!
It sounds almost ridiculous, but simply giving clear, specific directions about what you want the reader to do can increase the response to your ads.
Click here to find out more: http://whatsit.com
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SET YOUR BUDGET
One of the most difficult things to decide for any business person is how much money to spend on promotion. There really is one simple way to determine the answer. How much is a customer worth to you That tells you a great deal about how much you can afford to spend on advertising.
The simple formula to calculate the net worth of a visitor is: Net Profit divided by Conversion Rate.
First, what is your net profit on an average sale Lets say $10 to make it easy. (Hey, Im an English professor, I need to keep it simple!)
Then consider what your conversion rate is for visitors to become customers. Lets say one visitor out of 50 becomes a customer. (This makes your conversion rate 50 as you need 50 customers to make a sale)
With this example, a visitor is worth $0.50 to you. ($10 divided by 50)
So if you spend $100 on an advertising campaign that draws in 1000 visitors then you made $400 on that campaign.
SET REALISTIC GOALS
This issue is really about control. Yes, if you could control things that you would have a high sell through but that isnt always going to happen. In fact, for most advertisers that isnt going to happen. However, if your goal is to capture customers then you are much more likely to match your goal or even exceed it. And in the end a customer is worth a lot more to you than a sale because a customer can represent many sales over years to come-sales that were fairly easy to achieve.
As frustrating as it may be, advertising is usually about long-term versus short-term benefits. Your ad simply serves as a lure to draw people into your site or long-term promotion. Once youve pulled them in then you need to sell them. So it is not really fair to judge an ad campaign on simple sales.
The success of an ad campaign should be measured by one or two elements only-first, how many people followed up on your offer (click-through rate) and second, how many of those visitors were you able to convert into customers (conversion rate).
Over time you will be able to judge where the weak link in your chain of customer creation exists and work to fix it.
Low click-through rate Then it is probably your offer. You are not giving readers enough incentive to follow through. What is in it for them to click on your offer Remember you are selling benefits!
Low conversion rate Then perhaps you are not attracting the right sort of visitor. Target your incentive (the free offer, for example) to match your target audience. See my example in SOFT SELL.
You can learn more about online advertising and our recommended sources for ezine advertising at Establish Your Epresence. You can receive free ads as well as discounts by joining our . We also offer Ezine Advertising.
Everybodys doing it then I can do it too. This is the mentality that many of us have when it comes to making a choice in our life. Why do we do this We do this because we all like to make the right decision when it comes to spending or making a life long commitment. If ten other people make the decision to purchase purple kittens then you believe it is socially acceptable for you to purchase a purple kitten as well. This is social proof and it is a powerful marketing tool.
If you manage to convince a potential customer of yours that there are hundreds of people lined up to buy your product then it would be fairly easy for you to convince that potential customer to purchase your product. They believe you because they believe that many other people have either purchased your product or is about to purchase it. You just earned their trust by letting your potential customer know of what others think of your product.
Here are few ways that you can utilize this:
The more people you engage to believe in your particular product then more acceptable your product becomes. There are many ways in which you can utilize the power of social proof.
Have the right product and use social proof with the right motives, then this can be a powerful marketing tool for you. If you like to read further on social proof or human influences, I would recommend reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuassion by Robert Cialdini.
Article by Guna Deivendran
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