Internet Marketing Advantage Blog

Today I want to share with you some tips about building and
managing your customer list. Remember: if you have a website
with a customer list, you MUST email your customers to raise
your income. The most common way to do it is by writing
newsletters. Newsletters can be a pain to write, but guarantee a
very good return on investment. Thanks to my experience, I put
together four simple MUST FOLLOW rules that can turn a poor
newsletter marketing into a great success. Enjoy!

1: Broadcast Monthly – As a rule I send out at least one message
per month just to keep communication lines open. You don’t
want to constantly be barraging your customers with sales every
email so in my monthly broadcasts I usually inform my customers
of new resources that have become available at my site. I often
upload free articles that I source from copyright-free places or
websites that I partner with. If you can, try and create unique
resources of real value – writing articles yourself is an option
if you have knowledge about the industry your business operates
in. I inform my customers about the new resources and end with a
small reminder about our services – 10% sales pitch, 90% good
content.

2: Offer Discounts – I have a list of people that have yet to
become customers, my prospects list. For this list I have an
automatic series of responses sent out, first starting weekly,
then turning monthly that offers them enticements to join. Once
a prospect has been subscribed to my list for a long time I have
an automatic email go out offering them a discount to try my
business out. I even cut the price to the point where I don’t
make a profit just to get the prospect to trial the service. I
know if they like it they will use it again so often the act of
converting them into a customer is the final roadblock that a
discount offer removes.

3: Encourage Referrals – One of my favorite techniques is to
offer incentives for my present customers to bring in their
family and friends. The easiest customers to acquire are from
current customers recommending your business. Word of mouth is
always the best marketing method so why not encourage it as much
as you can? Each current customer is potentially the best
salesperson you could ever find and sometimes all it takes is an
offer, like a credit for services/discount voucher or even just
an email suggesting they tell friends about your business. Happy
customers are happy to spread the word, they just sometimes need
a little nudge to do it.

4: Market Research – Are you considering launching a new product?
Maybe you want to know what your clients think of your customer
service? How about gathering statistics about your customer
demographics to help with future marketing efforts? All these
questions can be answered by sending a survey to your list.
Perhaps you can offer incentives to fill out a survey such as
discount vouchers, two-for-one deals or free samples. However
you do it, your current list is a fantastic store of minable
data just waiting to be accessed. Services like SurveyMonkey.com
give you the tools to create online surveys easily, which can be
linked from or included in one of your broadcast emails to your
list.

Does this look familiar: “I can sell hundreds of juicers a day
just from one web site, use an online payment service to collect
the cash, and hire someone to ship them for me. And if a
customer has a problem, he can send me an e-mail about it. And I
can do it all from this little room in my basement. No one has to
know where I am or what my phone number is. I am safely
anonymous.”

Now that thinking may work for some small home-based
entrepreneurs, but, overall, it is not a good way to do
business. Why? How can customers get questions answered if they
want to speak to someone, or if they want to complain, or even
offer praise? What if a customer wants to send you a personal
letter? How can they do all that if you remain masked and
anonymous on the Internet?

This is a list of three MUST DOs to sell better and more on the
internet – no matter what you sell!

1: Provide Your Physical Address – The idea that the Internet
would all but exterminate the old “brick- and-mortar” places
to do business was deflated years ago. If you are in business,
you need a physical location where your customers can go, and
you must tell them how to get there. A P.O. box address
is not enough. You must give your actual street address and
provide driving directions on at least one of your web site pages.

2: Provide Your Telephone Numbers – How else can your
customers contact you, your salespeople, or your service staff
if they have questions about their vehicles? Keep in mind, too,
that not all your customers feel comfortable in conducting
business over the Internet. Many would prefer to hear a human
voice on the other end of the phone. Include your local and 800
numbers. You should also include a fax number for those
instances where a customer needs to send a document that they
cannot email. Don’t include your phone number or fax number in
text form on your website. Put these into graphics. Text will be
picked up by spammers and you will receive more unwanted faxes
and phone solicitations.

3: Provide Your E-mail Address – A basic “info@” e-mail
address is good for general inquiries about your dealership.
However, if you provide it you must have someone check it
regularly and respond to or forward items that come in. Keep in
mind also that each one of your salespeople should have his or
her own e-mail address, as should the people in F&I, customer
relations, and parts and service. Of course, those addresses
should be on their appropriate pages in your web site. Two
things to consider when you include e-mail addresses on your web
site: Don’t use single word email addresses, spammers who use
dictionary broadcasts of emails will find you. Don’t use
“Mail to” links in your website, spammers who use spiders to
find email addresses will gather these and send you extra
messages you really don’t want.

Never forget: even with a presence on the Internet, you are
still doing business with people who want your product and need
to know how to reach and visit you. Having your basic business
contact information displayed prominently on your web site shows
your potential customers that you are open, available, and ready
to serve. And this will help you increase your sales!

As a rule of thumb, wider ad formats tend to outperform their taller counterparts, due to their reader-friendly format. Readers absorb information in thought units (that is, several words at a time). The wider format lets them comfortably read more text at a glance without having to skip a line and return to the left margin every few words as they would be forced to do with a narrower ad. The wider ad format also lessens the likelihood of readers leaving the ad unit altogether.

If positioned well, these ad formats can increase your earnings significantly. The formats we’ve found to be the most effective are the 336×280 Large Rectangle, the 300×250 Medium Rectangle, and the 160×600 Wide Skyscraper. Keep in mind that while these ad formats typically perform well, you should use the format that best complements your pages.

Tip for making the most of a little ad space: Try one of our streamlined link unit formats, shown below. These formats are lean, mean, and versatile enough to fit in locations normal ads don’t.

The secret of web success is not really a secret, but
somehow people always seem to forget it, or make it their
lowest priority. The secret is remembering what’s
IMPORTANT. For all the people who kick the tires, only some
will buy. To succeed, you need a steady stream of potential
customers who are interested in your products. Visitors who
are likely to buy. As I’m sure you know, the missing
ingredient is traffic. Potential customers. Targeted,
quality traffic.

Revisitors gets you targeted traffic! With our system, you
won’t have to wrack your brain trying to come up with
marketing schemes and tricks to bring visitors to your
site. All you’ll have to do is decide how much traffic you
want, and we’ll deliver it!

Our traffic comes from a large network of specialized
websites, each with its own narrow market, that receive
thousands of visitors every day. We process this traffic
using a proprietary algorithm and a manual review process
to maximize your internet advertising by redirecting
targeted traffic to your site. Basically, all we do
is redirect the traffic coming from our network to your
website.

When you make a purchase, one of our specialists will visit
your website and, whether you specified a target or not,
will set up your campaign to send you massive amount of
visitors to your website. It is in our best interest to do
so, if you generate sales or contacts chances are you’ll be
back for another purchase.

Thanks to this manual review process, our online
advertising technology will maximize your internet
advertising dollar! By connecting your website to
our content-rich affiliate sites and search engines, we can
deliver targeted visitors that go well beyond any
traditional online promotion method.

Remember – more traffic will give you more leads, and more
leads means more sales!

Click here to receive targeted traffic NOW:
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1: Choose the right domain name for your website. Websites
with a good domain name are easier to remember and trust.
The right domain name should have the .COM extension,
should be short (one or two keywords), English language,
and somehow related to the product you sell.

2: Focus on the content, easy navigation and logical flow
instead of making your website cute. Don’t include pop-up
message. Increasing demand for pop-up window suggests that
you will annoy a lot of visitors if you have this feature.

3: Design your website around a theme. Clearly state what
you are about on the top of the page. Don’t confuse readers
with links all over the copy. Provide information on the
website that helps visitors solve their problems. Build a
case for your business that leads reader to conclude that
you are the only business for them; irrespective of the
cost.

4: Give browser some reasons to come back to your website -
like free newsletters, monthly specials, etc. Keep the
content fresh and add/delete pages regularly. This will
keep your information up-to-date and help you get better
search engine ranking.

5: Identify keywords that are important for your business,
and use them in copy. It may make sense to have one page
per keyword. Include keyword in the title tag, as well as
in the page description tag. Use them in plurals also, when
it makes sense. You can check Google, Overture or other
search engines for keyword options at no cost.

6: Search engines do not index images, thus any text
presented as image will not help you with your web
presence.

Unless you have become extremely popular in your personal or business name, you likely need all of the marketing and promotion you can get. Now, you may say, of course, I’m aware of this, but who has the money? This a good and fair question. It may surprise you, though, when I say, you don’t need money for some of the most valuable marketing available — radio advertising.

If you aren’t the kind of person who listens to talk radio, the next time you’re taking a drive, tune in to one of your local talk shows and listen for awhile. Try to find something that is not a sports talk show, although they also offer the type of free advertising I want to explain. What you’ll eventually hear is an interview. A talk show host will have a guest, who is an expert at something. Perhaps it’s a health show, and the subject is weight loss and the guest is talking about some new diet.

Now, listen carefully, because you won’t hear the guest babbling about his book, web site, or going on and on about his great product that is going to melt the pounds off of every fat person in America. What you will hear, in most cases, is someone who is explaining a method for weight loss that is a new approach. Now, at times throughout the show, this expert will certainly mention his product, and the host will ask the expert to tell the audience how to order it.

Even if you are an avid listener to these types of shows, and you’ve heard hundreds of guest experts, what you may not know is that in 99 percent of these cases, this is not paid advertising.

You see, there are thousands of talk show stations in America, and the ones that program only talk shows probably have five to 10 different shows per day. Some quick math will tell you that tens of thousands of talk shows nationwide need things to talk about and guests to keep listeners tuned in. This is where the magic comes in for you. As a new author, salesman or business owner — talk shows need you.

Best of all, virtually anyone can get on a talk show. When I published my first book, Winning the Mortgage Game, I had very little idea how to market it, but I did know I was on a very small budget. I put up a web site, started an ezine, and it was an extremely slow beginning. That is, until I learned about being on radio talk shows. I read a very well-written how-to book by a man namedJoe Sabah about approaching radio producers and getting them to invite me to be a guest on their shows.

The second show I ever did was an hour-lomg interview on a station hundreds of miles away from my home. The producer called me at my house minutes before I was on, and the host began asking me questions about real estate finance. At various points throughout the show, he said Mark, tell listeners how to get your book, and I simply said go to www.winningthemortgagegame.com, and use the credit card of your choice. Believe me, people are much more apt to go to your web site, when they’ve heard you talk about your subject.

Now there are a few keys to getting on the radio and to making your appearances turn into sales of your product. First, you need the names and numbers of the stations and the producers of the shows. Remember, producers book the guests, so they are who you want to talk to. When you get them on the phone, which is not easy, be sure you are prepared. Don’t just say you want to come on and talk about your new book or product. Start by telling them you are an expert in whatever the relevant field is and that you have a new system you want to share with their listeners.

Remember, this is going to be a lot like sales. You need to talk to a lot of producers to get a few bookings. Not everyone is going to jump at what you are offering. Make sure you speak in a good voice, so the producers think you’ll sound good on the show.

When you do get booked, be sure you have several key points that listeners will remember, and make certain they know exactly how to get your product. Incidentally, if you want to get a great list of radio stations and their contact information, look for Joe Sabah’s book. Radio talk shows are one of the best free ways to advertise you’ll ever get. Take advantage.

Mark Barnes is author of Winning the Mortgage Game and several other finance books. He is also publisher of Biz Sense Online and Let’s Talk Sports, weekly business and entertainment ezines. Learn how you can educate yourself and give to charity at the same time, when you purchase Winning the Mortgage Game atwww.winningthemortgagegame.com. To get Biz Sense Online, send a blank e-mail to bizsenseonline@getresponse.com. To get Let’s Talk Sports, send a blank e-mail to letstalksports@getresponse.com

Stand Out in Ways that Matter to Directory Users A Yellow Page directory presents a difficult challenge for advertisers. All the competitors are packed together, within the space of a few pages. Each ad within the directory category screams “Notice me!” so insistently, they blend into an muffled chorus. It’s not easy for one to stand out with a clear, distinctive voice – like a soloist above the choir. That only happens when the business is clear about expressing its unique “song,” and understands what buyers most want to hear.

It isn’t surprising that most Yellow Page ads say pretty much the same thing. They were all prepared by the same directory employees. What do they know about marketing? About copywriting? About what’s unique and desirable about your enterprise?

The people making the ads “grind them out,” using the same templates and guidelines for every ad, in every category. Originality isn’t in their job description. Following the formulas for how an ad “should look” is a formula for being ignored.

These quick fixes cut away the bland sameness afflicting most ads. Disregard for now the related issues like the ad’s size and placement. Such factors just amplify (or diminish) an ad’s impact. A poor ad is still a poor ad, even if it’s very large. Coupled with fine-tuned copy (its own topic), these fixes will improve the impact of any size of ad, for any directory heading.

Try these Quick and Easy Fixes

You don’t have to be a designer or copywriter to make your ad stand out. You just have to understand your customers’ unstated wants, so you supply precisely the information that they’re looking for. And you need to know how you’re different than your competitors. Set yourself apart, so you don’t fade into the background, as most ads do.

1. Shrink the business name. That is NOT the most important part of the ad in the reader’s mind. And it crowds out the space for information that that could sell them on you. Once you can get them to want you, they’ll be able to find your name and contact information OK.

2. Ditto, shrink the graphics. They may be helpful to catch the eye initially, but add nothing to what directory users want to know. Images often distract from the ad’s message, wasting its moment of attention on trivialities.

3. Provide a headline that hooks the readers’ interest (the category or business name isn’t one, but most ads act like it is). A strong, emotionally-charged headline pulls attention into the rest of the information. It makes people stop skimming and actually read. Provide a promise that hits their hot button in a way that applies only to you (but not every other competitor in the category)

4. Make the location easy to find. Half of all directory users scan ads for the business location first, and then only consider those ads which are convenient. Location of the enterprise overrides an ad’s size or placement in the directory.

5. Display your expertise, along with a reason for buyers to seek out your specialized knowledge. Offer a booklet, class, in-depth information on your Web site, etc. This also establishes your credibility in customers’ eyes, which is crucial to building sufficient trust to complete a purchase.

6. Buyers are hunting for information that can assist in making a purchase. When they open the directory, they’re hoping to find a business that in some way communicates, “I’m the one you’re looking for.” Make it easy for them to know it’s you, by giving ample information directed at their concerns. Organize it in bulleted lists.

7. Add your Web site address (domain name) and/or email address. Treat your Web site as a place to expand the size of your Yellow Page ad. Then state a reason why a person wants to check your site: www.mysite.com for 23 simple ways to keep your dog from over-eating Or www.myrestaurant.com for recipes to our award-winning desserts.

8. Arrange it all so the information flows logically, and to please the eye.

9. Eliminate images or phrases that appear in the other ads. Find a different, more interesting way to express it.

10. Don’t let the directory do your ad for free. It will end up costing you too much.

The Ideal Yellow Page Ad

The very best ad is the intersection between what a buyer is looking for, and what a business provides. When a business is attuned to its customers’ priorities and needs, it can say exactly what rings their bell. For example, a harried mother will respond with relief to the phrase, “Free Childcare Provided.” That service carries no weight with a business person, who may consider “No extra charge for weekend service calls” the clincher.

What really makes an ad stand out is the specifics, not the generalities (which is what every other ad says). Visit www.yellowpagesage.com for advice from many experts about getting more mileage from your ad. Or obtain a customized critique of your ad, that eliminates the guesswork about what needs fixing.

Directory users are ready to buy. Simplify their lives by making your products and services so “just right” that choosing you is their only sensible choice.

1. Place copies of your circular on bulletin boards throughout your community, such as in coin-operated laundries, grocery stores, barber shops, etc. Concentrate of Fridays and Saturdays when shopping increases.

2. Check with local newspapers. Before going to press, many smaller newspapers have space left that needs filling.. Your ad may be just the right size to occupy this unfilled space and they will run it free.

3. Place your circulars on windshields of parked autos, Youngsters will be happy to do this for you for a dollar or two. Check first with city ordinances to see if this is permitted in your locality.

4. Leave sales literature on doorsteps of homes & businesses in your area. Do this on weekends in residential areas; weekdays for businesses.

5. Have your best pulling 1 inch or 2 inch ad made into a rubber stamp. Stamp this on envelopes of all of your outgoing mail.. Check rubber stamp dealer’s ads in current mail order publications for price information.

6. When you have envelopes printed with your return address, have them also print your best ad directly beneath your address. It costs noting additional to have this printed on the front of your envelopes.

7. If you publish a mail order magazine, newspaper, adsheet, etc., contact other publishers, If your circulation is equal to theirs, many will be happy to exchange an equal amount of ad space with you.

8. Many publishers will give you free adspace for mailing a few copies of their publication. Simply write to them and ask if they will give you a free 1 inch ad in exchange for mailing 50 to 100 copies of their pub.

9. Write informative articles for mail order trade publication. Most publishers will give you free ad space for the use of your article.

10. Take advantage of advertising specials. Many publishers offer ads on a 3-for-the- price- of -2- basis, or 4-for-the-price-of-3, etc. This saving is the same as getting one ad free of charge.

11. Some publishers offer a free classified ad with your first display ad. Watch for such specials. Use the free ad and pocket the savings.

12. When starting a new publication, many publishers will offer reduced ad rates to help fill space. Watch for ads regarding such offers.

13. In your ads, request a SASE. Then insert some of your other offers in regular outgoing mail. This is the same as getting free advertising.

14. Become a mailer. Get your printer’s lowest price for printing circulars on both sides of the sheet. Contact other dealers and state you will print and mail their circulars for this price with no conflicting ads on the back. Then print your circulars on the reverse and distribute them with your outgoing mail. There is no extra cost for postage and envelopes, and your side of the circular is paid for by your customers.

15. Offer a free commission circulars. Print one of your regular offers on one side; a commission offer on the reverse, leaving space where the mailer can rubber stamp his name & address, Your offer gets a free ride.

16. If you use a postage meter machine, use the ad space directly left of stamp imprint for a free message.

Copyright 2004 by DeAnna Spencer

Note to editors:
To show my appreciation to the editors that use my articles, I offer a free solo ad. Simply send an email to me by using the form on the contact me page on my website to tell me the url the article was used on or send me a copy of the ezine it was used in.

This article may be redistributed freely on the Internet as long as the resource box remains intact.

The most profitable mail order products are simple 3-to-5 page informational reports such as this one. Once you’ve got your act together, these 3-page reports can be produced for $10 per hundred or less, and sold for at least $200 per hundred.

Generally speaking, everybody either in or wanting to get into mail order, feels that they have the final answer to what the general public will beat a path to their door to buy. The problem is that once they’ve invested a good deal of hard-earned cash and countless hours, their programs don’t sell quite as well as they had hoped they would. Thus it is that these people begin to feel that they’ve left something out or perhaps not doing “some little thing” that they should be doing.

At this point in their lives, they’ll spend a couple of dollars for anything that pretends to fill them in on the secrets that they haven’t yet discovered. The bottom line in building a fortune through mail order is not necessarily in working your plan, but in “filling in” the people who either have tried and failed, or else are wanting to get into mail order but are not yet quite sure of themselves.

The numbers of people fitting into the category are literally millions! The idea is to take a complete inventory of these reports – the titles of each report “promising” an answer to their specific problems – and sell it – your complete inventory of titles – a thousand times over each year. Assuming that you have an inventory of 100 titles – reports that sell for $2 each – and you sell 1,000 copies of each report per year for 10 years, you would have made a million dollars.

Nobody like to get taken, and nobody likes to pay anymore than the absolutely has to for what he wants – yet, it you get right down to the real nitty-gritty of life, everyone wants “in on the secrets” of getting rich. Thus, by allowing these people wanting to get rich – the majority of the people on the face of the earth – in on a program or a method of operation that could make them very rich, for just a couple of dollars or so, you will have a steady stream of people beating a path to your door with money in hand!

The ideal approach is to write these reports yourself. However, not everyone is blessed with the talent of stringing words together coherently – but that’s no big deal when you consider the number of people out there, clamoring for “how to get rich” information.

In fact, the best way to learn – and to get started – is to get your name on as many mailing lists as possible, and then to “check out” the various people offering reports of this kind. Always look for the prime source, and when you find the one you want, ask about their dropship and reproduction rights prices.

If you “hook up” with the prime source, you’ll generally be allowed to advertise and promote their list of reports – at your cost – and then on all orders you receive, you’re generally allowed to deduct 50% for yourself, and required only to send the remaining 50% with the order form in to the prime source. The thing is, this allows you to get into the mail order sales field without having to spend a lot of money for set-up and inventory. Many of the biggest advertisers in mail order operate from their kitchen tables, spare bedrooms or one room offices with all of their orders being fulfilled by someone else.

Often-times a prime source will sell you the reproduction rights to his reports at a special price because you buy a specific number of reports and/or spend a specific amount of money. Provided you’re buying the reproduction rights to “new” reports, and the titles of these reports really appeal to the get-rich market, this is the best way to go. With these thoughts in mind, it’s always best to send for a few sample copies in order to see for yourself the quality, and value of the reports you’ll be selling.

Once you’ve got the reproduction rights to a set of reports, you can rewrite them – change the addresses and make up or have made up, your own advertising circulars to sell them as you wish. If you have a printing press, or a quick print shop, you can make millions with these reports almost overnight! If you don’t have a printing press or a photocopy machine, your best bet is to set up a working agreement with a quick printer or copy shop – they print or photocopy your reports either at a great reduction from their retail charges or you give them a percentage of the profits. In other words, you might get a quick printer to print up a supple of 100 of these reports for you, with the agreement that you would allow him 25 cents from each report you sell. Quite naturally, you let him hang onto your inventory – coming to him for replenishment as you need it. You might even work a deal where you would use his address as your business address, and that way he’d know for sure just how many had been sold, and which ones he needs to print more copies of. There are hundreds of angles and ideas to launch such a mail order product and business such as this – the important thing is to keep your costs as low as possible – and you do this by allowing other people to make money as you make money.

Renting and/or selling mailing lists can make you just as rich as selling “get-rich” reports, but compiling mailing lists, and keeping them up-to-date, requires a lot more time and work. Basically, you make out a 3-by-5 index card on every name you come across. File these cards in shoe boxes according to zip code, and type out an envelope for each name as you file it.

Eventually, you will want to input these names into some sort of a database.

Then at the end of each month, you send out all these envelopes with your primary offer, always supplemented with a listing of the “get-rich-quick” reports you have for sale. Those that send in an order, mark the date, the amount and what was purchased on their card… Those that don’t order, don’t do anything to – just leave them in your file… Those that come back marked refused, out-of-business, or moved – mark an “X” across their card in your file.

When you’ve acquired a thousand or more of these names and address simply start advertising and sending out direct mail sales letters, offering to rent or sell these names. Generally speaking, you can rent your names – they’d have to be typed up onto mailing list masters from your cards – for $25 per thousand and, providing your list pulls a minimum number of reruns, you can quickly build a mailing list rental business into a sizeable income.

Ezine Articles – they’re everywhere!

And little wonder. They’re one of the fastestways of building traffic to your website.

But what many people overlook is the Resource Box.It’s almost as important as your Article. After all,your traffic comes to you through your Resource Box.

Writing your Resource Box is an art in itself. Youhave very little space (5 or 6 lines) and you want tomake the most of it. Here are four key elements yourResource Box should contain.

1) Your Name

Remember, one of the reasons Ezine Articles are such apowerful promotion tool is that brand your name, theyestablish your reputation as a an expert.

So the first line of your Resource Box should be ashort sentence that gives your name and tells thereader what you do on the Internet.

2) Your website URL

This is pretty straightforward – you want people tovisit your website. But there’s another reason forincluding your website URL.

As well as being published in Ezines, your Articleswill also be published on websites, often with a livelink to your website URL.

And that’s going to do wonders for yourlink-popularity. Remember, the major Search Enginesare making link-popularity one of the key factors inranking their search results.

3) Your Newsletter subscribe address

A given reader may not purchase your product, they maynot even click through to your website, but why not atleast capture their email address?

Remember that the average person has to see yourmessage seven times before they buy your product.

4) Something FREE!

Your Resource Box is probably one of a dozen other Adsin the same Ezine, all clamoring for attention. Offersomething free and you’ll vastly increase the chancesof a reader clicking through to your website.