If you are not doing Video Marketing you are leaving traffic and profits on the table. Besides that great reason, do you know the top 7 reasons to create Video Articles? You’ll find the top 7 reasons and tips below:

1. Actually faster than a written article – I know that sounds crazy but it has been my experience. Once you get in the flow of this, it really can take you less time to create a Video Article than a text article. I still remember the first time that happened and I just thought it was a fluke. Now it is a consistent event.

2. Tools have never been cheaper or easier – I remember two things from when I first started: 1) the tools and training were expensive and 2) there were so many steps involved and it was easy to get stuck. Now the tools are in range and the steps are condensed down to just a few that anyone can do.

3. YouTube is the #3 ranked website in the world – It comes down to a simple question: Do you want to get traffic to your web sites and blogs by getting in front of where the traffic going? If you answered no I’m not sure why you are reading this article. If you answered yes, then you want to get your information on the #3 most trafficked website in the world.

4. Great tools for distributing your video – And you don’t stop at just YouTube. With video distribution sites such as TubeMogul (free) and TrafficGeyser (fee) you can quickly and easily get your Video Articles distributed all over the internet.

5. Your own TV station – We are at the point where anyone with a life improving message that is willing to learn the steps and put in the time can have their own “online TV station.” And you get to reach all over the world. Remember, www stands for world wide web.

6. It’s what we know – We all grew up watching video on TV. It is what we know. When your message comes in to your prospects home or office screen, just like TV, the potential for your prospect to know, like and trust you is just tremendous.

7. 50 times more likely to get indexed by Google – This is important if you want to get found on the internet. You Video Article is 50 times more likely to get indexed by Google than your text article. Am I saying you should now do only Video Articles and not write articles. Of course not. Do both. And repurpose those text articles into Video Articles.

And to learn more about how to leverage the Social Networks for waves of traffic and more, get your FREE Instant Access to our Social Marketing Video Training Series when you visit http://SocialMarketingBlueprint.com/7laws

You’ll get a series of videos, audios and pdfs all about Social Media Traffic & Profits

From Jeff Herring and the SocialMarketingBlueprint.com

Have you seen the JK Wedding Dance video on Youtube? Once the video went viral, it was featured on many TV shows and internet outlets. Use these 10 tips to gain the same sort of success for your business through viral video marketing.

Video Marketing – Taking a Message Viral

1. One of a Kind – When you are the only one doing something eye catching, people will stop and take notice, and then they will tell their friends. You have to seize the moment and ride it for all that it is worth though, because if you really have a good idea, someone will imitate you soon enough.

2. Shocking – It is fine to create a one of a kind message, but it has to get someone?People will be interested if you shock them (tastefully). Don’t be conservative–keep your video tasteful while shocking your viewers at the same time.

3. Speak English – While it is great that you and all of your buddies in the industry speak your own language, but very likely your customer do not, so do not speak in shorthand, speak English.

4. Be Genuine – You can try to be cool, and that guarantees that you will not be. Be genuine, and if what you created is good, it will become cool on its own.

5. Be Brief – Most viral videos go straight to the point. You get a nice little jolt that may be funny or shocking, but it is over almost before it has begun. Your viral video should barely be an interruption to the person watching it.

6. Be Funny – Laughter is one of the most powerful medicines known to man. It makes you feel good. People will not only enjoy your video message, but the will be eager to pass it along as well.

7. Shoot for the Stars – Rather than do something outrageous, do something over the top outrageous. Do something so surprising, so funny, so shocking, that people will have to watch your video just because they cannot believe their ears.

8. Be a Little Rough – Keep the quality of your video a little homemade looking. By not having your video look like a commercial, people will think that they have found a gem. Everyone loves to be the first one to discover something outrageous, so having your video look homemade lets them stumble upon a gem.

9. Be True to your Brand – While you are concentrating on being shocking and amazing, do remember that you have a reason for making the video, and that is to promote your business or product. So while you need to be amazing in your video, you also need to make your point and make it memorable.

10. Keep It Lively – Make sure that your video is full of action. Keep the talk to a minimum, and keep things moving. Make sure that you have enough dialogue so your audience can easily understand your point, and then keep thing moving.

These tips will help your video go viral, and once that happens everyone will know about your business.

Anton Pearce specializes in helping you to use internet marketing to get all the clients you need for your practice. Sign up for his highly acclaimed and miraculously free ezine and find out how to turn your website into an automated new client or patient referral generating machine.

]]> http://wiseguymarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/leverage-viral-video-marketing-to-benefit-your-business/feed/ 0 http://wiseguymarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/drive-more-traffic-to-your-website-using-an-easy-and-free-tell-a-friend-script/ http://wiseguymarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/drive-more-traffic-to-your-website-using-an-easy-and-free-tell-a-friend-script/#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:56:26 +0000 admin http://wiseguymarketing.com/?p=271

The biggest issue facing any business today is how to drive more traffic to the company website. But not just more traffic, but more qualified traffic. Qualified meaning that they are more likely to buy once they get there. There are tons of books and articles out there that provide multiple strategies some – harder to implement then others.

This article is going to focus on one of the easiest to implement and one that’s free! I will be showing you how to make use of a tell-a-friend script to make your website become more viral. Viral marketing makes use of the tendency of a person to share something to find informative, entertaining or amazing.

A tell a friend script is a simple programming script that you can literally “cut and paste” into your website. Tell a friend scripts can be placed anywhere on your site. I place it in my navigation bar so that it appears on every page. You just want to be sure that it is easy to see so that a person can easily click on it to send the information they find interesting to any of his friends or his family members.

To see an real life example of 2 types of tell-a friend scripts go to www.StreetSmartSalesAndMarketing.com. Check out the side and bottom navigation bars and click on the Tell a Friend/Share This button.

The basic concept of a tell a friend script is a script wherein a person may input his name, e-mail address, the recipient’s e-mail address and send the media to the intended recipient much like an e-mail with an attachment. As the recipient receives the e-mail he wouldn’t think of the mail a spam mail because he would see the sender’s name as someone he or she knows and trust.

Tell a friend script eliminates greatly the chances of being blocked because they use the information inputted by the sender. This allows for wider spreading of this marketing method. It can be quite sneaky but it is very effective.

With the e-mail sent and opened the sent media will either be read, viewed or played. Also along with the mail would be a brief description of the company or site that sponsors the media sent. This allows for the introduction of either the site, company name or its products. The along with it is another tell a friend script.

Then the process begins again. As more people use the tell a friend script, more and more people will know of the existence of the sponsoring company or site. People who read the ads inside the mail who liked what they see would go and click on the link and visit the site. This drives traffic into the site resulting to great number of potential customers.

A tell a friend script is very simple and does not require a complicated method of programming. In fact, you can copy paste a script and simply put it on an intended page. Finding one is even simpler. All you have to do is go to a search engine and type in the search box “tell a friend script” then press enter or click go.

In the search results page you will see many links that will direct you to a site where you can get a tell a friend script. It would just be a simple matter of looking and searching for the script and copying it to your intended web page.

To get you started you can check out SocialTwist.com or ShareThis.com. The cool thing about these 2 services is they also let the website visitor share your website though social bookmarking websites like Digg, Delicious and Stumbleupon just to name a few.

With a tell a friend script viral marketing strategy you can drive traffic into your site which could potentially spell profits. This is a simple harmless script that offers great benefits for low cost paired with great creativity and foresight.

To learn more secrets on how to drive more traffic, convert more visitors to paying customers and get found faster by the search engines pick up a free copy of “7 Steps to Website Success” Just go to www.WebsiteMakeoverASAP.com

Newsletters allow you to impress your subscribers. It can show your expertise and knowledge about the topic at hand and the many benefits you can offer them. When you impress people, they will become potential customers and another great thing is that they can recommend you to their friends, colleagues and family. All of them could very well be customers in the future.

Providing a newsletter for your opt-in list subscribers provides many benefits in terms of driving traffic into your site as well as boosting the sales and profits of your site and company. This is a marketing ploy that will not hugely dent your marketing budget and will not also require many man-hours in developing this project.

With a newsletter, you can inform the public about your company and products as well as services. You can keep them posted and updated about what’s going-on with your company as well as many of your promotions and offerings. With these, you keep on reminding your subscribers that you are still here and is willing to offer them good deals and services.

If you do not have a newsletter or publishing one for your site, then you may have to consider about researching and be well informed on how to publish one. It is not as easy as it seems but if and when you get the right idea and process, it will be smooth sailing from there on. Try to take the time to learn what you need to learn and get that newsletter ready and good to attract subscribers to your newsletter as well as traffic to your site.

In the next few paragraphs, I will provide you with some things to reflect on when you decide to start your own newsletter for your site. Here are five things to consider when publishing a newsletter.

1) Make sure that the content of your newsletter pertains to and closely associated with your business or the theme of your site. Do not dwell too far on what could be regarded as your field of expertise. You have started a site and your theme for your site will always be something you are knowledgeable about. For example; if you have a site that sells auto car parts, your newsletter must contain articles or content like photos that pertain to cars, auto parts and such. You may also include content about your company and your staff.

Remember that visitors of a certain site are there because they are interested in what the site has to offer. If they sign up for an opt-in list or for a newsletter this means that they want to be updated for that certain theme or subject. Be sure that when you publish your newsletter you are providing for the need of the subscriber as well as their interests.

2) Ensure that you have well written, information riddled and content rich articles. You articles will be the body of your newsletter and that they should be able to excite your readers as well as provide information. Articles should be well written and checked for errors such as spelling and grammatical errors for it to look professional and believable. The trust of your client to you and newsletter is at stake here.

3) Fact-check your articles. Make sure that you provide true facts and figures so that your reputation as an expert and knowledgeable in that field is not questioned. If you lose the trust of your subscribers these may persuade them to unsubscribe to your newsletter. You will lose many potential sales this way.

4) Provide fresh and new articles that can provide new information to your subscribers. If you publish stale and old news in your newsletter, there is a tendency that people or your subscribers already have read and known about them. This will lose their interest in your newsletter and they wont get to read what is most important, your ads. They may not open or read any of your succeeding newsletters losing your intention in writing and publishing newsletters, to get them to visit your site and make a purchase.

5) Never use copyrighted materials such as photos and articles. This is outright plagiarism, you may get into a lot of trouble for this. You can lose your business and get sued over copyright infringement. If you do not have the time to write your own articles, there are many willing and able professional article writers that can do it for you for a reasonable fee. All your investment in writing and publishing articles will be well worth it when you see your list build up and your traffic increasing.

6) Be sure to offer unique ways to get visitors to your website to opt-in to your newsletter. Offering a free special report available for immediate download can be very effective. I offer a free Website Makeover Analysis Quiz to get some of my visitors to opt-in

By the way for those companies that have a retail or store location, publishing an online newsletter is a great way to help in your local business marketing efforts.

If you’re not optimizing your Net pages for the search engines, you’re not only missing out on a lot of traffic, however possibilities are that it’s costing you money, especially if you rely solely on Pay Per Click advertising to urge traffic to your site.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is straightforward, and if you are doing it yourself, it’s free: it just takes a little time, and a strategy.

If you follow the process outlined in this text, within a few weeks you’ll be getting a flow of free traffic to your Internet pages. What’s more, the people who arrive on your website’s pages can be targeted guests, primed to buy from you, because you’ve got just what they’re trying for.

While the usual SEO method is well known, the process made public in this text is totally different, as a result of it focuses on making landing pages — destination pages — as entry points to your Web site.

Let’s observe the process.

Step one: Discover who’s wanting for you

Begin by pondering your customers. Who’s wanting for you, and what terms would they sort into a look engine query box to seek out you? The terms that they’d type into the search engines are your website’s pages keywords and key phrases. Create a list of those keywords. If your website has been on-line for a few months, scan your referrer logs to determine what keywords your visitors used. As a result of the search engines are basically simply indexing software, your keywords are the keys to the SEO kingdom.

You’ll use your lists of keywords and phrases as you optimize all your Web pages.

Use the keywords in: your page titles, your page descriptions, your meta tags, and in fact within the content on the pages themselves. You must conjointly use your keywords in internal links across your Internet site. It’s wise to get different web site owners to link to you using the keywords for which you would like placed too. This tells the search engines specifically what your pages are regarding, and when the pages ought to be came within the query results.

Optimize each page on your site with keywords which are specific to your site, furthermore to every individual page. Aim to create around three hundred to 800 words on every page. Though you won’t manage tons of content for each page — some pages don’t want it — the more text you can get onto your pages that includes your keywords the better.

Yes, this takes time, particularly if you have a massive site. But, it’s time that will repay you again and again within the months and years to come back, in FREE Web traffic.

In your optimization method, your individual pages are all-vital: especially your site’s landing pages.

Step a pair of: Create landing pages that sell

The strategy to optimize your Web web site to induce traffic and to create sales is to optimize every page, furthermore to form specific “landing pages” for your site. This can be as a result of your pages get to the high of the search engine results pages, known as the SERPs, your sites don’t. (The SERPs are the search engine pages which are returned when folks enter search queries into the search engines’ question fields.)

Step three: Realize that landing page content is that the emperor

You’ll typically hear that “content is king”. However, this needs to be amended to “content is king, however landing page content is that the emperor”.

Landing pages are generally referred to as “Net sales pages”. Usually they’re developed as the landing purpose, so to talk, for PPC advertising. These pages sometimes have a lot of content, that makes them magnetic to the search engines.

Suppose of your landing pages as entry points, or destination pages, for your site. You want your landing pages to face out — they’re the foremost vital pages on your site.

As a result of they’re so vital, you’ll wish to form several landing pages for your web site: these will be special pages that you simply produce specifically for keywords for that you would like to be discovered within the search engines. Consider making a landing (sales) page with unique, data-rich content for every product and repair that you just sell.

Over time, your special landing pages will draw an ever-increasing flow of targeted traffic to your site. So in 3 steps, you’ve created powerful search engine optimization for your site.

To learn how to increase your website traffic, visit: multilingual seo. You can use our multilingual seo to increase website’s rank on search engines and boost your business as well. Why SEO is crucial? And what can SEO do for your business? Find the answers at multilingual seo.

Many small- to medium-sized businesses fail due to a lack of an effective marketing and sales program. Entrepreneurs may be very good at their core business, but know very little about marketing. Certain people suffer from the theory espoused by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” They are innocently caught up in a love for their own products or services and believe the world will indeed beat a path to their door when prospects hear about the fantastic new product. This attitude is wrong, dangerous, and not in line with the practices of successful B2B marketers. In fact, more often than not, superior marketing beats a superior product.

Another reason for failure is that an effective marketing campaign is hard work. Since marketing is probably not what motivated the entrepreneur to open his or her business, it receives less priority than product development and other tasks. Marketing also often comes up short when scarce funds are allocated. Sadly, there are start-up companies that spend tens of thousands of dollars on furniture and equipment, while complaining that there is nothing left for marketing.

New companies also make a mistake by hiring expensive advertising agencies that are incapable of cost-effective, low-budget marketing. Or they hire marketing and sales talent from big companies, and these people are often clueless about how to get results on a limited budget. So if you are in a small company, be careful about hiring the hotshot from a big company to come solve your problems. It often doesn’t work. This is not to say that everyone from a big company is incapable of being effective with a smaller budget-some are great no matter the company size.

Small to medium businesses and start-ups face two major obstacles not shared by larger, entrenched companies. First, if you happen to be a small fish in a large pond, you will be confronted by competitors with much larger advertising and marketing budgets. Second, you may have to spend a larger percentage of your revenues on marketing than older, established organizations.

Given the reality of this situation, you need to squeeze as much efficiency as possible out of every dollar. Be assured that you can do a lot on a limited budget, and expensive does not always mean better. I’ve often used limited-budget strategies to beat the big players and you can do the same. And the lessons you learn by doing it the frugal way will serve you well, no matter how successful you become, or how far your marketing budget expands. Here are a collection of small budget strategies and tactics you can use to beat the big guys:

Small Budget Website Strategies:
1. Don’t overbuild your Website. There are ways to create an impressive site using less-complex open source or template approaches.
2. If possible, have an easy-to-remember Website address that relates to what your company does.
3. List your Web address (URL) on all of your corporate materials.
4. Make sure your Website is optimized for organic search terms. This is a low-cost strategy that will make you much easier to find.
5. Try narrowly focused low-cost pay per click search terms.
6. Give some information away for free to increase your Website stickiness.
7. Create many links with other sites to increase your search engine visibility.
8. Refresh your content often. Do not let the site go stale.

Small Budget Social Media Strategies:
1. Start your own blog and comment on other blogs.
2. Always list your Web address on your blog postings and any electronic communication.
3. Leverage LinkedIn and other networking sites.
4. Use Twitter to find relevant posts and prospects.
5. Be controversial (but not too controversial) to attract attention.
6. Choose a niche where you can be an expert.
7. Write articles and get them published in online media.
8. Focus on one or two social media outlets. This concentrated attention will bring more attention than throwing your efforts at five or six outlets.

Small Budget Email Strategies:
1. Work hard to build your email prospect file of opt-in names. This will be a gold mine of low-cost leads and sales.
2. Include a promotional message and your Website address as part of your standard email signature.
3. Provide links to valuable information in your emails, not just product pitches.
4. Make your emails interesting and/or unusual.
5. Run your email copy through a spam detection tool like EmailExam, Acxiom Digital, or Lyris ContentChecker to ensure your emails will not be caught in the spam filters.
6. Have an easy opt-out process. You do not want to keep sending emails to people who want to be removed from your list.

Small Budget Direct Marketing Strategies:
1. Target your lists more effectively by using demographics, psychographics, and some of the other list segmenting tools available. The object is to mail fewer packages and achieve greater response.
2. Test your mailing and telemarketing in small quantities before committing large sums to full-blown programs. Equally important, use the information you learn on every program to make the next work better.
3. Try a postcard mailer. The production costs are low, the first-class postage is less expensive than letter mail, and they pull very well. You can drive prospects to a Web form or toll-free telephone number.
4. Cut back on four-color process direct mail packages. Unless you sell food, magazines, resort properties, or other products requiring excellent graphic reproduction, you can probably pull as much response using two-color printing.
5. Consider mailing with third-class postage instead of first-class. Depending on whether you presort the file, this will save you a great amount of money, and most prospects will not notice the difference. The exception is with time-sensitive offers, since third-class mail can take a week longer to arrive than first-class.
6. If you mail to large numbers on a national basis, or send highly concentrated mailings into local or regional areas, use postal pre-sorting to lower postage costs.

More Cost-Cutting Ideas:
1. If you are a small company (a flea), find a big company (a dog) to partner with. This will make it much easier for you to sell to bigger companies.
2. Read the chapter on public relations carefully and begin carrying out its advice. PR is a low-effort, high-reward vehicle that is often under-utilized by small-budget marketers.
3. Be persistent. Remember the eight times rule: You don’t have to spend a lot of money on each communication, but you must repeat your message up to eight times to gain prospect awareness.
4. Write handwritten personal notes to prospects and customers. They are cheap but make a big impact.
5. Ask for referrals. They are much easier to sell, at lower cost.
6. Utilize experts. An expert’s advice will cost you something in the short term, but can save you money and aggravation in the long term.
7. List your primary products and services on your stationery and business card, or anything else you give to potential buyers.
8. Since consistency is vital for those with small budgets, make sure every one of your marketing efforts supports and reinforces your unique selling proposition (USP).
9. Sharpen your bargaining skills. Media outlets are hungry for business and many have unsold inventory. Use this to your advantage by negotiating aggressively.

One other important principle to practice is leverage. Try to create content once and use it in multiple marketing scenarios. This is less expensive and time-consuming, and the consistency of message is important.

Christopher Ryan is a noted expert in B2B marketing. Chris is founder and President of Fusion Marketing Partners and was formerly a senior marketing executive at companies like Sybase, PeopleSoft and Group 1 Software. You can buy Mr. Ryans latest book, How to Create an Unstoppable Marketing and Sales Machine, at Amazon.com or at Get the Book.

Take a look at these amazing facts about YouTube…

• If YouTube were a country it would the #3 populated in the world
• YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet
• YouTube gets 1 billion views a day
• 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

For a marketer, these statistics are hard to ignore.  What’s even more interesting is that although YouTube is certainly the largest online video website, it’s actually only one of dozens of popular sites including MetaCafe, Viddler, Vimeo and more.  Add to that social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace that also let you upload videos and you can see that video is more popular than ever.

Savvy marketers have picked up on this trend and are using video marketing to drive enormous amounts of traffic to their websites.  And more website traffic ultimately means more sales both online and offline. 

Why is video marketing so powerful?  According to some studies, people remember only 10% of what they read and 50% of what they hear and see.  Additional research shows people are 3-4 times more likely to respond to video than the written word.

As if that information weren’t enough, according to a users view study done by Kelsey Group, after viewing an online video: 55% of consumers visited the web site, 30% went to the store and 24% made a purchase.  Can your other marketing efforts boast those type of results?  Most can’t and don’t!

And here’s the icing on the cake…I’ve seen video listings show up on the first page of Google in as little as an hour.  That is truley amazing!

What can you use video for?
• Testimonials – Cick here for some great examples of effective video testimonials
• An introduction to your website or company – Click Here for good example of a video introducing a website
• To explain difficult subjects in a way that viewers can see for themselves
• The ability to better demonstrate complex problems and solutions
• To answer frequently asked questions in a more personalized manner

The best part is that if you want a way to dominate page one on search engines like Google, then video is one the best, fastest and most effective way to do so.  And guess what?  You can upload videos to most of these video websites for FREE!

But hold on you say, if it were that easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?  There are main 7 reasons:

1. Most business owners don’t know how powerful video can be.  Now that I’ve shared some of the facts with you, consider yourself informed.

2. Many marketers familiar with other types of marketing are unfamiliar with how to make an effective video – one that is compelling enough to get and keep a prospect’s attention.  An easy place to start is simply answering some of the most frequently asked questions your customers ask

3. No call to action – One of the most important things that gets left off most videos is the call to action.  What do you actually want your viewer to do.  Be sure to include words like call, click or visit.

4.  Not optimizing your video so it gets noticed by the search engines – this is where it becomes as much art as it is science.  This is where you want to engage the advice of an expert.  Extensive keyword research, competitive analysis and various other methods are key.  If you want to really dominate page one this is a critical step.

Each page on Google has room for about 10 search results.  I have been able to capture as many as 6 out of 10 spots on page 1 for my keywords time and time again.  It just stands to reason that I now have a 60% chance of being clicked on than if I only had 1 listing.  Now that’s page one domination!

5. Not having a video marketing strategy – You need to decide what you are trying accomplish before you start.  Are you trying to drive traffic, sell something, brand a product or service.  If you start with end result you want and work backwards, you’ll improve your results dramatically.

6. Sending video viewers to the wrong place -  You can do everything right to this point and then sabotage your efforts by sending viewers to the wrong place.  You must strategically prepare your website before sending traffic there.  In simple terms, if you are selling apples, don’t send them to the fruit stand page, send then directly to the “apples for sale page”.  In other words, don’t send viewers to your home page and make them search.

7. Not utilizing or including social media marketing websites in their your video marketing distribution.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and other Web 2.0 websites are great places to show off your videos.  These sites are not just for teenagers.  Your customers are already there so you need to be there too.

Now that you understand the power of video marketing, it’s time to get started dominating page one.

 Click Here to learn more about how to dominate page one  in the search engines using video and other local business marketing strategies

To Your Continued Success,

Dave

Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Guaranteed to Generate More Qualified Leads Faster, Easier & Cheaper!

Learn how to attract more leads, convert more prospects, generate more referrals, decrease your marketing costs, spend less and get better results in all your ads.

In This Intensive 1-Day Marketing Workshop David Carleton and Bill McRea Will Show You Exactly How To:

- How to Build a Strong Marketing Plan

- Promotional Strategies on Steroids – How to Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Business

- Killer Advertising Strategies That Get Results!

- Drive More Traffic, Get More Leads, Generate More Referrals and Increase Sales Using the Awesome Power of Social Media and Video Marketing

- How to Automate Your Social Media Marketing Efforts

- Simple Strategies Designed to Get Your Website Ready to Capture More Leads and Increase Sales

- How to Generate Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

If you’re really serious about growing your business then you must attend this workshop.

http://www.SanDiegoLeadGenerationWorkshop.com

The Workshop will be held at:

San Diego North Chamber of Commerce
11650 Iberia Place #220
San Diego, CA 92128

To Register, Read Testimonials or See a Detailed Agenda Visit:
http://www.SanDiegoLeadGenerationWorkshop.com
Seating is limited so please register today

Imagine what your business would be like if you could generate 50-500 qualified leads a month from your website.  If it isn’t doing that now and doing it on a consistent basis then it’s not working hard enough.  Unfortunately very few websites accomplish that goal.  Why?  Because many small business websites were created by designers, friends, relatives or “techies” not marketers. 

Your website should be more than just an online brochure, it should be a lead generating machine!  Having a fancy website with pretty graphics or fancy flash videos might make you feel good, but if it doesn’t generate leads or get your visitor to take action, then you need to make some changes; and the sooner, the better.

When I do Website Makeovers for my clients, I suggest dozens of easy to implement strategies that can turn website visitors into qualified leads quickly and easily.  And most of these strategies do not require you to know any special website coding.

Here are 6 secrets to get you started -

Secret # 1 – Offer a Free Special Report

Prospects visit your website for one main reason – to get information they can use to make their buying decision.  That’s why the first secret is to give away free, relevant and helpful information. 

Well, not totally for free.  Offer visitors interesting special reports or an e-mail course in exchange for their name and e-mail address.  These special reports will not only educate your prospect, but also endear them to you because you are trying to help them make an educated buying decision.

Special Report titles like “12 Critical Questions You Must Ask Before You Buy an ATV,” will attract the attention you want because visitors are curious to know what those 12 critical questions are.  Offering special reports like this will help improve your chances of getting “opt-ins” or people who are willing to give their contact information.  Once you have their contact information you will be able to send your marketing message to them again and again at virtually no cost.

Secret # 2 – The Power of Testimonials

Consumers like to buy; they just don’t like to be sold.  So why not let your current customers do the selling for you using testimonials.  Remember, testimonials are not ads; they are third party endorsements, which lend credibility to your claims which makes the buying and selling process easier for everyone.  That’s the power of good testimonials.

While many websites do use testimonials, most make the mistake of placing them all on one page titled, “Testimonials.”  That is underutilizing an extremely powerful tool at your disposal.  Instead, sprinkle your testimonials all over you site including your home page, guarantee section, in the products and services area, etc.  Even using them as headlines can very be effective in capturing attention.

Secret # 3 – About Us Page – One of the Most Visited Pages on Your Site

Create an “About Us page.  In the final analysis, people don’t buy from companies, they buy from people.  Becoming a “real person” on your “about us” page, humanizes you, your company and your website.  Tell your visitors about how your business began, how it has grown from a 2-person office to over 50 people in just 5 years by providing excellent customer service.  In many cases, the “about us” section is one of the most visited pages on your site.  Make it work harder for you.  Adding your photo or a picture of your office, customer service department, your fleet of service trucks, etc. can really help you connect with your visitor.

Secret # 4 – Add an Audio Message to Important Sections of Your Website

Hearing the owner/manager’s voice reviewing your no-risk money back guarantee or how he/she is available to answer questions, will help build trust and rapport with your visitors.  Audio software programs are very inexpensive and easy to use and install even for novices.  To see and hear an effective way to use audio on your website, go to http://www.streetsmartsalesandmarketing.com/MinuteStrategies.htm

Secret # 5  – Creating a Unique Selling Proposition – (USP)

Your website should clearly explain how your company is different from the competition and needs to answer the question – Why should I buy from you?  Old phrases such as “service with a smile” or “satisfaction guaranteed” don’t impress people anymore.  You need to make your unique competitive advantage clear and concise and your visitors need to see it as quickly as possible.  Don’t bury it somewhere, put it right on the home page.

Secret # 6 – Use “Tell-A-Friend” Scripts

Make sure you add a “tell-a-friend script” to your website or on-line newsletter that let’s the reader forward the web page on to others.  Many of the scripts are free, easy to install and let you get a copy of the e-mail address they send to.  Now you have another e-mail address and prospect to market to.

As you can see, just making a few minor changes to your website can increase your chances of gaining more qualified leads (opt-ins) and make the visit a much better experience for your visitor. To learn how get your own in-depth website makeover analysis go to http://www.streetsmartsalesandmarketing.com/WebsiteMakeover.htm

Don’t Eliminate Marketing – Just Outsource it. Your Results Might Even Be Better!

I don’t have to tell you that these are trying times. Unemployment, the housing market, layoffs, foreclosures, blah, blah, blah.

When business owners and managers go looking for places to cut expenses it usually ends up in two departments- HR and marketing. HR is asked to cut people and payroll and the sales and marketing department is asked to cut everything!

As hard as it may be to do, marketing is the last budget you should cut. The old saying applies more today than ever before – nothing happens until somebody sells something!

So what’s a company to do when they’ve cut everything else? If you must cut marketing budgets, cut strategically.

Lead generation and follow up marketing are the lifeblood of every business so try to keep as many of those funds intact. If you are going to cut your ad budget, try compensating for that in other ways.

Traditional advertising certainly is not as effective as it used to be, so why not “go guerrilla.” Guerrilla marketing by definition is something that has a low cost, but a very high ROI if done correctly. An example of that is social media marketing.

Joining social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube cost you nothing in cash but can literally double your lead generation efforts. People that tell you that you can’t generate sales through the use of social media marketing are just plain wrong.

Businesses all of the world have already proven that social media marketing can increase sales if done the right way. The problem is that most companies think that social media as another form of advertising which it is definitely not. Social media is about building relationships, participating in conversations and providing helpful information to friends, fans, followers and connections. The natural result of this sincere interaction can and does lead to increased sales.

As a lead generation consultant and social media marketing strategist, I help my clients map out a plan that fits their timing, budget and resources.

Cutting Marketing departments, budgets and personnel might be a financial necessity, but the need to find more prospects, service your current customers and build your brand must continue.

One alternative is to outsource some or all of your marketing needs. I am not talking about hiring an ad agency or PR firm which you may already be using, I mean actually having many of your marketing functions handled by an outside person who’s not on your payroll but is dedicated to handling all your marketing as though they were an employee.

Many marketing consultants like me have worked at both large and small companies and have a wealth of experience that you can tap into at a fraction of the cost of an employee. This usually translates into 20 – 30 +/- hours a week devoted strictly to your business or working on a project by project basis.

Hiring the right part time outside marketing “partner” means that your marketing efforts continue without the overhead, health insurance, office space, etc. that come with regular employees. The money you save can either go right to the bottom line or directly back into the marketing budget.

Is hiring an outside marketing department right for every company? Of course not, but the bottom line is that your marketing absolutely must continue. If you can’t afford your own employee marketing department, then hire part time marketing one until the economy turns around.

For more information on the type of projects that you can outsource click here.

To Your Continued Success,

Dave