Things you need to know about marketing (before starting a marketing campaign)

One of the core values I have is that I give the same advice to my clients as I would my best friend. So, here is some of my best advice.

1. You should only allocate a small amount of your budget on a web designer.

Let’s say you have allocated £2,500 for a new website build. You go to a web designer and tell them your budget and they build you a website for £2,500. What now? You expect orders to come in but that won’t happen. I have seen it hundreds of times.

A better option would be. Spend £1000 on getting your sales copy, web structure and architecture right first by a marketing specialist. Then, get the website built by a web designer for £300 (you can even get this bit outsourced offshore). Then spend the remaining £1200 on marketing and getting traffic to your website.

Once you start getting the traffic to your website you can gain traction and increase your revenue. You can start to split test your website to find out what appeals to your market best (all the most sophisticated companies test – you should be no different as I almost guarantee your competitors won’t be testing).

2. Concentrate on your point of difference

What is it the Dragons always ask on Dragons Den? Why are you different? Why should I invest in you? Why you?

What happens on X-factor when a woman dressed like Amy Winehouse comes onto the stage and sings Back to Black just as Amy would have done? She gets voted off even if she had an equal voice to Amy Winehouse.

One of the golden rules of business is that you need to be different. You don’t always need to be better – you just need a point of difference. This gives people the option of choosing (or not choosing) your services easier.

The worst mistake I see businesses make is getting a generic looking website with bland, uninspiring copy. Unfortunately, this is the case with most web design companies. Go to a web designer and they will try to please you with a design. They will ask you want you want and what you like. They will give you what you want NOT what you need.

Firstly, work on your point of difference and why people should use you. Then build your website built around that message. What you say is much more important than how you say it. What you say is much more important than how you say it (I said it twice because this is really, really important).

3. Your copy is king

A big mistake I see people make with their website is that they create their own content. This has become more of a problem now it is very easy to update your own website.

If your web designer gave you the job of ‘creating the copy’ then it can be a danger sign. After all, I wouldn’t feel confident in a car mechanic fixing my car and then telling me to perform the MOT test myself.

Copywriting will make or break your website. Your website should be a reflection of your best salesperson. Don’t do this yourself as you are too close to your services to be purely objective and copy writing is a skill. It is a very, very under valued skill and something most web designers leave out (getting you to do the copy increases profit margins).

4. If you want cheap – you will get cheap.

If you want a cheap website then go here (http://99designs.co.uk/web-design). It won’t generate you a return on investment and it will look like every other website out there but it will be cheap.

Don’t get me wrong. If you are a ‘run of the mill’ company then there are hundreds of ‘run of the mill’ web designers in every town in the UK. They will produce you a website you are happy with so you can tick the ‘get a website built’ box off your list. That is fine if that is what you are looking for.

If you are looking to grow your business then you need a more professional approach to your website. A better option is to get the experts in first to craft your sales message, website structure and point of difference and then use out sourced web designers (who are often better qualified but half the price of a UK designer).

5. Grab your visitors attention.

Do you remember the first time you saw a Volkswagen Beetle? How about a Concorde? How about an Ipad? All these things have one thing in common. They stood out and you remember them.

You need to stand out. You engage people through a website with copy, headlines and an easy to use website. These things don’t come about by accident. They are well thought and well crafted.

A well known marketing principle is the AIDA principle. This goes along the lines (in an over simplified way) of grabbing your visitors Attention, then engage their Interest and  buildingDesire through to finally asking them to take an Action (AIDA). This simple marketing principle can be applied with devastating effect on your website.

Use a marketing expert to consult and guide your web designer. Just like you would use an architect to consult builders on a building project.

Key takeaway point

Your prospective clients will judge you on your website whether you like it or not. They will determine what type of business you are, where you are positioned in the market and whether you are worth considering or not before they actually speak to you. Scary that isn’t it? But let’s be honest, we have all done it. You go to a website and you make a judgement call before you have even spoken to anybody in the company from the website.

Do not underestimate the power your website can have and chose your web team carefully.

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5 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur in Your Career

Starting and running a new business isn’t for everyone—but regardless of your career, there’s something to be said for the “entrepreneurial spirit.”

A little entrepreneurial zeal can give you a distinct advantage in your professional life, whether or not you think you’d ever strike out on our own. So how do you train your corporate mind to think more like a business owner? Try these five easy ways.

1. Get Passionate

Entrepreneurs tend to be immensely passionate about their work—and in the long-term, this is the key to career success and fulfillment in any field. So, if you’re spending most of the day dreaming about how you’d rather be doing something else, think about how you might be able to “pivot” your career. (Need help deciding if you’re on the right track? Answer these 15 questions to know for sure.)

Look for ways you can take what you have and put it to better use doing something else. Could you translate your position to another industry? Transition to another department in your company where your experience could be put to use? If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, don’t feel stuck. Instead, think about how you can apply your skills elsewhere.

2. Be Bothered by Inefficiency

Do you find you or your colleagues sitting around waiting for responses in order to move forward or entrenched in certain work processes that are too slow? Entrepreneurs don’t have a high tolerance for inefficiency—and because they don’t have corporate red tape to cut through, they can fix these types of problems quickly.

While you might not be able to do so at quite the same pace, think about the inefficiencies in your organization and consider whether there are places you could implement solutions (or at least recommend improvements). It’s a golden opportunity to create long-term value and to shine in your company.

3. Take on More Risk

You’ve likely heard the phrase, “more risk, more reward.” One thing that sets many entrepreneurs apart from the average professional is their appetite for risk. No, putting yourself out there isn’t easy—but a business owner knows that you have to give it a shot (or, many shots), and that you’ll scoop up bigger rewards when those risks pay off.

At work, start small by pitching new ideas or volunteering to take on a challenge or two that’s outside of your comfort zone. The potential payout—gaining new skills, getting a nod of approval from the CEO, or even landing a promotion—can be huge.

4. Brainstorm More

Constant innovation is crucial to a business’ long-term success, so entrepreneurs have to take time to let their minds loose and brainstorm new ideas. If you’re not used to getting those creative juices flowing, try setting aside some time to try out a few brainstorming exercises.

And, remember to have fun doing it! I love this quote from fellow entrepreneur Virgilia Singh:

Even the most complex form of innovation starts with a simple act: play. More companies are instituting sketching and white boards in their offices to encourage brainstorming, also known as the act of playing around with ideas.”

Schedule some time each week to really brainstorm about something that’s been on your mind. See what you come up with.

5. Don’t Limit Your Dreams

To me, the most important aspect of the entrepreneurial spirit is its boundlessness. Many people are conditioned, as they go through school and into the workforce, to be realistic and practical—but, what’s wrong with dreaming big? You’ll have to work for it, but, believe me, it’s worth it.

 

So, think like an entrepreneur, and go dream big for your career!

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10 Quick Ways to Increase Your Ads' Clickthrough Rates

In his book Ultimate Guide to Pay-Per-Click Advertising, internet marketing expert Richard Stokes helps you master advanced search engine strategies from top search engine marketers to increase your sales. In this edited excerpt, the author the best tactics you can use for creating ads that get the most clicks from viewers.

Search ads are short. You have only the following to work with:

• Headlines that contain 25 characters
• Two lines of copy that contain 35 characters each (70 characters total)
• A display URL (which doesn't have to match the clickthrough URL).

To succeed, you must be concise. But there are plenty of other rules you can follow to write more effective ads.

In late 2012, AdGooroo analyzed 20 million paid search ads appearing in the United States to identify best practices you should follow when writing your copy. The top 10 findings are below. Please be aware that a specific rule may or may not work in every situation. Always split test when changing your ad copy!

1. Use "www" in your domain name. Your domain name is found at the end of every paid search ad. You can use either the long form with a preceding "www" (for instance, "www.adgooroo.com") or a short form that omits the prefix ("adgooroo.com").

The longer version was found to increase clickthrough rate by nearly 16 percent.

2. Avoid numbers. Many paid search ads contain at least one number. For instance:

50th birthday gift ideas
A free service to help you find
creative 50th Birthday Gifts.

Or "buy" ads, like:

Save 45% On Abrasives
Grind & Cut Wheels, Discs, Belts
Quality Same Day Ship on Stock Items

This is a widely recommended practice. However, data suggests that it doesn't work for most advertisers. Ads with no numbers performed nearly 20 percent better than those with them.

3. Avoid exclamation points. Another practice many advertisers follow is to include exclamation points in their ad copy. For instance:

Facilitate this! 
Effective and dynamic meeting
facilitation and skills training

Ads with exclamation points were found to perform nine percent worse than ads without.

4. Avoid overused call-to-action phrases. When writing new ads, it's often a good idea to test a call-to-action, such as "Buy now," "Try now" or "Download now." However, Google frowns on certain terms, so this tactic isn't nearly as effective as it was a few years ago. Ads with the word "now" in them actually underperformed all other ads by seven percent.

Here are some other common call-to-action phrases you might try testing in your ads:

• Get official quote
• Shop and save
• Learn more today
• Get tips
• Order today for quick delivery
• Request info
• Read this

5. Offer something for free.  Including the word "free" still seems to work like a charm. Ads with this word performed nine percent better than ads without.

6. Save space with ampersands. Space is tight with paid search ads, so anytime you can save a character or two, it's welcome news. The ampersand (&) not only works well for this, but it also increases the average advertiser's clickthrough rate by eight percent.

7. Don't include the price. Many search marketers include the price in their ad copy assuming that by doing so, they'll avoid unnecessary clicks from those who are looking for either a higher or lower price offering. While this does work (and will save you money), it will also lower your clickthrough rate by a whopping 17 percent, ensuring you get hit with a quality score penalty.

8. Be the "official" site. Although Google has quietly eliminated most affiliates from its advertiser list, some advertisers are still using "official site" in their ad copy. Take a look at these examples:  

Shop For iPod Nano
Official Site. Free Shipping on orders
$24 & up or pick up in store

Tiffany & Co. (Official)
Shop the Official Tiffany & Co. site
for exclusive Tiffany designs.

Using it seems to make a big difference. On average, "official" ads have a 71 percent higher clickthrough rate.

9. Incorporate trademark symbols. Trademark symbols (™, ©, ®) may be required only for legal reasons, but they can dramatically boost your paid search results. These unusual characters improved clickthrough rates by nearly 90 percent!

10. Use all the space you're allowed. Sometimes you might not need a lot of space to say what you've got to say. Take a look at this pithy ad:

Books 
Buy a book
Read and become smarter
www.books.com

Other advertisers try to be cute with their ads:

Postcards 
No way!
Can't be true?
www.postcardsrus.com

Avoid this tactic, and use as much of the available space in your ad as you can. On average, longer ads have a 64 percent higher clickthrough rate.

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AWeber Now Offering 7 Beautiful, StudioPress-Inspired Email Templates

How do you design an email template that looks and feels like your own website design?

Sounds like it would be hard to do, doesn’t it?

You either need to be a whiz with code, or you need to find an email marketing service that just so happens to have templates that look and feel like your website. Not very likely.

Until now … because AWeber decided to do something about it.

Many of our StudioPress customers now have an email marketing option that will seamlessly extend their website’s branding into their email communication …

Behold, the seven newest wonders of AWeber’s world: new email themes for StudioPress.

How it works

Here are the StudioPress child themes that AWeber currently has email themes for (links go to each theme’s StudioPress page):

• Agency Pro
• Executive Pro
• Lifestyle Pro
• Magazine Pro
• Metro Pro
• News Pro
• Parallax Pro

All you have to do to get started using the corresponding email themes is log in to your AWeber account. You’ll see the new email themes named the same as the StudioPress theme they match. And yes, they plan to add more StudioPress themes in the future.

If you’re not already an AWeber customer, you can get started for just $1 right here.

And, of course, make sure you’re a StudioPress customer.

You can choose one of the seven themes above, and then have an email theme waiting for you when you’re ready. Or browse all of our child themes, and let AWeber know in the comments that you’d like to see an email theme developed for it in the future.

Long live beautiful email!

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How to Succeed on Internet Promotion the Easy Way

With a struggling economy and so many people out of work, there are thousands of people online right now looking up terms like "work from home" and "internet promotion." Internet promotion is a huge business, and one that can bring you a lot of money if done correctly. Check out some solid advice on the genre.

Admit your shortfalls. Don't attempt to deny that your website does not have its own pitfalls, because every website does. Take note when someone complains to you about an issue, acknowledge the problem and make steps to fix it. Allowing the customer to know you understand them, without getting defensive, is a good way to not only fix site issue, but also, to gain visitor trust.

Many small businesses can tremendously increase their revenue by taking their advertising campaigns online. Because more traditional venues of advertisements are slowly becoming less profitable, as newspapers see declining subscriptions, small businesses, which start advertising online are often able to reach a much more broad customer base and see an increase in profit.

Keep the background on your site very light and manageable. The darker the background on the site, the harder it will be for your visitors to view your products. Also, a dark background can create a morose and gloomy atmosphere, which could alter a customer's mood when they visit your site.

If you'd like to get involved with online marketing but don't have a product of your own to sell, you can still have an online presence by selling someone else's product. Buying the rights to an established product, will give you a way to capitalize on sales without spending the time to develop your own product.

Make sure you read a lot of informative resources online and work up a list of your top-10 tips and pieces of advice. After you figure out the top-10 things you want to try or follow, go down the list and do them all systematically. This is like receiving an assist to your overall business plan, and it can pay off in a big way.

Know your goal. Obviously, the overall goal of web marketing is to get more business, but there are many ways to do this. Without a strategy, you can easily become overwhelmed. Start with one small, but specific, goal - such as increasing your site's number of unique hits, and expand from there.

When writing web marketing copy, consider giving customers some kind of prize that proves they have read the entire piece. For example, you can hide a link somewhere in the text that nets them a free gift if they can find it. More people reading the entirety of your ad copy will translate into more buyers.

After you have set up your site and it has begun to make money, it would be wise to expand. Using your knowledge from your first site, go ahead and create another site. This way you can take your expertise and use it to become well known and make money from another site.

In important tip regarding Internet marketing is to try to be as original as possible. This is important because if you are able to focus your originality correctly, then you will create an extremely memorable marketing campaign. This is best utilized by taking something well known and molding it to appear as though it is something brand new and original.

If you have been sending newsletters to your customers and potential customers, it is a savvy internet promotion strategy to convert those newsletters into website content. Some visitors who would never think of subscribing to a newsletter may nevertheless eagerly devour the same material on your site. And since you are reusing preexisting content, the effort involved is minimal.

If you have any well-known people that have purchased your product it would be nice if you got permission from them to let everyone know that they did that. People are more likely to purchase things when they know that well-known people have bought them.

Now that you've read some expert advice on marketing, you can put this information to use and hopefully grow an effective business. Things are going to go slowly at first, but soon, with the help of these tips. You will begin to see some real results and begin making some serious money working online.

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Basic Guide When It Comes To Mobile Marketing

With more and more businesses developing their own mobile apps and technology platforms, it is becoming more important than ever to keep up with the trends and offer your own specialized mobile marketing strategy. The advice in this article should provide you with insight that can suggest an effective starting point for your mobile marketing campaign.

Always supply a call to action. Your customers need to know what they should be doing to purchase from you, and if you do not give them the answer, they will not be purchasing from you any time soon. Tell them you have what they need, and tell them how to get it.

Never hide who you are. Tell your customer up front what your business is and who you are. You should never send veiled or confusing messages to your customers. People begin to feel threatened when they do not understand what is going on, so if you forget to do this, you may alienate some of them.

Add QR codes every time you print something. Printable QR codes are in high demand, so put your code on anything you possibly can, even on postcards, fliers, or newspapers. The more people you have that see your code, the more likely you are to gain new customers from the display.

If you have multiple people working in your business on mobile marketing, it is important for each person to understand the plans and goals behind your company, to that everyone is working on the same page. Your team should be knowledgeable enough not to put your business in a bind, should a customer ask a question.

Hire a consultant. Not everyone is technologically savvy, so if you are not so inclined, it may be best for you to hire someone to do your dirty work for you. You should look heavily into this person's background to make sure they are respectful and professional, especially if they will be a permanent member of your team.

Do not send unreasonable amounts of text messages to personal phones. Mobiles are very personal and many people do not appreciate being overwhelmed with marketing messages. Try to limit the number of messages to as few as possible so as to maintain a high level of satisfaction with your customer.

When creating advertising for the mobile web, you must ensure that the content is compatible with a majority of different mobile browsers. This is important to consider because you do not want to inadvertently restrict customers from being able to view your content. Stick with the major phone manufacturers and double check to see if there are any restrictions that the service providers may have in place.

With the handpicked tips and tricks that you have just learned, you can start to devise a competitive, engaging mobile marketing platform to drive sales, create more loyal customer relationships, and ensure that your brand, products, and services are always within reach. Use these concepts to stay ahead of the game and succeed in your mobile marketing efforts.

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