That Internet Marketer

Build Your Sales Argument in a Simple, Straight Line

Once you have captured a reader’s attention with your headline, don’t assume that you will keep that attention after the first line, second line or third line. Most readers won’t read your entire web page. Most will bail well before the end. How come? Because something you write will make them feel that you are not taking them directly towards finding what they want.

Here are 3 ways to ensure that you keep moving forward in a straight line…

Follow these three guidelines and you will significantly increase the number of people who read all the copy on your page and, of course, you will increase the number of people who take action at the end of that page.

1. Be clear about your page’s objective.

Before you start writing, determine the objective of the page. What is its purpose?

And if you’re thinking, “Well, there are a few things I want to achieve with this page,” be very careful. Because by writing to a few different objectives, you are giving your readers a few different reasons to bail on you. You’ll achieve far higher conversion rates by sticking to a single topic or message per page. In fact, that’s why landing pages were invented. Marketers understood that their general web pages were not converting very well. So they started creating stand-alone pages, or landing pages, which were created with a single objective in mind. The need for landing pages tells us we are not very good at creating and writing regular site pages that are focused on a single, clear objective.

2. Let your readers see the final outcome, from the beginning.

In other words, let your readers see where they are going. For instance, if you want to sell me a vacation in Greenland, let me see the road ahead. A typical way of doing this would be to write a headline that says something like, “5 reasons why Greenland has become the #1 travel destination for adventure lovers.”

When you write a headline like that, the reader knows where you’re taking them, and they know you are trying to sell them a vacation. They even know there are exactly five steps between the beginning and end.

But if the headline were to say, “Greenland grabs hearts of outdoor adventurers,” then I don’t really know where you’re taking me. Is this a general description of the country? Is this about travel, or about conservation? Are you trying to inform me? Or sell a vacation package?

When you make the purpose and objective of the page clear from the beginning, the reader doesn’t have to be distracted by these questions.

3. Write in a straight line, without detours.

When writing editorial there are some excellent reasons for taking the scenic route. You can add character and depth to a story with a paragraph that begins with the words, “Which reminds me…” Or, “By the way…” These scenic diversions make editorial content all the more interesting.

But when you are writing to sell, you would do better to take the direct route. When people come to the web to make a purchase, they are task oriented, impatient and anxious to find what they want and get the task completed quickly.
This means readers want their sales information given to them straight. No meandering. No side trips. Get to the meat of the message quickly, and tell them why your product and service will deliver exactly what they want and are looking for.

Conclusion…

The reason behind the need to build your sales argument in a straight line can be found in that last section. Compared to print or other offline media, users of the web are impatient and generally have a specific goal in mind before they even arrive at your page. If they want to buy something, then they want to find what they want quickly. No side shows. No diversions. Keep your sales pages direct, straight and uncomplicated.

Highest Bid Is Not Highest Rank!

Hey, I was jut talking to a client and realized it may not be clear why the last post is so important. It is important because Google does not serve up ads based on who the highest bidder is, they consider relevance (a human actually looks at the ads and landing pages) and click through rate (one other way of measuring relevance).

Google wants to give the searcher what they want, or as close to it as possible, even in the paid listings. The higher your click through rate (%) the more relevant you look and the less you have to pay for a top listing. One good trick is to include the search term you bid on in the title of your ad and the headline of your landing page - even better, put it in the URL of the landing page too.

Keep coming back, or subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss any breaking news of critical tips!

Ken

The 10 Most Guarded AdWords Secrets

While Google AdWords is a revenue generating machine for the savvy advertiser, 9 out of 10 people often FAIL in their first few attempts to create an effective campaign.
That is why I have created this report – to help these new or not-as-experienced advertisers battle through the initial learning curve, and to implement a few very simple but effective strategies that will help you achieve your advertising goals and improve the overall performance of your advertising campaign.

1. Expand Relevant Keyword Terms
Keyword relevancy is the KEY to success with Google AdWords.
While it may be tempting to include all sorts of keywords you can get your hands on, be aware that this is often the #1 mistake advertisers make when creating their first campaign.
The keyword term qualifies the user as someone who is interested in the your products/services. For this reason, we need to make them as relevant as possible.
Do not go out on a whim and start adding terms that are somewhat related, because, chances are, even if users do find interest in clicking on your ad, they will end up leaving your website without making a purchase because your product/service was not exactly what they were looking for.

2. Be Familiar with the Various Matching Options
While broad match is the default match type and should be used more than 90% of the time, you should also be familiar with the other matching options that are available to you.
Selecting the right match type will increase your performance potential and for driving clicks/sales.
If you are unfamiliar with the different matching options, here is an example:
When tennis shoes is broad matched, your ad will show when users search on the keywords tennis and shoes, in any order, and even if the query includes other terms, such as tennis rackets and shoes.
With broad matching, the keyword is also automatically enrolled in expanded matching. This means that Google will show the ads for other relevant terms and variations (such as tennis sneakers) even if these terms are not included in the keyword list.
When tennis shoes is phrase matched, your ad will only show when users search on the keywords tennis shoes in that order. For example, queries red tennis shoes and tennis shoes sale will generate your ad, but not shoes for tennis.
When tennis shoes is exact matched, your ad will only show when users search on the keyword tennis shoes. This must be typed in exactly in this format. No other variations of this term will trigger your ad.

3. Use Negative Keywords Read the story »

Critical SEO Basics

OK, so here are the basics you absolutely need to do before anything else.

META Tags

You need a couple of things in your meta tags at the top of every page. first and foremost is a page title. EVery page in your website needs to have its own title and they should all be different. Under no circumstances should your business name be our page title. Page title can be as much as 30% of the score for what is actually on/in the page code, including the content - that’s huge, don’t blow it.

The second meta tag you need is Read the story »