Sunday, August 13, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
How To Create Compelling E-mail Offers That Sell Like Crazy
Copyright © 2006 Dan Lok
If you want to create a dynamic e-mail campaign, you have to offer your clients more than a simple announcement.
Far too often people fall into the trap of believing an announcement is enough to entice their customer.
Unfortunately, an announcement does little to help compel or encourage your clients to buy from you.
If you want customers to buy from you, you’re far better off offering “special deals†or a “special offer†than simply offering an announcement.
Why?
An announcement says, “Hey, I have a new product!â€
Wow, that’s terrific!
But what’s in it for the customer?
You have to think about what your customer’s needs are and how you are filling them with every contact you make.
An announcement doesn’t take these needs into consideration, and that’s why far too often announcements fail to produce results.
An announcement also lacks a call to action or an incentive for customers to contact you.
It doesn’t make sense to contact someone unless you are going to offer him or her an incentive to buy your product.
Keep this in mind when creating your next e-mail campaign.
Types of Promotions
So now you know you have to offer incentives. Now, what kind of incentive do you offer in your e-mail campaign?
There are many different incentives to offer. Most people rely on the special discount offer.
You don’t always have to offer a discount however, to get people to buy from you. You can for example, offer a new product to your customers.
Say for example, you offer them a free publication, like a subscription to your newsletter if they buy your product now. Or, you can offer them 20% off your latest publication when they order.
You can also offer special deals by recognizing some special event in your personal life. Most customers appreciate e-mails that include some personal information about you. For example, let’s say you have an upcoming birthday or anniversary to celebrate. In your e-mail, mention this.
Say, “Because it’s my birthday today I’m offering you a special discount.†This will help your e-mails appear more personal in nature.
You have to share personal information if you want to build trust with your clients. Let them know something about you.
Say for example you are sharing your 10th anniversary with your partner. Let your customer’s know you are offering a one-time deal because of this.
Another promotion you can offer your clients is the “special sale.†I like to call this the “Oops, I forgot!†or “Oops, I screwed up!†offer.
In this special bonus offer, e-mail your clients a day or two after you send out an announcement.
Then let them know you forgot to tell them something in the previous “announcementâ€, so if they order now, they can take advantage of your mistake.
Then offer them something. Then after a couple of days send them a last minute reminder. You can phrase it similar to, “We almost sold out, and we only have a few hours left, so act now so you don’t miss out. Remember, you’ll be reaping A, B, C benefits.â€
Special offers are great during holidays, like Christmas, Halloween or even Valentines Day. Speaking of Valentines Day, remember your offers don’t have to be discounts. They can be something unusual, crazy or fun. Like on Valentines Day, offer your clients a rose or chocolate for ordering that day.
Your goal should be to keep things exciting and fun. Keep all your promotions an event.
Another way to produce more feedback from your e-mails is to send customers FAQ e-mails. Let’s say for example, you send an e-mail that creates some questions you’d like to respond to.
You can send an FAQ offer or follow up e-mail that answers all their questions and presents a new offer or special deal for your customers.
How Often You Should E-mail Clients?
How often should you e-mail your clients? If a customer consistently buys your products and services, you should send frequent e-mails.
If however, you are sending a special promotional offer to someone that has never ordered from you, don’t waste too much time on it.
My experience suggests customer’s who buy something once or twice are much more likely to buy again.
When Should You Send Your E-Mail Offers?
When should you e-mail your clients? The answer is “It depends.†My experience shows Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days to e-mail people.
Why? Who knows?
It may be people don’t want to check their e-mail on the weekends. It may be they are thinking of the weekend and not their e-mail on Friday.
They may have too much work to catch up on Mondays. For me, Tuesdays and Thursdays have always produced the best responses. Then again, I am focusing on B2B customers. Your experience of the B2C industry may be different.
These are just a few things you can do to spice up your e-mail campaign. The bottom line is this… whenever you send an e-mail, you have to create much more than a simple announcement.
An announcement isn’t going to call people to action. You have to carefully craft your e-mails, to encourage your customers to act. You want to offer your customers some incentive so they act on your e-mail immediately.
And one last point... Don’t reveal your price in the e-mail.
Your job is to entice, compel and motivate your customers to buy.
That’s the bottom line.
About the author:
A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Today, Dan is one of the most sought-after business mentors on the Web, as well as a best-selling author. His reputation includes his title as the World's #1 Website Conversion Expert. To find out what Dan is up to now, visit him at: http://www.WebsiteConversionExpert.com
[Read more articles by Dan Lok]
Content Provided By
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If you want to create a dynamic e-mail campaign, you have to offer your clients more than a simple announcement.
Far too often people fall into the trap of believing an announcement is enough to entice their customer.
Unfortunately, an announcement does little to help compel or encourage your clients to buy from you.
If you want customers to buy from you, you’re far better off offering “special deals†or a “special offer†than simply offering an announcement.
Why?
An announcement says, “Hey, I have a new product!â€
Wow, that’s terrific!
But what’s in it for the customer?
You have to think about what your customer’s needs are and how you are filling them with every contact you make.
An announcement doesn’t take these needs into consideration, and that’s why far too often announcements fail to produce results.
An announcement also lacks a call to action or an incentive for customers to contact you.
It doesn’t make sense to contact someone unless you are going to offer him or her an incentive to buy your product.
Keep this in mind when creating your next e-mail campaign.
Types of Promotions
So now you know you have to offer incentives. Now, what kind of incentive do you offer in your e-mail campaign?
There are many different incentives to offer. Most people rely on the special discount offer.
You don’t always have to offer a discount however, to get people to buy from you. You can for example, offer a new product to your customers.
Say for example, you offer them a free publication, like a subscription to your newsletter if they buy your product now. Or, you can offer them 20% off your latest publication when they order.
You can also offer special deals by recognizing some special event in your personal life. Most customers appreciate e-mails that include some personal information about you. For example, let’s say you have an upcoming birthday or anniversary to celebrate. In your e-mail, mention this.
Say, “Because it’s my birthday today I’m offering you a special discount.†This will help your e-mails appear more personal in nature.
You have to share personal information if you want to build trust with your clients. Let them know something about you.
Say for example you are sharing your 10th anniversary with your partner. Let your customer’s know you are offering a one-time deal because of this.
Another promotion you can offer your clients is the “special sale.†I like to call this the “Oops, I forgot!†or “Oops, I screwed up!†offer.
In this special bonus offer, e-mail your clients a day or two after you send out an announcement.
Then let them know you forgot to tell them something in the previous “announcementâ€, so if they order now, they can take advantage of your mistake.
Then offer them something. Then after a couple of days send them a last minute reminder. You can phrase it similar to, “We almost sold out, and we only have a few hours left, so act now so you don’t miss out. Remember, you’ll be reaping A, B, C benefits.â€
Special offers are great during holidays, like Christmas, Halloween or even Valentines Day. Speaking of Valentines Day, remember your offers don’t have to be discounts. They can be something unusual, crazy or fun. Like on Valentines Day, offer your clients a rose or chocolate for ordering that day.
Your goal should be to keep things exciting and fun. Keep all your promotions an event.
Another way to produce more feedback from your e-mails is to send customers FAQ e-mails. Let’s say for example, you send an e-mail that creates some questions you’d like to respond to.
You can send an FAQ offer or follow up e-mail that answers all their questions and presents a new offer or special deal for your customers.
How Often You Should E-mail Clients?
How often should you e-mail your clients? If a customer consistently buys your products and services, you should send frequent e-mails.
If however, you are sending a special promotional offer to someone that has never ordered from you, don’t waste too much time on it.
My experience suggests customer’s who buy something once or twice are much more likely to buy again.
When Should You Send Your E-Mail Offers?
When should you e-mail your clients? The answer is “It depends.†My experience shows Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days to e-mail people.
Why? Who knows?
It may be people don’t want to check their e-mail on the weekends. It may be they are thinking of the weekend and not their e-mail on Friday.
They may have too much work to catch up on Mondays. For me, Tuesdays and Thursdays have always produced the best responses. Then again, I am focusing on B2B customers. Your experience of the B2C industry may be different.
These are just a few things you can do to spice up your e-mail campaign. The bottom line is this… whenever you send an e-mail, you have to create much more than a simple announcement.
An announcement isn’t going to call people to action. You have to carefully craft your e-mails, to encourage your customers to act. You want to offer your customers some incentive so they act on your e-mail immediately.
And one last point... Don’t reveal your price in the e-mail.
Your job is to entice, compel and motivate your customers to buy.
That’s the bottom line.
About the author:
A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Today, Dan is one of the most sought-after business mentors on the Web, as well as a best-selling author. His reputation includes his title as the World's #1 Website Conversion Expert. To find out what Dan is up to now, visit him at: http://www.WebsiteConversionExpert.com
[Read more articles by Dan Lok]
Content Provided By
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Teleseminars: What Mother Never Told You
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette Cates
There are lessons that we learn as we go. Our mothers could have told us - but we would neither have believed them nor paid attention. Instead, they let us learn on our own.
In that spirit, let me share a few things I've learned about teleseminars.
1. They can "see" you over the telephone line! No, they can't see your flip flops or your bad hair day. But they *can* see your smile and your energy. So stand up, walk around, get excited! Smile into the phone, even when you're the only one in the room. The audience is watching!
2. You're talking to "dead air" when you mute the line. This is generally a shock to most people on their first teleseminar. And I've heard many of them unmute repeatedly just to be sure there is still someone listening. After all, it's lonely in there, in the muted area all by yourself. Never fear. Your audience is still there - you just can't hear their breathing.
3. Half the registrants won't show. They have good intentions when they sign up - especially for a "free" call. But things come up. Even when they have paid to be on the call, they get caught in traffic, company shows up unexpectedly, the dog has to go to the vet, the kids have soccer practice, the last episode of "24" is on. Things happen. It's incumbent on you, the organizer, to remind them about the call - repeatedly. Then cross your fingers and "go on with the show."
4. You need to do the follow-up work before the call. After the call you are stoked and pumped from the call - the last thing you want to do is take care of details! But the audio needs editing, the registration page has to change, email reminders have to go out, the transcript needs editing, you need to set up the product in the shopping system, etc. There is just a lot to do! And if you haven't done most of it ahead of time, you'll spend more time after the call than you did before. And that dilutes the excitement and leaves you less time to enjoy the moment.
5. It takes 6 hands to do a teleseminar. You have to follow the call outline, check the recording levels, IM your guest, field questions via email and watch the clock. What to do? Get help! Hire someone to record the teleseminar. Ask someone to handle the question emails for you and ask the questions on behalf of the audience. Add operator service to your line. You can't do this alone - unless you're a split personality or very talented.
Consider yourself forewarned about these lessons. But I'll know you weren't listening when on your next teleseminar you keep unmuting the line and saying 'Hello - anyone out there?'
About the author:
Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who helps consultants and other experts leverage their expertise into Online Success. Jeanette shares more tips and tricks in her popular course at http://www.TeleseminarBasics.com
[Read more articles by Jeanette Cates]
Content Provided By
SubmitYOURArticle.com
There are lessons that we learn as we go. Our mothers could have told us - but we would neither have believed them nor paid attention. Instead, they let us learn on our own.
In that spirit, let me share a few things I've learned about teleseminars.
1. They can "see" you over the telephone line! No, they can't see your flip flops or your bad hair day. But they *can* see your smile and your energy. So stand up, walk around, get excited! Smile into the phone, even when you're the only one in the room. The audience is watching!
2. You're talking to "dead air" when you mute the line. This is generally a shock to most people on their first teleseminar. And I've heard many of them unmute repeatedly just to be sure there is still someone listening. After all, it's lonely in there, in the muted area all by yourself. Never fear. Your audience is still there - you just can't hear their breathing.
3. Half the registrants won't show. They have good intentions when they sign up - especially for a "free" call. But things come up. Even when they have paid to be on the call, they get caught in traffic, company shows up unexpectedly, the dog has to go to the vet, the kids have soccer practice, the last episode of "24" is on. Things happen. It's incumbent on you, the organizer, to remind them about the call - repeatedly. Then cross your fingers and "go on with the show."
4. You need to do the follow-up work before the call. After the call you are stoked and pumped from the call - the last thing you want to do is take care of details! But the audio needs editing, the registration page has to change, email reminders have to go out, the transcript needs editing, you need to set up the product in the shopping system, etc. There is just a lot to do! And if you haven't done most of it ahead of time, you'll spend more time after the call than you did before. And that dilutes the excitement and leaves you less time to enjoy the moment.
5. It takes 6 hands to do a teleseminar. You have to follow the call outline, check the recording levels, IM your guest, field questions via email and watch the clock. What to do? Get help! Hire someone to record the teleseminar. Ask someone to handle the question emails for you and ask the questions on behalf of the audience. Add operator service to your line. You can't do this alone - unless you're a split personality or very talented.
Consider yourself forewarned about these lessons. But I'll know you weren't listening when on your next teleseminar you keep unmuting the line and saying 'Hello - anyone out there?'
About the author:
Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who helps consultants and other experts leverage their expertise into Online Success. Jeanette shares more tips and tricks in her popular course at http://www.TeleseminarBasics.com
[Read more articles by Jeanette Cates]
Content Provided By
SubmitYOURArticle.com
Monday, August 07, 2006
Auto Redirecting What It Is and How to Use It
Copyright © 2006 Mark Nenadic
Many web designers are using auto redirecting techniques lately for a number of reasons. Auto redirecting occurs when a visitor to your website is automatically sent to another page when he or she has landed on a given page. This other page is frequently located on the same website but can also be located on an entirely different website.
This technique has become extremely popular as a part of search engine optimization strategies. When a website has been created entirely for the purposes of search engine optimization then webmasters will often apply auto redirection to its web pages to send visitors to the main site automatically. This is because the search engine optimized site may not have any real value to visitors. It has been designed to obtain a very high ranking. Therefore the auto redirecting takes the visitor to the correct part of the website which is meant for the visitors themselves.
This technique while commonly quite effective is extremely frowned upon by all of the major search engines. Commonly websites discovered to have auto redirectors will be penalized for this activity. However search engines are not set up in a way that they can automatically detect the majority of redirecting techniques. It is primarily the human indexed search engines and directories that catch such webmasters in the act.
This being said search engines are not against all uses of auto redirecting. In fact there are many reasons that search engines will consider quite valid for auto redirection. For example when a message has been posted on a posting board the contributor is frequently sent to a confirmation page. On many sites this confirmation page displays only for a few seconds and then it auto redirects to the main posting board once more.
There are a number of different methods that are used for auto redirecting. These include
The Meta Refresh Tag Technique
This method can be detected automatically by search engines so it must be used for a reason that they consider to be valid or you risk being penalized. There must be a reasonable delay (at least 5 seconds) used for a search engine to approve of the use of this auto redirection.
The JavaScript Technique
This method cannot be detected automatically by search engines as they are currently unable to parse JavaScript. Though this script may be positioned anywhere on the page it is best placed in the head section so that it is capable of starting as soon as the webpage loads.
The Form Technique
Since search engine spiders are currently unable to complete website forms and they do not try to submit any forms they cannot automatically detect when forms are utilized for auto redirecting. Forms are often overlooked by webmasters for auto redirecting purposes because they do not realize that the URL of a forms action details is simply a URL that is requested by the browser to the server. The form however can be given special treatment by a visitors browser if new name value pairs are added to the designated URL. However if no name value pairs exist the browser will still make the same request for the URL. Once the page begins to load JavaScript can be used for submitting the form right away.
Be very careful with the uses of your auto redirecting if you dont want to risk having all of your hard work penalized by the search engines that will be indexing you. Just make sure that you are using auto redirection for the right reasons in their books. Furthermore make sure that you are allowing a long enough delay before the auto redirection kicks in. Anything less than five seconds will be considered suspicious by search engines and they may object.
As long as you give a long enough delay then the Meta Tag Technique is perfectly acceptable and provides perfect results. However if you require an instant auto redirection because you dont want visitors to see the page that they have initially accessed then you will need to use other methods such as the JavaScript technique.
Youll find that auto redirect can give your website a very professional appearance and will help you to provide your visitors with precisely what they were looking for.
About the author:
Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North http://www.15dn.com , where you will find articles and resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.
[Read more articles by Mark Nenadic]
Content Provided By
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Many web designers are using auto redirecting techniques lately for a number of reasons. Auto redirecting occurs when a visitor to your website is automatically sent to another page when he or she has landed on a given page. This other page is frequently located on the same website but can also be located on an entirely different website.
This technique has become extremely popular as a part of search engine optimization strategies. When a website has been created entirely for the purposes of search engine optimization then webmasters will often apply auto redirection to its web pages to send visitors to the main site automatically. This is because the search engine optimized site may not have any real value to visitors. It has been designed to obtain a very high ranking. Therefore the auto redirecting takes the visitor to the correct part of the website which is meant for the visitors themselves.
This technique while commonly quite effective is extremely frowned upon by all of the major search engines. Commonly websites discovered to have auto redirectors will be penalized for this activity. However search engines are not set up in a way that they can automatically detect the majority of redirecting techniques. It is primarily the human indexed search engines and directories that catch such webmasters in the act.
This being said search engines are not against all uses of auto redirecting. In fact there are many reasons that search engines will consider quite valid for auto redirection. For example when a message has been posted on a posting board the contributor is frequently sent to a confirmation page. On many sites this confirmation page displays only for a few seconds and then it auto redirects to the main posting board once more.
There are a number of different methods that are used for auto redirecting. These include
The Meta Refresh Tag Technique
This method can be detected automatically by search engines so it must be used for a reason that they consider to be valid or you risk being penalized. There must be a reasonable delay (at least 5 seconds) used for a search engine to approve of the use of this auto redirection.
The JavaScript Technique
This method cannot be detected automatically by search engines as they are currently unable to parse JavaScript. Though this script may be positioned anywhere on the page it is best placed in the head section so that it is capable of starting as soon as the webpage loads.
The Form Technique
Since search engine spiders are currently unable to complete website forms and they do not try to submit any forms they cannot automatically detect when forms are utilized for auto redirecting. Forms are often overlooked by webmasters for auto redirecting purposes because they do not realize that the URL of a forms action details is simply a URL that is requested by the browser to the server. The form however can be given special treatment by a visitors browser if new name value pairs are added to the designated URL. However if no name value pairs exist the browser will still make the same request for the URL. Once the page begins to load JavaScript can be used for submitting the form right away.
Be very careful with the uses of your auto redirecting if you dont want to risk having all of your hard work penalized by the search engines that will be indexing you. Just make sure that you are using auto redirection for the right reasons in their books. Furthermore make sure that you are allowing a long enough delay before the auto redirection kicks in. Anything less than five seconds will be considered suspicious by search engines and they may object.
As long as you give a long enough delay then the Meta Tag Technique is perfectly acceptable and provides perfect results. However if you require an instant auto redirection because you dont want visitors to see the page that they have initially accessed then you will need to use other methods such as the JavaScript technique.
Youll find that auto redirect can give your website a very professional appearance and will help you to provide your visitors with precisely what they were looking for.
About the author:
Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North http://www.15dn.com , where you will find articles and resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.
[Read more articles by Mark Nenadic]
Content Provided By
SubmitYOURArticle.com
Sunday, August 06, 2006
