Archive for the Traffic Building
How To Build Repeat Business Using Autoresponders
October 23rd, 2018
The aim of a sales page on a website is to give your customers only two options; buy your product or leave your website. Why let them leave without giving yourself another chance to sell to them? You don’t have to… You can set up a system which will give you many opportunities to sell your product or service to each single visitor to your sales page.
The secret is to use what is known as an autoresponder which is an email service you can use to save the contact details of your visitors and then to send them emails at set intervals.
To make use of an autoresponder you can either use the services of a third party supplier or you can purchase and install a script onto your website. To begin with it’s a lot easier to use a third party autoresponder.
Irrespective of whether you use a third party service or your own script, you will have to use a form to capture your visitors contact details. This form can be built into any HTML web page be it your sales page, or a page designed specifically for use as a popup.
The underlying concept behind the use of autoresponders is that people rarely buy on their first visit to a website. Research has shown that most people need repeated contact with an advertising message before they respond to it and purchase the product or service.
Autoresponders were designed for just this. You can load a series of advertising messages into your autoresponder and adjust it to send the messages at set intervals. That said, people react badly to advertising; in fact most people just plain ignore advertisements.
To get round this, you have to design your email series so that it is not perceived to be advertising. A good way to do this is to design your email series to include plenty of useful information; give your subscribers some good quality free information in each email and weave your advertisement into it.
For example, let’s assume you are selling an e-book titled “101 Dieting Tips”. You could create a series of 7 emails, each containing a single dieting tip. At the end of each email you could inform the reader of your e-book containing 101 tips and include a link to your sales page.
The bottom line is the content you include in your email series must be of very high quality; after all you are going to ask for somebody’s contact details in exchange for it.
Bear in mind nobody is going to sign up for your email series just you write it, or you include good content. In truth visitors to your website aren’t interested in you, they are interested in themselves. They have a problem they are trying to solve, and that’s why they ended up on your website; they thought they could find a solution there.
Another point worth considering is you are a relative unknown to the person visiting your website; they don’t know you or trust you. It’s because of this distrust that many people won’t buy your product or service on their first visit. If you can get them to subscribe, your email series should build up their trust to the point where they will buy your product or service.
First you have to get them to subscribe, and you do this by advertising you are giving away “free” tips which will help solve their problem. Your opt-in form must be prominently displayed on your sales page, build it into the content. You should also design a popup form that displays your opt-in form either when people first get to your site, or when they leave.
Finally, a properly designed opt-in form which causes many of your website visitors to subscribe to your information series will incorporate these three design tips:
1) Use a heading, in a larger font and of a different color to the rest of the form, which includes a major benefit. In other words, in as few words as possible, explain the biggest benefit your visitor will receive from subscribing to your information series.
2) In as few words as possible explain two or three additional benefits your reader will receive from subscribing to your opt-in list. A list of bullet points is the best way to do this.
3) Your primary objective is to get your visitor to join your opt-in list, so ask them to subscribe. Get into the conversation going on inside their mind, use words like “Yes! Send Me the Tips Now!” on the submit button of your form.
Five Ways To Get Visitors To Bookmark Your Website
June 5th, 2018
There are many factors to keeping someone’s interest on your website. It is not an easy task. Your ultimate goal is to get them to come back repeatedly. There is one precious commodity that most of us do not have much of – time. Naturally, you bookmark a website because it was impressionable enough for you to want to put it in your favorites. Now read about what will keep the customers coming back for more!
Before you consider setting up a website, you will need to have your goals in mind. Answering a few targeted questions will help you decide how to best approach setting up the site. Targeting your customer is very important. Their age, economic status and gender will play a part in deciding how you will need to market your site. For example, you would not sell jeans in larger sizes and higher waist styles to a junior teen sized woman. Good market research is the foundation for setting the goals of your site and marketing your site with your customer in mind. This is only the beginning and a mere part of the story of getting customers and keeping them.
You will need to look at how your customer interacts with the graphics and total site layout. Ask yourself is there any design flaws that stop them from going to the next page? Is there too many banners, buttons and graphics that confuse them? Is the text on the site clear and easy to understand? Is it confusing on directions about information on ordering?
Next, consider if your site leaves the customer with a feeling of confidence in your product and service. If the writing is timid, sparse or overtly braggadocio, it is more than likely, your customer will click away without so much as a thought of returning. Take some stock of others review of your site and work to improve on the writing. Remember though you will not be able to please everyone. Keep tweaking it until it is in line with the image you want to portray and the product it represents.
The third step is looking at the content of information on the site. Is the information relative to what you are selling? Is it up-to-date and does it helps the customer decide what they want to buy? Do you offer other content that will give your customer a sense that you care more about them than your wallet, such as information on a subject they might be interested in? This is where your market research will come in handy. A person that is in the age bracket of 30 – 35 will be much more interested in a retirement fund than a 20 – 25 year old. It is, of course, not a standard to cling to, but it is a market idea theory that you will need to tweak and refine for your site.
Communicating with your customer is a nice way to get them to come back and visit too. That is a real shot of personalization that will set your site apart from the others. Without trust and pleasant user experience, most customers will not return. Trust is a key value to happy customers and returning customers too.
It does seem like a lot of work to get your website up and running. The Internet is an impersonal arena with many busy people with limited time. To break through that barrier and capture their attention takes a lot of hard work and dedication on your part. As time goes by though you will be able to capture a loyal customer base that will want to return and buy again. It will not be because of tricks or just slick words. It will be because you care about your customer, and are determined to give them the very best website you can. You will love it when it happens.
Four Online Marketing Techniques To Drive More Traffic
January 10th, 2018
The most popular question asked by many online marketers is how to drive more traffic to their websites. The answer to this question is easy: “Have your website exposure to as many internet surfers as possible, once people can find your website, there will be traffic flow into your website”. But to make your website successfully expose to internet users is not an easy task. Efforts, strategies and techniques need to put in place in order to make it as success. Below are 8 common online marketing techniques used by most online marketers to drive internet traffic to their websites:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Successful search engine optimization will greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your website since over 60% of people who are looking for products and services use search engines to locate them. If your website is ranked high in the related keyword search by the search engines, you will get tons of free internet traffic to your website.
One of the ways to optimize your website to be search engines friendly is by generating back links from other websites to your website. When websites provide a link to your site, the search engines deem your site as valuable and this affects your position in the listings.
2. Article Writing & Publishing
Articles are the greatest tool for online marketing. It helps in SEO by generating back links to your website and it also helps in getting exposure for your website through your articles’ hyperlinks.
By writing short articles on the topic related to your website, products or services, you can offer these articles for other website owners or newsletter publishers to use by submitting them to article directories, forums or blogs. When the publishers use your articles in their ezines or websites, they will remain your bio information which contains links to your website at the bottom of your articles, which means that the publishers will contribute their link from their websites to yours. These back links are counted in SEO. When their visitors who read your articles and if they want to know more about your products or services may click the hyperlinks at the bottom of your articles to reach to your website.
3. Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay Per Click is advertising provided by the search engine providers (Google, Yahoo! and others) where you pay for top placement. Most search engines give top positions to the highest bidder. It is a quick way to have your ad on the first page of the keyword search as listed in the search engines. There is a catch: you have to pay for every click to your web site. Make a budget and stick to it and make sure to monitor your account, those clicks add up fast.
4. Affiliate Marketing
An affiliate program is another way to drive traffic to your web site. Your affiliates are your commissions-based sales people who make money when they sell your products. They drive traffic to your web site in exchange for commissions on sales. If you don’t want to manage your affiliates yourself, you could subscribe to affiliate network such as ClickBank if your products are digital items. ClickBank marketplace is able to exposure your products to thousands of affiliates who are looking for products to sell online.
In Summary
Any internet business will die without traffic stream into their website. If you already get started your website for online business, it’s time for you to work out a marketing plan to flood it with traffic. The above four online marketing techniques are time tested & proven methods to drive more traffic to a website.
Improve Conversion Rates With Content
March 24th, 2017
Your site is getting traffic, but conversion rates are disappointing. You may have problems with the tone of your content
Do You Believe?
You must have passion for the product or service you are providing. If you don’t believe in it, why should visitors to your site? A lack of belief will result in weak content and poor conversion rates. If you are selling quality, you are doing the prospect a favor. The tone of your site should reflect this in the content.
To effectively convert prospects, every entry page of your site must tell visitors:
- What you offer,
- How they will benefit, and
- Demand they take action.
Entry Pages
Many sites have conversion problems related to entry pages. Most people automatically envision the home page as the sole entry path to the site. Sweat, blood and tears are spent making the home page just write. Conversely, a fraction of the same effort is applied to internal pages. This is a fundamental mistake.
If server statistics are checked, you may be surprised to find significant amounts of traffic entering your site through internal pages of your site. Yes, a large percentage of visitors are entering the site without seeing the home page. If your “hook” is only on the home page, your conversions will suffer. Make sure you have a concise summary of your service and the benefits on every entry page to the site and conversions will improve.
What You Offer
Tell visitors exactly what you do with the first sentence. Don’t be subtle. You only have a few seconds to get their attention. Don’t waste it. The opening sentence should read something like, “At XYZ, we offer quality tools at wholesale prices.” Bam! The prospect knows exactly what you are offering and if it fills their need.
Benefits
Tell your prospect how they will benefit from doing business with you. Don’t assume they understand it. Again, be blunt with something like, “You save money when you buy from us because we have a low overhead and free shipping.” Bam! Now the visitor knows you sell tools at a low price. This combination should result in shopping activity if they have any need for the tool products.
Demand Action
What do you want prospects to do when they visit your site? At the end of your content, make sure you tell them. “Click here to order” is a perfectly fine statement, but adding a benefit is optimal. “Click here to order with free shipping” is a superior demand. Regardless, make sure you tell them what to do and make it is easy as possible to take the requested action.
If you are offering quality, you are doing clients a favor. Make sure the tone of your site reflects that fact.
3 Tips To Build A Profitable Opt-In List Quickly and Easily
May 13th, 2016
You finally realize that you need a good opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought expert advice and have read many success stories of people being successful with opt-in lists you decide to have one of your own. For those who are just starting or struggling, here are three quick and easy tips to build a profitable opt-in list.
1) Get your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list does not make you an expert and a trusted seller. Write several articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic or product(s) you know and have used. Try posting to forums first to gain knowledge about your customers wants and needs so that you can target those wants and needs.
Provide expert advice and recommendations around the area you are familiar with. When you feel that people trust you, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Put up a link to your site in your forum profile and signature, so that they can see what you’re business is all about.
The certain truth is, the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t feel comfortable.
2) Find a product or service that people want and need. Although it may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can still be successful in building your list.
While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, if you do your research well, you can still become an expert in that area. It may take more work, but if the area is a popular one, it could pay off in the long run.
3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in lists and you can learn a lot in a shorter amount of time using their experience. While there are many articles available on the internet to use to learn, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.
Experienced opt-in list creators will be able to give you first hand experience on what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful.
Building a profitable opt-in list don’t just happen overnight. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you far into the future.
Here are a few list building services that can be used to create opt-in mail list:
Seo Tips For Your Online Store
January 15th, 2013
One way to drive traffic to your eCommerce shopping cart website is by Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Getting your eCommerce website listed high in search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo will bring valuable hits to your website. The traffic generated by SEO is normally very targeted, for example if someone searches for ‘product x’ and your website come up as the top listing the user that is going to be visiting your website is likely to be very interested purchasing ‘product x’.
Structure and Validation
Following the correct HTML (or XHTML) structure on your website is very important. You should make sure you use the correct header, html, body tags etc and use them in the correct order. This practice is called on page SEO, you just need to make sure that your shopping cart software follows the correct HTML structure. You might be surprised to find that a number of popular online store solutions are not deployed with valid HTML structure.
SEO Friendly URLs
The structure of the links (or URLs) on your website is important using URL structures that read like:
http://your_domain/my_category/my_product
as opposed to
http://your_domain/?product_id=xsslkjl&cat_id=2627
are generally accepted to increase your search engine rankings. There is much debate about how much this kind of search engine optimization improves your rankings but the undeniable benefit of this is that when your page appears in search engine listings, the URL is included. If your URL is readable by a human then there is more chance the person is going to click on your link. Search engines also highlight the search terms in bold in the results the more of your listing to can get to appear in bold the better.
Maximize Descriptions
Search Engines deploy software robots to search the internet looking for pages, they are normally referred to as ‘Spiders’. Spiders love text, the more and more relevant the text on your website is then higher your chances of getting listed high in search engines is. Make sure your product and category descriptions are as in-depth as they can be, but keep in mind that you’re descriptions are going to be read by people who want to buy the products, so don’t make them full of gibberish just so there is text for the spiders. Accurate and detailed product descriptions have also been shown to increase the likely hood a customer will make a purchase from your online store.
Alternative Descriptions and Titles
Including alternative descriptions and titles for your products is a good idea. If you’re products is called ‘The XYZ3200’ then there is a possibility that someone searching for your product might not be aware that it’s called this, especially if it’s a small portable coffee machine. Including alternative more user friendly products titles will help the spiders and then, in-turn, customers find you. It’s a good idea to do some keyword research when choosing alternative descriptions. A keyword research tool will be able to tell you what descriptions people are searching for and give you a good idea which descriptions and titles to choose.
By employing these tips we have no doubt you will be able to increase the search engine traffic that your website generates.
Article Writing: Can It Help My Online Store?
May 10th, 2012
Online businesses take time to grow, especially in the first year. If your online store is quiet and you’re waiting for visitors to come and buy, it’s easy to get discouraged. The moment the advertising ends, so does your traffic.
What if you could get visitors to your online store for free? And, not just that, the visitors keep coming for years to come. How does that sound? One of the best methods of generating traffic to your website is by writing and sharing articles. This is not a ‘get rich quick’ or some other type of scam. It’s just plain old fashioned article marketing.
Now, even if you aren’t a writer, you can use this method of getting traffic. It doesn’t take a degree in Literature to succeed in article marketing. All it takes is a little time and energy. If you have that – you can get traffic to your website.
It’s actually quite simple and it is underused, especially in ecommerce businesses.
All you need to do is write a short, simple, helpful article about something related to your online store. If you sell makeup, then write an article about how to choose a foundation color, or how to care for your skin during the winter. Or write a review about a particular product you sell. Once you’ve written your article, you submit it to the article directories.
Article directories are libraries of free articles. They are collections of articles that website and blog owners can use on their sites for free. The only stipulation is that everyone who publishes your article must include your author bio at the end which is where you include your website URL and some intriguing information about your online store.
Having articles in various article directories is a great way of providing links back to your online store, thus building your site’s popularity. When a page has many links back to it it helps to attain a good placement in the search engine results. An article directory which has a high page rank is the best place to submit articles, as this helps to boost your page’s rank as well.
During the process of article marketing, don’t submit an article that is already on your own website without modifying or spinning it to give it at least 25% uniqueness. It could be considered duplicate content if you just submit copies to all the article directories and you don’t want that!
Use keywords in your article’s title and in the beginning of the first paragraph. Spread your chosen keyword/phrase throughout the article as well.
Most article directories allow you to use hyperlinks. For superior article marketing, use anchor text that relates to the keywords you are targeting. This will help you attain a better position in the SERP’s (search engine result pages). If you are targeting “makeup tips” make sure to hyperlink those keywords/phrases in your article or bio box. This will help your online store get higher in the search results for the term “makeup tips”.
Here are a few article directories to submit your articles to: EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, Amazines.com, ArticleDashboard.com, Buzzle.com, iSnare.com
In summary, article marketing should be an important element of ecommerce marketing. Now that you see how simple this free method of generating traffic is, give it a try. You have nothing to lose and much to gain.
5 Ways To Drive Customers Away From Your Website
March 15th, 2012
We all want visitors to our website but more importantly we want them to stay and spend money on our website. Below is a list of five ways on how to drive visitors away from your website screaming “Get me outta here!” If you prefer being alone with your website and don’t want all those pesky visitors bothering you, then follow the guidelines below and you’ll get rid of them quick as a blink.
1. Don’t state on your website what you do or what you sell. Make it a complete mystery. It’s like a secret club — your visitors are left in the dark. Have you been to websites like this where you show up and think “What the heck is this site about?” If you’re not presenting a clear statement about why your visitors should spend their money (or at least come back again), then you’re on your way to the bottom of the abyss.
2. Overwhelm visitors with lots of information. Almost as bad as the “What the heck is this site about?” problem is the “Oh my Goodness! Oh my Gracious!” sites. As a visitor, you know the sites I’m talking about. The page opens and your jaw drops. There is a sea of banners and links everywhere. Where do you go? What do you do? I’ll tell you what I do: Click the little “x’ in the upper right-hand corner to get the heck outta there!
3. Make the ordering process really complicated. There’s nothing I love more than putting items into my shopping cart and then spending 20 minutes trying to figure out how to set up an account and pay. Guess what? I sure don’t click the ‘contact us’ button. I click the “x” instead. You’ve succeeded in getting rid of yet another pesky customer who wanted to spend money.
4. Fill your site with outdated information and broken links. Phew. You dodged a visitor with that one. They clicked on a link that was broken — and off they went.
5. Make sure there’s no way for an interested customer or business partner to contact you. Heaven forbid, you might get some spam if you have your contact information on your site.
Thank Goodness you don’t have those gosh-darned customers emailing you while you’re trying to read up on your favorite celebrity’s love life.
Obviously, I’m being silly, but you do know that these examples are true. You’ve seen sites that seem like they are trying to drive you away. If you are spending time and energy putting up a website to make money, then make sure you do it right!
5 Tips to Customize Your Facebook Fanpage Timeline
March 12th, 2012
With the deadline for the new Facebook timeline fast approaching on March 30th, 2012, you will need to convert to the new format sooner rather than later. Your current images may not be optimized to fit the new timeline format. You will also need to set a Cover Photo to make your page look more professional. In addition, calls to action on the new Cover Photo are not allowed under the terms of service. So what can we do to continue to get more Likes with the new Timeline format? Below are five ways to customize and optimize your Facebook’s timeline…
1. Direct people from your website to a Welcome tab
If you currently have an iframe page tab setup to direct fans to a call to action (most likely to click the “Like” button), it will no longer default to that page from your vanity URL. However. each tab still has an unique URL that you can use to send people directly from your website, article, signature, etc. One benefit of the new tab pages is more horizontal space to get your message across.
2. Point arrows on your Welcome page to the top right
The Like button used to be in the top left area of a Page tab. On the new Facebook tab pages, the Like button is in a fixed position on the top right of the Page tab. If you currently have an arrow on an iframe Page tab, you should probably change it to point to the top right.
3. Use custom tab images for calls to action
On the new Facebook timeline, there are visible tab images (111 x 74 pixels) which contains plenty of room to include text and images. You can get creative with these by adding call to action text within the images too. You can also select which tabs you want to be visible.
4. Add a Click Like arrow to your Profile Picture
Although Facebook doesn’t allow calls to action on your Cover Photo, they don’t say anything about having a call to action on your Profile Picture. You can sneak in a subtle suggestion to click the Like button that’s to the right of your profile picture.
5. Pin and/or Highlight great content on your timeline
You can pin specific content to the top of your timeline and pinned posts will stay at the top for seven days. If you have a particularly popular blog post, be sure to pin it (and pin it again). You can also highlight specific content on your timeline which will increase the size of the post on the timeline.
Make sure to test multiple approaches to find what works best for your brand and remember that people will be more willing to Like your page if they see it as a source of great content that’s relevant to them in some way.
Please feel free to post your comments below with any approaches or tips to maximize the new Facebook timeline.
