Autoresponder Secret

August 31, 2009 – 2:43 am

How to Use the Autoresponder Secret!

John Mignano

John Mignano

You asked for more to mining gold information on how you can use an autoresponder to boost your sales.

So here it is:

One of the quickest ways to build a list of targeted leads and prospects that are interested in your product or service is to use a autoresponder.

You see, email marketing is very cost effective and definitely one of the fastest ways of to increase website optimisation and website traffic at the click of a button.

Email marketing software makes use of an autoresponder for building a relationship with your target audience. Really it’s as simple as that! 

Why would you want to build your list and establish a relationship?

Basically an autoresponders is a system, and if it’s set-up the right way will integrate a marketing campaign by automating the follow up and sales process.

Autoresponders are sales people that tirelessly follow up with your customers so you don’t have to.

You simply create a (series) of follow up letter and decide how often you want the follow up email to be sent.

As people sign up for your series of autoresponders, each follow up letter is sent on the precise schedule that you’ve set-up.

Pre-set message send, how easy is that!

What can you do with your own autoresponder?

You can send an email message to your database or subscriber list via the Interent.

Here are some of the most cost effective and popular ways that people use autoresponders these days:

  • Automate Some Areas of Customer Support
  • Deliver White Papers and Special Reports
  • Provide Technical Support Follow up
  • Deliver Online Sales and Training Courses
  • Deliver Frequently Asked Questions
  • Process Online Forms

There are essentially three types of autoresponder available.

Each autoresponder has it’s own benefits and drawbacks, and it’s up to you to determine which one meets your needs best.

Here’s a closer look at your options:

PC-Based Autoresponder – this is a software package that you install right on your PC.

It parses and processes incoming mail through your existing e-mail client and responds to messages that meet your criteria.

Advantages:

  • You typically pay a one-time fee and you own the software.
  • It’s easy to use but typically provides only the most basic auto responder services.

Disadvantages:

  • It only works when your PC is on and connected to the Internet.
  • It’s only as fast as your Internet connection
  • Your ISP may not allow you to send large quantities of mail.
  • You could get shut down if a subscriber forgets that they asked for your auto responder series and makes a SPAM complaint

Owner-Managed, Web-Based Autoresponder – this is software that you install directly on your own web site.

While some of the packages are full-featured, many are weak and buggy.

Advantages:

  • You typically pay a one-time fee and you own it.
  • Some versions have advanced features
  • It’s as fast as your server’s Internet connection.

Disadvantages:

  • You need advanced technical knowledge to install and maintain the autoresponder
  • You have to own your own website and domain name
  • You may exceed your web host’s daily bandwidth limits if your autoresponder series is popular
  • You could get shut down if a subscriber forgets that they asked for your auto responder series and makes a SPAM complaint

Autoresponder Service Provider – this is an auto responder service that you simply sign up to use.

All aspects of the system is hosted on the service provider’s website. You pay your monthly fee and get full use of the service.

Advantages:

  • You don’t need any technical knowledge
  • You don’t need to own your own website or domain name
  • You don’t have to worry about e-mail or bandwidth limits
  • Most auto responder operators realize that auto responder SPAM complaints are usually bogus, so they are more lenient when you get one…

Disadvantages:

  • You have to pay a monthly fee but, in most cases, it’s more than worth it to not have to deal with all the hassles of running your own.
  • Most business owners, except for the really tech-savvy and those that have very deep pockets, opt for using an autoresponder service.

It’s logical and just makes sense.

Deciding what type of autoresponder you want is just the first step.

Let’s face it, no autoresponder is a good deal if you don’t understand the secrets of using them to make money.

By Website Optimisation Strategist | Posted in autoresponder, conversion rate optimization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Organic SEO

August 25, 2009 – 5:55 am

Why Organic SEO Never Ages?

John Mignano

John Mignano

Are you just a little bit confused about organic SEO right now?

If you are, that’s probably because so many people are trying to convince you there’s some search engine optimization secrets…

And you just don’t know that secret, right? 

Now if you’ll just reach into your pocket, slap your credit card down, you just might get that secret 🙂

Yeah right! The biggest secret in search engine optimization is that there really aren’t anysecrets, at least not the kind most want you to sell you.

The fact is there’s a lot of factors and technical jargon, so I’ll do everything I can to help you with the details.

Bear in mind, real secrets are hard to come by…

The truth is, if you know what you’re doing, and don’t try to trick the search engines, very little has changed in SEO for at least five years.

Simply that means there’s plenty to explore, yet there is no quick fix or magic silver bullet so to speak.

You don’t have to believe all the misinformation, because in time you’ll know what works and that is the true.

All I can say is be careful where you get your SEO advice…

Frankly, anyone that thinks he’s getting an edge because he puts a Google search box on his web site…

Well, he needs to seriously sit down and plan his organic search engine optimization strategy.

SEO is influenced by many small factors that make a big difference.

If you want to improve search engine ranking  you’ll need to include:

  • How your website is structured
  • Type of keywords
  • Linking infustructure from other web sites…

It just couldn’t be that simple, could it?

You’re probably thinking, there just has to be some secret to it!

Let’s be logical, some people really are better at SEO than others and their success is mostly due to more experience and better processes.

The people that are exceptionally good at SEO also have a lot of knowledge about the technical side of search engines and websites.

Let’s look at what goes wrong for most people that try search engine optimization and it’s not what you think…

SEO is simple, it boils down to doing four basic steps right:

  1. Developing a keyword strategy to target the right searchers
  2.  Building a well-structured website
  3. Creating good content and doing basic on page optimization
  4. Promoting your site to get links from the rest of the web

Even if you find the right information and understand what all of the above steps really mean, you’re still missing a very critical element.

You need a step-by-step plan to put it all into practice.

If you don’t have a goodroad map, you get lost. You get frustrated, results aren’t happening fast enough, and you start looking for shortcuts…

In short, you probably end up doing something like this:

  • Use the wrong keyword strategy with a handful of useless phrases
  • Use long tail or niche phrases that never bring you enough traffic
  • Rewrite your content to get more keyword density
  • Stop naturally placing search terms in key places on the page where search terms actually help
  • Submit to a few directories
  • Spend time trading  links
  • Use different automated linking
  • Buy links
  • And the list goes on…

Now it’s easy to see how to get into a tail spin with all sorts of technical problems, even with the possibility of being penalized.

Does any of this sound familiar?

If it does, you know how painful it is to do SEO without an effective plan. No matter where you are in your quest for fast SEO results…

You need a keyword research system that helps you find the right keywords to take advantage of organic seo.

The reality is for every step in your organic seo process, you need to know what results you’re wanting to achieve. Get clear and focused, see at the top!

By Website Optimisation Strategist | Posted in organic seo, search engine optimization meta, search engine optimization seo, seo tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Landing Page Optimization

August 5, 2009 – 1:17 am

How to Use Landing Page Optimization For Your Website and Local Business!

John Mignano

John Mignano

What does a landing page mean to you?

Do you think of PPC (pay per click campaigns) or some other form of internet advertising?

 Do you use landing pages for your offline advertising also?

 A landing page is a crucial web page, typically hidden from the site’s menu bar and other navigation, meaning the only way you can get to the page is to type the URL directly into the browser.

The web page is directly related to the ad campaign that listed the URL.

For example:

Only the people that have seen the ad will land on this page (because the URL isn’t advertised any where else), you as the website owner know exactly what the visitor is looking for and you can offer this immediately.

And for that reason, this type of web page is also referred to as a Dedicated Landing Page because it is dedicated only to the ad that brought in the visitors.

Landing pages are critical to your success on line; in fact, they’re often the makers or breakers of your ROI (return on investment) and ROMD (return on marketing dollar).

If you’re just getting your feet wet in the use of dedicated landing pages, I suggest starting small.

Google AdWords is a great way to start small since you can easily limit your budget.

Here are a few other tips to follow when creating your dedicated landing pages:

You must use a consistent message, this may sound logical although many business owners believe they need to have one message in the ad and another message on the landing page.

They think their visitors will get bored reading the same thing over and over, so they showcase their expertise by talking about every single one of their skills.

Look we all want to maximize our advertising dollar, yet this is actually distracting by getting out as many messages as possible and exactly the opposite of what you want to do.

Allow me to expplain…

Today’s audience is busy and overwhelmed.

Studies show you have less than 3 seconds to grab your site visitor’s attention.

You want your prospect to arrive at your dedicated landing page and immediately say “Yes, this is exactly what I came here for.”

By targeting and presenting the same message that you gave in your ad, your visitor will know he is in the right place.

A few years ago, several ingenious web marketers discovered that by removing all other distractions from your landing page.

For example:  remove the navigation bar, remove your logo linking back to your home, get rid of any other offers and advertising, etc…

This is the best way to increase your conversion rate significantly.

Landing Page Optimization Tip: If you want a stronger message to market match, remove all other offers and distractions.

Of course you’ve got to test headlines and offers to see which one or combination pulls best.

There are no one-size-fits-all, do-or-die solution to increasing your landing page conversion rates.

You’ve got to know your business, know your message, and above all know your market. For some audiences, the bare bones, no graphics, no branding web page technique might look like spam.

If your branding is strong, your visitors might think they’ve landed at the wrong page.

Extremely web-cautious visitors might think it’s a phishing scheme. You get better results when you know your target audience and their expectations before you drive traffic to your landing page.

You want to do split testing, my biggest word of warning is to pay attention to all the details. Test and measure results as much as possible!

Just last week I consulted with a new client that advertised one landing page in Publication (A) and another landing page in Publication (B).

Since the second landing page received more conversions, he was convinced it was the winner and prematurely was ready to roll it out on a full scale.

However, we discovered that the demographics for Publication (A) readers were very different than Publication (B) readers.

The success of the second landing page couldn’t necessarily be attributed to the page itself, since the visitors being sent to the page were more highly qualified for the offer.

After running  series of split tests, we decided the best combination was to advertise the first landing page in the second publication.

Bear in mind as you’re testing your ads and landing pages, make sure you’re comparing apples to apples.

Google Website Optimizer is a great tool for running online split tests which sends 50% of your visitors to page 1 and 50% to page 2 (you decide how to split or divide your traffic).

It’s never safe to assume just because your prospect landed on your website, he wants to respond via the internet.

If your dedicated landing page is offering a product for sale, the prospect might not want to give their credit card over the web.

You’ve got to take into consideration that your prospect might be on a computer that has scripting disabled.

The prospect might be on a shared computer and hesitant to send personal information or he might need a little more convincing before the final leap.

Whatever the case may be, different visitors may want to respond in different ways. so offer multiple ways to respond.

Make sure to include your contact information and allow your prospect to place an order (or request your free report, or sign up for your newsletter, or register for your webinar, etc)…

  • Over the telephone or via Skype
  • Through direct mail
  • By visiting your brick and mortar location

In other words, use whatever is applicable to your own business.

Take Advantage of Your Thank You Page

Remember all the other offers and stuff that you wanted to include on your dedicated landing page?

Well, here’s a great place to take advantage of some of that content.

Your Thank You page is the web page that visitors are taken to after they have responded to the call to action on your dedicated landing page.

This is an extremely underutilised asset for most businesses.

Instead of presenting a plain old boring message like “Thank you. We received your submission and will respond shortly”…

Why not present another product for sale?

Remember, customers that have recently purchased from you are the ones most likely to purchase again.

Or how about presenting a freebie bonus offer to really win the hearts of your new customers?

You can present a survey to gather additional customer data (your customer data is your single most valuable business asset) explain a complimentary service that you offer, advertise an extended warranty, encourage your new customers to refer their friends, etc.

The possibilities for your Thank You page are almost endless,…

And since this page will typically receive a very high response rate, this is an opportunity that you definitely want to take advantage of.

In conclusion: To get the most ROI on display ads, make sure you test and use dedicated landing pages for your online marketing as well as offline marketing.

By Website Optimisation Strategist | Posted in landing page optimization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)