January 28, 2011
Internet marketing allows anyone to start a business if they have a little time and money. It’s easy to use keyword tools to see what people are searching for online.
However, there is a big difference between what people are searching for–and what they’re actually BUYING.
A lot of marketers assume if there is high search volume for a keyword, there is definite buying potential. They’ll get a lot of traffic via that keyword but that doesn’t mean they are going to translate into buyers.
What you need to do is find out if there are products in that market that are already selling. Are there ebooks in your niche that are being sold on Clickbank? Can you go to Amazon and buy a book on the subject?
Best one: is there a magazine devoted to your niche people will subscribe to?
Those are the real signs there is a buyer’s market out there. You have to look beyond simple keyword research and search volumes to determine what people will buy.
Another trick is to do a series of Google searches. Google terms like, “(insert niche) affiliate”. If affiliate programs in your niche show up in the search results, then this is another sign there is a buyer’s market.
Finally do a simple search for your main keyword in Google. Are there any Google Adwords ads showing up? These are the ads that show up on the right hand side of the organic search results.
If there are, check in every 4-5 days to see if the ads are still there. If they are, then the marketer is probably making a profit advertising there. Make note of them for competitive research.
These tips will allow you to go further than a simple keyword search volume statistic when it comes to uncovering niches that can be lucrative. Also don’t be afraid of too much competition–competition is a sign money is to be made in that market!
Keep Selling,
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 26, 2011
If you have a continuity program, you know how lucrative they can be. All you have to do is sell your customer on the program once, and you get paid every month as long as they’re in the program.
But how do you sell people into a continuity program? Here are 3 ways you can test for yourself.
1) Sell It Outright
In general, is it extremely hard to sell people into a continuity program. The idea of getting billed every month for life is one reason people do not buy into them.
However, many people do very well just selling the continuity program outright. There are many financial newsletters that sell their memberships straight up–and they convert very well.
If you have an irresistable offer, you can practically sell anything. And this goes for continuity programs.
2) Offer A $1 Trial
Another thing you can test is to offer a dollar trial to your program. This allows people to “test drive” your continuity program.
Regarding rebills, there are a couple things you can do. You can tell the customer they are going to be automatically rebilled at the end of the trial. Or you can end the trial outright if they do not renew to a full membership by themselves.
Most online marketers elect to have the credit card rebilled immediately after the trial is over. You just have to make sure this is clear in the sales material so the customer is not surprised by the unexpected bill.
How long of a trial should you offer? Most trials range between 14 days and 30 days. This is something you will need to test yourself.
3) Offer A “Free Gift”
Another way to get people to join a continuity program is to offer a “free gift” for joining the continuity program.
In this scenario, the offer is a “free gift” with a trial membership added as a bonus. The gift usually involves paying a nominal shipping charge.
Further, you can make the addition of the continuity element “forced”–meaning they cannot buy the gift without joining the free trial to the continuity.
You can also make the addition of the continuity program optional, where the customer can opt-out of joining the program–yet still receive the free gift.
These are ways you can get people into your continuity program. Test them out for yourself!
Live, Love, Laugh!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 25, 2011
One of the most important things you’ll do as a marketer is determine the voice and “tone” of your target market.
Let me give you an example:
In the self-defense market, it is mostly made of guys. It’s a very testosterone-based market; therefore, when selling to this market, you need to adjust your tone so you communicate the way they talk.
That means using a lot of slang and some hype. If you know who John Carlton is, he’s one of the top copywriters out there. He used to write a lot of ads to the self-defense market so he knew how to talk to the market.
Whereas if you’re selling to corporate CEOs, you want to adjust your tone so that it matches the target. That means a lot of “corporate-speak” and vocabulary that’s perhaps higher than the average grade reading level.
And if you’re selling to medical professionals who are doctors, you will want to use a lot of big words and long medical terms the doctors will recognize.
The way you’ll ruin your pitch is to talk to a doctor like he’s a target prospect in the self-defense market. That’s the sure way to end up losing the sale.
The most critical part of copywriting is research. The great copywriter Gary Halbert once said that 90 percent of writing copy is research.
And part of that research is determining how your target audience talks. It’s easier if you are in that target market yourself. For example, if you’re a golfer, you can effectively sell to golfers since you know how they talk.
But if you’re an outsider, you need to do a lot of research to determine the tone of your market.
The best way to do this is to look at proven sales letters in your market. Copywriters have already done most of the research, all you have to do is get yourself a nice “swipe file” of these letters and study them.
Further, you need to talk to people in that market as much as possible. Get into their heads and discover what makes them tick. Another great copywriter Mike Morgan needed to write a letter targeting women, so he sat in a hair salon for 3 hours to listen to women talk.
So are you 100% confident you know your market’s voice? If you have a shred of doubt, you better start doing your research. Because knowing how your market talks is critical to success!
Keep Selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 20, 2011
If you’re using a video sales letter to sell your product, you’re joining a whole host of marketers who are jumping on the video sales letter bandwagon.
And if you’re thinking about testing video sales letters, there are 3 guidelines you have to follow, or you’ll end up with disappointing results.
1) Copywriting Rules Still Apply
Some people think doing a video sales letter means they can say whatever they want. They think that since they don’t have to use a written sales letter, they will have an easier time selling their prospect with a video sales letter.
This cannot be further from the truth. Video sales letters still require you to get your prospect’s attention, melt their objections, and explain the benefits. The medium of delivery is just different.
In fact some marketers just read their written sales letter into the video. So if you already have a sales letter that converts, you can do this easily.
2)Don’t Allow The Video To Show How Much Time Is Left!
One technique you can test with your video sales letters is to leave out the controls for the video–enabling your prospects to be able to only pause the video.
Further, do not reveal the length of the video.
Why is this? Because it forces the prospect to watch the entire video without being able to skip ahead. It’s like a live sales presentation from stage or the television–you cannot hit the “pause” button.
This might sound underhanded, but it really isn’t. You’re still giving them the ability to pause the video. This is something you can test with your own videos–as it keeps prospects glued to the video screen.
3) Don’t Have The Order Page Pop Down Until The Call To Action!
At the end of your video sales letter when you’re asking for the order, have the order form pop down below the video.
This is a simple programming tweak. And it prevents the prospect from seeing the price of the product before they watch the video. As if they were watching a live sales presentation from the stage!
Implement these 3 video sales letter tips and your conversions can skyrocket.
Keep Selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 18, 2011
Most people think they can write anything on their website and get sales. This is simply not the case. You need sales copy that is going to get people’s attention, get them reading all the way to the order button, and yank out their wallet and buy.
This blog post will reveal 5 secrets to writing sales copy that can boost your conversions.
1) Pretend you are taking to your prospect at a bar or restaurant.
One way to make sure your sales copy is customer-centric is to pretend you are talking to your prospect at a bar or restaurant. What happens is you will start to write like you talk and in a conversational manner. After all, a sales letter is simply a face-to-face sales pitch in disguise.
2) Use short sentences and small words.
Most people read at a sixth-grade level. Therefore you do not want to insert large words into your sales letter as your prospect could get lost in your copy!
3) Give it to someone in your market to read.
One of the best things you can do is give your sales copy to a person in your target market. If they come back to you and just say, “That’s nice”, then you need to rewrite the ad.
But if they read the sales letter and ask you, “Where can I get that!” then your sales copy should work!
4) Get right to the point.
You are not writing a novel or short story. You need to get right to the point in your letter if you are going to pull people in.
One way you can do this is by using the famous copywriter Gary Halbert’s introduction he used to implement all the time. It goes like this:
If you’ve ever wanted to lose weight, then this will be the most important message you’ll ever read!
See how this get’s right to the point? You can easily modify the above for your own market.
5) Keep your target audience in mind.
Your typical buyer is going to have many distractions. They could be at home with 24 different pop-ups on their computer and Twitter notifications. That’s why your advertisement has to cut straight through that to get their attention.
So implement all 5 of these tips for better copy!
Keep Selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 13, 2011
Keyword research is truly the lifeblood of any internet marketing business. You have to know how to choose the right keywords; otherwise, your business will struggle.
Here are some keyword tips that’ll allow you to get the edge in your market. Ignore these tips at your own peril!
1) Don’t ignore the long tail.
Long tail keywords are keywords that are specific. They get less traffic but their specificity will yield higher conversions.
For example, if one of your keywords was the word “Toyota” you’re going to get a lot of results and traffic, but they are going to be too general. A person typing in that keyword could be looking for anything about their cars or their company.
However, the keyword “Toyota Camry SE” is a more specific keyword. It is not going to get as much traffic, but the person typing in that keyword is going to be looking for that specific car or anything related to it.
So research long tail phrases that aren’t going to get as much traffic as the obvious keywords in your market, but will yield better results.
2) Don’t Get Carried Away With “Back Door” Strategies.
Several years ago, you could get away with using “back door” keyword strategies that involved choosing keywords that weren’t targeted for what a user is searching for–but as long as the keyword was relevant to the market you would get some conversions.
For example, if you were selling football pads and were using the keyword “football helmet” to drive traffic to your site, you would hope that since football players also need helmets that you would get some sales.
These strategies still work, but some channels such as Google Adwords will compare the relevancy of your keyword to your offer and ad–and commence to raise your bid prices if your offer is not targeted.
So use backdoor keyword strategies sparingly and concentrate your efforts on using the most targeted keyword possible.
More keyword strategies to come, so stay tuned!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 11, 2011
It’s no secret that having one time offers can boost your bottom line. Offering more of your products and services after the initial sale is a perfect time to get more people to buy from you.
However, most marketers really mess it up when it comes to writing copy for one time offers. Especially offers that are made immediately after the order, or “one click upsells” where people can automatically add more products to their shopping cart.
Here are some copywriting tips that could boost the conversions of your one-time offers.
First of all, people who buy your one time offers are already going to be “warmed up” to you. After all, they have already bought from you and all you need to do is carry on the sales conversation.
This may seem simple but a lot of marketers sell their one time offers like their lead product: with a lot of information and benefits about the seller to boost desire in the product.
The tested way to start off a one-time offer is to continue the conversation in your customer’s head. This is done by simply thanking her for the previous purchase and that you want to present another way they can solve their problem or better their life.
In other words, they are already a “warm” prospect. You don’t need to warm them up by talking to them as if they have never heard of you before.
As a result, expect your upsell copy to be shorter than usual. Unless you are selling an item that’s way more expensive then your initial offer, your sales copy will be shorter in length.
It is a also a good idea to talk about the previous product/service they purchased in the copy.
For example, if you are selling an information product and you are upselling your customer on a more expensive home study course, you can tell your customer the upsell will show them the “HOW” of what the initial product covers—that they will get more of the benefits they want to experience. This is why they bought your lead product in the first place.
So take action on these copywriting tips for upsells. They could really boost your upsell conversions through the roof!
Live, Love, Laugh!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 7, 2011
Google Adwords can be a great way to get traffic to your site. Unfortunately, most marketers really mess up by not following common Google Adwords best practices and strategies.
Here are 5 Google Adwords mistakes most people can make that can cost you a lot of money.
1) Putting too many keywords into an adgroup.
This can really skyrocket your click costs because there is no way you can place 100 keywords into an adgroup and be specific enough. If you have more then 10 keywords in your adgroup, you need to break them up into smaller adgroups so you can target your Google Adwords better based on what your potential customers type into the search query.
2) Not testing different ads.
This is a horrible mistake because you can easily boost your ad conversion by split testing your ads. You cannot know what ad is going to convert higher unless you test them. Google Adwords makes it easy to do this, and even the large direct mail companies out there test their ads all the time. Shouldn’t you?
3) Doing poor keyword research.
Google Adwords is getting pricey these days, and doing poor keyword research can really ruin your campaign. Go through all your keywords and ask yourself, “Would my potential customer type this into a search engine?”
This is critical because if you are not getting enough clicks on your ads, Google will lower your ad position since they only want to serve relevant ads to its users. So you cannot skimp on keyword research as they are the lifeblood of your business.
4) Being in the #1 position of the page.
Many people think that being #1 is the best place to be on the Google search results. However, 95% of the time, this will be more expensive to you, and most of the people who click on these ads are usually “tire kickers”.
The optimum position is between position 4-6–in the middle of the page. By the time they get to your ad, they will have already clicked on the ones above you and your click will be cheaper–and perhaps a better customer.
5) Not driving traffic to a relevant landing page.
Google uses a quality score to determine if the keywords you are using are relevant to the landing page you are driving your traffic. You need to have the same keywords on your landing page as you’re using with your Google Adwords campaign.
Remember, Google wants to bring the most relevant results to its users, and if your landing page isn’t coherent with the keywords you are using, they will lower your quality score. And that means your click costs will go up.
So when creating your next Adwords campaign, don’t make these 5 mistakes. You’ll save a lot of money.
Keep Selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
January 4, 2011
One of the things most internet marketers fail to do is delegate. They think they have to do everything themselves and end up stalling in their business as a result.
Part of it is due to perfectionism…they have to do everything themselves so they can make sure it’s done just right. However most of the time it’s due to ignorance of the ease of ability to outsource a task they get stuck on.
For example, if you’re trying to install a WordPress plugin and it doesn’t go right, you can go to scriptlance.com and hire someone for 10 dollars to fix it for you. That will save you hours of searching the internet trying to figure it out yourself.
Or if you are master copywriter and can create a decent website, but graphics aren’t your strongest suit. You can hire a decent graphic designer to do this for you.
That’s the beauty of the internet these days. You can easily go online and hire someone to do a job for you. Gone are the days where you have to interview endless people in order to hire someone.
You can literally have people bidding on your job within minutes!
However, there are several things you need to look at when it comes to hiring somone:
1) Check out their feedback.
Most of the freelance sites have a feedback system. It’s similar to eBay.com’s system. People can leave feedback regarding how well they performed the task. And freelancers can also rate the people who hired them.
You have to make sure you look over their feedback to see if they satisfactorily completed jobs on time and without fuss before you hire someone.
2) Make sure the description is detailed regarding what you want.
If you want graphics done, you want to go in and make sure you give good examples of what you’re looking for. And if you’re looking for writing, you will want to provide samples of the style you want.
It is just a waste of time to hire someone that is unfit for the job because you didn’t describe the job thoroughly enough. Get it straight the first time around and put as much detail as possible into the listing.
3) Hire 2 or more people to do the job at the same time.
Here is a good trick if you have the budget. You can hire 2 or more people to do a job without them knowing. This is especially helpful with graphics jobs as one designer is invariably going to be better than the other ones…no matter how descriptive you were in the listing.
That way you know you’re getting the best version…and you don’t have to go back and hire someone else if you’re not satisfied with the work. You’ll save time and get the result you want.
Of course you will still pay the other designers, you’ll just use the best design for your site.
So there are several outsourcing tips you can implement. Being able to delegate tasks in your business is the one way you can accelerate your business growth, and thanks to the internet, it is easier to do than ever!
Live, Love, Laugh!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Internet Marketing Academy
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