New marketing and promotional ideas! Free! Most are related to internet-based businesses, but even those can usually be adopted in some way to other businesses. Here are half a dozen marketing ideas to get you thinking.
A one-hour coupon. Offline businesses that want to increase the traffic to their websites can announce an ‘internet coupon’ good for a free drink (or whatever). The coupon would be up on the site for an hour, sometime on a Friday, say. Visitors will return again and again to try to be there at the right time to get the freebie. If you collect pay-per-click advertising fees, this repeat traffic might be especially profitable.
Free gift article teaser. A free gift is certainly not a new marketing idea, but it hasn’t been done much in internet article ‘resource boxes.’ My click-throughs from articles increased when I started putting in the author’s resource box, ‘For more information and a free gift, visit…’ The gift is usually a short course, or an e-book. If you don’t want to write an e-book, you can find one with free distribution rights.
Word links for sale. Maybe you have heard about the entrepreneur that sold a million pixels on one web page for a dollar each. Advertisers could buy a minimum of 100, and the image would link to their site. I’ve seen many copycats, but I haven’t yet seen anyone selling words. This could be even better for advertisers, because they could buy the words that are relevant to their products. A page full of random words isn’t pretty, but these things get publicity and traffic for their novelty.
Product user contests. If you have a product that’s used in many ways or many places, this is a great promotional gimmick: a contest to see who has used their cell phone, watch, or whatever in the wildest place or the most unusual way. (‘I took my walkman to the north pole!’) Customers could post their stories and photos directly to your company web site. They wiould return repeatedly to see new stories, and the results of the competition.
Advertising on cereal boxes. A lot of time is spent staring at cereal boxes. Perhaps you could get a good rate on advertising on them. There have had some advertising, but no boxes covered in ads yet. Brokering ad space on cereal boxes could be a good business to get into.
Pay for article placement. Many of us distribute articles to generate traffic to our web sites, and many also pay to advertise. Since articles are especially good marketing tools, why not pay to have other webmasters put them on their sites? This is done for free now, but not often enough. Maybe offer a small one-time fee, with a minimum time commitment. Explain that leaving the article there forever can generate search engine traffic.
Put ads on private cars, advertising on sidewalks, have a contest to see who can get your product mentioned on and seen on TV – there are endless possibilities for new marketing and promotional ideas.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Improving Visitors
Many sharp business owners are taking advantage of what the web can do for their business. They have developed a good looking website and many are even devoting part of their budget to online marketing strategies like pay-per-click campaigns, natural search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns, and newsletters. Each one of these strategies can be effective in increasing the traffic flowing to your site. After all, without traffic there would be no sales; a website without traffic is about as bad as a non-existent website.
So what if you have all the traffic in the world but still no one is buying anything? Converting a website visitor into a buyer is called a sales conversion in the web world, and that is exactly your next step. Imagine you spend a bunch of money on marketing and noticed your traffic increases a significant amount. Let's say that of all the visitors to your website, 1% of them will make a purchase. This is not bad and with increased traffic you would expect your monthly sales to be increasing a bit as well. However, if your site is not very compelling to buy, you are going to be stuck at the 1% mark for too long, and essentially wasting marketing dollars.
Now let's imagine you change some aspects about your website to make it more appealing to a buyer. Now is when that increased traffic gives you the opportunity to make additional sales. Even if you only increase conversions to 2%, you just doubled your revenue without spending any more money on marketing. So here are three smart ways to increase online sales conversions:
1. Use Efficient Navigation. Think like you were the customer. Can you find all of the links you need to make a purchase, or does it take some searching? Things like shopping cart buttons should be very visible and found on any applicable page. Do not make a customer go searching for a way to spend money on your website, instead make it easy for them!
2. Take Visitors Where They Want. We know that the fewer clicks it takes to buy something, the greater the chance someone will complete their purchase. Many pay-per-click campaigns fail at this and as a result lose out on business. If you are advertising Nike golf equipment, make sure the link takes the customer directly to the Nike golf page, instead of the general home page. This way the desired goods are immediately in front of the customer and no searching is necessary. This same strategy holds true for email marketing or any other links pointing to your site.
3. Make sure your basic information and offers such as free shipping are on every page and easy to spot. Especially with natural search engine traffic, you cannot assume that everyone comes in on the home page and logically progresses through the site. The potential customer can come in directly to any page, even a detailed product page. Your online security symbols, offers, even your basic slogan or unique selling position should be easily seen and understood.
These are three basics that every website must have to compel visitors to buy or sign up for something. There are analytics programs available to tell you exactly what people are doing on the site and where problem areas might be occurring. Analysis professionals can help pinpoint causes for these in general and also go to the next level in providing better conversion for returning customers, new customers, those who came in from pay per click offers, etc. using sophisticated A/B and multi-variant testing techniques. Since conversion rates are so important, you should always be testing for improvement.
Alison Lindemann is an Internet business consultant with WSI, a leading firm for helping businesses succeed online. As the owner of her local franchise, she provides services of Santa Clarita ecommerce conversion improvement, web design, search engine optimization, email marketing, and more for Santa Clarita Valley and Los Angeles based businesses.
Many sharp business owners are taking advantage of what the web can do for their business. They have developed a good looking website and many are even devoting part of their budget to online marketing strategies like pay-per-click campaigns, natural search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns, and newsletters. Each one of these strategies can be effective in increasing the traffic flowing to your site. After all, without traffic there would be no sales; a website without traffic is about as bad as a non-existent website.
So what if you have all the traffic in the world but still no one is buying anything? Converting a website visitor into a buyer is called a sales conversion in the web world, and that is exactly your next step. Imagine you spend a bunch of money on marketing and noticed your traffic increases a significant amount. Let's say that of all the visitors to your website, 1% of them will make a purchase. This is not bad and with increased traffic you would expect your monthly sales to be increasing a bit as well. However, if your site is not very compelling to buy, you are going to be stuck at the 1% mark for too long, and essentially wasting marketing dollars.
Now let's imagine you change some aspects about your website to make it more appealing to a buyer. Now is when that increased traffic gives you the opportunity to make additional sales. Even if you only increase conversions to 2%, you just doubled your revenue without spending any more money on marketing. So here are three smart ways to increase online sales conversions:
1. Use Efficient Navigation. Think like you were the customer. Can you find all of the links you need to make a purchase, or does it take some searching? Things like shopping cart buttons should be very visible and found on any applicable page. Do not make a customer go searching for a way to spend money on your website, instead make it easy for them!
2. Take Visitors Where They Want. We know that the fewer clicks it takes to buy something, the greater the chance someone will complete their purchase. Many pay-per-click campaigns fail at this and as a result lose out on business. If you are advertising Nike golf equipment, make sure the link takes the customer directly to the Nike golf page, instead of the general home page. This way the desired goods are immediately in front of the customer and no searching is necessary. This same strategy holds true for email marketing or any other links pointing to your site.
3. Make sure your basic information and offers such as free shipping are on every page and easy to spot. Especially with natural search engine traffic, you cannot assume that everyone comes in on the home page and logically progresses through the site. The potential customer can come in directly to any page, even a detailed product page. Your online security symbols, offers, even your basic slogan or unique selling position should be easily seen and understood.
These are three basics that every website must have to compel visitors to buy or sign up for something. There are analytics programs available to tell you exactly what people are doing on the site and where problem areas might be occurring. Analysis professionals can help pinpoint causes for these in general and also go to the next level in providing better conversion for returning customers, new customers, those who came in from pay per click offers, etc. using sophisticated A/B and multi-variant testing techniques. Since conversion rates are so important, you should always be testing for improvement.
Alison Lindemann is an Internet business consultant with WSI, a leading firm for helping businesses succeed online. As the owner of her local franchise, she provides services of Santa Clarita ecommerce conversion improvement, web design, search engine optimization, email marketing, and more for Santa Clarita Valley and Los Angeles based businesses.
So what if you have all the traffic in the world but still no one is buying anything? Converting a website visitor into a buyer is called a sales conversion in the web world, and that is exactly your next step. Imagine you spend a bunch of money on marketing and noticed your traffic increases a significant amount. Let's say that of all the visitors to your website, 1% of them will make a purchase. This is not bad and with increased traffic you would expect your monthly sales to be increasing a bit as well. However, if your site is not very compelling to buy, you are going to be stuck at the 1% mark for too long, and essentially wasting marketing dollars.
Now let's imagine you change some aspects about your website to make it more appealing to a buyer. Now is when that increased traffic gives you the opportunity to make additional sales. Even if you only increase conversions to 2%, you just doubled your revenue without spending any more money on marketing. So here are three smart ways to increase online sales conversions:
1. Use Efficient Navigation. Think like you were the customer. Can you find all of the links you need to make a purchase, or does it take some searching? Things like shopping cart buttons should be very visible and found on any applicable page. Do not make a customer go searching for a way to spend money on your website, instead make it easy for them!
2. Take Visitors Where They Want. We know that the fewer clicks it takes to buy something, the greater the chance someone will complete their purchase. Many pay-per-click campaigns fail at this and as a result lose out on business. If you are advertising Nike golf equipment, make sure the link takes the customer directly to the Nike golf page, instead of the general home page. This way the desired goods are immediately in front of the customer and no searching is necessary. This same strategy holds true for email marketing or any other links pointing to your site.
3. Make sure your basic information and offers such as free shipping are on every page and easy to spot. Especially with natural search engine traffic, you cannot assume that everyone comes in on the home page and logically progresses through the site. The potential customer can come in directly to any page, even a detailed product page. Your online security symbols, offers, even your basic slogan or unique selling position should be easily seen and understood.
These are three basics that every website must have to compel visitors to buy or sign up for something. There are analytics programs available to tell you exactly what people are doing on the site and where problem areas might be occurring. Analysis professionals can help pinpoint causes for these in general and also go to the next level in providing better conversion for returning customers, new customers, those who came in from pay per click offers, etc. using sophisticated A/B and multi-variant testing techniques. Since conversion rates are so important, you should always be testing for improvement.
Alison Lindemann is an Internet business consultant with WSI, a leading firm for helping businesses succeed online. As the owner of her local franchise, she provides services of Santa Clarita ecommerce conversion improvement, web design, search engine optimization, email marketing, and more for Santa Clarita Valley and Los Angeles based businesses.
Many sharp business owners are taking advantage of what the web can do for their business. They have developed a good looking website and many are even devoting part of their budget to online marketing strategies like pay-per-click campaigns, natural search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns, and newsletters. Each one of these strategies can be effective in increasing the traffic flowing to your site. After all, without traffic there would be no sales; a website without traffic is about as bad as a non-existent website.
So what if you have all the traffic in the world but still no one is buying anything? Converting a website visitor into a buyer is called a sales conversion in the web world, and that is exactly your next step. Imagine you spend a bunch of money on marketing and noticed your traffic increases a significant amount. Let's say that of all the visitors to your website, 1% of them will make a purchase. This is not bad and with increased traffic you would expect your monthly sales to be increasing a bit as well. However, if your site is not very compelling to buy, you are going to be stuck at the 1% mark for too long, and essentially wasting marketing dollars.
Now let's imagine you change some aspects about your website to make it more appealing to a buyer. Now is when that increased traffic gives you the opportunity to make additional sales. Even if you only increase conversions to 2%, you just doubled your revenue without spending any more money on marketing. So here are three smart ways to increase online sales conversions:
1. Use Efficient Navigation. Think like you were the customer. Can you find all of the links you need to make a purchase, or does it take some searching? Things like shopping cart buttons should be very visible and found on any applicable page. Do not make a customer go searching for a way to spend money on your website, instead make it easy for them!
2. Take Visitors Where They Want. We know that the fewer clicks it takes to buy something, the greater the chance someone will complete their purchase. Many pay-per-click campaigns fail at this and as a result lose out on business. If you are advertising Nike golf equipment, make sure the link takes the customer directly to the Nike golf page, instead of the general home page. This way the desired goods are immediately in front of the customer and no searching is necessary. This same strategy holds true for email marketing or any other links pointing to your site.
3. Make sure your basic information and offers such as free shipping are on every page and easy to spot. Especially with natural search engine traffic, you cannot assume that everyone comes in on the home page and logically progresses through the site. The potential customer can come in directly to any page, even a detailed product page. Your online security symbols, offers, even your basic slogan or unique selling position should be easily seen and understood.
These are three basics that every website must have to compel visitors to buy or sign up for something. There are analytics programs available to tell you exactly what people are doing on the site and where problem areas might be occurring. Analysis professionals can help pinpoint causes for these in general and also go to the next level in providing better conversion for returning customers, new customers, those who came in from pay per click offers, etc. using sophisticated A/B and multi-variant testing techniques. Since conversion rates are so important, you should always be testing for improvement.
Alison Lindemann is an Internet business consultant with WSI, a leading firm for helping businesses succeed online. As the owner of her local franchise, she provides services of Santa Clarita ecommerce conversion improvement, web design, search engine optimization, email marketing, and more for Santa Clarita Valley and Los Angeles based businesses.
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