How are your emails being seen?
Here's a link to a chart of email clients most commonly used.
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/stats/email-clients/#most_popular
This is a great resource for email marketers to use in regards to coding and building out the HTML.
Happy Coding!
Email Marketing – Don’t burn your list!
In talking to my peers lately I've noticed a lack in contact cultivation regarding email marketing. Blasting a list of contacts with a message is great, way to go, but did you think about tapping that resource for more data? Are you aware of list deterioration? How are you generating more names, emails, contact info, etc?
Without using methods that are proactively farming prospects and capturing new lead data lists have a limited life span. How many times can you hit a list before they unsubscribe?
There are simple methods to capturing leads and growing lists. Combine them with a nurturing of the lists you already have and you'll be in the email business for a long time. I'll mention a few to get you started and you can ask me about the rest.
- List Acquisition - There are a few ways to do this. Buy it, channel it or harvest it.
a. Buying a list is fairly easy to do, however, it's most definitely you're worst source for list acquisition. Most list vendors don't append their data to the fullest extent. Fields are missing, names are improperly formatted, email addresses no longer are functional and the like. In short, great way to start, bad way to sustain.
b. Channeling leads is better and couples with harvesting in the long run. An easy way to channel leads is to create a landing page on your website that offers visitors a reason to leave you with information and create fields that will capture that data for you. Then set up a link on a reciprocal website or a Pay-per-click advertisement that will channel those viewers to that page. In turn you'll gather data, some will be solely for the offer you proposed, some will be legit. This method is better than a list purchase, but not as clean as harvesting as you still have users that only care about the offer on the landing page. Tailoring the offer will better qualify your leads, but it will also trim down the amount of leads that you receive.
c. Harvesting leads is by far the most efficient and cleanest way to capture leads and supplement your existing database of contacts. Harvesting isn't a short term fill up. It does require time and effort. In return you will gain a long term interest and participation in your brand and company. Harvesting is done by the commonly used contact form on your website. I know...this seems lame right? Hold on, it gets better.
Using this method combined with the other two you can create a filtering system that will allow you to not only segregate the leads you capture, but it gives you a bigger glove in which to catch the leads with.
Buy the leads, email them, capture data on a landing page.
Buy the advertising, capture data, email them, capture data on a landing page.
Set up the forms on the website for data capture, capture more data through out the website in different forms. (different forms filter out to different fields of data.)
Do you see where this is going?
In essence your straining out the chaff and harvesting the wheat. These three methods all have their downfalls, but if you couple them together and properly capture the data you can develop a data filtering system that allows you to populate your final customer/lead database with quality.
An artist is a master of many brushes, a painter just gets the job done.
Cheers,
Rory
How to keep visitors on your website
Write Engaging Web Copy
If you want to keep visitors to your web site engaged and make them come back for more, you need to appeal to their emotions. If you want them to do something in particular (buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, etc.), that kind of appeal is a must. Keep reading for some great tips.
Copy writing as a profession predates the Internet. While you must write differently when your audience will view your copy on a web site rather than in some other form, many important principles stay the same. Indeed, a recent post on Mind Valley Labs' web site mentioned legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz, saying that "we still swipe his material today." Schwartz died in 1995, right when the web was just beginning to catch on. If we can still learn from him, we can certainly apply some "old school" ideas to our web copy.
But back to our main topic. How do you appeal to your visitors' emotions? First, you need to know what concerns them. That means knowing your target audience intimately. Schwartz advised those who went to his seminars to "be the best listener you ever met." He'd ask questions of cab drivers when he took a taxi, because that's how you learn what people are thinking. He also advised watching the top 10 box office movies to get a handle on what the market is thinking and feeling. Once you know your audience's concerns, you can write directly to those concerns.
Say you now know your audience. Your next move is to make a promise that will appeal to them. Are your visitors busy, budget-conscious moms? Write an article on "Seven Cheap Ways to Get Organized and Save Time." (Heck, I'd read an article like that and I don't even have kids!). Or you can appeal to their desire to see their children do well with "Five Ways to Foster a Love of Reading in Your Kids." The point is to start out right in the headline or title of your text with a promise that appeals to your visitors' emotional needs. The more basic that need is, the more strongly that promise will draw them in.
And sometimes images can do the job; here Google draws us in on Earth Day with a redone logo that appeals to our basic need for a clean, life-supporting environment.
Tell Your Story
Okay, you know your audience's needs and you've made them a promise guaranteed to attract their attention. Now you need to show them how your product, service, article or whatever will fulfill that promise. You start that process by telling them a story.
I don't mean that you give them a song and dance. We've all seen that far too often. I mean you show them how your offering will give them what they need. For example, I have a friend who used to sell encyclopedias for a living. He told some of his prospects about children who grew up with a set of these books in their home going on to excel in school and business, because they had such a handy resource at their fingertips. While this was one of many sales techniques he used, he was probably the best salesman in his region during the three years he worked for the company.
Simply telling a story isn't enough, however. Visitors to your web site have five senses, and if you really want to draw them in, you need to stimulate all of them. I don't mean that you should go crazy with music or Flash animation. I mean you should paint a picture with your words, one that appeals to more than just the eyes.
My salesman friend used to put a leather-bound volume of the encyclopedia he was selling in his prospect's hands as soon as he could. It made them feel as if they already owned the set. They could run their hands over the smooth, warm cover, feel the weight of the volume, smell the leather, hear the rustle as the pages turned when they looked something up, see the beauty of the craftsmanship that went into each book...do you see where I'm going with this?
Just because you might not be able to literally put your product in your visitors' hands to try out, doesn't mean you can't do it figuratively. After all, this is the Internet. Everything is virtual. Paint your prospects a full picture of what their life will be like with your product or service in it, and you're halfway to converting them.
Keep it Simple
If you're trying to appeal to your visitors' emotions, you probably shouldn't break out your biggest polysyllabic words. Talk to your readers as if they were sitting on the next bar stool. Some direct marketers claim that you should write your copy as if you expect it to be read by an eight- to fourteen-year-old.
It sounds ironic, but thanks to the stilted tone many of us sometimes use with business correspondence (for example, cover letters for job applications), it can be difficult to make our copy sound conversational. Don't give up hope. There are a number of ways you can make your writing sound more relaxed if it doesn't come naturally to you. Try reading it out loud. If you find yourself stumbling over some of the words, you aren't there yet. Better yet, try reading it out loud to someone else. If they look bored or their eyes start glazing over, it needs more work.
Another way to keep it simple is to imagine having a conversation with your best friend about your product or service. Explain to them what makes it special. You'd use plain language, right? Now go ahead and write down that conversation.
Eugene Schwartz would tell his seminar attendees to "write to the chimpanzee brain - simply and directly." Your prospects aren't chimpanzees, of course, but in their busy lives, they engage their brains for many tasks, whether they're homemakers or CEOs. If they don't have to think too hard, and you can get them to relax, you're more likely to get the conversion. Answer their questions before they need to think of them - and remember, their biggest question will be "what's in it for me?"
Keep it Honest
Everyone has highly sensitive BS detectors these days. Readers can tell when you're trying to "sell" them. They don't mind so much if your passion is sincere and you believe in your product or service. But you can expect them to spot it - and click elsewhere - when they detect even a whiff of dishonesty. And trust me, they'll pick up on it.
So start out by not lying in the first place. Okay, that's a negative; I'm telling you what you shouldn't do. Let me balance that with a positive: know as much as possible about your product or service before writing about it. Know it inside and out. Learn how it can be used - no, better: learn how it is intended to be used, then come up with a few unconventional uses for it. If you've taken the time to know what you have in that much detail, you'll be able to talk honestly about everything it can do for your customer.
In fact, that takes us to another point Eugene Schwartz used to make: think about what your product "does," not "is." He also advocated discussing the benefits of what you're offering, even ahead of the features. For instance, an 8-mega-pixel camera may have a 10X optical zoom. That's a feature. What's the benefit? It lets you take pictures that get you closer to the action. Even the gadget freaks who geek out over features aren't responding to the numbers so much as the emotional appeal of being on the cutting edge.
There are nearly two million pages on the web that will tell you how to write winning copy. It's an even bet that many of them will cover the same ground I covered here. To sum it up: know what concerns your prospects, because that will be foremost in their minds. Write your copy to show them what they will get out of your product or service; appeal to their emotions. Tell a story, paint a picture, but don't get fancy and don't lie. Keep these basic ideas in mind and you'll be well on your way to convincing your visitors to convert.
Tags: seo, web content, how to, web copy, search engine optimization
Looking for a Web Developer
In following yesterday's posting of me ranting about Search Engine Optimization Guru's...here's a great post on how to look for a web developer. Article printed from SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html 10 Key Things to Look for in a Good Web Designer By Gary Klingsheim (c) 2008 The pace of business today is positively supersonic. There doesn't seem to be enough time for anything anymore, and businesses of all sizes are working harder and faster all the time. It's important to work smarter, too. And that means when you have to choose an important vendor for an essential service, you need to slow down and make a deliberate, careful decision. This is particularly important when you are getting ready to put your company's face on the World Wide Web in a new or newly-refurbished web site. Before listing the ten key things to look for in a good web designer, let's define a few terms. Even though you may encounter variants on the name ? like web developer, web artist, webmaster and so forth - we're talking about an individual who, alone or with some assistance, is going to "get you up and running." This means more than simple design. You may need someone who can help you conceive and write copy. You may need someone who can plan smart site structure. You may need help getting a domain registered, files uploaded, e-mail accounts set up, and other technical details. You will definitely need someone who can do just about anything, or quickly find out how, or have an associate who can at the ready. With these caveats, and serious encouragement to shop around for price and professionalism, here are the ten things to look for, in rough order of importance: 1) Experience You will need someone with all the techniques, tools and tricks that will help you prepare your web site and accomplish your online goals. You should confirm that the candidate knows the entire alphabet soup of protocols, web markup languages and coding utilities: HTML, XML, CSS, PHP and so on. Ask all prospects for a portfolio, ask if they can "hand code," find out how many years of experience each has, etc. When you interview designers, on the phone and/or in person, you will get these answers swiftly enough. But take due time to get more important insights as to the individual's character, level of expertise - and how well your personalities mesh. You will be working closely together, after all. 2) Customer Service Orientation As important as experience is a mindset and attitude of making customer service a priority. If a designer/developer is too busy to answer e-mails or phone calls, will they be able to keep the production schedule? Ask for references, and make a point of actually calling them. Ask the prospect's previous clients if the web developer was responsive, on time and effective. 3) Original copy and Graphics Creating professional and 100% original web graphics separates the adults from the kids every time. Most anyone can do some "quick and dirty" copy writing and slap it on a page with some pictures and hyperlinks. On the other hand, a talented and veteran designer will demonstrate knowledge of page layout, have a way with color and know how to place elements on a page for best appearance and web site performance. Take a good look at a number of the sites each prospect has built, and make sure no one is using "templates" or "starter pages" that come with some software programs or are available (even free) on the Internet. 4) Creativity You need to decide right away (before you even start talking to designers) just how much the designer you find will be involved in the conceptual process. Your designer may need to help you with some of the "big picture" questions, such as marketing, web copy writing (for search engines) and how to generate traffic. You want someone creative, but not a "diva" who won't follow instructions or work with your ideas to bring them to fruition. 5) Marketing Experience The easiest way to find out if your prospective web designers are good at marketing web sites is to view their site and their portfolio. That you are considering selecting them to design your site is a good first indicator that their designs convert. You'll further want to ensure that you can find what you're looking for on their site quickly and easily and that you can do the same on some of the sites in their portfolio. 6) Cost Pricing for a professional web site of 10-15 pages with the standard features runs all the way from $500 to $5000. It may be that your idea is so complicated that you might have to pay for an estimate. For a full picture of all the costs involved in the project, ask for all the costs to be broken out individually - domain name and hosting, graphic design work, marketing fees and web development matters. You may need to place a deposit if the job is large enough, and you should have all payment terms worked out before work starts. You can work out an hourly rate, a flat fee or some combination of the two. Leave nothing unstated or assumed: Get every detail in writing, including deadlines and how many revisions are included. 7) Job Timeline After you ask the developers how long the process will take, make a point of asking references if the project was, in fact, completed on time. A basic web site may take as little as a week, while more involved and technically challenging sites could take a month or more. You need to know what the real-world turnaround time is for the specific people you are considering.Communication Skills Don't hire anyone who insists on speaking to you in "computer-ese" or won't explain unknown terminology. You have to communicate with this person about things that are important to your very survival, so you need to be clear at all times. If you cannot establish a good working relationship, it won't matter if you have Leonardo Da Vinci working on your code, it just won't work out. 9) Full Service There may be one or two things that your designer/developer cannot do, but for the most part you should be able to find a reasonably-priced professional who can handle just about everything. If the designer needs help installing a particularly complicated shopping cart, or your site requires some heavy database programming, it is reasonable to expect that your designer might need some assistance. All of this should be spelled out in the pricing, of course (see #6, above), and you should never be surprised by anything your designer is telling you. If you are, you overlooked something in this list! 10) Availability Are these prospects full-time web professionals? Or are they moonlighting from some other job, even a completely unrelated one? It may be that a part-time web designer who's working at McDonald's really can do a great job for you, but will he/she be available to meet with you during normal business hours? No matter what decision you make - full-time pro, part-timer or student - you must be able to get hold of your designer. Finally, do you homework before speaking with anyone. You don't need to be an expert - after all, you're hiring help, because you're not - but you need to know enough to know what you're hearing. If you are uncertain of your own ability to keep on top of what's going on, get a friend with at least basic web knowledge to help you locate, interview and assess candidates. Use all of this "head" knowledge to narrow down your list of candidates, but don't be afraid to use your intuition ("heart" knowledge) to get a feel for each person's honesty, integrity and character. Using this mix of study, inquiry, discussion ,and feel, you will start to develop judgments about the candidates. Following this procedure thoroughly should result in your finding a good match for your Internet needs.Copyright ? 2008 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.