About Jodi Kaplan

7 Little Things That Can Mess Up Your Web Site

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Getting a lot of bounces? Are people abandoning your contact forms?

Getting traffic is great, but it’s no good if people leave your site right away, or can’t find what they want. If you’re having these problems, here are seven things that may be going wrong with your website marketing (and tips for how to fix them).

1. Your email address is hidden.

Make it easy to contact you. Yes, you may get spam, but as Seth said today, “finding customers is harder than filtering spam.”

2. Your website contact form is broken.

The information field is too small and it asks too many questions. The more fields, the fewer people will fill out the form.

3. You’ve got typos and grammatical errors.

If your website looks like the sign in this post, it’s making you look dumb. Find the typos and fix them. Get someone new (with good English skills) to check your site.

4. The links don’t work and there are broken images.

There are tools you can use to check this (especially helpful if you have a big site). Here’s a free link checking tool.

5. The headlines are a snooze.

Award-Winning Videographer is great for you, but it doesn’t tell the customer how you can solve their problem.

6. It doesn’t address objections.

I saw a web site recently that offered a product without a guarantee and no return policy (if it didn’t work). Explain what you’re offering (here’s the video about it), what it will do, and why it’s important to act quickly.

7. It’s hard to find anything.

Watch a new visitor use your web site. Is everything clear? Or are they struggling? If your site is hard to use, people won’t use it (they’ll just leave).

Photo: rick

Why Some Free Offers Fail, and What You Can Do About It

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

There’s been a lot of discussion about “free” lately. David Meerman Scott has been talking about it. So has Chris Brogan. David is in favor of using free giveaways to build goodwill. Chris agrees but thinks there should be limits.

I agree that giving things away for free can be a great way to create buzz (and yes, there has to be a limit). However, if you’re going say something is free, make sure it really is free.

How free can go terribly wrong

A couple of days ago, Bob Bly posted that Joe Vitale offered a report for free on his site and then asked readers to buy him a gift certificate in return!

Last month, I bought a 3-ring binder which had an insert offering “free stock photos.” Turned out they weren’t really free. You have to open an account at an online stock photo company, fund it, and then (and only then) can you access a limited number of free photos.

If you’re going to go to the trouble and expense of putting inserts in thousands of binders, why not make the images truly free? Offer 5 free downloads, or a limited trial period. Give the prospective customer something of value, that really is free. That will build the goodwill you’re looking for; being deceptive won’t.

Photo:jking89

27 Free Marketing Ideas You Can Use Right Away

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Free beer is a great way to attract attention. If you give away free samples, you’re showing proof of your skills, establishing trust, and building authority.

You don’t have to be in the beer business (or a bar owner), to do this.

Here are 27 free marketing ideas you can use to get more leads, build your reputation, and spread the word about your services.

Offer Free Information

1. A free newsletter – use it, and a how-to guide, to build up your email list. Put sign-up forms throughout your web site.

2. How-to guides – take something your customers find difficult, and break it down into easy-to-follow steps (like setting up a blog).

3. Checklists – following a list always makes things easier. Create them for video production, printing a brochure, or producing a Web site. Share them with your clients.

4. Tutorials – video demos, printed instructions, or a series of free lessons.

5. Software demos.

6. Mini-reports – Combine several blog posts on a related topic, post the report, and allow it to spread virally.

7. Run a survey on a topic important to your industry, gather the results, and report the results to your customers, your newsletter readers, or your blog readers.

8. Free trial (or a free, limited version of a paid product).

9. Free special report with a snappy title (little known ways to cut design costs)

Social Marketing

10. Start a blog (if you don’t already have one).

11. Answer questions on industry forums like inbound.org or LinkedIn’s Advertising and Creatives Groups.

12. Join with other bloggers in your niche and share comments and guest posts. Take turns commenting on each others’ blogs and spreading the word (with cross-links and tweets).

13. Subscribe to other blogs in a feed reader (that’s the big orange button on the upper right of this blog).

14. Create a series of podcasts (you can talk yourself, or interview someone else).

Online Marketing

15. Hold a webinar. Make it informative, not a sales pitch. Even better, have a series of them.

16. Have a regular series of tips that help your clients and businesses like them. Gather together information from industry experts, as well as your own input, and curate it each week.

17. Free gifts. Add extra free bonuses to your paid products (receive $247 in free bonuses with your purchase). This works offline too.

18. Write a press release and release it through PR Web.

19. Track your promotions, both online and offline (yes, it’s my direct marketing genie coming out of its bottle). You’ll know which of them worked.

Offline Marketing

20. Band together with other people. Exhibit designers can work with companies that create videos for conferences.

21. Show appreciation with a thank you. It’s a small human touch your clients will appreciate.

22. Keep in touch. Send notes on silly occasions (National Ice Cream Cone Day!).

23. Freemiums – nonprofits have been sending trinkets for years (light catchers, stickers, address labels). Add a small gift to your invoices. Or, throw in some “free soup” as an extra treat when you do a project.

24. Offer your services for free to a non-profit in a bind (the publicity can lead to paying contracts).

Viral Marketing

25. Make a funny video.

26. Enter that funny video in a viral video contest.

27. Run a contest. Offer a service for free to a few lucky winners. Spread your name (and build your list; make sure you get permission).

The Secret Word Every Marketer Should Know

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

We can all agree that we want more sales. But did you know that there’s a word that can help you get more sales, more inquiries, and earn more money?

What’s the word?

It’s “free.”

If you saw a sign in front of a store that said “Free beer” or “Free cake,” you’d go over to check it out. Right?

Why does this work?

It turns out our brains are wired for it. Research conducted by a scientist from Duke University found that people offered a Lindt chocolate truffle for 15 cents or a Hershey’s kiss for 1 cent took the truffle 3 out of 4 times. However, when the prices were reduced 1 cent, making the truffle 14 cents and the kiss free, the numbers changed drastically. This time, over two-thirds of the people chose the kiss.

Free Shakespeare, classical musical concerts, and opera in Central Park attract thousands of people in New York City every year. We stand on long lines to get tickets, or wait for hours to get a good spot on the grass.

It works with fancy cosmetics companies too (spend $35 on face cream, get a tote bag with blush, mascara, and lip gloss for free). You buy the face cream just to get the tote bag full of goodies; even if the colors don’t suit you…you can always give them to a friend.

If someone is handing out free samples, you take them (even if you don’t use the product).

Tomorrow, how to get more business using freebies.

Original Photo:D Sharon Pruitt

Freebie Friday: 653 Free Email Templates

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Continuing with the email marketing theme this week, today’s Freebie Friday features free email templates.

A good layout can get more attention and speed your message past the spam filters, but creating your own can be a pain (especially if you’re not an HTML whiz).

Don’t forget to send a plain text version too (since some images get stuck in spam filters).

600 free email templates: customizable, and adaptable to your customers’ preferred form factor (e.g., tablets, rather than cell phones). Gotta love the “Hari Seldon” welcome.

7 LItmus -tested email templates: these have been checked to make sure they work properly on major email clients, both desktop and mobile platforms, are visible to people who are color-blind, and work in plain text.

Free responsive email templates: 28 templates designed to work well on mobile, some of these are single design, others have multiple options. If you’re technically inclined, you can change them; if not, use them as is.

MailChimp Templates: You can use these 16 free templates out of the box, or adapt them. You will need a MailChimp account, but that’s free so it still counts.