Category Archives: Small Business Online Marketing Strategies

Marketing your small business online can be an effective way to market your products and services.  It can also be an enormous waste of time and effort, especially if you are using the wrong online marketing strategies

First, your design, writing, and offer all have to work together.  Poor copywriting, bad design, and painful user interfaces can all drive away your hard-won traffic. Using social media to shout at people can also drive people away (instead of drawing them in).

Get tips on the right way to write for the web. It’s different than writing for print and you may have to toss out some of the rules you learned back in school.

Small businesses make plenty of other online marketing mistakes, such as using too much jargon, or concentrating too much on a pretty design, instead of usability. Hard to use designs are just as bad. If visitors can’t use your site, they will leave.

And, of course, there’s landing pages.  Landing pages are your 24/7 sales team.  They’ve got to answer all the questions you can’t answer in person.  If they’re not working, neither are your sales (or your profits).  Learn the most common landing page goofs and how to correct them.

Seven Deadly Web Copywriting Mistakes

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sevenWhat are the seven deadliest web copywriting mistakes? These nasty little errors can sink your web project almost before it even gets started.

Luckily, if you know what they are in advance, you will be able to avoid them!

1. Creating the design before the copy

The images are there to enhance the words (not the other way around). Writing can be edited to fit. removing design elements to fit the text will mess up the entire design. Write the copy first, then you’ll be able to use design to highlight your testimonials or your great guarantee.

2. Do-it-yourself copywriting

Thinking that you can write the copy yourself. Copywriting is a specific skill. There are books and blogs you can read (email me if you’d like some recommendations), but you have to convince people to do something and hand you their hard-earned money. Besides, is this the best use of your time? Read this before you hire someone.

3. Burying the lede

In the newspaper business, the lede is the sentence that sums up the story – and draws you in. In copywriting it’s the sentence that should tell readers why they should read the second sentence, and the third. Start with a bang – so readers will keep going. Try moving the paragraphs around. Often your best sentence is buried in the second or third paragraph.

4. Not stating the problem

If you want people to trust you and buy from you, you’ve got to establish trust and empathy. Point out a problem, a concern, or a desire.

5. Talking about yourself too much

Saying “me”, “my” and “our” will drive people away. They don’t want to hear about your background or your MFA, they want to know how your knowledge and skills will help solve their problems.  Take the one-minute marketing test to find out how your site copy stacks up.

6. No solution

Years of experience or number of employees isn’t a solution. Instead, explain how your product or service solves their problem. Tell them what they’ll get, how it works, why it works. Explain how other people have benefited from it. Answer common questions (yes, this is why sales letters are long – to answer all the questions that people may have).

7. No call to action

Don’t forget to write a call to action. Make it absolutely clear what to do, and how to do it. The buttons should be big, easy to find, and clearly labeled. You don’t want people hunting around to find them.

Have you made any of these mistakes? Or, do you have another to add to the list?

Photo:  eurritimia

How to Make Your Marketing Irresistible

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johnny_automatic_magnetDo you ever wonder if people actually read your ads?  Would you like to get more readers (and more orders) from your ads?

Here’s how.

Write a great headline

Use it to make a big promise.  Offer something your audience desperately cares about.  Tell them you can fix a problem they have (or avoid having the problem in the first place).  Here’s an example for an imaginary product.

“Stop Struggling With Flat Tires!”

Then, fill out the promise.  Paint a picture of what they’ll get, and how they’ll enjoy it. The more descriptive (and specific), the better.  Don’t use fancy words or technical jargon.  Make it about the buyer (not about you).  She’s the “hero.”

“New Super Tire Jack slips easily under your car.  Just press the button, and whoosh, the  car goes up and you can easily remove the tire. ”

Turn features into benefits

A feature would be “push-button operation”  A benefit is:   “No more sweating (and swearing) to get your flat tire changed.  Super Tire Jack does 90% of the work for you.  Just push a button!”

Prove that it works

Include testimonials from happy customers.  Even Seth Godin says that he sells more books on his blog when he reviews someone else’s work than when he talks about his own.  Use testimonials, case studies, statistics, or demos to make your point.

Ask for the purchase

Call, click, write….(do it now, before they’re gone).

Photo: johnny automatic

7 Little Things That Can Mess Up Your Web Site

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bad spellingGetting 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

Freebie Friday: How to Build Authority, Gain Trust, and Get More Sales

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Today’s Freebie Friday is a free report from Brian Clark of Copyblogger, called Authority Rules. Nobody likes a hard sell (including Google). However, if you want to build trust of both search engines and people, you’ll need to establish yourself as a positive, helpful authority in your niche.

But how?

  • gain Google’s trust and rise in search rankings without black hat tactics, keyword stuffing, or “gaming” the system
  • sell without “selling” (you teach instead)
  • develop cornerstone content
  • write for search engines
  • befriend influential people in your niche

Get the full Authority Rules report here.

Are Offline Marketers Lazy?

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image of lazy dogThis  post was inspired by a post on morecaffeineplease.  Greg was wondering whether offline only marketers were “leaving money on the table” and also why online and offline marketers are often so divided against each other.

Jeremy commented that he thought offline marketers were well, lazy, entranced by big numbers and splashy ad campaigns, rather than conversations.

I do agree that there are many brand advertisers who are captivated by big campaigns, and big awards.  Neither of those  result in conversations and don’t necessarily even make any money.

Conversation, Not Shouting

Whether your marketing is online or offline, it still has to follow the same rules.  Both will fail when they don’t build trust, offer value, or treat customers fairly.

A few days ago, BMW hijacked the front page of the New York Times online with an ad that couldn’t be shut off or bypassed. Clearly, they had no respect for the newspaper’s readers.

On the other hand, Jack Daniels bourbon has been having an ongoing conversation with a friend for years.  He’s the proud squire of 1 square inch of Kentucky land near the distillery.  They sent him a deed, and regularly send letters asking if he’s seen a lost mule, or enclosing pennies and odds and ends they “found” on his property. It’s all offline, and impossible to do online (until someone invents the Star Trek transporter).

Online is Faster

The primary difference is that online companies can respond to problems or opportunities much more quickly.  I posted a Freebie Friday SEO Fast Start report on my blog two months ago.  A few hours later, the author left a comment saying a new edition was coming out in a few days.

This is one important lesson many offline marketers have failed to learn.  Word spreads, and it spreads fast.

I complained online about a  bad experience at Victoria’s Secret (in short, they require a driver’s license or a passport (?!?) in order to return something, even with the receipt).  Nobody has contacted me, apologized, or responded in any way.  They clearly are not interested in having a conversation, only in glitzy marketing campaigns.  I will never, ever buy anything there again.

Photo: meaganjean