This Week In StomperNet – November 7, 2011
This week our topic is web design. Years ago, business owners simply had to have a simple website with just the basic information. In those days websites were few, web speed was very slow and anything larger than a tiny image took forever … that is if you got your Internet to connect at all.
Then came along programs like DreamWeaver, CoffeeCup, and suddenly HTML became a lot easier for the masses. Internet speeds quickly improved, and therefore images became more commonplace. Next came along several improved blogging programs which coders also gobbled up. Suddenly the world of websites was much easier and the number of websites exploded.
Nowadays, if your website is several years old and still has basic design, people notice. It is natural to think if your site is this far behind the times, then your business probably is as well.
But that’s not all. If your website is too loud… sound wise, color wise or graphic wise… your consumers go elsewhere. And if they can’t find their way around your site, they will find their way around to another website. Furthermore, choosing the appropriate content to use is critical.
Read MorePPC, A Quick Way to Know Your Prospect
You may be scared of the expenses behind PPC, however learning what your market wants quickly can help you reach your profit point sooner. This week we have discussed a few strategies and uses that can help you learn more about what your customer is looking for and how to use it. There is always something new to learn.
And in learning, we are also very excited about StomperNet LIVE. Speakers and education is the name of the game at LIVE. We are happy to be adding many new speakers who will be providing valuable information.
This LIVE event is not only good for education, but for the networking as well. Many partnerships and other profitable ventures have been created from StomperNet LIVE events. In addition to many great friendships that have provided valuable information back and forth.
Be sure to snag the hottest seat in the house at LIVE 11 in Phoenix. Your business will explode. Better yet, get double the education when you join us for SEO Pro 2 days prior to the LIVE event!
MJ Schrader
Director of Web Presence
StomperNet, LLC
“As paid search begins to occupy a significant position in marketers’ budgets, both agencies and marketers must focus on intelligent keyword, bidding, and creative strategies to extract the most effective return on investment (ROI) from their campaigns.”
~ Jupiter Research
PPC, A Quick Way to Know Your Prospect
While PPC advertising costs money, it can help you save money in the long run by saving you months of time testing your campaigns. This will allow you know what keywords to gear your website toward using for Search Engine Optimization. After the initial expense you can settle into using other free methods to build traffic with your research.
Location, Location, Location
Another advantage of PPC is that you can use it to target specific geographic areas. By limiting your pay per click advertising to certain areas you may be able to keep your costs down while getting highly qualified visitors to your site. This can be done in your own geographic location or another.
If you are a local marketer, then this is exactly the information you need to help your clients bring in their specific customers. The pay per clicks will be more appealing when people know that the ad is for one of their local businesses. This can help your clients grow and of course help your reputation as their marketer.
Summer, Holiday and Other Special Occasions
Seasons are just that – seasonal. They last a short period of time and during which you must maximize your advertising. Your swimsuit business is probably not going to do that well during the cold months of December. PPC during June when the season is just starting can help push you in front of even more buyers. It also helps with running time related ads; such as those that run during a sale.
What are they thinking?
As discussed in the first paragraph, the biggest advantage is knowing what your customers and potential customers are thinking. Since you can not read their minds, PPC is the next best thing. After you discover what keywords bring in buyers you can better target and market your website.
With your new list of keywords you can write articles that use those specific keywords and distribute them to reference your website. You can fill up blogs with posts that are relevant to those words. This will make search engines happy, as you will have fresh content and make your prospects happy to have relevant information.
Relevant information can encourage reluctant buyers to stay longer on your website. The longer they are on your website the more likely they are to consider you as someone they should buy from. And all these benefits come from knowing what your prospect is searching for on search engines.
STOMPER Speed Boost
Join us for LIVE 11, get great education, and do some amazing networking with your fellow Stompers. Get three days of pure content, and learn all the cutting-edge tactics that you’ll need for a competitive business in the coming months.
Join us at LIVE 11. Make your reservation today!
Get the full story (and find out how to attend) by clicking here.
~ Just need SEO? Want both? Attend SEO Pro as well!
SEO Secret Sauce
Top 5 Advantages of PPC
- Condense months of keyword research into a few days
- Know what your prospect wants
- Target local markets or certain geographic areas
- Run seasonal promotions
- Improve your ROI (return on investment)
Free Live Webinars Next Week:
TUESDAY, June 7th, 2011 at 7:00pm Eastern
Public Webinar: More Traffic - Bigger Sales - More Money” with JP Maloney. He will be teaching the #1
Strategy used by the most successful online marketers to get more traffic and more buyers. ~ JP Maloney. Register Now
WEDNESDAY, June 8nd, 2011 at 7:00pm Eastern
Public Webinar: LIVE 11 Primer with Dan Hollings of Mobile Marketing Register Now
THURSDAY, June 9nd, 2011 at 7:00pm Eastern
Public Webinar: ”LinkedIn Secrets You’ve Probably Never Heard Before” with Flyn Penoyer Register Now
Let us know your thoughts on today’s issue.
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Read MoreHow Can WII.FM Help Your Business?
By Todd Chism
As an Internet business owner I find that I’m constantly looking for new ways to drive traffic, to give the customers something they want or need. Or at least what they think they need.
The customer will always ask the inevitable question: What’s in it for me? We don’t realize how early in our childhood development we get this behavior, but gradually it becomes ingrained.
Do you remember doing chores as kid?
You got money or an allowance or that special thinga-ma-bob. That’s what was in it for you; incentive to do what you didn’t want to do to get what you wanted. This can be applied to customers as well.
Let’s face it, customers really don’t want to part with their money to get your product. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, wants you to give it to them. Something happens psychologically inside their head when they shop, especially if it’s for a luxury or frivolous item. They want the object. Their palms get sweaty, their throat goes dry, their eyes glass over, and their wallets tighten. Remember Gollum? It’s their precious.
Now, I’m being overly dramatic here, but the actual point remains. For people to spend their hard earned cash they want to know what in it for them. They go to work all week, something that most really don’t want to do, to get a check that they do want. Then come the things they don’t want again. They have to pay utilities, groceries, rent or a mortgage, and whatever’s left is their “spendin’ money”. And, before they give up spendin’ their money, they ask the question.
WII.FM is more than just what its name implies.
WII.FM More than a Radio Station
It’s a give and take philosophy that drives the business / customer dynamic. Both sides must employ the technique to get what they want. Your business is not a utility company that a customer MUST have such as water or electric. Those things a customer NEEDS and MUST pay for them even though they don’t want to.
But, just because you’re a business owner doesn’t mean you don’t have the same issues that your customers have. You have to pay bills. Maybe even twice the number if you have an office building that you work out of: double the rent, double the electric, etcetera, etcetera.
The customers don’t look at it that way. They don’t see you as a hard working stiff like themselves. Oh, no. You’re a business owner, part of the corporate machine that is out to profit from the lowly worker.
Wait a minute! I’m a working stiff! Come on, cut me a break!
No, evil business owner! I shall banish you to the lowest pit of Tartarus unless you give me the deal of a lifetime!
Sorry, Dungeons and Dragons flashback.
Here’s the give / take dynamic.
YOU sell something the customer wants. YOU want the customer to buy your product. YOU want the customer’s money. Well, really the only thing in it for you is a sale, the possibility of other sales through this customer’s word of mouth, and possibly gaining a loyal customer.
The CUSTOMER wants your product. The CUSTOMER doesn’t want to pay for your product. The CUSTOMER wants you to bend over backwards to give them something that they already want. This usually means a huge discount, some kind of free item, or some other profit-killing endeavor. In a nutshell, you give to take, they give to take.
The customer mentality of WII.FM is both a blessing and a curse for the business owner.
If you can come up with something that your customer will accept as a “freebie”, that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg or bite deeply into your profit, then you could come out looking good. The problem is that thing you call a business is a profit deal.
Do you remember the movie “The Jerk” with Steve Martin? That movie has a great scene that directly applies to this situation. Steve is working at a carnival as a weight guesser. He thinks he’s not doing well so talks to his boss.
“I’ve already given away eight pencils, two hula dolls, and an ashtray, and I’ve only taken in fifteen dollars.” Steve says, bleakly.
The boss is smiling. “You have taken in fifteen dollars and given away fifty cents worth of crap, which gives us a net profit of fourteen dollars and fifty cents.”
You get the picture, but it’s not always this easy.
The quickest thing to jump on is free shipping. You buy my product and I’ll ship it to you free! While this is a good thing, all of your competitors are using the same gimmick. Darn. Okay, I’ll lower my prices. But now you have to deal with that stupid M.A.P.(minimum advertised price) agreement you have with your shipping source. Darn, darn, darn!
The playing field was leveled by forces beyond your control. The customer is still screaming what’s in it for me and you’re deciding whether or not you should order a headstone for your business.
So then you hit on the idea of offering a coupon. Yeah, that’ll work. But your competitors are also offering a coupon! Bah!
What then can my business give?
What can you give your customer that’s going to make them want to spend money with you? Remember that the customer sees it as 100% about them and nada for you. So whatever you do it’s got to blow them out of their socks.
Many of the tricks that websites use have been done to death. Free shipping, a coupon, a free e-book, and a monthly newsletter are just a few. Depending on your business, some of these things still work, but more and more you have to think outside the box.
So here’s one you can try. This will take a little bit of work on your part as you’ll also have to see what you can get from your supplier. Start a Twitter account for your business if you haven’t already done so. MONITOR that account. Most businesses will start an account and then forget the second they create it. Create, log out, and never come back. You have an internet business for Pete’s sake! Use the tools!
See what you can get from any of your suppliers at the deepest wholesale discount you can get.
Now, it doesn’t matter what you sell. Toys, furniture, stereos, cameras, they all will work with this idea. Once you have your Twitter account rolling and you’ve got a decent amount of followers advertise your “Word of the Week” contest. The first five or ten, or whatever number you choose that responds to your tweet get’s a free (insert your item here). The customers all of a sudden are getting the WIIFM. and you’re getting more customers.
Then it snowballs.
You’ll find that you get more Twitter followers as the word is spread that once a week you give stuff away. The upside is that these new followers may just be looking for the free stuff, however when you tweet about sales or new items, they know exactly what you’ve got and, should they need that item, will usually start their buying process with you. If you’re competitive, you’ll probably make the sale. This idea can also be applied to Facebook.
There are a lot challenges facing the web entrepreneur to build a successful online business. But to do so you’ve got to remember the customer also has a multitude, heck beyond a multitude of choices.
So giving them a little in a unique way can sometimes pay off in a big way.
But let’s not forget your side. What’s in it for you? Not from the customer, but from your vendors and suppliers. Now you’re the customer. Some vendors will cut you a special deal now and again and that’s good for you.
But here’s something you might try.
Let’s say you sell kitchen accessories. You sell kitchen accessories. There, I’ve said it. Make a trip to a local art show. Let’s say you meet a wood carver that makes intricately carved wooden serving bowls out of beautiful and exotic hardwoods. Find out if he’ll cut a deal with you to buy his products at a small profit. He becomes a supplier and you’ve eliminated a distributor.
Now you’ve got a beautiful and unique product that you can sell exclusively. This idea can cover a wide range of products. What’s in it for the wood carver? He sells more product than at the local art show and makes a buck. What’s in it for you? Good, inexpensive and unique product that ups your profitability.
I hope this has given you a few good ideas and a look inside the customer’s head. Now that you’ve read my post, I ask you: What’s in it for me? The hope that you’ll read my next one.
Entrepreneur Magazine chose Todd Chism as one of the top five “Emerging Entrepreneurs of the Year” in 2008. He now owns over 40 niche domains, has four operational ecommerce websites, and has created a business consulting and coaching company.
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Coming This Week In StomperNet – May 9, 2011
What if I told you there was a way to promote your online or brick-and-mortar business by spending mere pennies on upfront advertising and without paying for clicks or impressions, and with the guarantee that you’ll attract new customers free of risk? Sounds like a pipe dream, right?
Well it’s not – it’s called social commerce, and it’s just one small way you can leverage emerging media to grow your business indefinitely.
Take Groupon as an example. How valuable are they? Strong enough to reject a $6 billion deal from Google. Yes that is right, they turned down a $6 BILLION offer from Google. Do you think social commerce is on the rise?
By using Groupon and similar tools like Buy With Me and Living Social, you can create simple sales funnels to attract visitors to your site, entice them to find and purchase related products and services using incentivized specials, especially on impulse buyers. That’s the beauty of social commerce! You can offer promotions as an upsell for eCommerce merchants to increase their orders.
We also know that along with the rise of social marketing, mobile marketing is skyrocketing. By using mobile marketing tools, such as smart phone apps, you can even take your strategy (and your business) to the next level!
Has your business tapped into the social commerce and mobile market yet?
Please join us tomorrow at Noon as we welcome Lee Vance, our very own StomperNet Moderator. Lee will share with us some of her simple, yet proven strategies to harness the power of emerging business-building.
Check out our free resources and media to see how StomperNet can help you grow your business today.
Talk soon and enjoy the resources below!
Ryan Taylor
Director of Operations
StomperNet, LLC
IMPORTANT: Some of the resources shown are only available to members. Not a StomperNet member? Join us today for just $1.00 to get access to the world’s largest Internet Marketing community plus all the tools and resources you need (including upcoming free webinar replays) to start, build and grow a thriving Internet-based business!
Curriculum Resources
How to OWN Your Social Media Marketing (Literally): Tammy Kahn-Fennell
Cutting Edge Web Marketing Strategies: Lee Goff
New Posts and Media
Encore Presentation: Scott’s Secret Weapon Revealed with Scott Gallagher
Your Secret Ranking Weapon with Phil Chavanne
Encore Presentation: Step-by-Step Mobile Marketing with Dan Hollings & Wilson Mattos
* Free Live Webinars This Week
TUESDAY, May 10, 2011 at 12:00pm Eastern
Public Webinar: “Hands-on Business Building” with Lee Vance. Learn how to structure a funnel using Groupon and similar tactics, as well as hands-on on mobile marketing cases studies, with a general Q&A to follow. Register Now
TUESDAY, May 10, 2011 at 8:00pm Eastern
Public Webinar: “Webinar Legends” with Wil Mattos. Wil is going to share with you exactly how his company makes six figures each year with webinars alone! Learn the hottest profitable tactics and webinar strategies! Register Now
THURSDAY, May 12, 2011 at 8:00pm Eastern
Public Webinar: “Rapid Local Selling” with Rob Canyon. Learn how to become instantly successful at kick starting your business, closing more deals, and selling higher priced services no matter where you live, what your market or the competition. Register Now
“How to Leverage the 7 Hidden Trends to Profit More on the Internet”
We will pull back the curtains on the ‘Age of Voice’, an unprecedented shift that has created the biggest opportunity in history for nearly effortless and massive money creation. Register Now
Special Announcements
SEO Pro 2-Day Essentials Workshop – May 20th and 21st in Dallas, TX
Next week! Register Now
StomperNet LIVE 11! – June 23rd – June 25th in Phoenix, AZ
Details Coming Soon!
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