Online Marketing Secrets for Offline Businesses

ONLINE MARKETING SECRETS FOR OFFLINE BUSINESSES Brought to You by Australia Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WHO IS HERE TODAY - A SPECIAL WELCOME • Business representatives • Alchemy Business Consultants and Coaches • Prospective Business Consultants • Alchemy Clients • Alchemy representative Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WHO IS SPEAKING TODAY? • Thank You to Matt Forman, Managing Director, Trafﬁka • And I’ll be interjecting... Sylvie Danoy, MD, The Alchemy Network. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE ALCHEMY NETWORK • Business Consulting Organisation that has developed proprietary systems to grow revenues in the SME arena. • Network of Business Consultants and Coaches throughout Australia and New Zealand. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE ALCHEMY NETWORK • CPD day- Continual Professional Development day- Part of on-going professional support. • Open Doors- Extend invitation to Alchemy Consultants’ clients, to key business representatives and to hand-picked prospective consultants. • Why is Internet Marketing today’s topic? As business growth consultants, we cannot ignore Internet Marketing as a marketing and business development channel. • Consultants to acquire knowledge and skills in the area and, in turn, to educate their clients. • If you can retain 10% of the content today, you’ll know 90% more than more than the average business person. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WHAT NEXT? Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WHAT KIND OF BUSINESS ARE YOU? • Wired or Tech Oriented business • More traditional, off-line business building tools Tuesday, 29 June 2010

A WIRED BUSINESS Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE 4 C’S OF MARKETING • Content • Context • Connection • Community Tuesday, 29 June 2010

SOCIAL MEDIA Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE CONVERGED BUSINESS • Wired businesses seem to be high on Content and Context • Ofﬂinebusinesses seem to be high on Connection and Community • What do you think happens to businesses that focus on making the 4 C’s an integral part of the customer experience, blending high tech with high touch tactics? Don’t you think it would be today’s greatest opportunity for creating a business that turns into a powerful marketing machine? Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE REALITY FOR BUSINESSES RIGHT NOW • Lower number of total customers per month • Lower number of new customers per month • Increased cost of acquisition • Lengthening sales cycle • Decreased in person event attendance • Lower average purchase per customer Tuesday, 29 June 2010

ALIGN OFFLINE AND ONLINE MARKETING The way forward Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE AGENDA Morning Session Afternoon Session • Why You Should Be Online • What is Social Media? • How to plan Your Online Strategy • How To Get More Online Sales to Grow Your Business Without Spending a Cent More on Advertising • How to Get to the Top of Search Results • Email Marketing That Drives Your Bottom Line Up • How to Get Big Business Branding on a small Business Budget • A Simple Guide to Google Analytics Tuesday, 29 June 2010

CONTENT THAT RANKS Tuesday, 29 June 2010

CONTENT OF A LANDING PAGE • Copy: • Headlines and subheads •Body copy •Calls to actions •Testimonials •Graphics •Photos •Buttons, calls to action •Forms •Email opt-ins •Order forms Tuesday, 29 June 2010

SET YOUR SITE APART • Emphasise your value proposition • Value Proposition - The primary reason a prospect should buy from you • Your value proposition must answer this question: • If I’m your ideal customer, why should I buy from you instead of a competitor? Tuesday, 29 June 2010

CLARITY OF A LANDING PAGE • Answer 3 questions: 1.Where am I? 2.What can I do here? 3.Why should I buy from you? Tuesday, 29 June 2010

A CHECKLIST FOR YOUR LANDING PAGES • Clarity: Answer the 3 questions above. • Relevance: Ensure all messages are consistent between your channels and landing pages. • Urgency: Capitalise on deadlines, create a sense of urgency • Exclusivity: Your edge comes from showing what you can offer that others can’t match • Connect with visitors for future sales potential. Build relationships. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

CONTENT THAT RANKS- THE FOUNDATIONS • Ask yourself what creates value for your users • Great copywriting • Write content that is inviting to share and to link to. • Have exceptional skills to optimise the page • Write copy that converts readers to buyers Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WHY YOUR CONTENT IS IMPORTANT? • Searchers are your most motivated site visitors. If they’re looking for a product or service, they are in the market to buy it. If they are searching for information and your site provides it, you’ve got a great chance of converting that drive by traffic into long-term relationships. Targeted search traffic is key. • Building a reader-focused online presence based on content. Simply by getting people to opt-in and follow you over time, Google will love you. • Traffic has to convert, or why bother? Everybody loves traffic- It’s addictive and strangely gratifying in its own right. but does not pay the bill. • Use keywords in your content that your target market searchers are using. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

5 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF SEARCH ENGINE KEYWORD • Research Tools-Google’s keyword tools • Get Specific- Keyword phrases • Highly Relevant Content • Develop a content that satisfies the initial needs of the site visitor, acts as the first step in your sales or action cycle, and prompts people to link to it. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT GOOGLE LOVES • What Would You Want To Tell a Prospect? You might give information about how you understand his problem, options for solving the problem, examples of how you can help, explanations of why you meet his needs... And you would do that in the most compelling fashion. • Create Linchpin Content: Content that is basic, essential, indispensable. It is what people need to know about you to do business with you. Content that’s worth linking to and then ﬁnding a way to get the word out. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT GOOGLE LOVES • Keywords: Choose the most appropriate keyword phrase for your content. What is the relevant question that searchers are asking that your content and business solution answer? Will answering that question help a visitor to your site get the most of the experience? Are enough people asking that decision to answer it? • Title Tags and Headline: Title tag is a headline. Use the right keywords and wrap those words in a compelling headline structure that promises to answer the question the searcher is asking. This will give your content a signiﬁcant boost. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

FIVE LINK BUILDING STRATEGIES THAT WORK 1.Creating Compelling Content that Attracts Links and Action - Response-oriented copy that results in what you want your visitor to do. 2.What’s In It For The Reader? • Social Media News Sites: The quickest way for content to get a lot of attention is to make the home page of Digg or Reddit. TechMeme for technology news and Fark for offbeat content. • Guest Writing: Guest writing on established blogs and other content sites not only allows to raise your proﬁle, but also allows for links back to your own site. You may be able to link from within the body of the content itself. If not, link needs to go in your byline or bio. Which byline more attractive to the reader when ﬁnishing an article? • XXX writes about online copywriting and content marketing at XXX, OR • Check out XXX’s free XXX whitepaper, which is all about the new style of online writing that helps your content rank well in search engines. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

FIVE LINK BUILDING STRATEGIES THAT WORK 3.Social Networking: Twitter and Facebook have become amazing content distribution networks. The more people see and share your content, the more likely it is to attract valuable links. It is about establishing and growing relationships with influencers in the social media space. Network from a ‘what’s in it for them’ perspective. Catch attention, gain interest and create a desire to help you in the future by offering something that benefits them first. 4.Linking Out: Be strategic about how you link and what you say. It’s just like any conversation. But make sure you’ve got something worthwhile to say that will reflect well on you. 5.Article Directories: A site like Ezine Articles is still great for creating exposure to your content. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

5 KEY ELEMENTS TO EFFECTIVE SEO COPYWRITING 1.Title: Include your keywords- So, let’s say that the most compelling headline for prompting readership, sharing and linking for an article is: Five areas to focus on for effective SEO Copywriting Better for ranking and quick scanning searchers. Can optimise it for Google and readers: SEO Copywriting: The 5 Essential Elements Make it 72 characters or less for search purposes to ensure the full title is visible in a search result. 2. Meta-Description: It is the ‘snippet’ copy for the search result below the title, which inﬂuences whether or not you get the click. Keep it under 165 characters so the full description is visible in the search result. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

5 KEY ELEMENTS TO EFFECTIVE SEO COPYWRITING 3.Content: Unique and frequently updated content makes search engines happy. Tight on topic and subject matter. At least 300 words long. Bold or italise the ﬁrst keyword phrase or bullets. 4.Keyword Frequency (number of times): With keyword density (ratio). Measure the keyword frequency against the overall length of the content. If keyword density greater than 5.5%, you could be found guilty of what’s called keyword stufﬁng. Google does not like that. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

TEN GUIDELINES FOR TUNING UP YOUR SENTENCES 1. I’m a visitor- Talk to me- Use ‘You’ • Be consistent • Use appropriate nouns to talk about others • Use the imperative in instructions (Do this...) 2.I’m a business with a website but I am a person and my business includes people: • If you are blogging I is ﬁne • If you are writing an article I is ﬁne • If you are writing for an organisation, use We • Use organisation by name when you need to reinforce the brand name Tuesday, 29 June 2010

TEN GUIDELINES FOR TUNING UP YOUR SENTENCES 3.Write in the Active voice (most of the time) 4.Write simple, short sentences • Keep sentences to one thought or 2 tightly woven thoughts • Can do very short sentences • Can do fragments (A blog is a personal diary. A daily collection of thoughts) • Easy to understand even for serious writing 5.Edit, edit, edit (Due to the fact that business is good at this point in time, Because business is good now) 6.Give extra information its own place Tuesday, 29 June 2010

TEN GUIDELINES FOR TUNING UP YOUR SENTENCES 7.Keep paragraphs short • One sentence OK • Lists and tables may be more effective 8.Start with the context- Specially with instructions (If conditions are right, then you can...You can..., if the conditions are right) 9.Use ‘Doing’ verbs, don’t bury the action in a noun (to recommend the recommendations...) 10.Write like your reader would speak • Use simple, short, common words (get obtain, buy purchase, etc.) Tuesday, 29 June 2010

HEADLINES AND SUBJECT LINES Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WEB COPY • Web 2.0 tends to favour short, succinct, disgestible bites of copy (cyber bites) • Cyber bites have the power to create significant buzz for any product or service through social communication and social networks. • Web Copy: Words on a website, in an email, or in other online marketing communications that cause prospects to do what you want them to do- pick up the phone, register, subscribe, or buy your product or service. Maria Veloso • Before you drive traffic to your website you need to make sure you have web copy that sells. Studies have shown that the first thing people tend to look at on a webpage tends to be text. • How do people read on the web? They don’t- They scan Tuesday, 29 June 2010

A FRAMEWORK FOR WRITING KILLER WEB COPY 1.Work out your objective, target audience and product/service 2.Answer the following 5 questions 1. 2. What is the problem? 3. Why hasn’t the problem been solved? 4. What is possible? 5. What is different now? What should you do now? 3.Flesh it out by: 1. 2. Injecting emotion Adding bullet points, bonuses, the guarantee, and the close 3. 4. Adding credibility elements such as testimonials, case studies, facts, quotes & stats Adding psychological and involvement devices (cliffhangers, hypnotic commands) 5. Replacing all rational words with emotional words Tuesday, 29 June 2010

FIVE WAYS TO WRITE SCANNABLE COPY 1.Use bulleted lists to summarise content 2.Highlight by using bold or italic fonts or by underlining selected keywords to help scanners move through your web copy. 3.Write meaningful subheads 4.One idea per paragraph 5.Use the Inverted Pyramid style of writing; that is, present key points and conclusions ﬁrst, followed by less important information and background material (journalistic style of writing) Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WORDS TELL, EMOTION SELLS • We buy on emotions and justify with logic. • Strong copy platform built on proven emotional drivers such as anger, exclusivity, fear, greed, guilt and salvation. • Headline and sub-headline: Offer compelling information, solve a problem, take away pain, help someone achieve a goal, or fulﬁll a desire. Conversational language drives up the emotional volume, eg. What will you do when creditors try to seize your assets to collect on debts you owe them? Is your personal property at risk? Tuesday, 29 June 2010

‘HOW TO’ ‘HEADLINES • ‘How to’ articles and blog posts are the most sought after, linked to and bookmarked content online. Pull readers in with the headline. • ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ Dale Carnegie- Implication: if you can achieve the first benefit, you can automatically achieve the second. More effective still when benefit 1 and 2 are related: How To Save Time and Get Things Done (Time Management Coach), How To Save Money and Retire Rich (Financial planner). Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE ATTENTION-GRABBING POWER OF THE ‘LIST’ • Any headline that lists a number of reasons, secrets, types, or ways will work because it makes a speciﬁc promise of what’s in store for the reader. Perfect for building authority and demonstrating mastery in your area of expertise: • Do you recognise the 7 early warning signs of high blood pressure? • 10 ways to beat the high cost of living • Five familiar skin troubles • Six Types of Investor- Which group are you in? • How to give your children extra iron- These 3 delicious ways • Free book tells you 12 secrets of better lawn care (use with free report or tutorial you are promoting) • 76 reasons why it would have paid you to answer our ad a few months ago Tuesday, 29 June 2010

10 WINNING HEADLINES 1. Who else Wants XXX? Implies an already existing consensus desire: Who Else 2. Wants More Fun And Less Stress When on Vacation? The Secret of XXX- Share insider knowledge and translate it into a benefit for the 3. reader: The Secret of Protecting Your Assets in Litigation. Here is a Method That is Helping XXX to XXX- Identify the target market and provide benefit: Here is a Method That is Helping Homeowners Save Hundreds on 4. Insurance. Little Known Ways to XXX- Less common, more intriguing, same principle than 5. ‘The Secret Of...’: Little Known Ways to Lose Weight Quickly and Safely. Get Rid of XXX Once and For All- A classic formula that identifies a painful problem or an unfulfilled desire that the reader wants to remedy: Get Rid of That Carpet 6. Stain Once and For All. Here is a Quick Way to XXX- Here is a Quick Way to Get Over a Cold. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

10 WINNING HEADLINES 7. Now You Can Have (Something Desirable) (Great circumstance)- This is your classic ‘have your cake and eat it too’: Now You Can Quit Your Job and Make Even More Money. 8.(Do something) like (World-class example)- Speak Spanish like a Diplomat, Party like Paris Hilton. 9.Have a (or) Build a XXX You Can Be Proud of- Appeal to Vanity, dissatisfaction, or shame: Build a Body You Can Be Proud of, Have a Smile You Can Be Proud of. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

IN SUMMARY • What’s In It For Me? • Headlines and subheads, body copy, call to action, credibility builders (testimonials) • Every page is a landing page • The 3 Questions On a Landing Page: Where am I? What can I do here? Why should I buy from you? • Optimise with Keywords (Research) • Relevant content that provides value to the targeted searcher • Scannable copy • Words tell, emotion sells • Attention grabbing headlines Tuesday, 29 June 2010

EMAIL MARKETING Tuesday, 29 June 2010

EMAIL MARKETING ‘It is not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.’ Patricia Fripp Tuesday, 29 June 2010

TRAFFIC CONVERSION: TURNING VISITORS INTO CUSTOMERS What do businesses pay the most attention to and spend the most money on? The website, of course, because that’s the highly visible component of the marketing mix. The website is where a business displays its products and services; it’s where you close the sale. Email seen as a low cost, inconsequential accessory to a web presence, seen as just supporting the objectives of the website, as a customer service vehicle, or as a way to send out announcements. Big mistake: Email should assume a key role as a primary sales tool. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WHY YOUR EMAIL MAY BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR WEBSITE? • Cannot rely exclusively on a website to make sales- Need to rely on email to fuel those sales. Less than 1% of your website visitors will buy in their ﬁrst visit- at the most 5%. You need to bring them back. • Allows companies to speak personally and directly to prospects and customers to develop a relationship that will contribute to increased revenue. • Relationship marketing is at the very heart of e-commerce. To make sales, a website relies on visitors coming back to the site. You are more likely to close a sale. That’s because you give people a chance to get to know you and trust you. • Email also helps you keep the customers you have. Existing customers usually buy more, more often, are less price sensitive and often refer others. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

YOUR EMAIL INBOX- YOUR FRAME OF MIND • What is your frame of mind when you open your emails? • Who sent me email today? • I’m busy, I only have time to read the good stuff: • Important business emails • Personal emails • Others... • Let me delete all the junk mail • My Inbox is my private, personal space, and I don’t want strangers and salespeople invading my privacy. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

A FEW TIPS ON WRITING • Create rapport- Be like them- they will develop a bond because they see a reﬂection of themselves in you. Mirror their language. • Make it personal and conversational. Speak to your reader’s level of intelligence and comprehension, and keep it friendly. No corporate speak- it keeps your reader at arms length. • What’s In It For Them? • Write as if you’re writing to a friend. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

HOW TO WRITE EMAILS THAT ARE READ • ‘From’: Company name or your name? • Compelling Subject Line • Beware of copy-cat tactics and audience immunity • Not a license to be bland • The First Sentence • Stay on Point • Just one message • Provide Value • The Beneﬁt • A Call to Action Tuesday, 29 June 2010

A SIMPLE FRAMEWORK TO WRITE EFFECTIVE EMAIL • Write down 3 words that best describe your message, eg a smell, an emotion, a colour, a mood, a texture, a sound, or an adjective that describes your message. • Write in a way that will appeal to your audience • Write the way you speak • Don’t try to be creative or formal • Write the letter to a ‘friend’ • Spend 5 minutes writing the message using the 3 keywords. Don’t edit it. Email it to yourself. ‘Would I say that to a friend?’ If no, revise. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

A CONVERSATION IN PROGRESS • Frame of Mind alters • Trust grows • Engage your prospects- Surprise to delight, surprise to intrigue, arouse curiosity to make them look forward to future emails. • Educate, Engage, Entertain Tuesday, 29 June 2010

GET THEIR ATTENTION Our brain needs closure to complete incomplete thoughts. • Ask your reader to write something down- makes your brain wake up, pay attention, creates top of mind awareness, makes you receptive to the next step and doing what you ask them to do (eg. shopping list) • Get them to do a small, but entertaining or interesting activity- Refreshing diversion to the usual message. Engaging them to do something is like a getting a yes, getting them to click on your website is another yes. • Invite your reader to participate in a quick poll or a one question survey. Gets them to focus, of particular interest to your audience, gets them to interact with you, give them access to results • Pls forward- At the end of subject lines Tuesday, 29 June 2010

SIG FILE- YOUR DIGITAL SIGNATURE Part of your email message, appears at the bottom, tells your story- who you are and what you do- or features whatever product or service you are promoting. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

DO THE RIGHT THING- FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES • Use conﬁrmed opt-in lists (or double opt-in lists) • Your email content must be relevant to the interests of your list and relevant to what they subscribed to • Limit the frequency of your emails • Get your subscribers to whitelist the email address you send your emails from • Avoid sending email to mailing lists other than your own • Make it easy for your readers to unsubscribe • Include your postal address with all your commercial emails Tuesday, 29 June 2010

WHEN TO SEND AN EMAIL • Tuesday to Thursday- 73% of emails are distributed on those days. Open rates are higher on those days than other days. • Weekends can be ok depending on the type of audience you address and product/service. Consider sports fans, music buyers or movie buffs. Sending on a Sunday morning, while lower open and click-through rates, higher number of transactions. Their frame of mind: purchasing mood. • Try to establish consistency of delivery time so that your readers can anticipate your newsletter. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

CONTROL- TEST- MEASURE • Test, test, test: Try different offers, formats, types of subject lines, distribution days/times and other variables such as copy styles, amount of copy, offers. • Test one variable against one constant. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

OOPS! I DID IT AGAIN... SENDING CORRECTION EMAILS • When misinform recipients (wrong dates, product information, etc.) • When links, download mechanisms do not work • When there is a risk of damaging your brand, reputation or customer relationships • Don’t worry about typos, grammatical mistakes, images that don’t download, etc. You may include a reference to it in follow up communications Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THE LOGISTICS OF SENDING OUT CORRECTION EMAILS • Get correction email asap • Send the corrected email with a note above the main message • Serious, humorous or apologetic? • To the point: We made a mistake, Here is the ﬁx, Here is an offer to make it up to you... • Only send to recipients who have opened the email containing the mistake Tuesday, 29 June 2010

HOW TO AVOID MISTAKES • Third Party Proof Reader: A fresh set of eyes is more likely to ﬁnd errors • Pre-testing: Send to different test email accounts (AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) • Production Checklists: Have a formal production and review process Tuesday, 29 June 2010

TIPS TO RE-ENGAGE INACTIVE RECIPIENTS • Inactive recipients are those who have not opened AND clicked on a single email over a given period of time/number of emails. • Possible reasons: • Disinterested/Changed Interests • Badly written subject lines • Dormant email accounts • Spam/content ﬁlters • Junk Folders • Image Filters Tuesday, 29 June 2010

TIPS TO RE-ENGAGE INACTIVE RECIPIENTS • Take the last 6 months or the last 10 emails- select your inactive recipients • Target them with special email campaigns to reactivate them: • Special offers (discounts if retailer, white paper if B2B) • Survey subscribers • Update profile- drive them to update their profile, interest, etc • Understand their demographics/profile • Try different send days/times • Modify frequency (more for active, less for inactive) • Create different content • Try different formats • Test different styles of subject lines • Monitor proof lists • Send a postcard Tuesday, 29 June 2010

IMPROVED SUBJECT LINES • Inform: ‘Ifyou don’t open and read this email, you’ll miss out on something of real value.’ • Intrigue: In the same way that a well written headline does. Stimulate the brain. • Entrust: Don’t over-promise. • Action: Should reﬂect your goals and help direct recipients to the desired action. Tuesday, 29 June 2010

IN SUMMARY- EMAIL MARKETING • Top of mind awareness • Drive trafﬁc to website • What’s In It For Them? • Call to action • Write like you are writing to a friend • A conversation in progress • Educate, Engage, Entertain • Re-Activate Inactive Recipients Tuesday, 29 June 2010

INTERNET MARKETING PLANNER Refer to your handout Tuesday, 29 June 2010

THANK YOU • www.Alchemy-Network.com for more information • www.AlchemyOpportunity.com to ﬁnd out about Business Consulting Careers • Contact Sylvie Danoy: sylvie.d@alchemy-network.com • Call us on +64 7 5580 9997 • Visit us at our Ofﬁce: 28 Watts Drive, Varsity Lakes, QLD Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Online Marketing Secrets for Offline Businesses

by The Alchemy Network on Jun 29, 2010

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Online Marketing Secrets for Offline Businesses — Presentation Transcript