Tuesday, 18 May 2010

How To Find Out What Keywords Your Customers Are Searching With

In this article I show you how to capture your most targeted visitors with the search engines by discovering what keywords they search with.


To get high search engine rankings, you must include the keywords that your potential customers are search with, in your web pages.

To find out what your most targeted keywords are, you need a keyword analysis service, such as Wordtracker.

Wordtracker will help you find all keyword combinations that bear any relation to your business or service. It does this by providing analysis of actual searches conducted in metacrawler search engines.

You may wonder why it's important that you need to know what keywords your potential customers are searching with. Let me show you why with some examples.

Here are the most popular searches for the different variations of the search term, "keywords," according to Wordtracker:
Search Term Searches
keywords 273
Keywords 103
key words 68

Notice the different variations? The second keyword is capitalized. The third keyword is split into two words.

Here are the most popular searches for the different variations of the search term, "marketing strategies," according to Wordtracker:
Search Term Searches
marketing strategies 319
marketing strategy 280
Marketing Strategy 172
Marketing Strategies 22

Why Is It Important?

Well, if you wanted to target search engine users, you would want to include all the different variations of the keyword you want to target. This will help to persuade the search engines that your web page is relevant for the different keyword searches.

Another reason is that some search engines, such as Inktomi, still take case sensitivity into consideration when ranking web pages.

Here's a table of Inktomi powered search sites that provide case-sensitive search results.
Search Case-Sensitivity
ICQ
Full
LookSmart
Partial
MSN
Partial
Overture
Full

Knowing exactly what your customers are searching for is very powerful.

I have used this strategy over the years to help me obtain thousands of top 30 rankings for my web sites, and those of my clients.

Saturday, 15 May 2010

How to Close Online Sales Through Asking Questions

There are some closing techniques that are more applicable to the Web than others -- but I'll show you magical closing secrets that can dramatically increase your web sales, and rapidly increase your online income. This works best on direct response websites - i.e., those that focus on getting an immediate response in the form of an order or lead.

The All-Important Opening Question

When you're selling online, you don't have the benefit of interacting with your prospect the way you would in face-to-face selling. Therefore, the first thing you say in your web copy has to be something that breaks preoccupation, grabs attention, and points to the result or benefit of your product.

Your opening question must be aimed at something that is relevant and important, and at something that your prospect needs or wants. What do sales managers, for instance, sit around and think about all day long? Increasing sales! Therefore, if your target market consists of sales managers, here's an example of a question you can use as a headline or as the first part of your copy: "How would you like to see a method that would enable you to increase your sales by 20% to 30% over the next 12 months?"

When you ask such a question, the first thing that pops into the mind of the prospect should be, "What is it?" - Whereupon you've captured his or her attention, and you can then begin to articulate how your product or service can solve the need posed by the question.

Plan your opening question carefully. If your opening question fails to break your prospect's preoccupation and grab his attention, he will click away before giving you the opportunity to present your product or service.

Questions That Keep Them Involved

Questions are equally vital during the presentation, i.e., in the body of your web copy, for clearly explaining how your product or service solves your prospect's problem in an easy, fast, or cost-effective way.

Tip: Never say something if you can ask it instead! Think of how you can phrase your key selling points as questions. The person who asks questions has control!

Closing Questions that Presume the Sale

How to Close Online Sales Through Asking Questions

There are some closing techniques that are more applicable to the Web than others -- but I'll show you magical closing secrets that can dramatically increase your web sales, and rapidly increase your online income. This works best on direct response websites - i.e., those that focus on getting an immediate response in the form of an order or lead.

The All-Important Opening Question

When you're selling online, you don't have the benefit of interacting with your prospect the way you would in face-to-face selling. Therefore, the first thing you say in your web copy has to be something that breaks preoccupation, grabs attention, and points to the result or benefit of your product.

Your opening question must be aimed at something that is relevant and important, and at something that your prospect needs or wants. What do sales managers, for instance, sit around and think about all day long? Increasing sales! Therefore, if your target market consists of sales managers, here's an example of a question you can use as a headline or as the first part of your copy: "How would you like to see a method that would enable you to increase your sales by 20% to 30% over the next 12 months?"

When you ask such a question, the first thing that pops into the mind of the prospect should be, "What is it?" - Whereupon you've captured his or her attention, and you can then begin to articulate how your product or service can solve the need posed by the question.

Plan your opening question carefully. If your opening question fails to break your prospect's preoccupation and grab his attention, he will click away before giving you the opportunity to present your product or service.

Questions That Keep Them Involved

Questions are equally vital during the presentation, i.e., in the body of your web copy, for clearly explaining how your product or service solves your prospect's problem in an easy, fast, or cost-effective way.

Tip: Never say something if you can ask it instead! Think of how you can phrase your key selling points as questions. The person who asks questions has control!

Closing Questions that Presume the Sale

Friday, 14 May 2010

Internet Marketing Strategies

Developing a successful internet marketing strategy is an essential part of your online success. In order to succeed, you must develop and implement a strategic plan that includes all of the following:

• A great product
• A web site specifically designed to sell
• A killer marketing strategy

Each step plays an important role in your overall strategy and must be developed to its fullest potential. If even one step fails, your chances of success will be minimal.

Developing Your Product

Your first step will be to develop a great product. You're probably thinking that's easier said than done, but it's really not. The absolute best product is one that you can develop yourself and deliver over the Internet. With today's technology, there is absolutely no reason why you can't create your own product. The knowledge you have within your own mind is extremely valuable. Everybody is good at something, has a special talent or some specialized knowledge. Use this knowledge to create a product.

The key to developing a great product is exclusiveness. Your product should be unique and not be in competition with hundreds of other similar products. You must give your potential customers exactly what they want. Develop a high-quality product that fills a void to increase your chance of success.

Another consideration of great importance is your target market. Keep in mind, the Internet is a global marketplace. Develop a product with a large geographic target and a wide appeal. A great product will fulfill a need or desire and provide instant gratification.

Here are a few of the top sellers:
• Software
• Information
• Private sites
• Internet services

Before you develop your product, do some research -- find out exactly what people want and develop your product accordingly.

The most important consideration when developing your product is quality. Your product should not only deliver what you promise, but should go above and beyond the expected and over deliver. Your customers’ satisfaction is of the utmost importance.

Developing Your Web Site

Once you've developed a great product, your next step will be to develop a great web site. Your web site must be specifically designed to sell your product.

Everything within your web site should have one purpose -- getting your visitor to take action. Words are the most powerful marketing tool you have. The right words will turn your visitors into customers. The wrong words will cause them to click away and never return.

Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Your product, your web site and your marketing strategies all depend upon your words. Fancy graphics don't make sales -- words do.

Every word, sentence and headline should have one specific purpose -- to lead your potential customer to your order page. Write your web site copy as if you are talking to just one person. Identify a problem and validate that one visitor's need for a solution. Continue to write and explain why your product is the solution to their problem. Tell them exactly what your product will do for them -- why it will solve their problems and how. Pack your copy with benefits and more benefits. Write to persuade -- that's the bottom line.

Developing Your Marketing Strategies

Your marketing strategy is the final process of your plan. Your plan must include both short-term and long-term strategies in order to succeed.
Short term marketing strategies are those that bring you a temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very important to your over-all plan, they are only a temporary traffic source and must not be solely relied upon.

Short term marketing strategies include:
• Purchasing Advertising
• Participating in Forums
• Search Engines
• Etc.
Long term marketing strategies are those that bring you a steady stream of targeted traffic over time. These strategies will continue to produce results even years down the road.
Long term marketing strategies include:

• Opt-in Lists
• Blogging
• Social Networking Sites
• Social Bookmarking Sites
• Giving Away Freebies
• Article Marketing

By creating and implementing a balanced marketing strategy, using both short-term and long-term strategies, you will drive a steady stream of targeted traffic to your web site.
If you use this simple formula when creating your Internet marketing strategy and excel at all three, you can literally guarantee your success.