Riki Trafford




Article:

7 Ways to Think About Lead Generation For Your Web-site

Your target visitors are waiting to tell you how much they enjoy your product and service. Are you out there acknowledging their loyalty?

Search engines and advertising campaigns are lead generators that are arranged so as to hand over important visitor information that can help your revenue. A well set-up lead generator sits outside your website in other locations that are relevant to your site and hands over your location when a visitor requests to know more about you. This arrangement increases the possibility that the visitor is highly interested in what you have to offer. Don't go wasting your time on advertisements like banners and pop-ups in locations that have nothing in common with your website material.
This only wastes your visitor's time and yours. Also, once those visitors arrive at your location, they won't add anything to your bottom line.

Lead generation is meant to draw in interested visitors to your site and motivate the visitor to perform a desired action. Below are more lead generating ways to accomplish this goal:

- Think original.
Uniqueness does matter. Why attract visitors that have been to similar sites before yours? You want leads that are uniquely tailored to match what you offer. Along this line, don't keep dated material that no longer holds relevancy to these visitors or other leads.

- Map out a strategy.
Why plan to attract leisurely sightseers in your traffic?
Big traffic doesn't matter if only 1% of 20,000 visitors in a day (200 visitors) end up purchasing when you would do better attracting 2000 visitors where 20% purchase (400).
Capturing target visitors is important. These visitors feel special instead of a number and are more motivated to purchase and become a returning customer.

- Aim for creativity.
Fresh material always does better than stale stuff. Take some direct mail campaign advice: give away the old stuff or toss it out. Then, insert fresh, attractive material.
When you do give away the older material, offer it to new markets that would be interested in getting to know you better.

- Map out e-newsletter, e-book, etc.
Readers are highly attracted to content that makes a difference to them. This attraction lures them closer in your direction with a desire to know more. The more relevant your material to them, the more likely they will come back time and again.

- Map out generosity.
Full price for a new service or product is sometimes a big turn-off at the very beginning. Until your lead list is built, give away discounts on subscriptions or a limited-time free service. Also, sweepstakes and contests will build leads. Find out gift limitations based on state laws before doing so.

- Map out plans to repeat your requests.
Loyal customers are OK with requests from you for leads.
Considering how leads keep your campaign expenses down, loyal customers will offer leads if they get something in return like discounts or low prices.

Most importantly think loyalty. When it comes to generating leads that make a difference, your reputation will build as you increase ways to make your visitors feel that what you
have to offer is pertinent. You can do hundreds of
campaigns that will bring thousands of visitors. But, if you don't treat that lead with the dignity they deserve, soon all your efforts will turn sour and they'll quickly go elsewhere.

Copyright 2005 Riki Trafford. All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riki Trafford is the owner and operator of Direct MO Marketing
which offers low cost keyword-targetted web traffic.
For comments and questions visit his web site:
http://www.1dmom.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Riki Trafford


Online PR Tools That Increase Business

PR is good for business, especially good PR! Everyone knows that. Is this true for PR online? Very much so true, especially when a website uses appropriate PR for its attentive audience.

By it very nature, a website is in many ways a PR campaign; it spreads the word about your products and services and quickly puts this news before visitors. Some experts claim that the potential of online PR is better than many conventional routes. When you stop to think about it, there is no good reason to go online unless your presence increases your visibility and gets you noticed in a positive manner that increases your revenue.

Attracting positive attention is easy through many online PR tools. A few ways that your can get your messages across to a wide market is by using some of the below tools:

1. Blogs and Newsgroups.
You can position yourself as a guru or expert in forums that encourage worthwhile discussions on topics related to your
business. Visitors will anticipate all the latest news
from their source - you.

2. Organizations and Yellow Pages.
Join related organizations and other groups that list its members for the public's knowledge. This shows you hold legitimate capabilities and integrity. Also, get your business lists on Yellow Pages and other directories.
Whenever possible, list more that just your business name, website, and so on; Include key phrases and words that speak volumes about your specialty. Some places to start listing your business are PRWeb.com and Yearbook.com.

3. Press releases and special features.
Inside relevant online publications, submit press releases with special angles about your website product or service.
As you build relationships with these online publications, submit monthly features about your area of expertise.
Always include your website somewhere in the press release or at the end of the article so readers can follow up or get more information with you. If this seems too time consuming, online PR firms and services sometimes offer, for a fee, to submit your press releases to as many as 50 related media sources for you.

4. Newsletters and E-zines.
You can spread your own PR via your own e-zines, requiring visitors to subscribe before receiving relevant information about your industry, services or products. By offering short course material in the e-zines, your visitors can experience first-hand your knowledge and start building a relationship with you.

The ultimate reason for using PR tools is to gain more business. If the PR campaign only takes up your time or doesn't end up drawing in more business, then you should either scrap it or revamp it. While many PR efforts aren't always measurable dollar-wise, such as reinforcing existing relationship or improving image, PR efforts online should clearly aim to get a monetary result.

A few other PR pointers to bear in mind when mapping out an online PR campaign are:

- Since the Internet is seen globally, use extremely clear communication.
- Only immediate information is considered newsworthy.
- Keep download time to a minimum and feedback professional since visitors expect this level of interaction.
- Even though Internet PR costs aren't as high as PR in print, the time involved to create great Internet PR will be just as consuming.


Copyright 2005 Riki Trafford. All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riki Trafford is the webmaster of Direct MO Marketing Inc which offers low cost, highly-targeted, keyword-focussed web-site visitors. 1dmom.com has a free newsletter:
- DMOM Traffic News. Signup at http://www.1dmom.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Riki Trafford




Infusing The AIDA Technique Into Your Sales Letter

To see the biggest impact in a promotion, marketers refer to a four-step strategy called AIDA. Do you see your promotions pulling their weight? The starting point for every campaign should begin with reviewing AIDA's four steps or else your campaign is destined to fall short each time.
The best guarantee that your campaign will succeed and pull in the profits you anticipate is by using this approach that motivates your prospects and moves them to purchase.

AIDA is an acronym that means Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. The more you use this marketing strategy in your sales writing the easier it becomes for you to keep your prospects a captive audience.

All campaigns that involve a sales letter should begin with the intention to use AIDA in its style. When AIDA is followed closely, your results can reach their full potential and your audience will be practically knocking on your door to complete a sale.

The best way to get the best results from a campaign, according to marketers, is to break up the campaign into steps that are suited to your audience's buying behavior.
For example, would you expect a person to buy a sports car after the first time he's asked? The likelihood is slim since every sale must start at some level and progress to another level. Also, would you greet your prospect with "Hi! Let me show you the checkout counter so you can get this great item!"? Odds are you aren't going to get good results with this type of approach.

Since you do have only a matter of seconds to capture your reader's attention, you should start out with a high impact Attention. Below are suggestions of ways to grab a reader's attention quickly:

- Mention a mutual goal.
- Make a promise.
- Pose an important question.
- State a fantastic deal.

Your next move in the sales letter is to smoothly let the reader find out about information that directly interests him. For example, if you offer a deal, let the reader know why this deal is good for him. Use descriptions or details.
Or, if the promise (or solution) can alleviate some problem, let the reader know the consequences of not addressing the solution. Fear and greed are two interest grabbers that many readers want resolved by the time you reach the end of the letter.

Evoking a desire is another important element that should be in a sales letter. A reader is left with a feeling or desire to carry out some action after reading about something that has caught her interest. By seizing this moment, you can quickly move a reader toward performing an action.

The action portion of a sales letter involves letting the reader know what he can do to obtain what piques his interest. This is where you can ask the reader to respond.
A response doesn't always entail a purchase - not yet at least. Some responses involve:

- Signing up for a short course
- Receiving a free report
- Requesting a quote
- Asking for specifications
- Planning a one-on-one visit

A sales letter is mainly getting your foot in the door. So, treat an AIDA letter as a first step in a campaign. The closing of a sale may take up to seven contacts. So, why not let your first contact make the best impression and move the reader to respond.


Copyright 2005 Riki Trafford. All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riki Trafford makes it easy for you to find low cost, keyword-targeted, pre-qualified visitors for your web-site.
For more information, visit http://www.1dmom.com/

Riki Trafford



Prove It! The Power of Testimonials

Don't be shy - soak up the praise! When you let others toot your horn for you, you not only raise your credibility but you also build a deeper level of trust with your visitors.
While its okay to tell visitors that you are credible, these statements are much stronger coming from a testimonial.
Before many visitors will purchase, they expect this level of trust.

Which would you rather hear - "I'm great!" or "This business provided such great service that I would return to time and time again!"? Just like a reference in a resume, a testimonial offers credibility. Many marketers say that a C should be added to the AIDA formula, whereby the C stands for credibility. And, credibility is built with testimonials.

Testimonials place oomph in a website and can move a visitor from a sightseer into a valuable customer. When a website errs and leaves out testimonials, the website is misses an opportunity to capitalize on the power of these tributes.
Some tips on how to get high quality testimonials are below:

1. Write to your customers for a testimonial. "If you build it, they will come" is a way to build testimonials.
Many customers are eager to write about their positive experiences if you just ask them first.

2. The best testimonials are positive. If a client mails you a positive comment, ask that customer to elaborate on the comment along with permission to use it as a testimonial. Lots of customers consider this a compliment.
Always get the customer's permission on a "release letter"
form before you use any testimonial. A sample release letter can be found at www.marketingtoday.com/marcom/testi2.com.

3. For every freely offered testimonial, give a deal or reward in return. Send out notices about your testimonial campaign and spell out rewards, donation or monetary, or money off future purchases. State laws vary on gift donation amount, so check the limits ahead of time.

Many testimonial campaigns can be done directly from your website, direct e-mails, or in the mail.

Use these testimonials generously throughout your website.
Don't limit the testimonials to one page! Testimonials have the best effect when interspersed throughout the website and strategically placed on pages that directly pertain to that testimonial. Many testimonials work well in the left or right margins, along side articles or product descriptions.
Also, inserting testimonials into content such as course material is very effective.

Testimonials don't work on everyone. If your audience holds certain high power jobs like an executive or other "pioneers", testimonials will not move them to make a decision. However, an audience with "emulators" will definitely want to read many testimonials, especially statements that reflect their beliefs or wants.

The most believable testimonials come from a real person and uses real conversion language. A long testimonial is more believable than a short testimonial. Below are tips for selecting believable testimonials:

- Place the testimonial in quotation marks and include the entire name of the person who supplied the testimonial, along with their title.
For example, "A.R. from Arkansas" sounds made up compared to "Arthur Rock, President of Sales/Marketing, XYZ Corporation, Little Rock, AR".

- Pick a testimonial that contains lots of details.

- Pick positive and real testimonials that make you stop and say, "I want that to happen for me too".

Relying on testimonials to sell your service or product is a mistake. Instead, use testimonials as a tool to position your service or product in a manner that further supports the reader's decision to do business with you

Riki Trafford

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10 Tips For Writing Effective Google Adwords

For someone green to Google Adwords, a Google ad is seen on Google Result pages as a sponsored ad along the right-hand portion of the page or in the top two listing spots. These ads are chalk full of keywords that match a person's search words. Google charges a fee of a nickel to several dollars to the advertiser every time a visitor clicks within the ad.

In Adwords, you are permitted one line for the headline, not to exceed twenty-five characters, and two lines for copy, not to exceed thirty-five characters. That is all! This takes into account spaces that count as a character. To many, short means simple, correct? No true! A writer will tell you that it's much harder to write short content compared to wordier, long content. In short content, every word must make a strong impact. This compact writing will create better search and traffic results.

Google AdWords leaves little room for waste. The best-composed, compact AdWords are approved quicker and result in a high click-through rate with visitors who feel compelled to respond. All that from just 3 lines of roughly 70 characters!

Moving a reader to perform an action is the main intent of
a tightly written Adwords. Pay close attention to picking
optimized keywords and phrases for your Adwords that you know will work in a fashion that brings results.

Engineering an effective Google Adwords isn't going to happen overnight, so below are some useful tips:

1. The inverted triangle approach to writing will help you brainstorm material. Start with the most important points and use copy and language that hold meaning for your target audience. Then, trim your material using the following tips.

2. Move a visitor to perform a click by using attention-grabbers, power words and listing benefits. Get these ideas by brainstorming into two column where the first column is for listing features and the second is for listing the benefits of these features.

3. Attention-grabbers must be true. Does the claim make you raise your eyebrows? Don't use "free" if there's a catch. Google has guidelines you must comply with (https://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html).

4. Don't skirt around what your customers want. The power of the Internet allows your customers to look for you and they want something specific. Announce loud and clear that you're there by using a headline that's precise.

5. Split-test the power of keywords on Google Search results. Also, test your versions and make changes to ads that perform poorly. A one-word change can pick up your click-through ratio immensely. Very poorly performing ads will be dropped by Google.

6. Use [square brackets] around keywords and even try a dynamic headline. When a search result matches your keyword exactly, Google bolds the matching keywords in your ad. You can also program your headline to customize and match the search, as long as the dynamic headline doesn't use misspelled words. For example, {KeyWord: Writing Tight AdWords}. You must use the brackets and "KeyWord:" in the programming.

7.~Cut out unnecessary words like a, an, in, on, it, of, etc.

8. Right away say what makes you better than the competition or unique. Do you offer specials? If so, include that.

9. List prices or discounts at the end to keep away those who only want everything for nothing.

10. Emotion, energy and response come from power words and call-to-action. Use only words and statements that match your product or service. Sample power words include discover, these, and enhance.

Tight writing comes from identifying exactly what you want your customer to do with the information you provide. Not only will your click-through rate improve but also your self-monitored conversion ratio should improve when you make AdWords work in your favor.


Copyright 2005 Riki Trafford. All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riki Trafford is the manager and developer of Direct MO Marketing Inc which offers low cost highly-targetted, keyword-focussed web traffic. 1dmom.com also accepts article submissions on traffic, marketing, and business topics. Get your article archived on the Internet with your resources box, here:
http://www.1dmom.com/archive/submit.html