November 25, 2014 How to Craft Your Web Sales Copy with Great Copywriting

Copywriting is really an art, and if you don’t believe me, ask anyone who’s been tasked to create a sales page. The interplay between words and emotion, products and psychology is an art, and should not be tried at home.

So what are the elements of great copywriting that will get us to this point? What precepts and tips will get our content to rise above and be noticed? Here are 7 copywriting tips to both help your content connect with readers, but also to get noticed far and wide.

7 Copywriting tips that will make your content sing!

Tell a great story – Everyone likes a good story, and if you can spin one while accomplishing your sales aims you’ll be a rockstar. Tugging at emotions and empathy are wonderful tools to employ here.

Focus on benefits – One critical mistake beginning copywriters make is to emphasize features over benefits, which is of course bad, as all of us want to know what’s in it for us!

Make value evident – Making your content extremely valuable in and of itself will make your reader feel as though they’re already gotten a lot from you, enhancing the trust factor in your favor.

Employ questions to set the tone – If you can weave in questions that have them shaking their head “Yes” to all your points, you’ve managed to get it them into the proper mindset for saying yes to whatever else you might want to say. (Hint, hint)

Inject emotion – Using emotions in your copy is a tested method to get your reader to take action, buy into whatever you’re saying or selling, and making a connection with you.

Make your content longer – Studies are showing that the pages that Google is putting on Page One lately are averaging over 2,000 words in length. Wherever possible, publish longer, in-depth content that will also help establish you as an authority in your field.

Get social – Make sure you are using social media to promote your content. Really encourage your readers to share on their social channels, as you never know who may have some awesome connections that will help your incredible content go wide.

November 21, 2014 Don’t overlook the importance of your welcome emails

You know the routine: you opt-in to someone’s subscriber list, and soon you receive a confirmation email from them, welcoming you to the list, newsletter or whatever you just opted in for. The fact that we are expecting these emails is a major reason why they are usually opened. But how does the sender craft these emails for best results?

What elements are important to not only welcome them, but also spotlight what they can expect and what you have to offer them during their time with you?

Here are 7 ways you can optimize your welcome emails to set the stage for a lasting, profitable relationship.

7 Ways to craft effective welcome emails

Send out immediately – Send these out immediately. Don’t wait to batch send your welcome emails. A study by Experian found that welcome emails sent out individually rather than by batch were opened 10X more! Show you care about them signing up.

Use a working email address – Using a no-reply email address will only do one thing for you: give you a no-response customer. People are going to want to email you. Don’t make it difficult.

Split-test your welcome email subject lines – This is quite easy to do, and can make a big difference in your open rates. Wouldn’t you want to do this for a potential 15-20 percent increase in opens?

Use your social media channels – Encourage your subscribers to follow you on your social media channels, and even help them by making sure you have links and buttons on your email template.

Personalize your welcome emails – If you’ve collected names, you’re going to want to personalize your welcome emails to help get the relationship off to a warm and fuzzy start. Don’t get overly cozy, but friendly and polite is good.

Perhaps offer an incentive – Many times companies choose to include an incentive to get the relationship off on the right foot. Maybe a percent off coupon?

Make sure to optimize for mobile – Since around half of all emails are now opened on a mobile device, it would be a good idea to make sure you are using a responsive design so that your emails can be opened anywhere.

November 18, 2014 Words Matter – Effective Phrases to help You Close More Sales

All of us want to close more sales leads, and very often the easiest way to get that accomplished is by carefully selecting the words we use when trying to close the deal.

The words we select to create our sales messages need to create a mindset that is conducive to persuading the prospect to click the buy button. There is a wealth of thought that has gone into the science of conversion, and the psychology behind it is quite interesting.

But for now, let’s just take a short look at 5 ways you can shape your words and phrases to get more conversions.

Increase sales graph

5 Types of phrases that sell

Using the Assumptive approach — Asking the prospect “How many of these do you want today?” assumes the prospect is purchasing and puts them in another mindset entirely, one in which they are on the road to delivery, and no longer deciding. If you’ve done a good job of selling prior to this, this works well.

Asking directly for the sale — Sometimes it’s best to take the direct approach. If you’ve managed to make a good case for your product and have answered all the negatives you can imagine, just be bold, (not pushy!) and ask for the sale.

Using a fearful close — Fear works wonders sometimes, and no one likes to miss out on something they really want or need. Make it your business to make it seem as though not having your products or services will truly cost them far more than the cost of the item.

Have a friendly close — Being personable and friendly in your close, such as “Would you like me to help you get going with this?” casts you and your products in a friendly, helpful light, and thus brings down defenses and resistance several notches.

Alternative close — Oftentimes if you have several products that may fit the bill, you can “help” the customer decide by phrasing your copy like “So after thinking about which fits your needs better at the moment, do you want to go with Product A or Product B?”

November 12, 2014 Establishing Your Brand: More Than Securing Profiles, it’s also about Great Design

Your potential customers are searching for products and services through various channels. They also use these channels to connect with brands.  Will they find you? What will they see?

Aside from using the major search engines, your potential customers are also using Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks to find the products or services that you offer.  They search in the blogging community and in local business directories. They also land on press release sites and other web pages.

Is your brand present in any of these channels or online real estate?  Is your business easily recognizable in these channels with a profile name, handle, or URL that matches your brand?  Are your profiles or pages well-designed?

How does one get started on this?  Well, with your business name or brand name, your domain name, plus your website, you’ve gotten started staking your claim on a piece of online real estate.  But it shouldn’t stop there.  You should also secure your accounts, handles, and URLs in the top blogs, social media networks, press releases sites, and local directories.

The Importance of Securing your Account Names and Profiles

A lot of companies don’t realize the importance of securing the right name for their online identities, and how small subtleties can make all the difference. Securing a name might sound easy on paper, but it’s a challenge that has plagued many companies. In fact, before anyone was aware of the impact it would have, 93 out of the top 100 brands on Twitter did not have the appropriate handle at one point.

Imagine the branding and promoting problems McDonald’s could have experienced if they did not own the “@McDonalds” Twitter handle, and needed to use something confusing like “@Mc_Donalds” or “@OfficialMcDonalds”—all because they ignored or overlooked securing their matching twitter handle.

Online Squatting: A Threat to your Brand

Online squatting is a problem that you should prevent your business from experiencing. There’s value in having the right Twitter handle these days, and if you want your business to be promoted better, nothing turns people off more than a complicated handle that they have to remember instead of something they can type intuitively. Seventy-five percent (75%) of tweets go to the wrong account since users think they are sending messages to the right account when in fact they are not. This also does not bode well for interactions, as half of tweets end up going to the wrong places, only because a business did not secure the same Twitter and Facebook names.

Consider also the following: While 95% of companies say that protecting their online identities is critical to their success, 40% do not have a brand protection strategy.  If your business can secure a domain that people can remember right away with matching handles across all social media, your existing and potential customers will have no trouble finding you. Plus, you will have gained a massive advantage over other companies.

Establish Your Brand with Professionally Designed Profiles and Pages for Optimal Brand Engagement, Lead Generation, and Customer Acquisition

But name security isn’t everything when it comes to establishing a brand. Potential customers also want to be pleasantly welcomed when they see you online.  Hence, having a page that is professionally designed is key to attracting them. As Facebook is where many businesses are found by Internet users, having a Facebook page has become a basic requirement.  Ensuring that your Facebook page looks professional, organized, and enticing for its audience is equally important.

Eighty percent (80%) of people use Facebook to connect with brands and a larger percentage (85%) will recommend that particular brand to others.  Meanwhile, half of Twitter’s users follow products, companies, or brands.

Businesses have been Successfully Acquiring Customers via Social Media and Online Directories

In one study, these are the percentage of companies that acquired customers through the following channels:  LinkedIn (62%), Facebook (52%), and Twitter (44%).  While in online directories, searches result in: a purchase or intent to purchase (76%), a contact to a business by phone (62%), and a contact to a business in person (31%).

Remember that great design adds value to your brand. Demonstrating that you value keeping your online channels presentable will leave a favourable impression on your existing and potential customers. Professional design impacts consumers in the following areas: Perception Value (79%), Performance Value (34%), Strategic Value (42%), and Financial and Accounting Value (16%).

Small or new businesses that want to achieve great design should have content that is up-to-date and readable. Great design also encompasses proper branding and navigation, and is compatible with widgets (especially social media ones). All of these characteristics will leave a good and lasting impression on visitors, and will make them want to come back.

Overall, online branding is not just about securing account names, handles, and URLs; it is also about establishing your presence with great design. While having a presence with a name that is easy to remember and is registered across the Internet in a uniform manner is great, this is made even better when profiles and pages are designed professionally.

If you’re ready to take that first step and make your mark in the online world, you can get started with us today.

Call or email us today for a free consultation.

November 4, 2014 How to Make Your Checkout Page Convert

You’ve done a substantial amount of work, and presumably spent some money to get your prospective customer to your checkout page, and then, inexplicably, they go away without completing the transaction. Studies show that up to 67 percent of shopping carts are abandoned.

Sometimes the reasons are none of your doing: second thoughts, insufficient funds, kids spilling milk all over the rug. We get it. But quite often, it is likely something we’ve either done or not done that leads to shopping cart abandonment. Here are 7 ways to help keep you from creating issues for yourself, while improving your checkout page conversions many times over.

7 Ways to improve checkout page conversions

  1. Free shipping – If at all possible, you need to offer free shipping for any physical product you can. Needless to say if you’re selling tractors, we can fudge some here, but high shipping costs and the lack of perceived value in that are the #1 reason people abandon shopping carts.
  2. Words matter – The text you use on your calls to action and especially any buy buttons must be carefully thought out and tested. It can be the difference between a sale or an exit.
  3. Clutter free forms – Make certain you’re not asking for anything you don’t absolutely need in your shopping cart forms with respect to information. People are only going to give you what’s needed for the transaction, and if you press for more, they’re outa there.
  4. Reassurance works – Trust seals and especially guarantees near the credit card fields make a large difference.
  5. Easy contact information – Give prospective customers a way to contact you if they need more information. This can be an email, phone or webpage.
  6. Images sell – It’s good for a person to see what they’re buying before they pull the trigger. Including a small product image on the checkout page can do the trick.
  7. Live chat – If you find that your product offering is receiving a lot of questions, check your sales copy and consider offering a live chat solution to help. The mere act of connecting with another human may be all the push they need to complete the sale.

October 31, 2014 See These 10 Email Marketing Best Practices

Email marketing can be a tricky business, and what is acceptable is subject to change as time passes, so it’s a smart idea to revisit email marketing best practices on a regular basis. What works best is affected by other aspects and technology changes, so if we want to get the best results we need to keep current.

Ten best practices for email marketing

  1. Use short, attention grabbing subject lines – Avoid spam words, and be sure you are being bold without straying off into untruth. Tell them what to expect.
  3. Mobile optimized emails – If you’re not mobilizing for mobile now, you’re losing out, as some 67 percent of all emails are now opened via a mobile device.
  5. Let them know who it’s from – Having a bland perfunctory “From” address can lead to your emails never getting opened. Make it recognizable.
  7. Use a call to action – Several, if possible. And make sure at least one of them is above the fold.
  9. Keep body of email short – Brevity is the clear winner presently, when everyone is pressed for time. Use short, clear paragraphs and text.
  11. Include videos and pictures – Visual content is extremely popular these days, and there is a lot of evidence that it converts much better than mere text.
  12. Emphasize benefits to reader – Don’t spend time talking about you: all they really want to know is what’s in it for them, so be sure not to disappoint.
  13. Don’t send too little or too much – This is one you need to test, as all audiences are a bit different, but be assured that once a month is too little, and a dozen times a week is excessive.
  14. Social sharing is a must – Be sure that your emails are able to be shared socially, as this can increase their reach many times over.
  15. Deliver valuable content – The best thing you can do to get better results from your email marketing is to consistently deliver awesome content. Doing so will brand you a star in your niche, and word will get around.
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