Here's an oldie, but goodie. Banner ads work if you design them right. This article by Berry Zegler has 10 great tips:
Banner bashing: It's hip; it's now; it's the rallying cry of pundits, ad-agency clients, and traditional copywriters who have always had their suspicions about the efficacy of Web advertising and now believe they have the facts to back up their bluster.
'Banners don't work!' yelp the bashers. 'They're a waste of money, and they don't generate results! Internet advertising -- bad! Internet dissing -- fun!'
But despite all the we-told-you-so histrionics, one has to question whether the issue isn't banner ads as a flawed configuration but, rather, banner ads with flawed messaging.
Your website has the potential to be the most reliable salesperson in your business. It never takes coffee breaks, gets sick or goes home early. It always responds to your customer's inquiries instantly. In fact, using a few simple strategies, you can build a website that has a continuous and predictable positive effect on your business.
Let's say that you sell newspaper subscriptions. You use telemarketing as the primary way to contact your potential customers. Would you ever start a call with "Hi. My name is Joe. I want to sell you a newspaper subscription"?
I guarantee that you would have to make a lot of calls to sell a handful of subscriptions if this were your approach.
Instead, wouldn't it be better to try to get them to agree to listen to you before you try to close the sale? You might have better luck with, "Hi. My name is Joe. I'm calling to tell you how you can save hundreds of dollars every week by subscribing to the newspaper. You like to save money, don't you?" If their answer is yes, they have agreed to listen to what you have to say.
This approach would certainly sell more newspapers.
The copy on your website needs to be set up the same way. The first thing your website should do is get your prospective customer to agree to read the first paragraph of your sales copy. In the first paragraph, they should be convinced to continue reading the next few paragraphs...
...where you talk about the benefits of your product or service. Notice that I said benefits, not features. With few exceptions, most buying decisions are made based on perceived benefits, not a fact-filled feature list.
After they've read about the benefits, you might want to consider adding a few testimonials. If you have a yoga studio, get some of your long time customers to talk about the health benefits they've received from your classes. If you are an auto repair shop, have them talk to you about how you gave them honest service at a fair price.
Whatever your business is, you have customers that are happy that they did business with you. Talk to them. Ask them permission to use a quote and a picture of them on your website. If most of your customers are other businesses, offer to place a link back to their website after the testimonial.
Finally, always remember to ask for the customer to take the next step. If you sell directly from your website, ask for the order. Give them the opportunity to sign up for your newsletter. Ask them to call you to set up an demonstration. Whatever the next step in your sales process is, always ask your prospective customers to take that step.
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Modern Webspace provides services and coaching to local small- and medium-sized businesses that want to energize their Internet marketing efforts. We focus on finding solutions that are both sensible and affordable to your business. Call or e-mail for a FREE, no obligation consultation.
A few years ago, I bought an Internet Marketing course. At the time, I was winding down my eBay business, so even though I knew this course was packed full of great ideas, I never really applied them.
Then, about a month ago, I got an e-mail from the company that produced the course inviting me to a free (yes, FREE) seminar. I was skeptical. I thought it would be one of those seminars where they only give you a small taste of the information, then try to sell you the rest.
Well, I was surprised! Yes, they had the sales pitches, but they touched on EVERY BIT of the information that was in the course I bought a few years ago...and then some! These guys are constantly updating their materials to keep up with the state-of-the-art in web marketing.
If you are serious about marketing your website, I HIGHLY recommend that you check these guys out. If you sign-up for their e-mail list, you will probably get an invitation to their next event in your area. When you do, reserve a spot right away. You won't regret it.
Here's a little more information about the course that I bought way back when. It has a little hype in it (ok, a lot of hype), but I assure you, this book is worth every penny.
"Discover how to start or grow your successful Internet business...and earn an extra $75,000...$100,000... $500,000... or MORE!"
Product Review:
"The Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business on The Internet" By Derek Gehl and The Internet Marketing Center
I've just finished working my way through Derek Gehl's newly revised and updated "bible" for profiting on the Internet, "The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet - Version 2006," and I'm blown away by the sheer volume of money-making information he's managed to pack in!
I'm talking over 1,300 pages of the *exact* test results, case studies, and strategies that Derek used to grow a $25 investment to over $54,700,000 in online sales!
And after testing out a handful of the strategies, I was blown away by how effective -- and profitable -- each one was!
In "Insider Secrets," you'll discover...
- Step-by-step advice for starting your own Internet business in as little as 48 hours!
- Where to find FREE tools and resources that you can use to create a web site -- in less than a few hours!
- How to rank at the top of the search engines and directories (like Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, ODP, AllTheWeb, AskJeeves).
- And much, MUCH more!
But here's the most important thing you should know about "Insider Secrets"...
These strategies will work for ANYONE, no matter WHAT stage you're at with your Internet business -- or even if you haven't started one yet at all!
Derek's system is perfect for YOU if...
- You want to start your own profit generating Internet business -- from scratch -- in as little as 48 hours and see profits in your first week.
- You want to take your offline business online, and tap into the massive profit generating potential of the global market, then put your business on autopilot.
- You want to explode your existing Internet business by 100%... 500%... or MORE, with tested and proven strategies that nobody has ever revealed before.
So I can recommend it to literally everyone!
It comes complete with two 8" x 11" full-color three ring binders containing 8 steps, broken down into 70 lessons with step-by-step instructions included for every promotion and strategy...
... Plus five resource CDs and one audio CD with additional lessons, examples, audio interviews, and articles, as well as timesaving software and invaluable resource files.
I give "Insider Secrets" a perfect 10! It contains the exact step-by-step blueprint you need to follow to get a profitable Internet business online, or turn an existing web business into a profit-making machine!
I suggest you click here to check it our right away!
Earlier this week, I bought a book about webspace marketing called Google Best Practices by Jerry West of Web Marketing Now. In it, he discusses how to best position your webspace to take advantage of the tremendous power of Google. He discusses how to select search terms that you should target and what you need to do to get your webspace listed high on Google's search results page.
One of the things Jerry said is that in order to get and maintain a good ranking, you need to constantly create new content and update old content. He suggests that you should write 200-550 words per day. That's definitely a lot of writing, but certainly doable.
Another key concept is that you need to make your webspace easy for Google's robots to scan. You need to make sure that your webspace follows all of the construction guidelines that Google asks for. These include using valid HTML, not doing things designed to trick your users, only having one title, not copying large blocks of text that can be found elsewhere on the web, and several other common sense guidelines. It also helps if you tell Google how your webspace is structured. It isn't always obvious to Google's robots where all of the pages in your webspace are located, so you may need to tell it where to go. Another benefit of doing this is that your webspace will be added to Google faster.
Another important point that Jerry makes is that even when you get your webspace to the top of Google's list, you still need to get the user to click on your link. The key to doing this is writing a good title for your page. When Google lists search results, your page title is the most prominent text that is displayed. It makes sense that you spend a little extra time writing a title that appeals to your potential customers.
There really is no black magic to getting a good position in Google's search results. Many of the SEO companies tell you that it's voodoo, but it really boils down to a handful of common sense practices and a dedication to getting it done. Build a site that is easy for Google to read, write quality content and write titles that attract users and Google will treat you well. In a nutshell, if you build webspace that people want to go to, Google will realize it and reward you.
For more information on Jerry's fabulous guide, visit his website at http://www.webmarketingnow.com.
My webspace is finally up. Check it out at http://www.modernwebspace.com. I'm still not entirely happy with it, yet. The site focuses only on hosting service, which is not all that I do. I would say that I'm more of a website consultant than anything else. Yes, I provide hosting. I do some website design and have designed a logo or two. I plan to sell domain names and do search engine optimization someday...but my company is really about providing a one-stop shop for small businesses and organizations.
I help you decide what your webspace can do for your business. There are really only two ways that a business uses their webspace:
- You have a business model that relies on the web. The web, for you, is mission critical. You might provide a service that only makes sense in cyberspace. Maybe your business sells information or provides a service that could be provided offline, but putting it on the web makes it more powerful or economical in some way. If your business falls into this category, the service that Modern Webspace provides probably isn't for you for the long term. You will need people on staff that can make sure your webspace is the best it can be. If you are working with Modern Webspace, chances are you are just getting started and only need a few of my services until you can afford to hire a staff.
- You supplement your existing business through the web. This describes a huge majority of the businesses out there. In most cases, they use their webspace as an online brochure or catalog. Sometimes, these businesses have some mission-critical functions on the web, but usually, these are supplements to their real-world business. These are the types of businesses that Modern Webspace can help the most.
The idea behind my service is that there are thousands of small businesses that either have developed webspace or plan to. In many cases, the webspace was not professionally designed and it shows. Often, the webspace has stale information such as old contact names, out-of-date addresses, references to upcoming events that happened 6 months ago, etc. The service that I'm offering includes:
- helping you build or remodel your webspace (if needed)
- hosting
- maintaining your content
- planning for future enhancements
- working to keep those plans on track
Since every webspace is different, my service is currently only offered by bid. Usually there will be an upfront cost to cover the time and effort to get your webspace in shape. After that, there is a small monthly charge which covers hosting and domain name fees, minor updates, site monitoring and periodic consultations...and I assure you that you will be surprised at how little the monthly fee can be. For most small, local businesses with simple websites, the monthly charge can be as low as $20. That's not very much money to make sure that your webspace is being properly maintained.
Over the next few weeks, my website will be evolving to better describe what it is that I do. If you want to be kept up to date on these changes, be sure to sign up for my newsletter by sending e-mail to news@modernwebspace.com.
