Online Marketing Sydney, Internet Marketing Australia Freestyle Media

for not writing earlier.

+ For the 404 error in my last post. (The guys at the office wanted me to take it down because it was a bit too aggressive. I have put it on a secret page and will email to you if you want it.)

+ For not telling you the ultimate principal in copywriting that lifts your conversion rate of your copy every time, this principle is so important that:

If you Don’t learn this copywriting principle, At 4:35pm on Friday your electricity is going to stop, your gas will be switched off and a large groaning mob is going to be standing at your door with axes and pitch forks looking for you

Before I let you in on the secret you need to get a full grasp of the current trends in the market and how they are effecting your online marketing.

The top 3 fallacies You Could be experiencing with copy on your website, as it stands today

1. People don’t read - Every man and his dog is telling you that people don’t read copy on websites anymore. Let me give you some insight as to why people are telling you this:

+ The people who are telling you this are exceptionally unproductive and cannot focus for 15 minutes to read and learn new information. Unfortunately they go on to make the fatal mistake to assume everyone in the market is just the same as them and start spruiking that “No one reads copy on websites”.

X - Fallacy - The actual people that you want to deal with are the people who are reading all the words on your page. In fact the people who are interested in what you are offering will read ALL of the words you have to say on your website. They will literally vacuum up every bit of content. Old direct marketers sometimes used to print extra text in their ads in the margin of the page. Why? Because they knew the people who were interested would read it and they applied the principle I am going to teach you.

+ Lazy web analytics people see high bounce rates and low site visit times and assume its because no one reads anything on websites anymore. These people just look at the big numbers and make poor assumptions.

X - Fallacy - The actual reason why most people immediately leave a website is because the content they were seeking wasn’t there. Instead I recommend you realise there is a lot of traffic that doesnt just leave your website immediately and figure out why. Remember the law of small numbers that you may only be dealing with a small group of people to make your website work. Focus on your content for small niche audiences and apply the principle I am about to teach you.

2. Attention spans have gone to hell - I must admit I am almost ADD in my web behaviour, but I know the difference between productive work and non productive work. Unproductive work is when you jump all around the place and don’t focus on something and finish it. Most people call that short attention span. I play more Computer games than the average bear, at least 5 hours a week, but I focus on the one game for a significant period of time.

X - Fallacy - Just because people are jumping around between things and don’t focus on websites for long doesnt mean that when they are interested in buying something they don’t focus and make a considered decision. There is the exception like the “Ringtone” market where kids just signup on a whim and don’t think about the consequences. That is a minority compared with the majority of people who plod their way around and take a small bit of thought before making a decision. Normally when web visitors are going to buy something the majority will spend the time and learn a bit about it before immediately pressing “Buy Now”. Even though attention spans are shorter, people will still focus when interested, this is why you need to write compelling copy and use the principle.

3. Copy on webpages is boring - This is probably the most unimaginative thing you could hear from someone. If someone says this to you, ask them “If they put only pictures in a newspaper would more people read it because it was more fun?”.

X - Fallacy - The cosmetics of copy is something which you must address, especially if you are writing longer copy.

Use: Dot points, bolds, highlights, titles, headlines, mid way headlines, subheads, italics, boxes, ticks, stars, pictures, graphs, videos and audio to bring your copy to life.

The main reason that people have boring copy is because they havent applied any Cosmetic “Copy” Surgery to give it some life and to break the page up.

What “Beaten into short dot point copy” Online Marketers can use to Defend Arm Chair Copywriting Experts

Firstly you need to explain to them the 2 types of customers which you can attract with your marketing:

Bad customers

The customers who you don’t want to talk to do the following:

1. Research nothing
2. Don’t make considered decisions
3. Make impulse purchases

These customers are a nightmare because they:

1. Ask for refunds
2. Are cheap
3. Won’t buy from you again (Their lifetime value is low)
4. Waste all the time and money you spent in attracting them
5. Are a pain and a hassle and clog up your customer support
6. Lose you Boat Loads of Money

Good Customers

Instead the customers you want to attract have the following qualities:

1. Research and make considered decisions
2. Are committed to their purchase and will not refund
3. Will come back and buy more
4. Are a delight to work with
5. Make you lots of money

Think about these qualities and these types of people, imagine what kinds of questions they would be asking you. Imagine how they act and what they do, these are the customers you want.

You then use the principle I am going to share with you now to attract the good customers and leave the bad customers alone.

This principle which I am going to share with you has been shared with me from generations of great copywriters (Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, John Caples, Michael Kiely) its not my innovation, its just a prooven principle.

The next time you are critiqued about the length of your copy on a web page simply explain this principle: “The More You Tell, The More You Sell”.

You will inevitably create longer copy and explain as many benefits, allay as many doubts and objections as the page will allow you.

Let me share you a secret: The long 30 page scrolling pages with the Yellow backgrounds convert. They leave absolutely nothing on the table untold.

Sure most people are already sold before they even reach the sales letter and scroll to the bottom and just buy, but a lot of them arent and read every word of those web pages. I have heard of one guy falling asleep reading the sales letter only to wake up and find out that the special offer was now closed!

Reject the peer pressure and tell your story in the copy, leave no stone unturned persuading your customers.

P.S. The search engines will love you for it too!

There is one key thing all webpages need that will make you thousands of dollars every time. Its something so simple but can make or break your campaigns. Let me tell you a story before I let you in on the $10,000 secret.

Would HP leave money on the table?
I have been researching computers recently and noticed on our friendly SmartCompany site a banner ad for HP. See below:

Latest banner ad campaign with pocket hard disk offer got me excited

Essentially you can get a Free 160GB pocket media drive for any order of a specific notebook or desktop. I clicked through and looked at the landing page to see what types of models this would come with. The page loaded up and I could see the offer presented nicely.

The HP landing page for the user to get details and purchase

Landing page of HP special offer
To be honest I wasn’t ready to buy because I wanted to see how much it would cost to ship so I decided I would add it to my cart and checkout till it calculated my shipping price. Unfortunately, HP left me hanging and didn’t give me a button to add it to my cart.

The secret revealed
So there is one button that prevented HP from making their sales. Just like HP have left money on the table do you have a money button on all pages?

Money buttons
Money buttons mean different things to users, its important to connect the action you want them to take with the text on the button. This plays into what convention has taught people and increases your conversion rate.

• Buy now – And easy action to take which also includes some time pressure.
• Apply now – Not everyone can join this particular item and instead you are required to apply.
• Free Instant Download – Get this whitepaper for free, immediately and straight to your computer. No need to wait for the boys at the snail mail factory.
• Book Now – There are quite a few people and tend to be limited places so you will need to register your interest. Usually a confirmation will come back after this.
• Apply online – Complete a form but do it online, there is no offline method to get this benefit.

I have prepared a report about some recent trends and some of the big challenges you will be facing in 2008. You will probably planning your online marketing at present and be faced with some of the following problems:

• Traffic prices are increasing
• Banner advertising isoverpriced
• The quality of rented databases is decreasing

Interestingly the 12 days of Christmas song is not actually a countdown to Christmas day but instead a count from Christmas day to the 6th of January, “The Epiphany Day”. This Christmas whilst you are pondering around and have some time on the internet give yourself a break in 2008 and do a little review of your online marketing with these 12 tips.

1. Review your competitor’s website – Type in the main keyword you are competing for in Google and browse through the top 10 results to see what they are doing that you might be able to do. Sometimes comparing yourself to the competition can bring about quick shortcuts which you were pondering before.
2. Review your web stats – If you don’t have access to your web stats, I suggest spend the time to get it. Checkout these metrics and set a reminder for this time next year to make a comparison:
1. Major keywords bringing you traffic
2. Which websites are bringing you the most traffic
3. Number of unique visitors on your website per month
3. Test your website – Just click around it and pretend you are a customer. You are looking for:
1. Quick improvements
2. Spelling mistakes
3. Errors
4. A reminder of where you are at with your site.
4. Increase trust and review your content – Remove your 2005 press release on your website and consider replacing it with some latest news. Fresh content is very persuasive as it shows that the website is alive. Actually read your homepage content and make a quick assessment.
5. Write a quick article – A good article for your website that helps visitors is invaluable. It helps in the sales process for your visitors and it is also great search engine food. If you are stuck for ideas:
1. Pickup a your trade magazine and write about what your take is on the industry and what your predictions are for 2008
2. Write a “How to Choose a ‘your profession’” e.g. How to choose an online marketing consultant.
6. Hunt for a new domain name – Check if the generic keyword for your industry (www.Shoes.com.au) has expired and if you can snap it up. This happened to me quite a few times with our clients. Domain names with keywords inside them are easier to rank in the search engines.
7. Build your email database – Collect together all of those rogue business cards and other email addresses you have and compile them together into an Excelsheet ready to be put into an online mailout database.
8. Write a quick enewsletter – Get together some content and prepare to send out your enewsletter in January next year. Be ready to press the send button next year, before it gets crazy again.
9. Tweak your adwords – Kill poor performing ads and pump up ads that are performing well. If you haven’t got a paid search marketing campaign, get one up and running in 27 minutes with my free guide.
10. Rewrite your about us page – Include all of the new things that happened in 2007 into your about us. Include new clients, new products and any other big news that occurred.
11. Check your contact us form – Make sure it works. Is it logical to use, does it make sense to you what it requires. Fill it out. Got back to your website and think where else you could put links to your contact us page to get more people to it?
12. Plan your 2008 online marketing – Jot down things that you want to do, wishlists and what you won’t do next year.

Performance Media may be one of the easiest, and most effective, online marketing opportunities in today’s market.

What is Performance Media/Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is an agreement between two sites in which one site (the affiliate) agrees to feature content or an ad designed to drive traffic to another site. In return, the affiliate receives a percentage of sales or some other form of compensation generated by that traffic.

What are the benefits?

• You only pay for results. You don’t pay for page views or click-throughs: you pay for results. You decide what is most valuable to you — a sale, an e-mail lead, a download, a newsletter subscriber, or any other measurable activity.
• It exposes you to a bigger market to sell your product.
• It gives you the potential benefit of getting advertising space on sites and only paying for commissions, not for the actual advertising space.
• You will most likely benefit form lower cost per acquisition than traditional online marketing.

5 things that you need to consider for a successful Affiliate Marketing Program:

1. Direct traffic to the most persuasive and relevant section on your website – The last thing you want is to generate traffic to your site and see it dropping off straight away, because people can’t find what they are looking for. This is particularly important as your affiliates are incentive by commissions and if your site doesn’t convert they will stop promoting your program. When you are advertising for a certain offer in your ad, make sure that potential customers are directed to the exact section of your page that promotes that product or offer. A lot of businesses redirect potential customers to the landing page and lose valuable leads, as people don’t have time to look through the site to find the particular product/offer that you advertised for. Keep the message simple and deliver on what you promise in your ad, i.e Avoid hidden costs or charges.
2. Work with your affiliates – Building a strong relationship with your affiliates is crucial to a successful performance campaign. See it as a long-term relationship that you need to work on constantly, which will lead to a win-win situation. It is essential to develop a community of reliable affiliates, who are committed to your program and its success. One strategy to do this is a monthly email newsletter to communicate directly with your affiliates. A monthly newsletter not only increases awareness in your program but allows you to offer incentives (e.g. Higher commissions) for better performance. Another point to think about is whether you will pay your affiliates a commission on sales only, or pay them by some other incentive. As a merchant, your options for commission payments are: Pay-per-sale, Pay-per-click or Pay-per-lead.
3. Ensure your site converts, otherwise you are wasting your time – The best performing online businesses have a simple and clear site. Ensure your site is easy to complete the desired conversion action e.g. fill in a contact form and that potential customers can find what they are looking for within 2 clicks away. A site map can be useful for users who wish to navigate to specific sections. Organize your pages into nice categories so that it is not frustrating for your readers to find what they want. Ask yourself the questions:
1. Who am I trying to persuade to take the desired action?
2. What is the action I want them to take?
3. What does that person need in order to feel confident taking that action?
4. Rotate your creative to keep it fresh and converting – There are many different types of online advertising creative such as: banner ads, pixel advertising, pop ups, emails, text links and the more options you provide your affiliates the easier it is for them to promote you. You have to decide which is the best for your product and/or service. If you’re not experienced, one of the easiest ways is to find out what methods the bigger sellers in your market are using. Always make sure you have few different ad-formats available, as this will generate more exposure and will give you a better understanding of what works, its also helps you understand which creative converts the best and therefore what your customers prefer.
5. Contact details/Excellent customer service – Many small businesses that aren’t performing well on the internet may find that their contact details are impossible to find. Lots of people think that their privacy will be violated and they will get hundreds of customers calling them asking questions. This is a tragedy. You must speak to your customers as they want to spend money with you. Every single one telephone call is a potential opportunity to make money. It’s also important to give your customers the peace of mind that they can just pick up the telephone and contact you. After your customers trust you they will order more on your website and thus keep your affiliates happy. To be successful in your affiliate program, you should have customer service and support not just for your customers but also your affiliates. Be prepared to respond to questions and enquiries in various forms such as emails, faxes, phone calls or instant messages from your affiliates promptly and professionally so that you build better relationships.

If you want to learn more about performance media opportunities for you business, please speak to one of our consultants for a free evaluation as to whether it will be suitable for your business. Contact us on 02-9339 6747.

At 1:02am on Monday my stomach hurt so much that I felt like crying, I had no idea what was wrong. My father is an anaesthetist and I called him because he helps me out when I am really unwell. I told him my symptoms and he quickly diagnosed that it was my appendix that was in trouble. I live in Sydney and know of all the private hospitals, although I was in Melbourne for business and had no idea where or what the private hospitals were called. So I did like everyone else would and asked a mate for a recommendation, he said the Alfred Hospital was good in St Kilda so I went there.

At the same time as this I asked my dad to go on Google and find a private hospital in Melbourne, “Private Hospital Melbourne” was the keyword I muttered underneath my pain. Now, my dad couldn’t work out a private from a public hospital in the search engine as they had the worst search engine marketing in the world. I wasn’t exactly in a position to be reading a review as my pain was excruciating. I personally was desperate for care, I would have accepted an Indian backyard shop with a pocket knife if he was going to remove my appendix. The Price was not even a consideration. I would have re-mortgaged my apartment just to get under the knife.

I quickly got into a cab and hurled down the streets to the hospital only to find out it was a public hospital. I have had 2 operations in my life and this one has definitely been up there in the pain stakes. Its amazing how much you use your stomach muscles. I must say that the service speed has not been super at times but the nurses have been great. The food is hospital food and with some creative ordering you can get some nice stuff (I would recommend the spaghetti Bolognaise).

After my operation I heard a diagnosis from my surgeon who said apparently my appendix had actually burst and had created an abscise. My stomach had created a wall around it to stop it from infecting my entire stomach but was not in a good way. The extreme requirement of this situation was drastic although I could not find a single place on the internet for somewhere to fix it. It seems that the hospitals have turned a blind eye to people searching for a hospital to fix their condition in an emergency.

1. Buy Relevant keywords - Start buying up keywords for every single emergency condition and send them to a landing page with address details and a good guide on how to get there.
2. Optimise the basics on your website - Display a clear title tag for each page. Especially information as to whether you are a private or public hospital.
3. Put your details on Google Maps - Update your Google map details immediately so that people can quickly and easily find your premises.
4. Search Optimise your website for emergency terms - Start optimising your website for all of your main services and the conditions they fix. Make sure you create pages optimised for human speak and not just doctor speak. “Appendix out” vs. “Appendectomy”. Emergency terms although it makes me a bit squeamish to say this are good money customers searching for services for hospitals, they need your service as a matter of life or death!

During my stay I have thought of a lot of ideas in terms of hospital marketing. Here are my initial 3 ideas. I am sure some of you entrepreneurs out there could build businesses out of these.

1. Hospital Review website – The website reviews and takes in feedback from people who have used a hospital and makes recommendations. It also provides information and service provisions for the different hospitals.
2. A directory of hospitals in every major city – A simple directory could bring in a lot of traffic from the travellers and I am sure could be a good audience to market to.
3. A hospital survival Blog – There must be people out there who have mastered the art of going to hospital and having a superb time. There are so many little nuances and things you pick up over time. Like why doesn’t the tea lady bring me strawberry milk but they do bring the other patients exotic drinks. How do I upgrade my drinks?

Update: I have been discharged this Friday Morning at 10:24am from hospital and am now recovering in a hotel room. After 5 days in hospital I have had a whirlwind experience and look forward to catching up with you for some of my new online marketing strategies I came up with in my hospital bed! Ask me about my new landing page strategy.

In any website, landing page or advertisement your headline is the most important part. How does this apply online:

1. Converting Visitors on Website landing pages – The first words your visitor reads when they land on your landing page.
2. Getting Traffic from Google Adwords Copy – The Headline in your Adwords copy will determine whether your ad gets viewed or not. I would recommend using the keyword you are optimising for in the headline as it usually gives you better quality score and encourages more clicks.
3. Increasing Banner ads Click throughs – The copy in your banner ad determines whether someone clicks not the image. The image needs to tell a story and support the copy. Checkout some banners on some websites and notice what you look at.
1. Image – This sucks you in and supports the copy
2. Copy – This determines if you click or not.
3. Action to take – What do you need to do to take action.

How can you write a killer Headline?

1. Test – Understand that writing the best headline ever requires testing. Just like with those ads I clipped out from London they had been tested and perfected. I clipped them out because the advertisers had done the testing for me and I noted it in my list.
2. What is in it for you – Start from the key appeal of your readers. What is in it for them. The best headlines have self-interest built into them for their readers to be enticed.
3. Remove complicated words – Any word that doesn’t make sense to a 6 year old, revise it and put something simpler in there. If it doesn’t make sense to anyone who reads it. Revise it.
4. Do not be funny, cute or tricky – Those types of headlines are written for copywriters and they don’t sell. Your headline is there to sell not impress people with your copywriting skills.
5. Copy from the best – There are tried and tested formulas for headlines and you may aswell use them. My personal favourites are “How to travel overseas for under $37 a day”, “Finally! A credit card without fees” or “Advice on saving money with credit card debt”. Simple words that gain your interest, copy them and test your own.
6. Curiosity – If you can get a user curious you will also get more attention. Although, attention doesn’t necessarily mean sales. Headlines that sell are better than headlines that get users to look. You know those funky ads on billboards where they just say something weird and you just get confused. Dump that idea. Just hit your target markets selfish bone and get them into your copy.

Analysis of a great headline

“They laughed when I sat at the piano, But when I started to play..”

This is a classic John Capels ad that ran for over 7 years and sold distance learning piano courses every time it ran. Why?

1. The headline has story value – The copy continues to tell how this person learnt to play the piano and how you too can learn.
2. You are immediately curious – Why did they laugh? What happened when you started to play?
3. The product is bang in the middle – You are immediately enlightened to the benefits of the product. This course will teach you how to play the piano and shock your friends at your new ability.

Headline’s Appeal – Be popular and attract attention, Prestige, Enjoyment and gain more leisure.

I love copy. It makes your website sell. Bad copy. No sales.

When I was over in London last week I clipped a number of advertisements from the newspaper because I felt they had killer sales appeal to consumers. They tapped into the topics which all humans are concerned with. When you look at advertisements look at them carefully to see what exactly they are appealing to. There are a lot of poor advertisements out there that are just wacky pictures and text and have absolutely no appeal or core benefit to the people who will potentially buy their product. Those are the ads which fail. You can tell an ad which fails because it doesn’t get run over and over again.

Why do ads that work keep getting run?

You would have thought that ads that work get tired because all of the people who have seen the ad have decided whether or not they are interested. This is not true. The reason why the same ad gets run over and over again is because it works. It brings in more net profit than it cost to place the ad. For example the sales letter for the wall street journal was run for over 14 years. The same letter sold subscriptions to that newspaper. There was no need to change it because it just kept selling subscriptions. An advertisement close to home are the AMI sniff and stiff ads. They haven’t changed in 2 months, because they just keep making sales. Every time they run one of piano ads their phone rings and they sell enough product to pay for the ads and make a profit.

How to tap into an appeal to make your website sell over and over again?

The first thing when you begin thinking about your appeal is to forget what business you are in. Any business can appeal to a particular appeal but it does not mean that it will sell. The process to figure out which appeal will work best for you is testing. There are some classic appeals for different markets such as

• Business books = Make more money
• Cosmetics = Popularity and attracting attention. (Especially from guys!)
• Doors, Doors, Doors, Doors ads = Bargain. (A little offensive but they have been working for 10 years now)

Appeals which have worked over time

The following appeals have sold products throughout time. Which appeal is your website tapping into?

• Make more money
• Save money
• Retirement security
• Better heath care now
• Healthcare security
• Security in old age
• Advance in profession or trade
• Prestige
• Enjoyment
• Easier chores
• Gain more leisure
• Comfort
• Freedom from worry
• To be one of the “in” group
• A Bargain
• Be popular, attract attention
• Desire to outshine the neighbours

So once you have decided which appeal you are going to test you need to formulate a headline. Headlines are the most important part of an advertisement.

Advice on making a headline that makes your sales.

What do you think of the John Howard YouTube?

It is getting pounded by internet users, especially the YouTube community. I like what John and his team has done. Its good. Its getting press and its appealing to the younger voter. He is actually gotten with the times and realised that less people are watching the TV and has instead opted for the medium which most of us use all day. I think there are some lessons we can learn from this.

4 ways to minimise your risk with Online Marketing

1. Don’t piss on the things that are already working - If you are going to take a risk reduce the damage and put it somewhere else. If John posted the video on his website he could damage all of the good or perhaps maximise it. Its unsure yet what would happen. By putting the video on YouTube this has reduced the risk by controlling the potential damage to only the YouTube site.

2. Interesting content and good video quality - I think the video quality is quite good although the content is debatable. I think that is a good thing but. It causes commentary and allows people to discuss their views. The haters and the lovers can fight it out. But the best thing is its all centred around John and that builds his profile coming up to this election.

3. Video is better than text - If you want to try and make some impact these days you are going to need to turn up the power. There is and excessive amount of noise on the internet and its hard to get some airtime. That is why I like the usage of video. 10 years back it would be outrageous for Johnny to release something in print on the internet. Now he has taken a step up and gone to the video content. That was mandatory to get noticed. Otherwise it would have passed through the internet like another HTML page on some distant URL that no one accessed.

4. Feedback and adjust - If there was no way to measure response and instant feedback to the activity it would be doomed to failure. John is getting instant feedback and also quite a bit of PR attention from the main press. This is critical as you can guage activity and also determine success and what to modify in the future.

What do you think?