Reaching Out To Your Customers

Dear [FIRSTNAME]

Continuing with our four part series, this issue illustrates the various methods required to reach out to your prospects and convert them to customers.

Consider this; according to statistics, one way or another we each receive approximately 3,000 advertising messages every day, so trying to get your business to stand out from the crowd is not as straightforward as it seems. It’s also easy to see why the bulk of marketing messages are simply drowned out and appear to be ineffective.

When it comes to our own businesses, we only buy something when we realise the need, not when a salesman tells us to. And when we have identified a need, we first look for information.

So make sure you can give your customers what they're looking for - concise and regular information about how you and your products can help them.

More Statistics...
Like there weren't enough!…

• Only one-in-three advertising messages reach their target…
• It takes seven to nine "touches" to begin to make your name or product familiar with a new prospect or customer...

So here’s the “kicker”… your activity will need to equate to approximately 27 actions or tasks, such as emails, newsletters, flyers or adverts before you can anticipate a positive response. Think about how many telephone calls it takes to speak to the right person, let alone getting an appointment. But persistence pays off - you only have to look at the success of the adverts on television.

You need to allow approximately six months before you can really guage the results, that is, if you keep in contact with your audience once a week, if you don't, it could be longer...

Get Google Adwords
You may have noticed the small adverts on the right-hand side of a Google search page. It costs nothing for them to appear, you only have to pay when someone clicks on the ad.

But first things first; before you invest in an idea, plan or product, Google Adwords can deliver the confirmation you need before progressing to the next stage, i.e. investing money. If your idea wasn't fully formed or you hadn't completed sufficient market research, it would be far better for it to cost you £100 than £10,000 to find out.

An Adwords campaign can target the exact market you're looking for; you can be absolutely specific. The general idea, when preparing an Adwords campaign is to set up a basic landing page or squeeze page (see below) and base your decisions on the basic statistics provided by Google, i.e. how many visitors and how many clicks for your product. You don't even have to create the product, you only have to have an email address for your enquiries.

Testing the market is a sure-fire way to guarantee success. You need to make sure that you "get" Google AdWords and if you haven't got the time, get someone else to master it.

Mastering The Small Ad
It is important to master Adwords as it can be the easiest and cheapest form of advertising if you are prepared to do the research. Paying £25 per click is madness, especially when browsers are only looking for information. By narrowing down your market and criteria, the cost for clicks can be pence and not pounds.

An interesting short book to read is called How To Make a Fortune on the Internet, by Ajay Ahuja. It explains the structure required to create an effective Adwords campaign along with a number of links and downloads which can be quite useful.

As mentioned in Part One, split testing is a simple method of selecting the most productive option. The same applies to Adwords. It is possible to create two or three ads and then opt for the one which has the most clicks.

The AdWords Industry
As with any money making “solution” a whole industry has built up around mastering Adwords and online marketing. Online software is available to generate key words, convert words, misspell words, jumble up phrases and so on. There are also enormous numbers of online marketing businesses, all professing to have the answer.

One such site is www.perrymarshal.com His angle is business-to-business marketing and covers products and services. It’s worth taking a look as there are some free downloads, white papers and various email series which can be very useful in your quest to get noticed. 

Key Words that Matter
There are some nuances with creating key words especially as it can be necessary to take into consideration incorrect spelling and a range of other criteria such as broad match (any of the words entered in the search box), [exact match] (exactly as the words were typed in) and "matching a phrase" (the words within a sentence). It may seem complex but it is necessary for the search engines as they want to ensure that their customers receive the most accurate response when using them.

The key is to try and get right inside the mind of the person who is going to search for your product or service. Again, market research is the best option. Ask your friends and colleagues what they would search for if they wanted your product and also ask how they search i.e. do they use one or two words or a complete phrase?

What's a Squeeze Page?
It’s a bit like a lemon, you’ve got to squeeze it to get the juice out!

To succeed with online marketing, you have to be mindful of the process! It takes time to build up trust in any relationship and marketing online is no different. The stats mention 27 touches, but the process has to start somewhere.

A squeeze page is the first step in building up a level of trust between you and your audience by simply asking for, and them giving you, their email address.

The squeeze page is an accurate web page that matches exactly what they were looking for via a search engine or Adwords ad. What your visitor really wants is information. Information about their particular problem or niche area. For example, if they searched for "caring for north african parrakeets", then your squeeze page should match exactly. 

Give and Take - In addition to the squeeze page being relevant, you must offer something in return for their email address, something that's genuine, useful and free, like a report or white paper.

Once they enter their name and email address on your page, they can then download their document and you can then start to build up your relationship with your visitor by keeping in contact via email using flyers, newsletters and any information that is relevant to their requirements.

Over time, you should be able to demonstrate that you can be treated as a trusted advisor and when the time is right, the chances they will buy from you is far higher than if you attempted to "go in cold". The success rates using this approach are far higher than any other method.  

Sales & Landing Pages
Once a browser has clicked on your Ad words link and they have opted into your free download, the next page they should see is your sales page. The sequence is as follows:

Adword > Squeeze Page > Download > Sales Page > Call To Action > Sale!!!

Adword > Squeeze Page > Download > Sales Page > Trusted Advisor > Call To Action > Sale!!!

The above sequence shows a natural progression and each time your visitor should be taken to a page that is exactly relevant to their expectations.

Your sales page is your sales pitch in print. You are giving the visitor a reason to buy and demonstrating your competence and ability in writing. Some marketers are now using video on their sales pages with fully automated interaction with the visitor, so you can see that the competition is upping the ante!

Click here to download a pdf with 500 examples pages of various sales pages, which will give you a good idea of various possible paths. You could also take a look at our landing page (click here)which combines the delivery of a sales page with the objective of acquiring an email address in return for access to our web site and a number of free downloadable documents and an email series.

Newsletters
Make them non-sales specific. The purpose of newsletters is to raise awareness of any current issues relating to your products or services and to give the recipient a feel for your business. The objective is to ultimately help your customer.

• Talk about them, not you
• Show them how to advance their position
• Show how to make their lives easier
• Show how to increase their income

And save the sales pitch for your sales page, direct mail or flyers.

There are a vast number of HTML newsletter templates available online, search for "free newsletter templates", and customise them to your heart's content.

The key to a successful newsletter project is to preplan the content for at least six issues. This helps by you not getting "writers block" each time you sit down to write.

Direct Email & Flyers
Direct promotions are part of the 27 touches.  These are the sales pitches, the special offers and latest products. But don't expect too much from your forecasts if you audience hasn't been warmed up to your product or services via newsletters and other offerings.

Auto Response Software
Managing high or even small numbers of email addresses is an impossible task and if you attempt this manually, it's prone to errors and delays. To automate the delivery and collection of email addresses, online auto responder software can be used. The software provides the code for your web site to collect the email addresses and sends out or manages the download of free items.

Auto responders can also be used to send out a sequence of daily, weekly or monthly emails, i.e. Top Tips, an email eCourse, bulletins or newsletters.

A few of the more popular Auto Responder sites are Get Response, Aweber, Constant Contact and Lyris. You don't have to be a web designer either as they offer complete on line support as well as customisable templates that you can easily manage. These types of online services specialise in bulk email transmission. Cost-wise, it only works out to about £10-15 per month.

Note: If you are thinking of managing your emails manually and send them out via Outlook, check with your ISP. Most "throttle" email transmission and will only allow a certain maximum (approx 150) to be sent out each hour. So, if you have 500 email addresses and they were all sent at the same time, 350 would not reach the recepient, your maketing would be serverely hampered and you may never even know whats happened!

A Call To Action - Ask!!!
Make sure that your visitors know exactly what you want them to do on every page:

• whether it’s to click to another page
• buy something
• answer a poll
• And never assume...always ask

It's not good enough that you know what your site and services are about, you need to make sure that your visitors understand too. So design and write for your site so that a twelve year old can understand the content.

Remember: If you don’t ask you don’t get!

Download your copy of "How to win the overheads game"
Business is difficult enough as it is, so to help with budgets and being sensible about costs, we've produced an eBook called "How to win the overheads game" which has 41 sure-fire ways to save money. Download Now...

The Final Word...
In next weeks conclusion to this mini series, I'll cover some of the more popular methods of getting your name in front of customers and some that you may not be aware of, but in the meantime, if you have any queries or need some advice, call 0800 970 9751, we're here to help.

To your success...Bye for now

Nigel Maine - Senior Partner

p.s. Look out for our next series starting in January 2009 on the technology that can help make marketing a piece of cake!!!

Footnote: If you wanted to improve your bottom line would you increase your income or reduce your costs? Whatever you decide for your business, we'll help make it a success by adjusting your costs and recommending automated solutions that will generate more income.  No confusion, no stress, just straightforward advice that allows you to enjoy the rewards....