Start with a Question
It is always better to begin by asking your customers questions and providing links to different possible answers. If a customer starts on your landing page and the first thing they see is a question, they are more likely to stay and look for a service that can meet the need mentioned in the question. For example, if you own a company that provides payroll services, you might ask customers about a situation where a payroll error created problems for the company. Where employees where short changed or tax information wasn’t recorded correctly. You begin by asking about errors, and then you provide links to different payroll services that address different needs. By asking the customer to identify the service they are most interested in, you engage them and encourage them to continue browsing. By using a question format for all page and paragraph headings, you encourage the customer to read further to discover the solution.

Provide Information on Solutions
You are familiar with what most customers seeking industry services you provide want. Read your content as if you were a customer. Ask the stupid or inane questions, because what seems obvious to an industry insider is often gobbledygook to those shopping. Make sure your content offers actual solutions to a problem using as little industry lingo as possible. Never assume a customer is familiar with your products, they often come looking without a clear idea of what they want. Tell them what the solution is before you try and sell them a product. If you sell management training courses, describe what they need their managers to offer, before telling them that they can learn the information on your site. Always provide as much detail as possible without overwhelming the consumer. They don’t need the minutia, but they do need enough information to motivate them to make contact.

Getting contact from customers through your website is the purpose of online marketing. If you sell products, you want to drive direct sales. If you sell services you want people to email or call your company for more details. Convincing customers to take action is the hardest part of online marketing, but offering solid content with actual solutions can be all the motivation they need to take the next step. Once you have them engaged in conversation, via telephone or email, it is a short step to convince them to buy.

1. Assess the long term value of your PPC customers.
Have you ever looked at the statistics to discover how many purchases will your average PPC buyer make each year? If you haven’t then you should. If the data tells you that your PPC customers are in the habit of making multiple purchases per year, then you can settle for a smaller commission for the initial sale, knowing that in time you’ll be the one gaining.

2. Promise a lot if you expect to get clicks.
The ads you use should promise big things if a lot of people are expected to check them out. The landing page of your business must also be at the same level with the ads. It should keep the visitors hooked and tempt them to such an extent that they cannot refuse. The product pages must also be attractive and, of course, the offerings themselves as well. Over-delivering almost guarantees your PPC campaign will work, regardless of the segment you’re into.

3. Base your cost per conversion targets on the category of the product you’re promoting.
Set a clear limit as to how much you’re disposed to spend to get a PPC buyer and stick to it. Make changes to the ad groups every now and then in order to remain within this limit. You must have accurate data before you can implement this step successfully, so make sure you double check the figures.

4. Sometimes it’s better to make ads less appealing.
When you’re after return on investment you’re more inclined to have only certain customers click your ads. Having less attractive ads can be a good strategy when dealing with broad keywords and your intention is to get only the qualified buyers to click them. It helps you keep at bay those customers which are solely after discounts.

5. Make sure your PPC landing page is optimized for search engines.
Because search engines look at the text within the page and at the load time when assessing relevancy, which in turn influences the PPC price and positioning of the ad, you should make the improvement of your landing page a priority. Enhance the accessibility of the landing page as well. If you have the resources then don’t hesitate to hire a professional to handle the SEO work of this page for you. It’s an investment well worth it.

PPC will not get you rich overnight, and if you expect that to happen you’ll be disappointed. A successful PPC marketing campaign is an ongoing process that eats up both money and time. It depends not only on how well you manage your ads, but also on the products you’re trying to sell. The better they are, the greater your chances of making money.

To draw people to your site requires different forms of marketing, including search engine optimization, paid placement on search engines, and text-based advertising. Affiliate marketing is another method often used, but its success is dependent on the visitors of another site being directed to your site. Search engine marketing is perhaps the most beneficial means of climbing up the rankings page on nearly every search engine.

The search engines and your website
The most popular search engines—Google, Microsoft’s Bing, and Yahoo!—crawl sites on a regular schedule and adjust the rankings according to their relevance to the search term entered. While each search engine may have different methodologies for ranking sites, they all have the same basic requirements. In the past, search engines based their ranking on meta tags. Inserted into the code of a website, the tags were the first thing search engine spiders crawling the web would see. A site containing the same meta tags as a user input into the search query would be matched quickly.

However, some website builders learned to spam keywords into the tags, and users were directed to sites that had absolutely nothing to do with the subject being sought. Search engine operators quickly discovered this trick and adjusted their search algorithms accordingly. Today’s search engines look for information that real users are searching for, instead of what website owners want them to see. In order for a site to be ready for search engine marketing, it usually has to be built with that goal in mind.

Good SEO takes time
Website owners need to know that search engine optimization is the key to success, but it is not going to affect rankings over night. Companies that already have a website and want to incorporate search engine marketing into the mix are better served by taking it slow. Rushing into it may actually hinder the efforts and stall any re-launch of the site. It will also take time for the search engines to scan your site and note any positive, as well as negative changes that have been made.

Search engines are looking for information that real people can use. In this regard, many sites are working with freelance writers to keep relevant content on their site fresh and original. If the owner does not have the skills or expertise to write their own content for their site, there are plenty of people who do and can help keep the site updated with fresh original content.

The biggest opportunity with search engine marketing is that the search operators have a tendency to change their algorithms without warning. A site that is optimized for search engines one day may find itself at the bottom of the rankings the next. Staying in tune with what search engines demand will help keep a website in the top one or two pages of the search results.

Video marketing is a more recent promotional method that works, sometimes with impressive results, in today’s bustling online environment. Websites like YouTube have done quite a lot to indirectly promote it.

Video marketing is an effective means of reaching a target audience. It can help quickly spread word about your website, whether it’s a personal blog, an e-commerce website, or something else.

Knowing your targets
Just like any other campaign in general, video marketing requires first and foremost an elaborate plan of action that takes into account the scope of your website, its direct competitors, and its aspirations. The idea you’re trying to get across also plays an important part: if your website promotes a dancing class for children, for example, then it will be quite easy to capture footage of a lesson and put it online; but if you offer Internet services, then you will need to use your imagination to promote your business through videos.

Only after you have a plan and realistic goals can you concentrate on the more practical things.

The format of your videos
Because there is quite a lot of playback software out there, you’ll have to know what your target audience is likely to use so that the format of your videos will be supported. In general, to avoid compatibility issues, stick with popular video formats. Format becomes less important if you plan to post your videos on your YouTube or other video website channel, where it will be automatically converted and embedded into the site.

The quality of your videos
HD videos are the most attractive, but they can slow down a website. If you cannot guarantee a high quality browsing experience with HD, then stick with standard, good quality videos. Sound quality is important as well.

Put a logo in your videos
Create more awareness of your brand by inserting the logo of your firm at the beginning and end of your videos.

Choose where you upload your videos wisely
YouTube and other similar websites can help you get some free exposure. They’re straightforward to use, and they can make you known to a huge audience. When using such video websites, make sure you are informed about all their guidelines, or you might find your videos removed and your marketing campaign halted.

Research all the available options
Depending on your website, video marketing on popular video channels may work or may not. Sometimes it’s more effective to post your videos on affiliate or partner websites because of the strong competition you might face within the popular video channels.

And such a statement is tantamount to little more than basic common sense. Your marketing campaigns need to be current and relevant. They do not need to be supremely innovative campaigns or strategies. They simply need to remain logical within the framework of modern internet marketing campaigns.

Here is a fact of (internet marketing) life: customers are not going to react well to a poor internet marketing paradigm. This does not mean they will look at your website and reject extraordinarily negatively to it. Rather, they would be dismissive of your entire promotional strategy. Certainly, that would NOT be the basis for success.

That is not the desired outcome for any marketing campaign. You do not want people reacting to you with indifference. And the easiest way to evoke indifference would be to employ an outmoded marketing module.

Look at it this way: running a website without checkout software is not going to work unless you are offering something no one else has while simultaneously targeting a very small niche. Really, unless they is a compelling reason why people will be motivated to send a check to a snail mail address, they are not going to do so. Rather, they will look towards another website offering similar products or service. Checkout software is but one example. The key point here is that you want your website and marketing processes to remain current and relevant.

If they were not they would be of little value. Sure, it may be easier to design and run a much more scaled down website. The problem is your customer base will reject it. That means little if any generated revenue.

Who would an outcome such as that? Failure to see revenues grow undermines the purpose of being in business in the first place. Again, this is why you need to stay on top of trends, processes, insights, and new horizons in online marketing. Doing otherwise would be detrimental to your career.

Online marketing is never stagnant because new innovations in online processes are continually being developed. Those that remember the classic days of the 1.0 version of the internet probably do so with a slight fondness. The emphasis here needs to be on the word “slight” since few are fond of the limited and cumbersome form online marketing took in those days. No, there is nothing wrong with looking back on the classic era with a sense of romanticism. If it were not for the innovations and trailblazing of past versions of internet marketing, we would not have the $5+ billion internet marketing industry we have today.

One of the reasons the internet marketing realm did not generate huge revenues in the past what it was not structural designed to do so. Of course, the limited access of the internet also contributed to the limited consumer base. No one is saying otherwise. However, in addition to the expanded internet audience, advancements in marketing strategies and capabilities boosted success potential a great deal.

The moral here is that an internet marketer must never fall behind. To fall behind means you fall off the radar of success potential. Understand this and you avoid a lot of problems and hazards.

No, this does not mean you need to be on top of and institute every trend that emerges. You just need to be aware of rising trends and modify your ventures accordingly. This does raise questions regarding how you should stay on top of things. The process is not all that tough. In fact, it has been made quite easy for you!

Basically, websites, blogs, online magazines, message boards, and video file sites are filled with outstanding news reports on new trends and developments. Some of the more expansive online resources maintain entire libraries of free material on the subject. Such resources are certainly well worth exploring considering the great value they present.

Simply reviewing or skimming these resources 5 to 10 minutes a day could lead to excellent insights into where to take your internet marketing campaign for the future. Remember, you never want your marketing ventures to lag behind modern trends too much or else you run the risk of being labeled outmoded. Who would a label such as that in a dynamic field?

Stay up to date and stay current. Your internet marketing success will hinge on these factors.

Simply put, a Facebook Event is no different than any other “in person” event that you would attend. The most obvious difference here would be the attendees would interact through congregating online through Facebook.

The classic concept of the “open house” is perennially employed to draw people in to look at property that is for sale. In a similar vein, many tradeshows are employed to draw various consumers and business associates into a collective area in which products or services can be effectively promoted. All of these types of events share a common theme: they bring people to a physical location. With Facebook, you can perform much of the same promotional strategy and do so online. This is where the aforementioned concept for a Facebook event comes into play.

The way a Facebook Event works is that you can use your profile to craft a public event in which any can (virtually) attend. How does this work? Basically, this means no passwords are required to venture into the events. The event would be visible to all members of Facebook and anyone can ventures into its “doors”.

This does not mean that only Facebook members will know about the event. It is possible to work with others on the various top social networking sites such as Myspace and Twitter. This allows you to take all the necessary steps to promote the event to anyone and everyone that wishes to attend. They will, however, need to create a free Facebook membership in order to attend.

What type of an event could you promote? Using the previous example of an open house, such an event could be employed to promote timeshares. During the event, audio, video, and pictures can be used to present the value of the timeshares. Of course, there is even greater value within the Facebook event than just the presentation of visual displays. The Facebook event allows for communication and interaction between the attendees. This is what turns it into an online event as opposed to something dull and static.

It is recommended, however, that you take the appropriate steps to properly learn how to run such an event. You do not want to muddle through the event without any preparation. To do so can undermine all the value and benefit that you are seeking from the event in the first place. A poorly run event will not help with the image of your company.

One way to make sure the event is run effectively would be to start with a small one. Perhaps you could seek to promote and event attended by only 10 people. Use this initial event as a means of gaining the valuable experience required to enhance the potential success of the next event you run.

And when you do run a full event you are advised to promote it long in advance. This way, you can be sure that it will be well attended. Sending out too few invitations and sending them too close to the event will not yield desired results. However, effective planning will yield the desired impact on the potential number of attendees.

What are hub pages and why should I look toward using them as part of my internet marketing campaign?

Hub pages have been called a cross between a social network, and article directory, and a traditional website. This does raise the question why bother with a hub page when the other venues exist? Basically, you should use ALL of these venues to promote your business. When you leave areas underdeveloped, you can potentially lose business. That certainly is not the way you would want your business to turn out.

Back to the topic at hand which are hub pages. Hub pages serve as free sites where you can publish content on basically any subject that you wish. This can be done just for the fun or it or it can be done to promote your professional pursuits. Some may wonder what the benefit of hub pages are. The positives of using hub pages are fairly vast:

Unlike an article directory, you need to screen your content through an editor. Of course, there will be rules and terms of service with a hub site. However, the rules generally do not present stringent editorial control. So, you can immediately publish your content on the hub site without any delay. The lag time on article marketing sites can be upwards of a week. Requirements for re-writes or revisions can add even further delays which probably will not be all that appreciated.

Of course, hub pages are free and they do not come with the costs associated with publishing a website. This allows hub pages to serve as an excellent venue for free advertising. You need not dip into your budget to publish content on hub sites. For many internet marketers, budget is a major concern. Free publishing venues can help keep a budget under control.

Hub sites also have a large number of members and followers. As soon as you publish content on a popular hub site, it can be viewed by scores of people traversing the site. This can certainly help boost the recognition of your website in the eyes of those that come across it. The fact that hub sites and their corresponding subpages achieve a lot of traffic certainly helps business a lot.

Hub pages can also be used to drive traffic to a particular website. This is a common process most people employ when they build hub pages. Integrating links pointing to the website into the text of the hub page is common practice. And yes, it can yield a tremendous amount of direct traffic to the prime website.

Those links will also be indexed by the search engine. Such links will definitely be counted highly by the search engine robots. This will aid in increasing the ranking of the website in the search engines significantly if you are regularly adding hub pages as part of your online marketing campaign.

Hub pages definitely have much to offer those looking to expand their internet marketing potential. Consider that a major recommendation for exploring your options for publishing on these sites. They are available for your free use and can deliver an enormous amount of traffic. For those that want to inexpensively expand their internet marketing ventures, hub pages may prove to be an excellent option.

Some might be shaking their heads at the notion of blogging as a means of advertising. Is not blogging primarily a process in which one “muses” over his or her interests? Well, if can be but there are many other uses for a blogging platform. The use of a blog for promotional ventures is not only popular but it is a very successful process. In many ways, a quality promotion blog not only aids in driving traffic to a site and increasing search engine ranking, it can also instill confidence in the visitors. This, in turn can make them more likely to convert into paying customers.

How does this process work? It is about as simple as can be: you would launch a blog that covers a subject related to your commercial enterprise. So, if you were promoting a work from home network marketing venture, your blog could provide a variety of entries that cover the subject of working from home. These entries could range from “How to” articles to interviews with popular MLM figures to historical overviews of MLM to an analysis of the current network marketing landscape. The key here would be to provide informative and interesting articles that leave the reader with an impression you are knowledgeable and trustworthy. This can potentially instill a great deal of confidence in the reader to the point the reader will be much more likely to purchase from you as opposed to another marketer.

Blogging is a lot more than just article writing and publishing. The psychology involved with blogging creates a more personal connection between the blogger and the person reading the blog. It is this somewhat intimate relationship that would be very difficult to attain in another promotional format. That is why promotional blogging is becoming a preferred method among those looking to expand their internet marketing horizons.

Then there are more logistical than psychological benefits present with promotional blogging. It can sell the product or service you are promoting. No, that does not mean you should turn the totality of your blog into a promotional ‘pitch fest’ designed to hard sell what you have to offer. However, putting your product or service in its best light and actually promoting it would not be a bad idea.

Also, a promotional blog can certainly help boost the search engine ranking of your site thanks to the traffic it can deliver to it. (Traffic stats weigh into SEO rankings) Remember, each and every entry that you enter into your blog will be indexed as a separate page in the search engines. As such, if you properly optimize each and every entry with effective keywords you will assuredly see a steady stream of consistent traffic to the site. This, hopefully, will translate into consistent revenue for the site also.

Just be sure to remain consistent with your promotional blogging. Infrequent entries do very little for maximizing success. This does not mean you need to put forth multiple entries per day (not that it would hurt!) but you would probably want to avoid making less than 2 entries per week.

Promotional blogging is not all that difficult to take part in. You need not be the greatest writer on the ‘net. You just need to be passionate about what you are promoting and be consistent with your blogging. This will be a strategy that boosts the likelihood of success tremendously.

Sometimes called a “name squeeze page,” your squeeze page is a single page with teaser copy offering something attractive to visitors, in exchange for their name and email address.

The actual layout and content of squeeze pages varies, but it should always include a headline, enticing copy, an offer, and a subscription form. You may also choose to use bullet points (always a great way to grab attention), testimonials, and audio or video to get your message across.

Your headline must immediately answer the main question in your visitors’ minds. This question is always, “What’s in it for me?” You need to tell them, in as few words as possible, why they should keep reading your page. Your headline should grab your visitors’ attention and convince them that they need to keep reading.

Using a classic headline “formula” almost always works. Some popular formulas include “How to…” “How I…And You Can, Too!” “Seven Ways to…” “Do You Want to…” The one thing all of these headlines have in common is that they promise a benefit to the reader. Your visitors will keep reading to get that benefit.

Make your sales copy short and to the point. An idea squeeze page covers only one or two screens. Your goal is not to sell your product at this time; you’re just qualifying leads. You need to get your message across as quickly and as simply as possible.

To do that, you need a great offer, something your visitors will really want. This can be your ezine, a free ebook, a free consultation, or anything else that will appeal to the people you want as your customers. This last point is important. While almost everyone would like a chance to win a free television, this type of incentive won’t qualify your visitors.

Your free offer should be interesting only to people who really want and need what you have to offer. And to those people, it should be very attractive. You need to offer them something for free that they would willingly pay for if given the option.

Basically, your squeeze page is a sales letter, for a free item, that convinces your visitors to hand over their name and email address in exchange for something they really want.

In addition to your headline, copy, offer and subscription form that adds them to your email list, you should also include a privacy notice. Make it very clear that you will not distribute their private information to anyone, for any reason, at any time. A link to a full-blown privacy notice is an even better idea.

If you offer the right incentive, you can expect up to 50% of your visitors to sign up for your email list. You can then follow up with these qualified leads and convert them into customers.

A great name squeeze page is indispensable in building your list.

There are over 12 Million registered users of Twitter. There are over 70,000 applications designed for Twitter users. Twitter users are now sending 50 million tweets per day, which translates to an average of 600 tweets per second. So what is Twitter? Twitter is a combination of these various forms of communication, but its primary difference is that posts, or tweets, are restricted to 140 characters or less. As a Twitter user you can post updates, follow and view updates from other users, and send a public reply or private direct message to connect with another Twitterer.

One of the most important things I did when I set up my Twitter account was to post a pleasant picture of me. Since I was promoting a business, I used the business name so my customers could find me. Don’t use something very long or complicated, it makes it difficult to communicate with you if I can’t remember your name. I also put in my website URL in the profile, and a good summary of my interests. I added a few introductory tweets just to get things rolling, I didn’t want new followers to come and see a blank canvas.

Generally, I found the rule of thumb is that if I follow you, you’ll follow me back. I also quickly found that people really like it when you “re-tweet” their message, abbreviated by RT. It gives them credit for the original post, and you share that content with all of your followers. When I would re-tweet someone’s post once, they would notice. If I did it a second time, I had a friend. They were also much more likely to re-tweet my posts.    

So, what did I “tweet” about? Well, anything to distract them. Funny pet videos. Funny pet pictures. Pet news and information. Anything that I felt my followers would find valuable, and possibly re-tweet themselves. If it was something I could have a conversation about with my followers, it was worth a mention. I also asked lots of questions, and found that my followers were quick to answer them. Conversations (not the long drawn out ones meant for phone calls, the short ones) generally allowed for big groups of people to add their feelings or opinions. I got to know all the people that were talking to me on Twitter.

Where did I find people to follow? A few good sources is to search twitter for your keywords at search.twitter.com, twellow.com is a good resource to find others in your niche, and Twitdir.com is a good directory of the top people on Twitter. Surely they must be doing something right, so why not follow along?  I found all the big players in my market (the pet niche), followed them, and then followed their followers as well. You can see all their followers on their profile page by clicking on “followers”.

You can also find people that are local in proximity if you have a local business such as a pet sitter. Go to Twellow.com/twellowhood, and you will find people by location. Nearbytweets.com is another one you can use to find Twitter folks in your neighborhood. There are lots of “Tweetups” all over the United States where you can meet fellow Twitter users in person. Find them and meet them in person!

One of the best tools I found for Twitter is something called Tweetdeck. You can download the software for free at Tweetdeck.com. It organizes your follower’s tweets, people that reply back to you, direct messages to you, and even groups that you can organize by topic or even your favorite people on Twitter. I highly recommend using Tweetdeck, it will make your Twitter experience easier and it will make much more sense.

Most of all, have fun. Be believable and authentic. Don’t try to be someone you’re not, just be yourself and you will find a great community of other people in your niche that love what you do! It’s a great way to find business partners, vendors, customers, and others that share your interests. Try to dedicate at least 10 minutes each day to make a few posts and see what your followers are up to. You’ll be glad you did!

Michael Ayalon

Online Pet Marketing Specialist

516-690-PET1

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/petwebdesigner

P.S. If you are struggling in your pet related business, it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ll help you personally: http://www.Petwebdesigner.com