Archive for October, 2009

Tips to Designing an Effective Landing Page

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 10:33 am  
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Your landing page is the first page that a visitor sees on your website after clicking an online ad, link in a promotional email, or result in a search engine. The main aim of a landing page is to encourage users to take a predetermined action which would help you to attain your goal. The action could be either buying a product, getting personal information, or anything else. A good landing page design can improve your conversion rate by converting Adwords clicks into customers, whereas a bad landing page can cause your entire campaign to fail.

The success and/or failure of an online campaign depends completely on the success and/or failure of your landing page. In this article I am going to discuss a few tips that can help you in improving your landing page design.
 

Relevancy

Your landing page should be relevant to the ad copy on which your visitor has clicked to reach your landing page. The traffic you get from an Adwords campaign is very targeted and is your visitors are looking for specific things. Include the same keywords that you used in your ad-copy in the title and content of your landing pages so that your visitor knows that he is at the right place.
 

Above the Fold

Keep all of your important elements of your landing page (i.e., your call to action link) above the fold. “Above the Fold” is the portion of your landing page that your visitor can see without scrolling. If you are trying to sell a product, then put the image of your product above the fold, or if you are generating some leads then put the lead generation form above the fold. Putting important things above the fold always helps in increasing your conversion rate.
 

Reduce Distractions

Your landing page should able to create an environment where your visitors can make decisions easily without any confusion. Removing navigational links to other pages of your website and less important content will reduce the confusion in your visitor’s mind. By removing navigation links, you can control the content that you want your visitors to see but it depends on the product you are going to sell. If you are selling a complex product then you may need to provide links to other useful information on your website.
 

Proper Use of White Spaces

Nobody reads the entire text on your landing page. Visitors scan the text and use only important information to make a decision. Don’t fill your landing pages with tons of not so important information. Users will spend only a few seconds on your landing page and will go away if they can’t find the information they are searching for. Put all the important points in the form of points (bullets) so that they could be scanned easily by the user. Paragraphs should be short and only contain up to 3-4 lines.
 

Coherency

It takes a matter of seconds for a visitor to decide whether your page is has what he is looking for or not. Incoherent pages won’t convert well and reduce confidence among your customers about your product. When you test a landing page you should know that it’s not testing the elements alone but it’s testing about how the elements work together. Hence, while designing your landing page, don’t ignore the strong potential impact of coherency.

Gagandeep Singh is working as an internet marketing expert for a Landing Page Optimization Company and a freelance writer. He mainly writes on landing page design, PPC, SEO, Web 2.0 and Technology.

List Building Blocks #5 — How to Add Subscribers Using Affiliates

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 5:50 am  
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As you work on getting new subscribers, remember that there are two types of lists you should build:

  1. A prospect list. These are the folks who voluntarily subscribe to your free newsletter list.
  2. A customer list. This is your proven list of buyers, which tends to convert considerably better than your prospect list.

When you use affiliates to get new subscribers, you get to build both types of lists.

Now, there are multiple ways to use affiliates to build your lists, including:

  • Pay per lead.This is where you offer your affiliates 25 cents, 50 cents, a dollar or more for each person they send to your page who joins your list.

  • Viral report with backend sales. This is where you create a viral report (perhaps something controversial) where you sell something on the backend. Affiliates use their affiliate links to send visitors to download your report, and they make commissions whenever someone takes advantage of your backend offer.

  • Sell a product. This is where your affiliates use their affiliates links to direct visitors to a sales page. When someone buys the product, the affiliate gets a commission and you get to add someone to your customer list.

You may also build a prospect list by including your newsletter subscription form on the sales page or via an exit pop up that appears to those who don’t buy the product.

This last method is one of the most popular ways to build a list, so let’s look at the steps in detail…

Step #1: Create an attractive affiliate offer

If you’re selling a digital product (such as a downloadable ebook, video or even access to a membership site), then you should offer at least 50% commissions. However, if you’re primarily interested in list building, then you may consider offering up to 100% commissions (especially if your product is priced low). That way, you get the list and your affiliates get the front-end profits.

Step #2: Recruit Affiliates

The passive way to get affiliates is by joining Clickbank.com and adding your product to the marketplace. While you should take that step, that’s not the only step you should take to get affiliates. You should also:

  • Tell your list and your other visitors about your affiliate program
  • Encourage your customers to join your affiliate program
  • Look for partners by listing your opportunity in the JV forum at www.warriorforum.com
  • List your affiliate program in affiliate directories
  • Ask your existing JV partners to promote
  • Contact your social media network to look for affiliates
  • Join a JV list in your niche (such as www.jvnotifypro.com)
  • Seek out new partners, give them access to your product and ask them to promote
    • Tip: You can find potential affiliates by going to Clickbank.com and seeing who’s selling products in your niche. Each of these sellers is a potential affiliate. You can also run a search in Google for the names of the top products in your niche, which will help you uncover some of the top affiliates. Contact these affiliates and ask them to promote your product.
  • You may also hire a JV broker or affiliate manager, which is someone who finds and recruits affiliates for you. Ask on niche forums for recommendations. Choose people who are well-connected (i.e., they know all the other marketers in the niche) and have a history with successful brokering/managing.

Summary

Building your list with the help of affiliates is a fast and powerful way to get new subscribers. Even a marketer with a small audience in your niche can send you a few dozen prospects.

The largest marketers – your super affiliates – may send you hundreds or even thousands of prospects and customers.

All you need is a good product, a good affiliate offer (commission rate) and the ability to contact and recruit your niche superstars. Today is the day to start!

That concludes our 5-part series. In case you missed any of the other parts, sign up below. All I need to get you started is your first name and email address.

List Building Blocks #4 — Using PPC to Get More Subscribers

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 5:40 am  
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If you’ve read this entire article series, then you already know about some of the other effective ways to get new subscribers, such as by writing viral reports or doing joint ventures. But these take time – at least a few weeks to get off the ground. If you’re anxious to build your list faster, then pay per click (PPC) marketing is your solution.

If you do a search online, you’ll run into numerous PPC search engines. However, the top service is Google AdWords. You may also consider using Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter.

Here’s how to use PPC marketing to build your list…

Step #1: Create a Landing Page

Your landing page is your sales page for your newsletter. This is where you tell visitors why they should join your newsletter list. Since it’s a sales letter, it should include the regular parts of a sales letter such as:

  • Headline

    • Example: “Free Reports Shows You How to Improve Your Golf Swing in Three Easy Steps!”

  • Bulleted list of benefit statements

    • Example: “Use this surprisingly simple tweak to add 25 yards to your drive – it’s easy!”

  • Proof, such as screenshots, pictures, videos and/or testimonials

  • A call to action

    • Example: “Enter your first name and email address in the form below now and click to submit to discover how to improve your game!”

Typically, you encourage subscriptions by offering a bonus, such as a free:

    • Niche ebook or report
    • Video
    • Audio product
    • Access to a teleseminar or webinar
    • Tools, software or other valuable resources

Step #2: Choose Your Campaign Keywords

Next, you need to choose your keywords and how much you’ll “bid” on these keywords.

Tip: Generally, the higher you bid (and the better your ad performs), the higher your ad appears in the search engine results. When someone clicks on your ad, you pay an amount that’s equal to or less than your bid amount.

The key in choosing keywords is to choose specific, targeted keywords that give you an idea of what the searcher wants.

Example: The keyword “golf” is too general. Instead, you might choose more specific search phrases like “step by step golf swing,” “proper way to swing a golf club” and “improve golf swing”

Step #3: Craft a PPC Ad

Next, you need to craft your PPC ad, which consists of a short headline and two short lines of copy. The goal of your ad is to get people to click on the ad, so you should put forth a benefit and, where applicable, arouse curiosity.

Here’s an example:

Golf Swing Secrets
Free report shows you how
to swing like the pros!
www.domainname.com

Tip: Create at least three or four different ads that you can rotate and test.

Once you’ve finished this first three steps, then you can create an account at the PPC service of your choice and start your first campaign. Finally…

Step #4: Check Your Results

To get the best results, you need to track and test your campaigns. That means you track your keywords, track your different PPC ads as well as tracking variations of your landing page. In other words, you want to find out how to boost your visitor to subscriber conversion rate so that you can build your list more quickly.

Tip: If you’re using AdWords, look for a link in your account to Google’s free tracking and testing tools.

Summary

Your next step is to act. Indeed, I suggest you get started right now. You could have your campaign up and pulling in new subscribers to your list by later today!

Next up: Building an Affiliate Army.

Just in case you stumbled on this post (and you haven’t signed up for the full, free course), sign up below. All I need to get you started is your first name and email address.

 

List Building Blocks #3 — How to Use Viral Reports to Get More Opt-Ins

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 5:27 am  
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If you’re a content marketer, then you already know how to write reports, ebooks, articles and blog posts. But do you know how to turn ordinary content into viral content?

That’s what you’re about to discover…

Generally, a viral report is one that sweeps across your niche because readers share it with one another.

In order to be “share worthy,” your report needs to have most of the following characteristics:

Unique content

Your report may include:

  • Unusual or even controversial ideas or information. If your report includes something that no one else is talking about, people will share it.
  • Entertaining/engaging content. If your writing style is as exciting as burnt toast, then get a ghostwriter to write it for you. Even if you share unusual content, it won’t be share-worthy if it’s boring to read.

Tip: You can liven up your writing by including humor (where applicable), stories, analogies, metaphors and colorful language.

For example, instead of saying, “he left the party quickly,” you might say, “he left quicker than a cat exiting a hot oven.”

See the difference? The second line is simply more colorful and fun to read because it creates a strong visual impression.

  • Extraordinarily useful content. Tip: Give away what others are charging big bucks for. Go to Clickbank.com to find out the top sellers in your niche.
  • Funny content. This doesn’t work in every niche, but it’s effective if you can pull it off. Think of your email – I bet most of your email forwards are jokes. Or check out this site – www.marketingcomics.com.

In other words, ordinary content doesn’t cut it.

Tip: If you want an idea of what kind of content to create, just look at the types of content that arrives in your email every day, forwarded from friends. Think about the content you share with others.

For example, if someone is giving away a report that most others charge for, you’re going to tell your friends.

Or if someone has a report that’s highly controversial – such as one that seems truthful but goes against what the niche experts are saying – you can bet people are going to pass it around.

Or if someone creates a report that crosses over from controversial to even a tiny bit offensive, people on BOTH sides of the issue will share it. Just look to politics as an example of taking a hot button issue and creating content that offends certain parties.

Easy to access

If you want a report to go viral, don’t put a lot of hoops and obstacles between you and your audience. Ideally, it should be freely available (no subscription required), with the goal of the report being to get people on your list.

Alternatively, you can offer your report to anyone who gives you a valid email address. This works best if you’re paying affiliates per lead (or if you’re paying commissions on a backend offer).

Which brings us to our next point…

There’s an incentive to share it.

Content that has the above characteristics (e.g., it’s funny or controversial) naturally get passed around the niche. However, you can give people an incentive to share it by allowing readers to change the links in the report to their affiliate links before sharing it.

Tip: Use ViralPDF.com to create rebrandable reports. That way anyone who shares your report has an opportunity to make money on the backend via affiliate commissions.

Summary: What’s Next?

You just discovered what kind of content you need to create in order to turn regular content into viral content. But now that you have your viral report, what do you do with it? Answer: distribute it as widely as possible. This includes:

  • Blogging about it
  • Giving it to your affiliates and JV partners to share
  • Telling your list about it
  • Creating and posting a YouTube video about it
  • Telling your social media networks about it
  • Including it in your forum signature files

The more people who see your report initially, the more likely it is your report will “go viral” in a big way!

Next in the series: Pay Per Click

Just in case you stumbled on this post (and you haven’t signed up for the full, free course), sign up below. All I need to get you started is your first name and email address.

 

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