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Posts Tagged ‘calls to action’

Marketing Quick Tips: How to Mention Your Products Without Being Annoying

December 27th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

One of the cardinal sins of marketing is talking nonstop about your product. It’s boring, it’s annoying, and it offers zero value to your customers. Mentioning your product is perfectly fine, of course. You’ll get the best results by talking about your product in an engaging, value-added way. Here are 5 rules to live by to ensure you do just that:

Rule 1: Stress benefits

Always stress the benefits of using your product, because that’s what your customers care about. Just this week, I got an email from a company talking about how fabulous their just-released Product Version 3 is without once mentioning how it would help me (or what it even does). I hit delete at lightning speed.

Rule 2: Highlight your product in calls-to-action

Calls-to-action tell people what to do, so make them more specific than “Contact us to learn more!” Tell your prospective customers to sign up for a free trial, demo or sample of Product X. Remind them that Product Y can start solving their pain points today or is as easy to use as 1-2-3.

Rule 3: Use customer success stories to demonstrate your product’s value

Stories are much more engaging than product data sheets. When you share how customers have successfully used your product, prospective customers will be able to relate those experiences to their own situation – and say, “I want that same outcome!”

Rule 4: Upsell

Your current customers are your best customers. You’ve already earned their business, so keep it by reminding them about additional products (or services) you sell that could provide additional benefits.

Rule 5: Show, don’t tell

In your blog posts, use your products to demonstrate how to do something. If your salon sells styling brushes, demonstrate how to use them to get different hairstyles. If your bar makes and bottles its own bitters, share some fun drink recipes in a video.

How do you successfully integrate your products into your marketing – without beating your readers over the head with sales talk?

Image courtesy of serve-others.com

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Tags: calls to action, Marketing, product benefits, product marketing, upselling
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

13 Helpful Guidelines for A/B Testing

May 4th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

A/B Tests, or Split Tests, can help you optimize your landing pages, email marketing campaigns and calls-to-action. But isn’t testing something only big marketing research firms do? The answers is a definitive “no.”

In this article, I’ll share some tips for using A/B testing in your own marketing strategies, regardless of the size of your staff or budget.

Are your marketing efforts making the grade?

A/B testing can help you determine which marketing variables are giving you the best response rate. An example of a variable is the call-to-action in an email message or the landing page a Facebook post directs people to.

By conducting A/B tests, you can tweak your marketing performance to drive more traffic to your website and generate more leads for your business. The marketing pros at Hubspot have lots of suggestions for conducting A/B testing, but I’m going to break down the strategies for you in a quick and painless way.

Your A/B Testing Cheat Sheet

Conduct one test at a time to be sure your results don’t get mixed up. In other words, don’t launch a test for your email and your landing page simultaneously. Along that same line, only test one variable at a time so you can be sure you know exactly what to change or improve.
Test among two or more audiences and be sure these samples are similar. For example, if you’re testing an email message, pull names that have been on your list for similar amounts of time.
Just like in science experiments, you’ll need to have both a control group and a treatment group. In your A/B tests, the control group will be your original email or landing page, and the treatment group will be the variations of these tools you want to test. You may want to test whether including an image will enhance a landing page, so your original landing page would be the control element, and the landing page with an image would be the treatment element.
Conduct your A/B tests during the same timeframe. What this does is remove timing as a variable because conducting marketing tests a month or two apart can yield very different results. If you’re testing several elements for one particular campaign, test them simultaneously. Just be sure to test only one variable on each of your tests, as I mentioned above.

Deciding which variables to test

Now that you have some guidelines to get you started, which variables should you test? When you were creating a call-to-action for the company’s latest product launch, you may have wondered which copy or graphic elements would get the best results. Those elements are perfect for A/B testing. Here are some variables you may want to test:

Offers that convert the most prospects into leads
Structure for your copy (bullet lists, paragraphs, etc.)
Size or placement of the call-to-action
Color scheme or other design element
Photo or logo to use on a landing page
Format of email (newsletter, digest, etc.)
Time of day to send email
Subject line of email

A/B testing is an effective way to learn why your marketing campaigns or working – or why they aren’t. By testing elements in their campaigns, marketers can easily tweak their strategies to get the most bang for their buck- something every small business owner can surely appreciate.

Image courtesy of spamula.net

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Tags: A/B testing, calls to action, Email marketing, landing pages, Marketing, social media, split testing
Posted in Email Marketing, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

6 Surefire Ways to Improve Online Marketing via Your Website

December 6th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

Websites, white papers and blogs – there are plenty of sources out there for improving your online marketing strategy. They range from simple (set up a website) to complex (put together a fully integrated social media marketing program that uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare to promote your business).

Let’s keep it basic, though, and focus on 6 things you can do to improve your website:

1. Create clear and concise website content.

This is something I write about a lot. Be clear about the value you offer customers with straightforward, clean Web copy that focuses on benefits, not features, and avoids fluffy descriptions. Simply list what you do and how you successfully solve your customers’ problems.

To ensure it really is clear, ask friends and family who are not in your industry to read it. If everyone quickly grasps what your company does, great job! If not, try again or ask them for suggestions on improving the copy.

2. Add video.

One of the best ways to engage your prospective customers is by including a video that introduces your product or service in a quick and easy-to-understand format. You can make one yourself (just do a quick search for Web video templates) or outsource it to a graphic designer. Just make sure your video does not auto-play when a visitor first lands on your website.

3. Stay focused.

Keep your website content tightly focused on the benefits of your products or services. Do not expound at length on your background or why you started your company, or continually repeat yourself, a common mistake. Save all thought leadership for your blog, social media sites or your website’s resource center.

4. Go mobile.

If you have an app that can be used on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, let customers know on your home page – and link to the app on the App Store, Android Marketplace, Blackberry App World or the Windows Marketplace to make it easy for them to find and download it. Mobility is a major selling point for everyone who is busy, so this is a great way to grab their attention.

5. Tout free trials or demos.

If you offer free trials or demos of your product or service, don’t bury it in your website. Make that a visible, primary call to action on your home and contact us pages. I love it when companies turn those calls to action into big buttons so you can’t miss them.

6. Make signing up easy.

Help your buyers get started with your products or services right away by allowing them to sign up easily on your “home” and “contact us” pages, or by walking them through the steps they need to take to get going.

Do some – or all – of these things, and more of your website visitors will call or email you – and turn into potential customers.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Tags: apps, calls to action, Marketing, mobile apps, online marketing, social media, video, web video, website content
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

7 Keys to Growing Your Blog Readership

November 22nd, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

If you have been blogging for a while and wondering why no one is reading your articles, it can be super frustrating. I wish I could say there are only one or two things you need to do to grow your blog readership overnight, but unfortunately, as with many things in life, you must consistently do a number of things to see results.

Think about what it takes to lose weight, which will be a huge topic for most of us in about a month and a half – right after the holidays. Losing weight doesn’t happen overnight. Advice does not just focus on eating healthy and exercising; it also includes eating less, tips on portion control, mixing up your exercise routine, getting enough sleep, drinking more water and so on.

Blogging is the same. Do the following 7 things, be persistent, and you will certainly see the results.

1. Write good content

Good content always means useful content. Don’t be vague or give advice in an overview-type way. Include details and examples of what you are describing to prove your point. Use your own experiences to teach others.

2. Write in plain English

The simpler the words and phrases you use when writing, the better. Write like you talk, not as if you are writing a 243-page dissertation for your Ph.D. Think People Magazine, not The Economist.

3. Talk directly to the reader

Freely use “you” and “me” in your blog posts. Your blog posts should be conversational in tone to help you better connect with your readers. You are talking to them, after all, just with words on paper rather than spoken words.

4. Include calls to action

As a small business owner, one of the reasons you are blogging is to generate leads. Ask your readers to do something at the end of your blog post – subscribe to your newsletter, download an eBook, sign up for a free trial or consultation, or anything else you can give them of value that will also give you their contact information, thus enabling you to start the sales process.

5. Promote it

Promote and distribute your blog posts on all the social media channels you and your audience use, from Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to Reddit to StumbleUpon. Use a social media dashboard (like Hootsuite) to make this a bit easier.

6. Build relationships

Reach out to other bloggers, as well as editors of digital publications, and start building relationships with them. Introduce yourself and your blog. Ask to guest blog for them and in the case of other bloggers, vice versa. Offer to repurpose blog posts for their sites. Comment on their blogs. If you can get a backlink to your site from a high-profile blogger or publication, your readership will spike.

7. Submit guest posts to major blogs

If you write valuable content, any editor –of even major blogs – will be happy to use your guest blog posts. As Editor at Tech Cocktail, I speak from experience here. I regularly get guest posts from a handful of fabulous writers that I know our thousands of readers will enjoy. Don’t be shy – just ask. Editors are people too!

Image Courtesy: Karen Axelton

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Tags: blog, blog growth, blog readers, blogging, calls to action, content, digital publications, editors, guest blogging, Marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing | 3 Comments »

How to Write Engaging Website Content That Will Generate Leads Part 3

August 30th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Writing website content that generates leads

Even though I regularly write website content for other companies without a problem, I know how hard it is to write your own copy. In fact, I struggled with mine for a month till I felt like I got it right! So, I put together a three-part series that details how to do it properly so you will connect with your target market to the point that they can’t wait to work with/buy from you.

I already covered how to define your target market and services and write your value proposition in part 1, the beginning. In part 2, the middle, I discussed what pages you need to include and in what order on your website and what to write on each page. Now, we’ll put the finishing touches on the website.

1. Write the Home Page

The home page is always the last thing I write. You need to be happy with the rest of your website content first. So, on your home page, you immediately state who your company is, who your clients are, and what you do for them. In other words, this is where your value proposition is going.

Then expand a bit on how, overall, you help your clients. The very last thing you include is a list of the products and services you offer.

2. Write Calls-to-Action

So now you have all this great content that engages your target market and gets them, well, if not excited to buy from/work with you, interested in learning more and talking to you.

To get them to take that next step and do something by adding a call-to-action (CTA) on each page that urges them to contact you via email or phone. It will read something like this: “If you are interested in taking your social media marketing efforts to the next level, contact us today.” Hyperlink “contact us” to your Contact Us page.

You might be able to use one CTA on every page, but most likely you will want to customize it a bit for each product/service page. You will also add one to the home page, and a really strong, longer one to the actual Contact Us page.

3. Integrate Keywords

Because you are going to optimize your website for search (please don’t say you are thinking about doing it – you MUST do it if you want to get found online), you need to integrate keywords into your content. I do this last.

Ask the search engine optimization expert who is working on your site to do a keyword search based on your products, services, and other industry keywords that you use and are applicable to you. Go through the list and choose the keywords that have the most relevance for you AND that get high rankings.

Now, read through your website content and make sure those keywords appear on relevant pages.

Image by Flickr user neil conway (Creative Commons)

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Tags: calls to action, home page, keywords, Marketing, search engine optimization, seo, website content, website writing, writing content
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

10 Social Media and Marketing Resolutions for 2011

December 31st, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

The word “resolution” is heard so often around the beginning of each year it’s become almost meaningless. They are half-heartedly made and quickly forgotten. These resolutions are different, though. They’re ones you do want to make, and with that whole fresh-new-clean-slate feeling that comes with a new year, now is as good a time as any to implement some of them.

Your 10 social media and marketing resolutions for 2011, in no specific order:

Use a social media dashboard. I love Hootsuite, but TweetDeck and Seesmic are also super popular. It doesn’t matter which you use, though, just pick one so you can better manage Twitter, Facebook, and the other social media platforms you use.

Get active on LinkedIn. Finish filling out your profile and keep it updated. Go through your business cards and connect with the people you really want to keep in touch with. Link your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account so the blog posts and other useful information you post on Twitter is seen by your network. Answer questions via LinkedIn Answers. And the list goes on.

Create a custom landing page for Facebook. I used Hy.ly, which is free and really easy to use (read more about it here). A custom landing page is a memorable way to welcome new people and give them a reason to “like” you.

Join conversations on Twitter. I know you know social media is supposed to be used for engagement. But you probably don’t take full advantage of Twitter to build a community and start discussions, do you? (Don’t feel bad, I don’t either, so this really is one of my resolutions.) Search for hashtags (#) of terms you use and want to talk about. Pull up the list of tweets that use those hashtags and jump into the conversation (just use the hashtag in your tweets).

Add calls to action to your website. To convert your Web visitors into leads, add prominent messages on your website that offer something of value. It could be a white paper, free consultation, eBook, or special discount for new clients. The call to action can be a button or link; the person will click on it and get redirected to a form where you’ll gather their contact information before sending them what you promised.

Add video to your website. Search engines love videos, so by adding one to your website, you will greatly improve your chances of being easily found during an online search. The video need not be long, but it should be fun, engaging, and professionally produced.

Start blogging already! You know you should blog, so start. Make sure your blog is integrated into your website (in other words, it looks like another page of your website). Put together an editorial schedule of what you’d like to write about. You don’t need to publish every day, but at least twice a week is preferable, and your blog posts need not be long, just full of useful info.

Analyze your website. Check Google Analytics and Website Grader on a regular basis so you know how you’re doing: what pages people visit the most, what information they download from your site, how long they stay on your site, what blog posts generate a lot of traffic, etc. Use this information to improve your marketing and social media efforts.

Optimize your website. Stop procrastinating and hire an expert to optimize your website so search engines can find you. Not all SEO “experts” are created equal, so ask around to find someone with the experience and methods to get you the results you want.

Repurpose content. Reuse the content you have already written for other purposes. Turn blog posts on a certain subject into an eBook. Use short articles you have written for your newsletter for your blog. Break down a white paper into a few blog posts.

Good luck! And Happy New Year!

Image by Flickr user draml (Creative Commons)

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Tags: blogging, blogs, calls to action, Marketing, seo, social media, social media dashboard, video, web analytics
Posted in Marketing, Search Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 5 Comments »