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August 27, 2010

Identifying Top- and Bottom-Line Growth Strategies for Your Web Business

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — infomelilea @ 8:56 am

Defining Top-Line versus Bottom-Line

An Internet business improves their "top line" by increasing the number of unique visitors to their website or their "bottom line" by increasing their "visitor-to-sale" or "visitor-to-lead" conversion rates.

Let me illustrate.

After an online business establishes their performance metrics, it is able to predict with confidence the expected results from their visitor traffic. For example, a business’ performance metrics may show that for every 1,000 visitors received, 15 sales are completed ? a sales conversion rate of 1.5%.

With this understanding, the business can increase its "top line" growth by driving more visitors to its website. For example, if the business invests money in traffic generation efforts to increase their visitor traffic from 1,000 to 10,000, 150 sales will be achieved from the 1.5% sales conversion rate ? a ten times growth rate.

Top-Line Improvements Focuses on Traffic Generation

What are "traffic generation efforts"?

In brief, traffic generation efforts are ways a business attracts visitors to their website. They may include online efforts such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click search engines, affiliate marketing, email campaigns, and media or offline ones like direct mail, television, radio, and public relations.

On the other hand, the business may decide to spend their money on improving their "bottom line" by concentrating efforts on website conversion strategies.

For example, if the above business invests money in website conversion strategies to increase their sales conversion rate from 1.5% to 2%, then for the same 1,000 visitors, sales will increase from 15 to 20 ? a 25% increase.

Bottom-Line Increases Focus on Website Conversion Strategies

So what are website conversion strategies?

Website conversion strategies are website design changes that connect with your visitor’s wants and persuades them to take action to achieve your goals as well as theirs. There are endless strategies to increase your bottom line although some have greater significance than others.

Depending on your type of online business, different strategies may achieve greater results for your website and offer greater relevancy for your visitors.

If you manage a consumer or business product website than website conversion strategies that focus on reducing shopping cart abandonment may provide the greatest conversion improvement. While a service business’ lead generation website will find improvement from website conversion strategies focused on "contact us" form completion.

Implement These Website Conversion Strategies

There are website conversion strategies that will improve conversion rates for all online businesses regardless of their individual objectives. These strategies include improvements to?

? Website’s sales copy including writing headlines and sub-heads with stronger visitor appeal, defining stronger calls-to-action, using more visitor-relevant and benefit-oriented words and positioning popular visitor keywords in prominent areas connect with visitors and persuade action.

? Graphics and layout design to generate visual relevancy and message consistency for your visitors.

? Guarantees, returns, shipping, privacy, customer support and security policies you present to gain confidence and trust from your visitors.

? Navigational structures to make it easier and more convenient for your visitors to locate the products and services they desire to purchase.

? Buying or contact options to increase the ways in which a visitor can purchase or receive contact from you including alternatives to a shopping cart or online form like phone, mail, fax, online chat, and email.

How to Decide Between Top-Line or Bottom-Line Improvements

Your decision to pursue "top-line" or "bottom-line" improvements should be evaluated by (1) the objectives you plan to achieve, (2) the amount of money you have to spend, (3) the time-line established to meet your goals, (4) the amount of visitor traffic your website currently receives and (5) the conversion rate your website currently achieves for your calls-to-action.

Establishing a plan before you make any decisions is critical. As the old joke goes, "I’m making progress climbing the ladder of success–I just don’t know if it’s leaning against the right wall." The plan should include measurable goals based on your current performance metrics.

Knowing your budget is essential in the selection process. Why, because certain conversion enhancement strategies can be implemented for a small investment of your time and effort. While traffic generation efforts may require greater investments of time, effort or both. Figuring your budget enables you to also forecast the potential return you may receive from improving your top-line versus your bottom-line. Obviously the areas that provide the biggest bang for your buck are the ones to start one first.

Understanding your time-line is also essential since many conversion enhancement strategies will offer quick improvement to your conversion rates while traffic generation efforts like search engine optimization have long lag times before delivering ample visitor traffic.

Identifying your current visitor traffic volume and conversion rates, especially for new Internet businesses, is also very important when determining top-line or bottom-line improvement. If you currently have low visitor traffic then you will have difficulty in determining if a conversion enhancement strategy had a real effect on improving your conversion rates.

For example, if your website receives 100 visitors a month it will take you at least a month or two before any real measurable changes occur to your conversion rates. In this case, you would be better off focusing on top-line (traffic generation efforts) first and then returning to bottom-line improvements for increasing your conversion rates.

Likewise, if your website currently has strong visitor traffic, like 15,000 visitors per month yet your current conversion rate produces only 5 sales then obviously you need to improve your bottom-line and focus on conversion enhancement strategies.

Take time to review your "top line" versus "bottom line" opportunities and to decide which one offers you the best return for your dollars spent. If you concentrate on improving one of the two areas over the next month you can be confident that measurable sales growth is achievable for your Internet business.

Kevin Gold is a Founder of Enhanced Concepts and a published author. If you’re interested in increasing your leads or sales, get a free copy of "Understanding Your Conversion Rate" and "12 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Website Conversion" by visiting http://www.enhancedconcepts.com.

August 26, 2010

Nobody Knows You Yet!

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — fickleinpink @ 11:57 pm

It is really a small wonder why most people fail in the first 90 days on the Internet (which might explain why most products on the Internet come with 90 day money-back guarantee!). After putting up your web pages in cyber space, to expect people to know of your presence without promotion and marketing effort on your part is a fool’s dream. In extreme cases, it is actually a fool’s plan.

Let’s face it ? nobody knows you yet!

Finish creating pages for your web site is not the end. In fact, it is only the beginning. Just as completing your schooling is not the end but the beginning of your journey in the world beyond the walls of your classroom.

Unfortunately, a big number of us seem to think that our main battle has to do with the difficulties to understand HTML and creating the web pages. And yet we rejoice too early as soon as we got our pages up on cyber space. Why, that’s a big W-R-O-N-G!

Trust me, the best time you should rejoice is when you make your first sale! I certainly did. I was not making any money for the first two months and it was agony simply because I did what most people do ? sit and wait!

If you are just starting out, then do not do the mistake most of the people, myself included, did. Since you have the chance to read this article, I can only beg that you be wiser.

Since you are operating an Internet Business, like any other business, you need to communicate. You need to interact. You need to talk. Why? It is because we are social creatures.

I cannot imagine a business where there is no need for you to communicate.

I am sure you got my point by now. If you have not been making much progress in your early stages of your Internet Business, this may very well be the reason.

To get yourself started quickly and let people know you are in business, you can do the following easily for no fee down. While you do not necessarily need money to make money on the Internet, the life and death of your business depends heavily on your sweat equity and wisdom.

1. Submit your site to major search engines (Yahoo!, Google, MSN, AltaVista, etc.)
This should always be the first thing to do as soon as you have your web site up. However, this is NOT the only way to attract targeted prospects.

2. Submit your link to web sites with high Page Rank
Having your link submitted to directories, forums or related sites with high PR value will also result in increasing your site PR when Google bots crawl on your pages in your web site.

3. Participate in discussion boards
Join one or two discussion boards where your prospects are gathering. You can interact, submit articles and this gives you the chance to leave your website URL on the board for people interested in what you have to offer. Do not join too many as it is actually unethical and disturbing if people view your profile to find that you post only once or twice on the board. If you have to leave the board, make sure you leave for a good reason.

4. Submit your articles to other websites
There are many sites online that specialize in listing directories of articles. If you would include a link to your website in your author’s resource box, publishing your articles on these sites is a great way to establish some links back to your website. Furthermore, other sites and e-zines publishers might even want to publish your article in their publication!

With four easy ways to start, you can promote your website for no fee down. You will need to contribute your sweat equity, no doubt, but the results beat not doing anything productive at all.

Copyright © Edmund Loh

About the Author:

Edmund Loh is the author of the E-Biz Wiz Blog and Starting An Internet Business Special Report. Visit E-Biz Wiz Blog for proven ideas, tips and information on starting your own Internet Business and subscribe to the 12 Day Internet Marketing Success Course. http://ebizmodelsyoucancopy.blogspot.com

August 25, 2010

Internet Marketing Secrets Spiel

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — miskec @ 5:58 pm

Wouldn’t you like to know all the Internet marketing “secrets” that have made me the man I am today?

I live in a house way too big for my beautiful wife and myself. We eat three square meals a day and can snack anytime we feel like it! We drive our luxurious Cavalier to the beach and swim anytime we want (when I’m not busy making money on the Internet and the beach is not closed because of E. coli levels or ice fishing).

It wasn’t always this way. I remember just about fifty-two short years ago when I had no clothes. The doctor had to wrap me up in a blanket. But I applied myself for decades and finally starting making money on the Internet.

Did you hear about the guy that made fifty million dollars in one day on eBay? Peanuts! If you want to make really huge amounts of cash from e-commerce, listen to a guy who’s been there.

Why should I tell you (a perfect stranger) all my tricks of the trade? Why don’t I just keep the information to myself and make a ton of cash with that knowledge?

These are good questions. This proves that you are thinking and that people on the Internet are not stupid or gullible.

The real reason I am sharing this information is because I like people. In fact, I like you. I consider you one of my closest friends because you are interested in my one passion, Internet marketing. The fact that you have read this far proves your interest. Because you are so smart and motivated, I want to help you.

The fact that I am going to release only 5,000 copies of my Internet marketing “secrets” at $5,000 a pop, for a cool $25,000,000, has absolutely nothing to do with money.

You see, I don’t really need the money. We only have three more payments to go on the Cavalier. My fridge is full of Canadian beer. So, money is obviously not my prime motivation.

My charging you $5,000 for my Internet marketing “secrets” is my way of giving back to the community. Really, I’m doing all this to help you because I want to leave behind a legacy. I want people to say (after I’m dead and have no clue about what’s going on) what a great philanthropist I was.

By the way, the lawyer at the legal clinic said I should tell you two words: “Earnings Disclaimer”.

Even though anyone as smart and motivated and good-looking as you is sure to make billions on the Internet working two or less hours a week, he insisted that I tell you. (Aren’t these creative types hilarious?)

He says: “There is no guarantee that you will make any money. Some persons are stupid, lazy and ugly and have zero chance of success.”

What a party pooper!

RESOURCE BOX:

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.

For profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

Marketing to Today?s ?Distracted? Consumer

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — RichieJhons @ 5:55 pm

The average person today is exposed to a never-ending deluge of 1,700 marketing messages during a single 24-hour period. Look around you, we marketers have pasted, integrated injected and/or overlaid advertising in any possible place imaginable! Case in point, NBC will start to digitally insert commercial "billboards" into advertising content to be broadcast during the winter Olympics ? in essence a commercial within a commercial.

Marketing messages and processes must be condensed, hard-hitting and presented in formats that are easy to understand and digest ? not MBA-speak or techno-jargon. Long mission statements with flowery prose simply don’t cut it in today’s "distracted economy" ? customers/clients/partners want to understand what products and services your selling, at what price and how they are supported.

A one-page company Facts sheet is an essential component of any marketing campaign ? it provides a snapshot of essentials about your company including markets addressed, contact points, core technology, products or services sold and business partners. A well-written Fact sheet should be one page and provide just baseline information, without any hyperbole.

Power Point presentations by their very nature force you to distill your information down into bullets and short sentences. Enabling you to make a presentation in a meeting, or have content ready for viewing on a 24/7 basis via your web site. You can create several iterations of the presentation which can be tailored for customers, partners, investors, etc. ? mixing and matching your core 8-12 slides with others that "speak" to different audiences.

I’ve written several articles on web-enabled marketing and the need for simplicity when designing a web site, with content that is tailored for the online community. Many companies are still spending way too much money on web sites that don’t effectively work as an information resource ? unfortunately, many of these sites function more as a testament to the designer’s ability to use cutting edge software graphics tools.

A great number of web sites still utilize text that is just pulled from other marcom materials, ignoring "rules of the road" for content on the web ? the online community wants information presented in short paragraphs comprised of 2-3 sentences, with lots of white space.

A good web site should act solely as an appetizer for a four-course meal ? whetting the appetites of the viewers and motivating them to take some action that moves them forward in the marketing process such as contacting the company or registering via the web site for more information.

Speaking of web site registration ? this too should be optimized for today’s "information overloaded" customer. Only basic requirements should be requested (name, contact points, interest level) with a Privacy Statement linked via the registration page clearly stating your marketing policy; which by the way, you should adhere to without any deviation, or risk the wrath of your customers.

Opt-in e-mail has now become today’s marketing methodology du jour ? it works and it’s cost effective. Approximately 50% of opt-in e-mail content is done in HTML (graphics inserted) format and the other 50% in text format. We strongly recommend text format to most of our B2B (business to business) clients ? and we utilize a standard format that has generated 8-25% response rates from numerous campaigns we’ve created.

We structure the e-mail message so it is in three short paragraphs, with customer referenceability built in to the message and we utilize at least 10% of the media buy to test 2-3 different messages. The subject line is one of the most critical elements ? it has to get the recipient’s attention and cut through the clutter of hundreds (typically) of other messages they will be receiving during a 24-hour period.

So, the executive summary for this article can be summarized succinctly ? the most precious commodity in business today is attention ? getting someone’s attention and then keeping it is directly proportional to how you structure your marketing messages.

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience – he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. Lee@intelective.com

The Internet F-Word

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — kakamrois @ 8:59 am

For the last several months I’ve been collecting and organizing links for the free Christian Resource Center. Now that the public area is up and the members’ area is well under construction, I’m running into one problem: the Internet F-word.

One of the most popular search terms in the world. One of the Web’s biggest search term lies in the wrong hands. It’s so controversial that I can’t put it in the subject line of an e-mail. (Thanks to those self-appointed e-mail guardians who have done such a commendable job of protecting the sanctity of our e-mail in-boxes by eliminating the f-word, thus leaving more storage space for Viagra ads, adult sites, and really personal growth secrets.) It’s still one of the best magnets to draw targeted traffic.

So, what if I have to advertise that my “Members Area” will have links to over 25,000 fr^e resources? Or that my public area has links to over 1,000 fr^e resources. Or that my e-zine will feature fr^e resources in every issue.

It’s all part of life on the new frontier, keeping up with the changing rules, avoiding misdirected vigilante “justice.”

No, I don’t like the stupid e-mail filters that filter out the e-zines I subscribed to while apparently laying out the welcome mat for the scammers, spammers, smut merchants, and gamblers. I could gripe to my family and friends or change my domain name to keep my URL from triggering somebody’s spam filter. But, hey, I live in the land of the fr^e and the home of the br@ve. Think I’ll keep my domain name and post the e-zine on the Web site for those who can’t get it by e-mail.

If I can’t figure out some way to let people know my site is out there, then I’m just not a good enough promoter. If I can piggy-back that onto—say, an article that (I hope) advances the cause of exposing the Spam-nazis and ISPs for their meddling, ineffective and intrusive (non)solution to “the problem of spam,” so much the better.

Maybe I could even come up with a title that piques the reader’s curiosity while illustrating the woeful inadequacy of “filters.” After all, I’m fr^e to submit fr^e articles to fr^e content sites and fr^e e-zines all over the Internet to advertise my fr^e resources. I just can’t use the f-word in the subject line.

Note to self: add “fr^e” to meta-tags on Web site before the Google-bot’s next visit ;-)

About The Author

Copyright, Judy (Wogoman) Cox,CFO (chief freebie-gatherer & organizer)From the early writings of the prophets to end times prophecy—the Gutenberg Bible to Christian video games—all free:

http://www.freechristianresourcecenter.com/

mailto:Judy@freechristianresourcecenter.com

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