Chris Cardell Media

One of the first strategies I recommend to everyone I come into contact with is to start building a list they can begin emailing to. This usually demands a fundamental change in their initial approach to their prospects, clients, and customers.

The aim is to begin the relationship by giving – and then to maximise profits by email-marketing to them, realising our profits over time. This is in direct contrast with the traditional strategy whereby the aim is simply to make a sale right off the bat.

The question now is how do we make best use of our email list, other than simply mailing them more often (which is obvious, but still worth mentioning because it’s virtually certain you aren’t emailing YOUR list often enough).

The key is segmentation. It’s actually easier and more straightforward than it seems, but it does demand you do a little bit more work than simply writing emails and sending them.

When you send an offer to your list you’ll come to know in advance approximately what kind of response you’re going to get. That’s the whole point of doing direct response marketing in the first place.

But what’s not immediately obvious is the 80/20 rule is going to apply: over time you’re going to find the same names keep cropping up, responding to your offers.

Roughly 80% of your sales are going to come from just 20% of your list. What’s more you’re going to find a percentage of these 20% are going to be hyper-responders; that is, they’ll buy the de-luxe version of everything you sell, every time you ask.

This point is crucial: because it’s like they’re waiting to give you money but won’t do it unless you ask them to!

So your first job is to identify these people. It’s not hard and there are several ways you can do it:

Manually tick off names against shipped orders. Only really feasible for small numbers and physically-shipped items.

Use spreadsheets and do some fancy work with data sorting. This is often going to be the easiest way to do it in the short term.

Use the facilities in your email autoresponder to track clicks within the messages. This is useful when it works, but be aware the presence of these links themselves can themselves affect response. So test (as always!).

Now, assuming you have the data, what you’re looking for are those top 20% and the real cream, those incredibly profitable hyper-responders.

Once you’ve identified them, you put them into a new email list, one which you keep exclusively for these highly-profitable names, and then start marketing to it with specially designed high-price offers exclusive to that group only.

What’s more, you should tell them they’re in this special group, and why. People love to belong, and once you’ve given them an elevated status, most of them will work to keep it – by giving you even more money.

By doing this you’ll not only make maximum profits, but you’ll also gather around you a loyal group of raving “fans”.

In the last couple of years, there’s been an explosion of information sharing on the web known as social media or social marketing. You’ve probably used, or at least heard of; Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, Stumbleupon, Digg, Twitter and so on. These are tools that teenagers use effortlessly, but they are also powerful marketing strategies that every Business should be using to build a brand and attract new customers online.

All these social web terms fall under the umbrella of ‘Web 2.0’, a term coined in 2004 to describe the new generation of the internet and how people would use it to communicate in a fashion that was immediate and powerful. It has revolutionised the web and forever changed how we communicate online.

Because the list of Social Media tools is long and evergrowing and the strategies are so many and varied, I would rather have you select a few of the key elements and test each one, until you get the results you want. When you’re ready to expand your ‘business socialising’, there are plenty of other tools you can try.

Key Elements to Using Social Media to Promote your Business:

1. Write articles about your products and services and promote them on sites like Hubpages, Scribd, ezinearticles. Make sure you always have a clickable link that sends viewers back to your site.
2. Create podcasts and/or videos and put them on Youtube, bliptv, podcast directories which link to your site.
3. ‘Bookmark’ your content on sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Technorati. Encourage other readers to also bookmark your content and spread the word.
4. Help customers connect to your various networks. Install a widget like lijit.com
5. Open accounts with Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace and Twitter and cross-promote your content. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this only applies to people with ‘sexy’ businesses. Business is about people. That’s the power of social media
6. Start a community group on Myspace or Facebook and encourage readers to join and interact.
7. Turn your blog or site into a mobile version. Try Mofuse.com for Free
8. Turn your press release into a Social Media Friendly one. Include hyperlinks to RSS feeds, podcasts, videos etc.
9. Join social networks and forums in your business niche. Participate in discussions and include your website link in your signature file.
10. Add a forum to your website and encourage customers to join in and give you feedback on your products and services.
11. Remember that Social Media is about being sociable. Contribute to social networks, become part of the blogging community and integrate these tools to build a better brand and following.

As businesses grow, a hidden menace develops. Once a business becomes really large, the menace gets out of control and starts wreaking havoc. The name of that menace – ‘Meetings’ I used to do a great deal of business consultancy. One of the reasons I stopped was that I could not tolerate the long meetings that most clients insisted on having.

Most meetings in companies are a complete waste of time. Even when they’re not, 80% of what’s discussed is irrelevant. Meetings are a highly effective way for employees to waste time – simple as that. Anyway, of all the nonsense discussed in most business meetings, Internet Marketing has to be the favourite time waster.

Here’s how it normally goes: Someone proposes a change to the website. So a discussion (ideally a really long one) has to follow. In that discussion everyone gives their opinion on the proposed changes.
Fred thinks it’s a good idea. Sharon thinks it’s a good idea but there should be more blue on the page because that’s her favourite colour.
Steve thinks the website lacks graphics Julie thinks the whole website is too sales oriented and ‘pushy.’ (You can guarantee that Julie does not own this business)
Pete thinks the website isn’t the problem. The real problem is the lack of a corporate growth strategy.  Nobody else in the meeting really knows what a corporate growth strategy is (actually neither does Pete) so they all agree with him.
And so it goes on……
Now hopefully your Entrepreneurial business will never have these types of meetings – but the problem remains. People are obsessed with trying to decide if a change to a website is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
Please don’t fall into this trap. It is a horrible waste of your time.
I promise you this: In 90% of cases, you or I or your colleagues will have absolutely no idea if a proposed website change is right or wrong. The only people who can tell you are your customers and they will ALWAYS surprise you.
So stop trying to mind-read what your customers will like or dislike. When I suggest a new Internet Marketing approach to you, don’t waste a moment debating it – just TEST it. If it works, great. If it doesn’t work, move on and immediately test something else.

I’m serious when I tell you that many corporations have MONTHS of meetings to decide on a website change. Take advantage of their incompetence. While they’re busy talking, you get Testing. The results of continually testing new online methods (many of which we cover on the VIP Inner Circle website) will almost certainly astound you.

This week’s Internet Profit Strategy might seem a little specific and esoteric… but I promise you it’s vitally important.
We often talk about copywriting in general terms, simply because most business owners get it SO badly wrong they can massively increase their results simply by applying some very general principles to the way they write their web pages (for example, by having a headline, subheadings, an offer and a call to action).

But what we tend not to realise is we can vastly improve (or conversely completely destroy) response by using the wrong words. No joke: a single “wrong” word can stop your website visitor dead in their tracks just at the point they were going to give you their details (or even their money!).

And the most common one of these is “form”, as in “Fill in the form below and we’ll send you the information”.

The trouble with the word “form” is it sounds so official. We get forms from the tax-man and the government. They imply contracts, obligation and  commitment. They put us off. So a far better way of phrasing this kind of thing is like this: “Just leave your details below, click the button and we’ll take care of the rest”

How easy and gentle does that sound compared to the other one?
Here are some more “bad” words you want to avoid, and the ones you want to use instead.
Sometimes you might have to re-cast sentences, but it’s always worth it: “Sign up”. Instead write “join us” or “subscribe” or “claim” “Buy”. Instead write “When you own” (we want to own stuff… we just don’t want to pay for it) “Price” and “cost”. Instead use “amount” or “sum”. Caveat: you CAN use “price” and “cost” when you’re talking about your competitors.
“Contract”. Instead use “paperwork” or “agreement”. These might seem like small details, but believe me they all add up and make a huge difference to the way your website visitors are going to respond to your pages.

Ultimately it’s going to increase response and increase profits. So watch your words – and watch your bank account grow as a result

Email marketing is one of the most underused and most misunderstood forms of Internet marketing. Small (and large) fortunes have been made by more than one Internet marketer who has “cracked the code” of email marketing.

But there are some widely believed myths being constantly repeated, and I think it’s time we dispelled them once and for all.

The biggest myth is people don’t want to receive emails because there’s too much spam. This is simply not true.

People don’t want to receive spam, because they don’t want emails from people they have no relationship with; moreover they don’t want boring emails continually trying to sell them stuff they don’t want!

However, they do want interesting, useful emails from people they have a relationship with.

If you use the lead generation model I wrote about last month, where you begin your relationship with visitors to your website by giving, then you can begin sending emails to them which WILL increase your profits if you follow the simple guidelines below.

First, mail more often. Most people don’t send emails frequently enough. If you’re not emailing your customers at least once a week, you’re almost certainly losing out.It is possible to email them too often, but the threshold is much higher than you think. If they really do get fed up with you, they’ll soon tell you. Your job, once you have their contact details, is to keep sending them stuff until they buy, die, or tell you to stop!

Secondly, forget what you learned about writing “formal” letters in school or college and begin writing like a real flesh-and-blood person. Make emails friendly, personal,and personable. Write as if you were writing to a favourite Aunt or Uncle. Use apostrophes, contractions and — as often as you can — the word “you”.

Finally, keep them simple. You don’t need fancy newsletters – simple plain text is fine (and often better because it gets delivered more reliably and email programs usually display it more consistently). Content is king, despite what graphic-designers tell you!

Superb marketing is the only way to survive recession, and now is not the time for nervousness and indecision: email marketing is a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal. Use it!

There is a famous marketing saying that goes, “Copy is Salesmanship in print”which means you can’t always be in front of the customer personally, so your writing has to do the selling for you. It never ceases to amaze me that so many Entrepreneurs are happy to spend a lot of money on designing a pretty website, but when it comes to communicating with the customer, it all falls apart.Good copy is not hard to write. But it can make the difference between a sale and a customer walking away forever. There are so many skills required to run a successful business, but one of the most important is being able to sell with words.

If you absolutely hate writing or would rather pay someone to do it, that’s fine, but you’ve still got to make sure they cover the 10 elements of Copywriting that Sells.Here are the first five:

1) Who is your customer? Many Entrepreneurs cannot tell you in one sentence who their typical customer is. It’s impossible to write good copy if you don’t know everything about your customer and can speak their language. You wouldn’t speak to a mechanic the same way you speak to a Beauty therapist. You want to sound genuine and authentic. The best way to do this is to know your customer – their needs, worries, fears and concerns. You can use surveys and polls to get this information.

2) Find the Ouch Point. Every customer has an ‘ouch point’. This is the big problem that they want to solve. It could be monetary, physical, emotional etc. Once you find the problem, provide a solution and make that a theme running through your copy.

3) Write a Powerful Headline. This is the most important part of your copy. You need to grab the readers’ attention before they click away. Be bold make sure they know you are speaking to them. Now is not the time to be vague or abstract. Don’t forget to use your keywords in your title and through your copy. Top copywriters often write hundreds of versions of a headline until they get the right one.

4) Tell your Story. People buy from people they know, like and trust. Let your personality and character shine through. If you have an interesting story about how you got to where you are, TELL IT. Customers want to know that you are real, flesh and blood with imperfections just like them. It breaks down barriers, which drives sales. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you sell something straightforward, you can’t be a personality in your business. In the current economy,you have no choice. You MUST stand out from the crowd.

5) Use the word ‘YOU.’ This is a great test of the effectiveness of your copy. By using the word ‘You’ throughout your website and emails, it forces you to have a conversation with the customer and it ensures that your words are about them, not you. The biggest mistake on websites is copy that is all about the company that owns the website – and ignores the needs of the customer

Many website owners wring their hands in frustration as they try to optimise their sites and get a handle on SEO (search engine optimisation). Many even throw in the towel and end up paying an SEO company thousands to do the job. Yes you can outsource this job, but YOU still need to know how it works and you always need to be the one directing your SEO efforts.

What is SEO?

SEO is optimising a website both on page and off page to achieve a better organic (free) ranking in search engines and consequently driving more traffic to your website. SEO consists of four main areas: keyword research and selection, site building, on page optimisation, and link building.

Here are some tips to get your SEO off the ground

Let’s look at those four areas….

Keyword Selection – This may seem obvious, but many people forget that selecting the right keywords is the fundamental structure of your SEO campaign. Write down as many keywords as you know about your business. There are many excellent keyword tools you can use including Google Adwords Keyword tool and Word Tracker. Use these to select the most profitable keywords. You’re then going to optimise your pages around these keywords

Site Building – Search engine spiders need to find and index the pages on your site or all the rest of your SEO efforts are a waste of time. Help them to do this by putting navigational text links on your pages. It’s also very important that you have a sitemap which is linked to and from your home page.

On Page Optimisation – Here you need to do all you can to optimise each page. Use your keyword/s in your page title and headings. Use relevant keywords throughout the text, but don’t overdo it, because you could be penalised.

Link Building – This is the Holy Grail of SEO but Google is getting smarter, so your linking strategy must look natural. Get as many quality links back to your site as you can with article marketing, social bookmarking and forums as a start. VITAL TIP: Make sure that the wording of any link to your website includes your keyword.

In the end, don’t forget to write for your reader/customer first, and the search engines second. If readers don’t enjoy or get value from your content, they will happily click away.

Not only does the content of your web-pages count – the headline, pictures, body-copy, and so on – but the layout is also very important.

Clever research methods where viewers’ eyeball movements are electronically tracked over time as they read a variety of web-pages, show us conclusively that there’s a preferred viewing path which the majority of people follow with their eyes when they view your web-page.

Here’s how this relates to your online Profits.

Let’s remember our task: to grab our visitors’ attention and make them stop for the vital 8 seconds or so it takes for us to get over the “hump” of their short attention span. Chances are, if we can keep them for those precious 8 seconds, we can keep them long enough to get them to take the action we want.

Given that this is our task – doesn’t it make sense for us to make sure the page-elements we know make the biggest difference in response are placed where they statistically get more attention, so we can get that attention earlier?

The typical reading path is top to bottom, left to right, just how we read a book in the Western world. Your eyes begin at the top on the left and then follow a zig-zag pattern down the page as you read.

We can take advantage of this in two ways.

First, we have the headline at the top (so the first letter of the headline is in the top-left corner, right where the eye begins scanning the page), followed by any images or pictures we’re using to help make the sale.

It’s vitally important that any pictures you use have a caption with a meaningful sales message in them: picture-captions get high readership so putting them right up in the top-left corner is guaranteed to give them the very highest chance of being read (remember those 8 seconds!). The top-left is also a great place to put video: remember, it’s where the eye gets to first in the vital 8 seconds – it means your video is more likely to be watched! We need to reveal our biggest and most powerful promises and tools at the earliest point we can to ensure we’ve got the visitor’s attention. If we don’t do that, then anything else on the page is irrelevant, because they’ll have surfed off to another page.

The second thing that we can do is ensure the logical path of the page contents follows the physical path – meaning this is a good time to remind yourself of the AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

This might seem obvious, but if it is, then a lot of people are missing the obvious, probably because websitedesigners typically know if something looks “nice” without knowing what makes it actually useful!

So, because the call to action is the last thing you want them to do, then the means to do that should be at the bottom of the page. It can be useful to have links in the body copy under appropriate “mini calls to action”, but there’s still the logical flow.

The key is to marry the physical reading path of the eye with the logical reading and decision-making path of the brain: start with the biggest promise at the top left to get their attention, then follow the natural zig-zag pattern down to the logical conclusion – and the sale.

Until now, I’ve actually been quite guarded in my comments about Pay per Click Advertising (Google Adwords)

(If you’re new to Pay per Click or PPC, it’s paying to appear at or near the top of Google’s listings when people search for words and phrases related to your business.)

The reason I’ve been guarded is that Pay per Click has been so successful in the accounts that I’ve worked on, I’ve hesitated in just assuming that everyone else will experience the same success. But I’ve seen a clear trend emerging over the last year that can no longer be ignored.

Virtually every business owner I meet who is defying the Recession and doing extremely well (and there are many of them) is doing PPC and has become an expert at it.

At a recent meeting of my Platinum Group in Florida (Platinum is a small group of elite business owners who I work with personally throughout the year) only one person in the room was not using PPC – and the only reason for that was, he’s doing so well he could not cope at the moment with the flood of extra customers that Adwords will bring.

So this month’s Internet Profit Strategies has a simple message but a profoundly important one.

If you’re not currently doing PPC, or you’ve tried before with no success, please make this year the year you get serious about it. It seems to be the most important development in Marketing for many decades – and for those willing to master it, it also seems to be offering the potential for stunning profits.

And the Recession offers another golden PPC opportunity. Because most business owners have no idea what they’re doing when it comes to internet marketing, many are pulling back from their online Advertising. Which means you can get better positions for less money.

There is an art and a science to PPC and this year it’s going to become an increasingly important focus in the VIP Inner Circle. I hope that by the end of the year, you will become one of the success stories and one of the increasing number of smart Entrepreneurs I meet who are using PPC to just shrug off the recession

Most business owners I know are afraid of their competitors. If a client or customer mentions them, the most common reaction is to ignore it; the second most commonreaction is to criticise or make some negative comment about them. But you can actually make money from your competitors… by sending them business.

In fact, you can do it in two ways.

First, and this is very cool, you can send them the people you don’t want to do business with. If you’re serious about being astonishingly successful in your business, you’ll have embraced the fact you need to be discerning about the people you do business with. And one thing you can do is send the people you don’t want to do business with to your competitors.

When you do this, everyone is happy: your prospect or client is happy because you’ve helped them find a solution to their problem; your competitors love you, because you’ve sent them business; and you make more money because you’re not having to deal with the people you didn’t want to do business with.

And the second thing you can do takes a little more work, but can be very lucrative.

Imagine you sell, say, Ford motor cars. And you get a prospect who wants a Vauxhall.There’s no way you’ll sell them a Ford because they simply don’t want one; and if you let them go, they’ll go and buy a Vauxhall anyway. But now imagine you had an agreement with your local Vauxhall dealer wherein you could sell his cars (and at a good discount because the sale hasn’t cost the Vauxhall dealer anything to make – it’s all incremental profits to him).

Your prospect is going to love you (and tell all his friends how great you are); your competitor is going to love you (and perhaps sell some of your Fords, if he understand show it all works); and YOU make some money you otherwise would not have had.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this applies only to motor cars – it works in any industry.

All you have to do is get creative and put a little work into it – get on the phone TODAY and call some of your competitors and work out a way of getting revenue from business you refer to them (and make it reciprocal, so they send you business, too). Not all of them are going to agree (they might think you’re acting suspiciously, or are just plain mad)… but some will.

Small businesses become big businesses by a process of growth – lots of small, incremental revenue streams soon add up to a huge amount of income. And, let’s face it…in the current economy, we need to be doing everything that works to make us money.