Once your new lead has entered their details and clicked “submit”, they will usually find themselves on a conversion page which will say something like “Thank You, you will receive your report shortly”, confirming that they have been successful in their submission.

Even though these leads will no doubt be followed up through one method or another, for some businesses this is where the importance of the conversion page ends…but should it?

Here are 4 key ways you can optimise your conversion pages to ensure they do much more than simply say thank you and wave goodbye.

Add A “Download Here” Button
These leads have taken the time to fill out your submission form and given you access to their important contact information so the least you can do is give them access to the content they’ve signed up for there and then.

This instant gratification will bode well with some of your new leads, who are very busy and just want everything now. For those who don’t want to have to view and download your content there and then you must, of course, ensure that you email this out to them anyway.

Don’t Just Have A Call To Action – Shout It From The Rooftops!
Your conversion page should already have some type of call to action within it, which encourages your new leads to access further information you have on offer or suggests they enquire for further information – but could you be doing more?

Start by bringing back any navigation on your site which you may have removed to encourage the lead to sign up in the first place – this will give your new leads a chance to have a browse around your site and learn more about the company and your products and services.

On top of this, encourage your new leads to link up with you on your social media sites, and – depending on whether these leads have landed on your company website or your blog – direct them to any alternative sites you may have to encourage further interaction with you.

Make Your Social Sharing Buttons Pride Of Place
The leads which have made it to your conversion page obviously thought enough of the content or deal you were offering to part with their contact details in order to get their hands on it so why not give them the option to share this great offer with their social media followers?

By displaying all manner of social sharing buttons on your conversion page you are allowing your new leads to pass on your information for you BEFORE they leave your site, ensuring that you squeeze this extra advertising from them while they are still enthused about you and your company.

You Have The Gold, Now Make It Valuable
The way you choose to follow up with each of these new leads will be different depending on each company’s current sales and marketing processes, but where possible you should feed all new leads into an on-going email campaign, to ensure that they are consistently being updated with new content and ideas which will make sure they remember you and don’t just take your content and run.

The whole point of a lead generation page is to generate leads so ensure that these are properly monitored and followed up through whichever method suits your company best.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

If you’re interested in taking your email marketing to the next level this year, consider these simple tests before you hit the send button.

Apply the Scientific Method

Treat your explorations in email marketing like scientific experiments. Apply the scientific method, so that you can be sure that you’re learning from everything you do. Do this by establishing a meaningful hypothesis, taking test samples, and taking accurate measurements.

If you can remember back to junior high school, a hypothesis is an educated guess of what you expect will happen. For instance, you could hypothesise that doubling the frequency of your email will drive your click-through rates from 20% to 50%. Or you could hypothesise that doubling your email frequency would cut 20% from your subscriber list over 2 weeks (in this case, you shouldn’t complete the experiment).

Test samples are a crucial part of the email marketing process. When you want to implement a slightly new strategy, you should never be sending it to your entire subscriber list at the same time. Instead, take a small sample, one who you think will be most receptive to the change, and send it only to them. Based on their response, you can then implement whatever changes in frequency or content you’ve made to your whole list.

Lastly, make sure that every change you’re making to your email marketing campaign is being measured for optimisation. This means that if you make a change in the frequency that you’re sending out emails, then you should be measuring the effects on click-through rates (hopefully higher) as well as the effect on subscriber rates (if too many people are un-subscribing based on a change you made, you may want to think about changing it back).

Add Value

The golden rule of marketing is doubly true over email. Only send your readers something if it is of value to them. And don’t forget the corollary to that rule – don’t send anything to you subscribers if it doesn’t have specific value to them.

The readers of your website, and the people who gave you their email addresses and asked you to send them information did so because they are interested in you, your information, and the products and services that you provide. Take that information and use it wisely. They want to be sold to, but only if you have something of value.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

The smart phone has had an incredible impact on modern marketing techniques.  It is no longer enough to use traditional marketing to the exclusion of online marketing.  Now, to successfully improve your business performance you must successfully integrate both options to create a total marketing strategy that drives sales.  When online shopping was only available at home on a desktop computer, it had a smaller impact on the market.  With the advent of one click purchasing and mobile access, it has become a significant part of the market share.  Mobile access also impacts in store sales.

Shopping Apps and How to Use Them

The well known phrase, “there’s an app for that,” has become much more truth than marketing exaggeration.  There are apps to perform an incredible variety of functions, and some of the more useful and commonly used apps are shopping apps.  They allow consumers to search for products, both online and in store, and locate the nearest retailers.  They don’t stop there, since these apps also allow comparison shopping.  Not only can customers locate the nearest store with the product, they can also locate the lowest price.  More consumers check availability online before heading to the store than ever before.  If your business does not provide that information, it misses out on a whole slew of potential revenue.

Sell Products Online to Improve In Store Sales

Even if your website never generates a direct sale, the addition of these shopping apps makes it critical that you post your product offerings.  Though sales may not come in directly, there are a number of ways for you to gain indirect traffic simply by having a sales website.  Shopping apps cannot provide your product information unless it is posted where they can see it.  Comparison shopping sites cannot display your fabulous pricing unless you are listed.  To gain access to the potential revenue form these daily searches, ensure that your business is online and listed far and wide.

The Internet must be integrated with other marketing strategies.  While traditional methods are inexpensive and require less administrative time, they make it easy to get lost in the shuffle.  Many people use the web for all their research needs, so if your company is not listed on the local business listing sites, the next time a consumer searches for your company they may not be able to find you, even if they are responding to a solid radio or television marketing campaign.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

• If Google, or any other search engine, changes it algorithisms, you may end up with a site that is no longer ranked as highly as it once was. You won’t get as much random web traffic, either. If you build a quality list you won’t have to worry about your ranking because you can contact those who are interested in your services directly.
• Lists help you to build long term relationships with your customers. A lot of people making purchases on the web do not purchase right away. The browse and shop for a while first. If you keep contact via email you’ll be at the forefront of their minds when it is time to make a purchase.
• Lists are profitable. Say you have a strong following of people who really trust what you say and do. If you launch a new product they’ll be the first to buy it, giving you almost instant sales and profits.
• You can use your list to make a bit of residual income as well. Offer a few advertising spots in your newsletters. You’ll be forming a sort of partnership with your advertisers and the money they pay can help to offset the costs of your web hosting, newsletter creation, etc.
• You can increase sales but offering special promotions to those who are subscribed to your list – like discounts or free gifts. Make sure your website details the  benefits of subscribing so that others are inspired to give you their email addresses as well.

There is quite a bit you can do with a strong list if you’re a good marketer. The trick is to build your list – and your brand – first. Good luck!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

Have you ever noticed that many websites include a list of questions and check boxes at the end of their online signup forms? You have to check a box next to any number of newsletters or ebooks you’d like to receive in addition to the one that brought you to the page to begin with. In some cases, a tricky marketer may change the wording to say that you need to check off the box if you do NOT want to subscribe to additional newsletters. In many cases these services aren’t necessarily owned by the same company you signed up with at the start. Many webmasters use co-registration as a method for promoting the products of marketers who are participating in joint ventures.

You should treat co-registration requests the same way you would treat a request for a joint venture. If a webmaster asks you to include registration form for his newsletter on your landing page you’ll want to research the product he is offering and determine whether or not it’s something you’re comfortable promoting. The same applies if you’re asking someone else to include registration information for your products on their page.

It’s important to make sure the opt-in process is as simple as possible when using co-registration tactics. A web user registering for one service won’t appreciate opening his email inbox to find a flood of “click here to confirm your subscription” messages. It’s best to avoid double opt-in features when using this type of marketing technique. Never make your clients jump through hoops to get the information, whether it’s an ebook or newsletter, that you’ve promised. This only frustrates new readers and causes them to immediately ditch your subscription.

There are a number of automated co-registration services available online, just as there are a number of services for standard list-building. You’ll need to look around, compare the benefits, and make a decision as to which is right for your business based on your individual niche and needs.

Co-registration seems to be growing into an increasingly popular marketing method and it’s definitely one you should consider adding to your arsenal. Working together with a partner to advertise each other’s products will increase the rate with which your email subscriber lists grow – guaranteed!

Has anyone participated in a co-registration venture before? If so, please let me know how you felt about the results!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Most Internet marketers walk a fine line when it comes to their e-mail marketing campaigns. While we can all vouch for the effectiveness of e-mail marketing, the tactics used in the list building process are sometimes questionable, if not downright unethical. Never fear – you can work around this and build a profitable list in less time than you think!

It took a lot of trial and error, but I found that there are a handful of things a marketer can do to build a successful e-mail list a little faster than most. Today I’ll share my five favourite tips – and they just so happen to be amongst the easiest I’ve used!

1. Design a squeeze page. A squeeze page is a marketing page that gives a little bit of teaser information about your product, services, newsletters, and giveaways. You’ll use this page to blatantly and shamelessly ask your visitors to leave their names and e-mail addresses in exchange for the information they’ve been looking for. Follow up with your promises and e-mail the information you guaranteed right away. Otherwise, your new prospects won’t trust you and will quickly remove themselves from your list.

2. Create an effective signature and always use it. At this point in your career you should be including a descriptive signature and a link to your website or signup page at the bottom of every e-mail you send. You’ll also want to set up descriptive signatures for use on message boards and forums. The more you tell people about yourself, the more interested they’ll be.

3. Start a viral marketing campaign. Simply put, viral marketing means your information is being spread via word of mouth. If, for example, you send an e-mail offering a free gift or product, you might include a link at the bottom which makes it easy for your current subscribers to tell a friend or family member about the products you have available. That friend will join your list while at the same time sending the original message to her friends, and so on. Viral marketing is free and takes little more than a creative pitch.

4. Implement an article marketing campaign. Write a few informational articles and publish them in online article directories and ezines. At the end of each article you’re going to include a 2-3 line biography about yourself with a link to your web page. If your reader wants more information, he’ll have to go to your page and join your e-mail list.

5. Use strong keywords on your website. Most people find the things they are looking for after performing a simple Google search. Make sure that they find your website by using appropriate niche keywords within your website or blog content. Doing so will cause your web page to appear closer to the top of the search engine result pages!

These list building methods are tried and tested. Better yet, they’re free. Implement one at a time until you are able to determine which one is working best.

Are you willing to share your successful list building secrets? Leave a comment and tell us about what works best for you.

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert

Now that you’ve settled on an e-mail marketing strategy and understand the concept of list building, you need to get out there and start actually drumming up names for your list. Instead of boring you with a list of things that I found personally profitable, I asked a few friends to share their favorite list building tips. Here’s what we came up with:

Article Marketing topped everyone’s list. I know we’ve mentioned it before, but I cannot stress the importance of article marketing enough. It’s easy to write an article or have someone write one for you, and it’s even easier to post it on the web for others to see. Everyone who clicks on the link in your article will do so because he or she is already interested in what you have to say, giving your list credibility and potential.

Submit to ezines or other online magazines and newsletters. Take advantage of the fact that someone else has already built a successful e-mail list. Publishing an article in an ezine related to your field will automatically expose you to thousands of interested parties you may not have reached otherwise. You won’t have their e-mail addresses unless they click your link, but you’ve gained a ton of exposure.

Blogging is an excellent way of establishing yourself as an authority within your field of expertise. Publishing informational articles on your blog will keep people interested in what you have to say, while encouraging them to sign up for free additional information when you make it available. These people may join your newsletter list or simply subscribe to your RSS feed. Either way, they’ll be hooked on whatever you have to say.

Give away a free report or e-book. It’s not difficult to find or write an e-book to use in your list building campaign. You’ll give away a valuable product in exchange for contact information. Your readers will know that they’re signing up for an e-mail list, and they’ll be so happy with the free information you provide up front they won’t be able to wait for your next publication.

Offer discounts to visitors who opt into your e-mail list and offer subscriber-only incentives on a regular basis. No one will turn down a discount on something they really want, and people don’t like to feel as though they’re missing out on something. Some people will join to get your coupons “just in case,” and many will find themselves pleasantly surprised by the information you have to share.

It is important to monitor each method to determine which is working and which is not. You should be able to easily tweak or remove any method that isn’t giving you the results you expected. Remember, list building takes time. Don’t give up after a few days or even weeks. The process can take months, but will eventually yield the results you desire!

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert