There’s nothing more disheartening than seeing visitors flooding into your site thanks to some good campaigns . . . But then not sticking around.

This is the frustration Bret Hoyt Sr., president of contract manufacturer Vitakem Nutraceuticals, was experiencing.

“Our website wasn’t working for us,” recalls Hoyt. “We had visitors coming in but very few were contacting our sales team.”

Hoyt approached me to see how we could turn this around.

Identifying The Problem(s)

Since the best solutions are built on a clear understanding of the problem, we started with a website content audit.

First, through an initial interview, I ferreted out the goals for the website, Vitakem’s USP and the competitive environment. Then, by examining the website data and assessing the website’s content I gathered clues that helped paint a picture of why website visitors were skipping away at the drop of a hat.

Here’s what I discovered:

The initial copy had been well optimized for search engines. But the human visitors had been largely ignored. In fact some of the website copy was downright unintelligible.

Adding Glue To The Webpages

Drawing on my knowledge of the nutrition industry and interviews with Vitakem’s sales team, we honed in on the pressing issues most prospective customers care about. I replaced the website’s existing copy with copy that was written for these potential customers while maintaining optimization for search engines.

As a result, the site’s overall bounce rate dropped from 57% down to 40%, with some individual pages dropping from bounce rates into the mid 80′s to bounce rates in the 20′s and 30′s. These numbers told us that less people were  “bouncing” off the pages (leaving soon after they’ve arrived).

Lead Generation Tactics

Now that visitors were sticking around more, we wanted to take them to the next step – initiating contact. The only invitation offered to visitors to contact the sales team was a Request-A-Quote link or a bland Contact Us option.

The site offered no opt-in incentive to visitors who were not ready to get a quote. Even worse, by making a quote request the sole contact option, it framed the whole sales discussion around pricing.

To change the focus of the conversation, we created a white paper, “6 Questions You Should Ask When Choosing Your Nutritional Supplement Manufacturer”. This paper positioned Vitakem not only as a service provider, but also as a helpful partner in making the crucial decision of choosing a contract manufacturer. And it took price away from the center of the initial conversation.

To gain more traffic, the report was also repurposed into several SEO articles that were used for two purposes: 1.) To bring in traffic through SEO and article marketing; and 2) as part of a survey and 3-part email series sent out to lapsed leads bringing them back to the sales team.

Following on the heels of the report download came a carefully-crafted 11-part autoresponder series. This series highlighted the report’s tactical information. It also prodded prospective customer pain points, reminding them of how Vitakem could help them. Each autoresponder’s call to action encouraged the prospect to call the sales team.

Finally, as an added push to encourage even more visitors to get in touch with the sales team, we created a 2-minute video. The video welcomed visitors to the home page and directed them to the report offering.

A Website That Helps Grow Business

Vitakem’s CEO and President, Bret Hoyt, Sr. couldn’t be more pleased with the results, “Since implementing the marketing funnel Sarah created, we’ve had a 20% increase in leads,” Hoyt reports. “But even more importantly, these leads are already pre-sold on our services helping us with our lead conversion.”

By finely tuning the messaging on the website, the report and the autoresponders to tap into prospective customers’ most pressing problems we made Vitakem an option visitors couldn’t ignore. The website and the report spoke to their questions, doubts and interests. And as a result, more visitors contacted the sales team and more of these leads were predisposed to like what they heard as the process continued.

Concludes Hoyt, “Overall, investing in Sarah’s expertise and keen understanding of the nutrition industry has been invaluable for my business.”

For more information on how a lead-generation strategy like this could help your B2B nutrition industry website, be sure and get this meaty report:

“How To Turn Your Website and White Paper Into A Recession-Busting Dynamic Duo”

Or email me at Sarah @ HealthyMarketingIdeas.com to schedule an appointment to discuss your marketing concerns

I’ve been trying to get my kids to put their dishes in the dishwasher.

Like most things I try to establish here, it took a few months of me calling out, “A., come get your bowl.” Or “O., is this your plate on the table?”

Too often I’d just pick up the stray dishes myself, grumbling all the way to the kitchen . . . Only to reprimand myself once I arrived that I was just keeping the problem going.

And then I’d go back to hollering.

If you’re a parent you know part of your job is to teach your children well.

But while we could have a huge discussion about what to teach your children, what rules we want them to live by, there’s one thing most parents can agree on . . .

It takes consistency.

The lessons we learn in life . . . the ideas that we grasp and hold onto and keep close in our pockets . . . the ones that we act on . . . are ones we hear again and again.

And the actions we take are more often than not something that comes as a result of lots of reminders.

This is true for even things we want to do. Not just putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

I wanted to go to peach picking at a nearby orchard. But it took several conversations and several false starts to finally get us on our bikes and head on over.

As marketers we’ve got to put this understanding into our marketing plans.

Especially in this economy . .

Marketing To The Natural Health Crowd: No Longer A One-Shot Deal

See, part of my job as a copywriter is to write a sales letter that grabs my prospect “by the eyeballs” as Clayton Makepeace would say and gets them to buy in one fell swoop.

But while this will happen for maybe 2% of your prospects who read your sales piece for the first time, it won’t work for a truly sizeable majority.

But that doesn’t mean that they don’t want what you’re selling.

It doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to buy what you’re selling.

It only means that they weren’t ready to move right at that second when they first got through your sales letter.

As marketer Bill Glazer explains, most of your customers are sitting on the fence.  In other words, huge profits are sitting on the fence.

And this economy, this is especially true.

Whereas a few years back, people would whip out their credit card with a nonchalant, “What the heck!” and buy something that piques their interest.

Now, each purchasing decision requires deliberation.

And unfortunately, your sales piece isn’t the only thing that’s weighing on their mind . . .

Within a matter of days, hours – no minutes! – your sales piece can be easily forgotten. Dust in the wind.

Unless you do something about it . . .

The Follow Up Autoresponder Follows Your Customers Even When They Might Forget About You

That’s where the autoresponder email comes in.

I love autoresponders. They’re fun to write. And they’re powerful.

An autoresponder series is a set of emails programmed to go out over an established interval to people who have demonstrated some interest in your product and provided you with their email address.

Usually they’ve opted in to watch a video or download a report or gotten a free sample in the mail.

They’re interested. Their eyeballs have been grabbed.  But their heart is still indecisive.

By sending out a series of emails you can continue to nurture your relationship with them and keep their mind on what you offer.

What A Good Follow Up Autoresponder Does

A good autoresponder doesn’t just sell. A good autoresponder . . .

• Builds a relationship. By using storytelling and telling more about yourself and your business, you help people to get to know you. And by finding ways to speak to their interests and experiences, you demonstrate that you understand them.

• Reminds them that you have a solution for them that they’ll like.

• Reinforces some of the concepts in your initial report or video and then gets them to the sales letter to see more.

• Reinforces the message of the sales letter, helping to move them off the fence in your direction.

• Gets them in the habit of opening your emails and clicking onto your links. Leads them to other content you have on your website.  Ultimately it gets them used to your presence in their inbox.

So don’t sell yourself short with single-shot sales letters.

Don’t do your potential customers a disservice by dropping them cold when they still need convincing, have questions. And don’t want to forget your solution.

Set up an autoresponder series.

This is an essential tool for both B2B and B2C companies who don’t want to leave money on the table.

Oh yeah, and when it comes to dirty dishes? Finally, I’m seeing the results. My daughter just walked straight from the dinner table and loaded her plate in the dishwasher where it belongs.

It took a bit of reminding – but it’s working!

Crazy costumes.  Green body paint on shaved heads.  Wild cheering, waves and mascots.

If you looked around the stadium you could have sworn you were at some sporting event.

But this high energy, fan fever was not generated by people throwing balls.

This frenzy was generated by ball-throwing robots. And not even good ball-throwing robots at that . . .

This was event was in a whole other league – the NH regional FIRST Robotics competition, created by Segway inventor Dean Kamen.

Forty-seven high school teams – including a few from Canada and one from Australia – were putting months of team sweat on the line as they tested their robot models against each other.

I’ll confess, the action wasn’t that riveting.  Quite a few robots spent much of the time stuck in a corner or upside down with wheels spinning. And a 5-year-old could beat most of the robots in a pitching competition.

But to the crowd gathered there, it was like watching a playoffs game between the LA Lakers and the Miami Heat.

That excitement got even me cheering as a robot managed to get 8 balls in the designated spot.

And here’s what this taught me as a marketer and copywriter.  The key to selling is finding your fan club, capturing their attention and turning that excitement onto overdrive.

Now you may have heard this before.  Seth Godin talks about tribes, SEO experts talk about niche marketing – it’s all over the place.

In this article on niche marketing, I’m going to talk about . . .
·    Using fans specifically in the realm of health marketing;
·    Two specific ways you can identify your fans;
·    Some specific ways to locate them and talk to them.

Using Fans In Natural Health Marketing

It’s one thing to talk an energy drink on the world stage and try to sell it.  It’s another thing to offer it to a mom who has a tearful toddler by one hand and is trying to make it through the supermarket before her 2-year-old time bomb goes off.

Yes, everyone wants energy.  But you’re not going to capture everyone’s attention the same way.  When you develop a headline and lead, you’re not trying to sell to everyone, or even everyone who wants an energy drink.

You’ve got to sell it to the mom who’s desperate to make it through the evening tasks . . .
A nurse who’s working the night shift and doesn’t like the caffeine jitters . . .
A rock climber who wants something that keeps him going but doesn’t undermine the careful work he’s done to build up his body’s abilities . . .

You’re trying to sell it to someone who will sit up and poke the person next to them and say, “Hey, they’re talking to me!”

Clayton Makepeace, one of the most successful copywriters puts it in dire terms.  He explains that you’re looking for the people who are desperately looking for what you’re selling.  The people for whom to buy or not to buy is almost a life or death decision.

Marketing guru, Mark Joyner, describes it as finding the people who are red hot for your product. He advises, don’t waste time marketing to the people who are so so on it.

As both masters point out, sure it lowers the size of your market, but the size of your market is not as important as your market’s burning desire for the solution you’re selling.

In one scenario, you may spend a lot of time and money to get in front of millions of people but only a few thousands will buy it.  You may think – hey, let’s go for the biggest market with this product that has the broadest appeal.

Having a huge list is not necessarily what will bring you the most revenue.  Having a responsive list is what will.

Two Kinds Of Fan Bases

Instead, build your fan base in two ways:

1.    Focus on your products that are really special. Your big sellers, the ones that distinguish you, the ones your customers say they wouldn’t go anywhere else for it.

Or simply choose a product for which there is less competition. It may be potentially a smaller market.  But a market that is desperate for a solution that you offer.

And then

2.    Sell your products to the specific fan base you’re trying to cultivate. Eventually you may add more niche markets to your list. But start off with a really clear specific prospect.

For example, sell your energy drink to nurses. Or focus your new skin cream on avid outdoorswomen in their 40′s and older.

You may only get the attention of a few tens of thousands. But not only will they pay anything for your product, they’ll talk about it to their friends and keep buying it from you . . . as well as anything else you have to sell them.

And then, better yet, you can sell your products that don’t have groupies (like your good ole Vitamin D) to all these excited niche markets after they’re hooked on the solution you offer they can’t find anywhere else.

How To Find And Talk To Your Fans

Here are a few ideas for helping you find your tribe and market to them:

Look at your web analytics
·    Are there keywords you’re doing well on that you never really focused on?
·    Are you getting traffic for articles or product pages you didn’t expect?
·    Extend this by doing additional keyword research and look for keywords that fit within your market that have low competition but relatively high search volume.
·    I use Market Samurai’s keyword research tool to help me with this

Go to ezines to advertise.
·    Ezines tend to be even more niched than offline publications since their publishers can use the reach of the internet. Many of them have great followings who open, hang on the publisher’s recommendations and click through.
·    Better yet – many ezines have very affordable advertising rates.
·    Just make sure you do a little sleuthing to get a sense of how active the subscribers are.
·    One of my favorite resources for hunting down ezines is The Directory of Ezines.
·    Oh yeah, and blogs work for this as well.

Develop a targeted Twitter following by seeking out specific influencers.
·    Use Klout.com or Listorious.com.
·    Identify people who might have fans like the fans you’re looking for
·    Then see how you can start to connect with these fans by connecting with them through social media.

I know this is somewhat rudimentary but often overlooked – look at your sales figures.
·    What product is really one of your best sellers?
·    Which product really garners lots of love letter testimonials.

Survey your customers and prospects on your house lists.
·    Ask them what they like about you, what products they like, which ones they’d recommend without hesitation.
·    Find out more about them too so you can look for similar folks through list rentals or other means.

These are just a few of many ways to identify and nurture your tribe.

Remember, there are people out there who are looking for your specific solution. When they discover you they will feel like their life has changed.

They’ve been looking for help and couldn’t find it anywhere. You came to the rescue.

Become their hero. Become their partner in problem solving.

Now isn’t that an exciting way to sell?

What are your strategies for building a fan club – and what have been the rewards? Please share!

I observed the funniest thing the other day.  We were just leaving our neighbor’s house after dropping off some maple syrup and eggs.  As we pulled out of the driveway and turned onto the road . . .

Whoa!

A 1-ton bull was heading right towards the truck.

One of her herd was loose.  It looked like one of her teenagers had jumped the fence. And giddy with spring fever and freedom he was tearing around the yard.

Fortunately he swerved away from us just in time.  So we quickly reversed the truck and pulled back into the driveway to alert her to the runaway.

She was pretty calm until we told her he was going after cars.  That’s when she picked up speed.

We stayed parked at the bottom of the pasture to make sure she got him back in all right.  And here’s where it got entertaining (if you’re not Wendy trying to get the freedom-loving guy back in) . . .

At first, he seemed to be quite docile once she picked up a feed bucket.  He followed her around the scrub tree, past the furnace shed and stood there quietly as she struggled to open the pasture fencing.

He looked patient, even a little eager to get back in with the rest of the herd after his little bout with life on the other side of the fence.

Everything looked under control.

However – just as she was about get him back and go back to her morning activities. . .

From behind the shed came a little blur of white, bulleting towards the bull.

Coming to Wendy’s rescue was her little white and brown dog, tail pointing straight behind him, yipping all the way.

And sure enough, the formerly relaxed scene took a turn for the worse.  The docile bull was on the run again, running around the scrub tree, eyes wide and tail swinging. The cows on the other side of the fence scattered.

And Wendy was back at square one.

I couldn’t help but laugh as she lectured the dog and went back to business.

Fortunately, in the end, after his initial attack, the dog got bored and sat down for the show.  The young bull decided the dog was no threat and he really wanted back in.

Eventually she got the errant guy back to the herd.

However, this isn’t just a farming story.  As usual, this is a marketing lesson as well.

Too often, you work really hard to get your customer to your website. And like the bull, they’re standing there next to you at the fence. Your future customer is just ready to cross over that fence and buy from you.

But just as you’re ready to close the deal, along comes that yippy little dog like a bullet and scares your customer away.  All your work is for naught!

It’s one of the worst feeling to see that.  Someone 8-10 minutes  on your website and then flitting away without a purchase.

So what are those yippy dogs chasing your customer away? And how do you keep them at bay so you can close the deal?

Yippy Dog #1 Unanswered Questions

I’m a big advocate of longer vs. shorter copy.  And here’s why.  For most of your would-be customers, they are already in the mode of looking to buy.  They just want to have their questions answered, their doubts allayed, their desires whetted a little more.

Good copy does this.  As stellar health copywriter, Parris Lampropoulis told me when I interviewed him for my nutritional supplement copywriting ebook, you have to be like the most “hard-boiled” prospect when you prepare your copy.  Be skeptical, be unsure, be doubtful.  Turn all those questions, doubts and skepticism into providing good, satisfying answers.

Sure, people buy on emotions, but then they need proof to justify their decision to themselves, their spouses and their mother.

Don’t leave a question unanswered or a doubt mollified and then have them click away because of this.

Yippy Dog #2: Too Much Copy

Okay, I’m not contradicting myself.  But here’s the thing.  Lots of people come to your site ready for action.  They don’t need a lot of info, they just need a few facts to help them settle on their decision.  Perhaps they’re returning customers looking at new product.  Perhaps they read something about your product somewhere else. Maybe they just don’t want to waste a lot of time period.

They want to move fast.  For this reason, I always advise start off your product pages with bullets and a quick, appetizing summary of your product with a go-get’em headline.  Conversion master Bryan Eisenberg emphasizes this strategy repeatedly in his discussions at Grokdotcom.

Right after that, put the “Add to cart” button.

Make it easy for fast-operators to move fast.

If you have a nice long landing page, incorporate some quick summaries and bullets as sidebars along the side.  Make it easy for folks to jump off at any point if they’re ready to go.

Yippy Dog #3: Unintelligible Search Engine Optimized Copy

I just finished some work for a client who had developed great rankings with the search engines . . . But when people got to their site, they found gobbledy-gook.

He’d outsourced overseas for SEO copy, but ended up with website copy that not only wasn’t converting, it was in some cases nonsensical.

Imagine what people thought arriving there.

It doesn’t matter if you get 50,000 visitors a day!  If your website doesn’t hold them there and convince them to buy from you, you might as well be getting 1 visitor a day.

In fact, if your website makes you look bad, it’s like getting negative visitors since it creates such a negative image for your business.

So if you’re going to optimize your site for search engines, don’t just go with an SEO company or expert, make sure you get an SEO copywriter on board.  Use someone who can incorporate the technique of SEO into the fine art of creating copy that converts.

Yippy Dog #4: No Guarantee

If there is one thing I particularly admire about the direct-response natural health industry, its the use of guarantees.  I wish doctors and pharmaceutical companies would do the same.  (But then again, they’d lose too much money!)

Especially now, most people are nervous about purchases.  Especially online.  Especially from a new company they’ve never bought from before.  Especially if they haven’t bought many natural health products before. Especially if they’re going to be eating it.  Especially if their doctor raised an eyebrow when they mentioned trying something like your product to them. Especially . . .

Well, you get the idea.

Make it easier on them.  Make it clear that there is no risk.  That you understand how much careful they are and you value they’re health and satisfaction above all else.  Let them know that if they don’t like your product they can get their money back.  No questions asked.

A current client of mine was concerned that a guarantee would make him look shady.  Like a pushy salesperson.

I explained that it did just the opposite.  Certainly you need to stand behind the guarantee and make sure you have the customer service personnel to make it easy for your customers to return items.  But bottom line, it makes you look like you have absolute faith and pride in your product.

If there is one thing that makes you look good and decent as a company, it’s a good guarantee.

Yippy Dog #5: No Visible Phone Number

Most of my clients sell to the older market.  And while more and more seniors shop online, they’re still nervous about it.  And like any seasoned veteran of buying stuff, these guys usually have lots of questions, to boot.

They want to talk to someone.

Truth is, they’re not alone.  Over and over e-commerce sites serving all ages find that having a visible 800 number helps with conversion. I use this feature all the time when I purchase things online and I’m in my 40′s.

Live-chat is another option but still not always the preference of someone who doesn’t want to type and just wants to pick up the phone and talk to what really sounds like a real person.

So make your phone number – and live-chat option, if you have it – very visible.  Put it on your website header.  Integrate it into your sales copy.  Put it on all your emails.  Make sure that people can easily talk to someone if they want.

The Cure For Yippy Dogs

Unfortunately though – too many websites haven’t done enough to ward off these yippy dogs.  And they end up losing prospects.

However, if your prospect gets scared away by a yippy dog, all is not lost. You can still coax them back again with some good followup in the form of a feed bucket.

Make sure you have a free offer that is made available on every page of your website.  Make sure your web visitors only have access to that freebie – an ebook, video, audio, e-class – when they’ve given you their email address and name.

Then use autoresponders to continue to build your relationship with them.  Coax them back to the fence with the grain bucket.  Answer more questions, allay more doubts.  In fact a favorite early autoresponder email of mine is a survey that helps you gain more insights into your potential customers.  It also makes them feel like you’re listening to them.

And don’t neglect social media as a means to stay in touch until they’re ready to buy.  Make it easy for them to like your Facebook page and follow you on Twitter and then use these growing arenas to keep their interest until they buy.

Eventually, they’ll learn to ignore that yippy dog and amble back over to the fence and cross over.

Don’t Let These Yippy Dogs Scare Your Customers Away

You work so hard to get people to your website.  You work hard to get them to buy.

Don’t lose because that little white blur of a yippy dog, tail spiked out, comes charging through and scares them away at the last moment.

I’ve given you 6 great ways to make sure you don’t lose customers to yippy dogs. Put them to use and see your prospects jump over the fence and happily join your herd of happy customers, chomping on the nice spring grass.

If you have other yippy-dog antidotes to add, please do below in the comment section.  I’d love to hear from you.

Quite, honestly, despite my best efforts I’m tired of chasing down runaways. Help me out and we’ll all rest easier!

The two goats we have in our barn are a goat farmer’s dream come true because . . .

§    They’ll eat anything – they munch on grass, hay, brussel sprout stalks and pricker bushes with gusto.

§    They’re pretty quiet.  Occasionally one will let out a plaintive maa if one of us steps within view.  But overall our farm with them on it is pretty peaceful.

§    And they’re big – when we bring them to the butcher we’ll probably get close to 120 pounds of the best meat in the world.

But I don’t think I’d feel so happy about these goats if we hadn’t experienced our first year with Maria’s goats.

See, last year we got goats from our neighbor Maria.  And in contrast to these two great guys, last year’s goats were a royal pain. 

Forget goats’ reputation for eating anything, these gourmets insisted on grain each day and turned up their nose at our luscious clover and grass. They only liked to nibble on the fruit trees and raspberry canes.

And if you didn’t give them their favorite molasses-spiked grain snack, one of them started caterwauling like a three-year old who lost his lollipop.  High-pitched and miserable.

And for the final insult, they were short and scrawny when butchering time rolled around.

As usual, there’s a marketing lesson here . . .

Right now, we’re facing a tough economy – and it’s going to get tougher before it gets better.

It’s not as easy to make a sale as it was 3 years ago.

Not only do people not have the money to spend, their attitudes towards purchasing has changed as well.

§    They’re more skeptical.  You have to work harder to gain their trust and convince them that you’re product is worth their investment.
§    They’re more conservative. They are less likely to switch brands, try something new, say, "What the heck, I’ll try it!"
§    They’re procrastinators.  Easy, flip decisions have now turned into long drawn-out deliberations and purchases deferred.

Selling to today’s consumers is not just about giving them a great deal.  You need specific tactics and techniques. 

So let’s go back to my goats . . .

Contrast to Convince

My appreciation of this year’s goats is due in a large part to the fact that we had such a terrible pair last year.  After that first disastrous duo, these two came out like shining models of goat behavior.

You can use this technique in a number of ways:
 
1.    Contrast a big expense that your prospect will have if they don’t go with your product.
2.    Contrast the misery they will experience without your product with what your product will bring them.
3.    Make an expensive offer first and then offer them a special deal that looks beautiful in contrast to the initial price.

Use the Magnetic Middle

In their great salesman book, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, authors Cialdini, Goldstein, and Martin talk about the magnetic middle.

The magnetic middle is the reason so many marketing materials have 3 options: A most expensive offer, a much less expensive option and a nice comfy offer in the middle.  For example, 6 bottles for $50, 3 bottles for $30 and 1 bottle for $15.

Test after test has shown that more people choose the middle offer – the 3 bottles/$30 in our example – than the others.

And to be clear, in tests where this exact same offer is made with only one other choice, the number of people who choose it are comparably dismal.

Why? Think about it . . . 

§    The first offer looks great – great savings.  But can you really afford to spend $50 today? 

§    The single bottle looks okay.  But ooh is it painful to pay full price.

§    So finally the middle offer wins out. It’s a nice compromise that makes people feel like they’re getting some savings – but not going over budget. It’s just right.

Two offers make people waffle between two not-so-ideal options.  Turn that upper offer into the middle one by offering an even bigger offer (i.e. 6 bottles for $50) and it becomes the most comfortable, enticing offer ever.

Make A Third Offer That Only A Fool Would Pass Up

The Economist recently reported on a somewhat similar test they ran along these lines – with a twist. 

On one landing page they had two offers: 1.) an online subscription for $59 or 2.) a combined online and print subscription for $125. 

Only 32% chose the second combo deal.

However, on the other landing page test they made the same two offers along with a third: 1.)  the $59 online subscription; 2.) the $125 combo subscription; and 3.) $125 for only the print subscription.

In this case a full 84% of subscribers chose the combo for $125.

Now who would choose offer #3 when you can get #2? And #1 just looks like such a non-bargain.

By presenting their ideal subscription level in the context of the two other options with one that looked particularly bad compared to their target offer, they created an offer that was truly hard to refuse.  Only a fool would pass it up.

Simply because they had a third offer that got you less for the same price as their ideal offer.

Keep Selling

Finally, you have to remember that more people are putting purchasing decisions off. They no longer have cash to burn and even if they did, careful, thoughtful spending is the rule of the day. 

So while your sales letter may truly pique their interest . . . And at another more wealthier time convinced them to buy . . . Now people are putting it in the to-deal-with-later pile.

Essentially you’ve lost them, because you know what happens to those things you file away to reconsider later . . . they’re forgotten.

So how do you bring them back to your offer?  Keep selling to them.

Because as marketer Bill Glazer points out in his book, Outrageous Advertising, the people who are in the "undecided" group (which is usually most of your prospects with a good list), are really very close to a "yes".  All they may need is a little nudging to remember you and decide they want to go ahead and buy from you.

You can keep your products and business in front of them in a number of ways:

1.    Create an autoresponder series full of juicy tidbits and reminders about your landing page.
2.    Create useful, intriguing content you send out as a newsletter that keeps you in front of them as a helpful resource.
3.    Use social media to keep them alerted to your content – and engage them.  Ask if they have questions. Solicit their opinions. Create a place where they can meet other people with similar concerns.

So there you have it – straight from the horse’s – ehem, I mean goat’s – mouth.

Try these tactics in your marketing and see how well you make out – despite the economy.

Leave your comments below.  I’d love to hear how you’ve applied these tactics or other approaches we can all add to the mix.
 

“How do I become a freelance writer?” This question is one I asked myself several years ago.  Diapers had finally become history in our household and I had time to start looking at ways to bring some income into my household besides clipping coupons and growing our food.  I wanted a good home-based business.

My immediate assumption was to tackle what I perceived as the only freelance writing market – magazine articles.  After many trips to the library, returning with stacks of magazines and old copies of TheWriter’s Market, I got my freelance writing business churning.  Query after query I sent out to editors, chock full of research references, extolling my skill as a writer.

But it’s a tough market to crack.  It took a year to get my first opportunity, which only slowly led to other opportunities.  There were simply too many writers with too many good stories to sell.  I was competing in a pond filled with thrashing fish.

Only by happenstance did I pick up a dog-eared copy of a book I had found at the Salvation Army thrift store for a buck – Bob Bly’s “Secrets of a Freelance Writer:  How to Make $85,000 A Year”. As I leafed through this find, my eyes opened wide with a new realization.  There’s a whole world out there looking for freelance writers – it’s just not where I expected!

It’s on the back of cereal boxes, in inserts I get with my vitamins, in my mail box and on the web . . . I realized that writing was all over the place when it came to business.  I just hadn’t noticed it although I read it all the time.

Bob Bly has been a freelance writer for at least a quarter century.  His book subtitle, “How to Make $85,000 A Year,” is actually dated. Today Bob makes a comfortably high six-figure income from writing sales copy for his business clients and teaching how to do it.  His book turned me on to a whole arena of writing for which there was a hungry – no starving – market.  Sales writing or, as it’s known in the business, copywriting.

I followed Bob’s books to several excellent home study courses produced by American Writer’s and Artists Incorporated (AWAI), a business dedicated to teaching copywriting and helping freelance writers build strong businesses. (look for my review of these courses).

Despite the current recession, my copywriting business is actually growing.  Thanks to a nice jumpstart from Bob himself, who commissioned me to write an e-book on sales writing for the nutritional supplement market, I’ve developed a niche as a health copywriter.  I write only part time since we manage a small farm as well and still I have a steady roster of clients and a steady – actually steadily growing – income.  I write web pages, brochures, white papers, sales letters, inserts and more.

I get to work at home where I can take breaks to weed, feed the pigs or collect eggs.  And if my kids are home from school, I simply remind them to be quiet if I’ve got a business call coming in.  Best of all, I’m doing something I enjoy thoroughly.  I love researching health topics.  And writing about them is even better.

So if you are asking yourself this question, “How do I become a freelance writer?” don’t bother with the magazines.  The market was tough when I started years ago and with today’s economy, even more magazines are folding.  Better to set your vision on the ever-hungry market for freelance writers – business.

Get your start the same way I did – through Bob Bly’s terrific books and through AWAI’s unbeatable courses.  You can find out more about them by going to by going to my list of great home study courses for copywriting and freelance writing.

Wishing you the best of success in building your freelance writing business!

As snow piles up, my driveway is starting to shrink.  It’s becoming almost impossible to see around the snow banks at the end. 

And forget the mailbox.  Not only am I worried the postman will bypass it, but I’m not sure the snow plower will!  I’d hate to see this family-crafted work of art – spattered with 5- and 8-year-old painted renditions of suns and flowers – get smushed by the ruthless road crew.  So shovels in hands, we’ve been doing a lot of digging (good alternative to the gym).

That feeling of being hemmed in isn’t just coming from my slip of a driveway, economic reports are making us all feel like it’s hard to see an opening, let alone make it out in one piece.

So, I’m going to spend the next few newsletters covering a couple recession-marketing copywriting strategies that didn’t get enough attention in my free report, “17 Health Copywriting Strategies for a Tough Economy”  – SEO copywriting and white papers.

SEO – An Invaluable Marketing Tool That Doesn’t Cost Much

Now Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be made to sound quite complicated – and it can be.  There are numerous layers to this fine art.

But I like to see it in a more basic way.  And, with respect to copywriting, it really is.  Meet your readers where they are and talk to them in their language.

Sure we’re going for search engines, but search engines are really tuned to respond to what readers want – and do.  And good search engine optimization is not about writing for an algorithm.  It’s about using your skills of understanding how your prospects think and how they express their thoughts so you can make sure they find you.

Another way to look at it is this:  Poor SEO is like telling someone in Russian that the bathroom is to the right when they’re asking you where it is in Japanese.  They’re looking for the bathroom – just like your prospects are looking for you and your product.  But you need to make sure you can tell them in language that they recognize, “The bathroom’s right here!”  or “What you’re looking for is right here!”

SEO Copywriting Tip#1: Really Get To Know Your Prospects – Not Just Their Search Terms

In addition to tools like Wordtracker.com and Google ad words, I make good use of forums, reviews, testimonials and blogs to develop key phrases and words.  These are a good starting point.  They help me think of key word phrases to start researching that I might overlook if I didn’t get to know my prospects.  And they are end points.  They help me to see how key word phrases fit into larger thoughts and discussion of my prospects. Essential for good conversion.

SEO Copywriting Tip #2: No Matter How Much Traffic You Get, You Still Need Good Copy To Convert Them

This is critical to making SEO segue well into the second part of making your website work for you no matter what the economy is doing – conversion.  The most important factor is good copy.  No matter how much traffic you’re getting, if the pages aren’t written to convince your prospect to buy, they won’t sell.

SEO Copywriting Tip #3: Make Your Traffic Feel Like They’ve Found The Right Spot

Match the terms you use to drive the traffic to your website in a ppc ad, article link, etc. to the terms on the landing page they arrive at.  It should feel like a seemless transition for the folks who follow your signs to your lovely website.  There should be no doubt in your prospect’s mind that they came to the right place for what they’re looking for.

Tip #4:  Think Strategically About What Kind Of Traffic Your Key words/Phrases Are Bringing – Researching Or Buying?

Think about what kind of traffic you’re targeting with your search terms.  For example, simply by adding an “s” to your key words, you tend to get more research traffic than buying traffic.  Also the more specific the search phrase (the more words) usually means the traffic is closer to the buying point than the research point.  For example, “joint health” is more research,  “joint health diet book” is probably someone ready to buy such a book.

Search marketing is a great tactic for this economy – low-cost to implement and you’re really getting people when they’re looking for you.  Not pounding down their doors with your pitch.

If you’re looking for help on your search engine marketing projects – from key word research to SEO rewriting to SEO writing from scratch – consider using my services.

Stay tuned for more ideas on bringing those search engines into the marketing team.  And add your comments on this below

For more ideas on how to market during a recession, check out my free report “17 Health Copywriting Tactics for a Tough Economy”.  Get this recession marketing report right here.

What can frozen carrots teach you about direct response marketing?  Read on and find out . . .

The below-freezing temperatures of early November put me in a bind.  Lulled into a false sense of security by a late warm spell, I’d left my carrots in the ground instead of harvesting them promptly.  And the icy weather made my attempts at digging them out of the rock-hard frozen earth look ludicrous.

Every day as I went about my morning chores, I grumbled as I passed the garden.

And then my son made me reconsider my perspective.

One afternoon, instead of tromping up from the bus drop-off to the kitchen door, he bounded off in the opposite direction.  I watched as his orange-coated figure weaved through the trees and headed to the pond.

“It’s frozen solid!” he announced with a grin when he finally burst through the door, cold air wrapping around him.  All he could think about was the ice-skating to come.

Another lesson in perspective:  One person’s nightmare is another person’s boon.

It’s the same thing with copywriting.

Know your prospect so you can really speak to their perspective. Because just like my son and I when it came to freezing weather, different people have different reactions to the same situation – sometimes even polar opposite ones.

Here are three examples more specific to the health marketplace:

1. In a sales letter advertising an alternative health book on cancer treatments, the copywriter described the experience of a patient beating cancer at an alternative clinic.  In listing the great results he added  – “and he even lost weight!”

While this may work for some readers, it also raised a red flag to me. So many people dealing with cancer struggle to maintain weight.  It may not be the best benefit to emphasize given the audience.

1. Statistics tell us that middle-aged women are the primary purchasers of nutritional supplements.  In fact they are often the ones buying for their husbands or fathers as well.  So if you’re selling a supplement for men – a multivitamin or prostate support – consider finding ways to speak directly to this audience.

Write a liftnote, from wife to wife.  Or make an effort to include testimonials from women who purchased the supplement for the men in their life.

3.      With flu season coming on, who wouldn’t want an immune booster?  I didn’t give this a second thought until I started writing copy for one of my clients this year.  Many of the people on her list suffer from auto-immune disorders.  When you’re battling your own immune system, a gung-ho immune system boost is not necessarily on your wish-list.

To make sure you’re not missing the perspective of your target audience, research your prospect . . .

• Examine your data cards carefully and check your assumptions.
• Go to online reviews and forums.  See what people are really talking about and how they talk about it.  I like Amazon.com for reviews and Healthtalk.com for forum discussions.
• Ask customer service – maybe even tap into a few conversations and listen intently to what people are saying.
• Test and look at the results.  Is the headline you thought would work the best, not performing?
• Eavesdrop discretely in supermarkets, at the gym, waiting for the doctor.

Get to know your prospects well and apply your detailed knowledge to create copy that hits home with them.

Post Script:  Lucky for me, the weather got a bit milder for a day or two.  My ice-loving son and I dug up the carrots, washed them and stowed them away in our root cellar.  And as a bonus, the frost had sweetened them up even more.  Now I can truly look forward to ice-skating!

In this economy, getting the right perspective is more important than ever. Find out how to position your health product for today’s consumer mindset with my free report “17 Health Copywriting Tactics for a Tough Economy”.

Even with the rise of internet commerce, a good sales letter can still do good work for you.

Even the most sophisticated, skeptical, even jaded prospect can be drawn into a well-formulated package – but what makes a package well-formulated?

I go back to the direct response copywriting fundamentals that seem to stick around from the days of marketing maestros, Ogilvy and Caples, to today’s enterprises- Here they are:

1.  Know your prospect. The most important ingredient for any successful direct mail package (or any advertising) is to know who you’re talking to.  When it comes down to it, we don’t like to get lost in the crowd.  When a copywriter really takes the time to research prospective customers, understand what they’re concerned about, what interests them, what excites them, that copywriter can write a package that really speaks right to them.

And when the customer gets that package, they know that it was really meant for them – not misdelivered.

Furthermore, it immediately makes a strong emotional connection with the customer because it addresses exactly what’s bothering them or what they are yearning for.  And this brings me to the second ingredient . . .

2. Make an emotional, benefits-driven appeal. If we just bought purely on logic, we would have pretty simple lives: a basic well-rounded meal and a warm bed protected from the elements.  Truth is we buy for much more complicated, and even somewhat messy and inconsistent reasons, rooted in our emotions:  We buy Vitamin D because it alleviates our worries about breaking our hip when we hit menopause and ending up in a nursing home; We buy a low-energy light bulb because it makes sure that our children and grandchildren can look out on the same beautiful river scene we’re enjoying right now.

We buy things because they promise us a better life and as a marketer you need to be clear that you are offering that promise.  But to make sure that you’re not exploiting your prospect and to strengthen your promise you need something more. Which brings us to the third ingredient . . .

3.  Be credible. This to me is the foundation of good business and copywriting.  While the emotional appeal brings someone into your copy, you still need to offer them a solid, good product.  It’s part of doing business right and it’s also part of being profitable.  You see, consumers are increasingly skeptical and sophisticated – with access to a huge amount of information on the web.  You have no room to mislead.  And yet you have every opportunity to distinguish yourself by providing reliable information on a reliable product.

Bottomline, it costs more money to aquire new customers to keep current, long-standing ones.  While you may make a few sales up front based on hype, over the long term those customers will go elsewhere when your product doesn’t meet their expectations.  The most important thing you can do for your business is to build it on solid evidence and an unwavering interest in serving your customers well. This not only brings success to you, it brings good returns to your customers as well.

But with all this good convincing, customers have little time and patience with marketing.  So make it easy on them – which brings us to the final ingredient . . .

4. Give your prospects a clear offer and a clear call to action. Tell your customers in clear terms what they are getting and tell them how to get it.  It may seem self-evident to you when you’re wrapped up in getting sales that someone should call, email, click or do whatever you wrote the package to get them to do.  But when someone is poring over your sales materials it helps to give them a clear direction of what to do next.

It makes it easier for them to purchase from you and it even gives them a little nudge if they’re waffling a bit.

Put these 4 ingredients together and you’ve got a great sales package.  Contact me at sarah@healthymarketingideas.com to discuss how we can put together a package with this rich mix for your business.

And get a copy of my free report, “17 Health Copywriting Tactics for a Tough Economy” to see how your direct response mailing can go further.

When I interview ingredients suppliers in the supplement industry, it strikes me that they’re not just providing high quality ingredients to their customers – they’re providing credibility and valuable information.

Manufacturer after manufacturer point out that these adjunct services are what makes a supplier invaluable to them.

So what better way to perform this service, build your reputation and strengthen your customer base than by providing well-documented white papers. With a white paper you can provide your customers not only with valuable information but also with another reason (or two or three) for giving you business.

<!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <javascript> <javascript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –>

• Post them on your website to build content and make it easy for potential clients and customers to download;
• Send them to current clients as a way of cementing your relationship;
• Present them with fanfare to a waffling prospective;
• Offer them as a premium in your direct mail package

White papers can really give your business a strategic, credibility-building oomph.

Yet the key to effective white papers lies in three things:

• Provide relevant information:  Know what your potential customers care about and tailor it to their interests.  While you may have an agenda of what you want to say, you have to frame it in what your prospects want to hear and learn about.

• Use good, reliable sources – whether it’s experts that you interview or published research, you want your white paper to strengthen your business’ credibility.  Remember, you’re providing your customers not only with supplies but with information they can use to further their business.  Make sure both come through with quality.

• Make it interesting.  Some businesses mistakenly think that academic language will help make them seem more credible.  While you may not use the same casual language in other advertising formats, you still are writing to another person.  Make your white paper something that someone will enjoy reading – so that they will read it!

Apply these three things to your white papers with a clear call to action at the end and a white paper can bring green to your business.

With a background in biology, strong research skills, and a business journalism background as a contributing editor to Nutrition Business Journal, I write white papers that work hard.  Contact me at sarah@healthymarketingideas.com to discuss a white paper that can put a spotlight on your business.

And check out this free report that fits white papers into a comprehensive internet marketing strategy . . . that too few businesses are using.

Turn Your Website And White Papers Into A Recession-Busting Dynamic Duo