Once or twice a week, my husband and I hop on our bikes or walk up the road to Georgia’s house.

She lives in a beautiful old yellow farmhouse with a stone chimney running up the back. Tulips and daffodils are pushing up near the front steps. Chickens parade through the yard and several pigmy billy goats gruff send us bearded greetings when we approach.

A few kids bikes are usually scattered in front of the barn.

You would never know that we’re about to do something in this idyllic setting that’s considered highly dangerous – even illegal.

We buy milk.

We buy raw milk, taken from the cow fresh that morning.

A few months ago, an Amish farmer was arrested for selling milk without pasteurizing it.

And according to the FDA and several other regulatory watchdogs, raw milk is not good for you, putting you at risk for terrible bacterial infections that can result in death.

And I agree – given how milk is produced in most dairies, I wouldn’t trust it without a good pasteurization to kill all the microbes hiding out there.

But I’ve spent enough hours milking cows by hand to know the full story. And with Georgia’s milk, it’s different.

I know her farm. I see her cow and calf out in the open pasture, leisurely munching on grass.

I walk into her house and see her attention to detail. Her kitchen gleaming and the floor swept clean – despite having three young boys.

I talk with her and watch as she alternates between holding her sons close and reprimanding them if they act disrespectfully. She’s passionate about her kids. And she’s not someone who let’s things slide.

I know her pretty well and so I trust her enough to buy raw milk.

She doesn’t have to produce any certificates or videos showing how she cleans the udders each morning. I don’t do a swipe test for microbes.

I hand her my money and take home a gallon of creamy, fresh, nutrient-rich raw milk with full confidence.

In here’s an important marketing lesson . . .

Too many of my clients make a terrible mistake when it comes to marketing.

They don’t build trust and use it to make marketing easier. Here are two ways this happens . . .

Trust Marketing For Health Businesses Mistake #1

They don’t work on developing a house list – a fanbase that knows you well, respects you, and trusts you.

By not working on listbuilding, you lose out on having the easiest market to sell to – people who know you.

No other market will be quicker to buy your products. And recommend them to a friend.

It’s why smart marketers focus on listbuilding. It’s why smart marketers will lose money on customer acquisition campaigns.

Georgia doesn’t have to work to sell me her milk because I know her. I know a lot about her that has already made me ready to buy from her without hesitation.

And the truth is – like most successful sales – Georgia’s milk sale didn’t come in one shot. It came through chats near the barn, talking about unprocessed foods. It came through musings over boiling maple sap. It came through hearing her gut-wrenching story of how her youngest had to fight for his life when hit by illness. It came through a revelation that they got a cow. It came through the first suggestion, “Hey, would you like to buy some milk?”

Which was followed by another couple of conversations, a discussion about organic milk prices and grain prices and eventually us getting a gallon to try.

It was a process – and not all of it about the sale itself.

That’s what usually happens. Very few people who are interested in your product are going to buy the first time they hear about it. Even if they’re very interested in your product.

Even very interested.

It usually takes a while.  That’s why a list is so important. With a list, you can have multiple conversations with your prospective customers. And at some point, they’ll convert.

Every single page of your website should have an opportunity to join your list with a nice incentive to do so. And much of your marketing work should be focused on directing traffic not to your sales page, but the page that encourages them to join you for free, as a subscriber.

By offering a free report or other incentive you can get people to raise their hands and indicate their open to hearing from you – even if they’re not ready to buy something yet.

But your list isn’t always enough. You want to keep building it and expanding your customer base.

Here’s where the second best place to advertise is . . .

Trust Marketing For Health Businesses Mistake #2

This is where marketers go wrong a second time. Often enough, instead of using the same principles to step out of their home turf, marketers throw this principle of trust and familiarity to the wind.

They go wild with PPC or Google adwords, spending money on traffic that’s only been qualified by a few keywords. Or they buy email lists only chosen by a few demographics.

Now there are some strategic ways to use this advertising. But here’s the thing . . .

You don’t have to go the route of going up to a total stranger and asking for a sale. Instead, get an introduction . . .

Instead, advertise through someone else’s list. Get introduced to their raving fans who are listening to every word the publisher says. And enjoy the advantage of having their reputation and recommendation rub off on you a little.

That’s where Charlie Page’s Directory of Ezines creates so much opportunity for you.

A labor of love and marketing integrity, Charlie has catalogued hundreds of online ezines. He’s put together contact information, advertising rates, subscriber numbers and more.

You can search his database by demographics or topics.

And many of the ezines offer discounted advertising rates to DOE members.

By advertising in an ezine, you gain an incredible advantage.

The subscribers are used to opening up the newsletter.

Plus, if the publisher has worked to build a good rapport with her subscribers, you have people who are more open to your offer simply because of the referral.

Start off with some classified ads and a small segment. Build on success and try a solo ad. Expand the segment. Try a new ezine with a similar subscriber profile.

It’s an incredibly solid way to build your business.

Sure, you’ll still have to sell. You’ll still have to build trust and credibility. But some of the work will already be done for you.

And you can lower the bar and increase your ultimate sales numbers by using these ezine advertisements not for pushing traffic to your sales page . . .

But to a subscription or squeeze page. Or even a page on your blog that has a subscription box on the sidebar.

Which takes us back to step one. You are directing traffic to the place where you can ultimately forge the strongest relationship with your potential customers – and reap the biggest rewards from – your own house list.

So don’t make these mistakes in marketing. Build your business on the solid foundation of trust – which can bring you happy customers, ready to recommend you.

1. Work on your house list by developing an enticing optin. And focus much of your advertising on getting subscribers.

2. Get an introduction by advertising through an ezine. By joining Charlie’s Directory of Ezines, you’ll be able to do this strategically and easily.

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 love potatoes.

And one of the delightful surprises each year in my garden is the discovery of potatoes I didn’t plant.  See, each year there are a few spuds that didn’t make it into the harvest buckets. They sit in the earth all winter. And when spring arrives, they push through the softened soil to volunteer their tasty tubers.

This year I found Yukon Gold potatoes in my squash bed, Banana Fingerlings tucked in among my garlic and some beautiful large Kennebec’s thriving in the compost pile.

Websites harbor the same delightful surprises. Real solid mashed-potato meals for your business. Pure Yukon Gold. But too many businesses don’t look for them . . . don’t find them . . . Or don’t know what to do with them once they do find them.

As a natural health SEO copywriter, I find them all the time for my clients and help them put these untapped resources to good use.

Here’s what I mean.

The 3 Secret Treasures In Your Website You Don’t Know About

1.    The High-Traffic Page Lost In the Archives

Just this summer I did a website content audit for a client. And lo and behold, when I looked through his analytics I found one page was getting thousands of hits each month. It was an article about fungal infections, one of this business’ specialties.

Despite the popularity of this page with his visitors, my client had forgotten that it existed. In fact, he couldn’t even find it using his website’s navigation.

Clearly he had a great landing page that was pulling in traffic. However, when I looked more closely, most of the visitors were leaving the page and his website after a short perusal of the page.

I realized based on the search terms it was ranking for that many of his visitors needed a little more confirmation that they had come to the right place for their search. We needed to tailor the content a little more, add a sidebar and make sure these new visitors stuck around a bit more.

And then we needed to artfully move them deeper into his website towards his sales pages.

His website is not alone. Most websites have terrific content that’s pulling in traffic but not being used effectively to convert that traffic into customers – or at least hot leads.

2.    High ranking pages that aren’t converting to clicks

It was exciting to find this page bringing in all these visitors each month. But soon my excitement reached a fevered pitch when I looked even more closely at the data.

It was ranking #1, #2 and #12 for some very high-volume search terms. Using some raw estimations, if this page was ranking like this it should be pulling in close to 40,000 visitors each month.

It wasn’t.

So I looked at the search engine results page (SERP) for the different terms. This is the results page people see after they put in a search term with Google. It is the page that lists the different options Google has come up with.

His pages were up there, ranking well. But the title and description that appeared in the list of options Google brought up did nothing to intrigue searchers. I could tell right away that he was losing potential visitors right from the start, despite its stellar rankings. The people who had searched for one of the terms that brought up his page just weren’t being drawn to click on his website listing.

See, plenty of SEO’s do some meat market page title that just lists a few key words. Like “fungus| fungal infections| natural antifungals”.

Ho hum. If I’m looking for some help, I’m more likely to go for a title that says something like, “Got Fungus? Best Natural Antifungals For Fungal Infections”.

And then under the title I’d create an equally intriguing description that ends with a call to action, encouraging searchers to click through to his website.

Maybe something like, “Got that sneaking suspicion you’re battling a fungal infection? Use natural antifungals to beat fungus safely. Find out more . . .”

These two bits of copy, called metatags, are often overlooked by webmasters, put in as an insignificant afterthought. Some SEO’s belittle meta-descriptions as not such a big factor in ranking.

I beg to differ. When it comes to SEO, every bit helps in telling search engines the goods are on this page. And when it comes to searchers, if you can’t grab their attention and encourage them to come to your site on the search engine results page, why bother ranking?!

3.    Hidden High Attraction Search Terms You’re Already Pulling With

This is a lesson I discovered on my own HealthyMarketingIdeas.com website.  When I looked through my website analytics, I found out that many of my visitors were not potential health copywriting clients, but beginning health copywriters looking for information!

I found I was ranking well for terms related to health copywriting courses and resources.

Hmm. I’ve written an e-book on writing copy for nutritional supplements. And I’m an affiliate marketer for many tremendous health copywriting resources. I realized that if I publicized the same products I used to keep my business humming, I could get a nice affiliate commission as a result.

If I don’t create some pathways for this traffic to purchase things from my website, I’m missing out!

Not to mention I’m doing a disservice to these visitors who may be looking for recommendations to get their business going.

Based on this discovery, I’ve slowly been retuning my website to help these visitors out. And making some income from it on the side.

Tap Into Your Natural Health Website’s Hidden Treasure Chest

Your website could be loaded with gold, just hidden beneath the surface. However, you won’t know it if you don’t look for it.

This is why the data you collect on your website traffic is so important. It can help you recalibrate your marketing to capture potential customers you’ve been ignoring.

And then you can get to work . . . mining that treasure and growing your business. Sometimes it takes just a few tweaks. Often enough, this sleuthing can reveal the direction for a whole new profitable marketing campaign.

I offer a site content audit to help marketers ferret out this gold and create a strategy for making it shine. If you’d like to have me do some detective work on your site, contact me at sarah @ healthymarketingideas.com. (Just take out the spaces  – they’re there to keep spammers at bay.)

For a more in depth look at how to make your website work harder for you,  be sure and check out my report written just for health marketers, “5 Internet Marketing Mistakes . . . And How To Fix Them For Online Success.”

If you’re a B2B business you might be interested in the B2B version, “Turn Your Website And White Papers Into A Recession-Busting Dynamic Duo.”

Be sure and sign up for one of these maps of what your website should be doing.  And then let’s get treasure-hunting . . .

Last year whenever we looked at our beautiful plum tree, we tasted bitterness – not the sweet taste of plums we had hoped for . . .

A late spring frost had taken out most of our crop. Thousands of promising little orbs that we had been celebrating in May just blackened and fell off.

Our neighbor up the road, who makes a living off of his orchard, noted this unseasonable chill was a tough blow to his fruit business.

And he wasn’t the only one hit by the late chill. Our friend, Wendy, with whom we partner in raising pigs told us she had lost a hundred or so chicks to the late drop in temperature.

And this was on top of losing almost a full litter of piglets when the mother pig rolled over on them as they snuggled close. Wendy confessed she had literally broken down in tears at this event.

However, as bad as each of these small tragedies were, each of us had backup plans that compensated a bit. Our friend with the orchard had a stellar peach crop (the blossoms came a bit later).

Wendy had a good herd of beef cattle growing fat on her pasture.

And while the plums didn’t come through, we had some nice strawberries and our pear tree stunned us with its heavy load.

Farming teaches you one thing in stark terms – diversify or fall prey to nature’s whims.

Marketing isn’t much different . . .

3 Benefits Of Multichannel Marketing

In marketing, too, you’ll fare better if you don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. (Surely a bit of wisdom coined by some farmer who didn’t see the rock in his path!)

When you diversify, you create a stronger safety net for your business, bottom line. But there’s more to diversifying into other channels than just safety. Diversifying your marketing can also bring you stronger results and more credibility.

Over the past few months I’ve written magalog copy, print newsletters, online ezines, website pages, SEO copy, social media copy, autoresponders, sales letters and video scripts.

My clients are eliciting response through a variety of formats.

For the record, the web hasn’t taken over. Email is not dead. And yes, people still read a solid letter they can hold in their hands.

Why Go Through The Expense Of Direct Mail Marketing?

As MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson write in their rich book, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways To Make Millions For Your Business,

If you embrace multi-channel marketing, you will see improvements in your business almost immediately. And those improvements will continue at lightning speed, transforming your business into something much greater than it is now. How big and how fast it grows is up to you.
- MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson, Changing the Channel

The trend is huge. The time is right. Your future is unlimited.

If you’re doing pretty well online, why go through the challenge and expense of print? Because many marketers I know who focus on print find they just can’t make the same money they make in the mail when they shift to online. Sure, it takes testing, precision and refinement. But when done well, it works.

As marketing expert Dan Kennedy explains, one disadvantage of online is that it’s so easy to compare you with someone else . . . and then forget about you as they click away into oblivion.

Offline, your sales letter sits there on the counter, tucked into a pile, nagging them to take a look. It might even take a trip in a totebag to soccer games or the office. And unless there’s been a strange mail quirk, your letter isn’t usually sitting right next to one of your direct competitors.

Boost Your Credibility By Being Everywhere

In addition to diversifying your reach, multi-channel marketing solidifies your credibility.

Your landing page becomes that much more potent when your prospect also hears one of your radio ads and then finds a special mailing from you in their mailbox.

It’s like volume in geometry – it takes 3 different dimensions to describe volume (length, width and height). When you market in multi-dimensions you make your company feel 3-dimensional. Certainly – people tend to subconsciously reason – if you’re advertising both here and there, you must be real enough to make the investment. You must be a solid company.

3 Ways To Diversify

So without further ado, here are a few ways to diversify your marketing.

And please note, each new form of marketing comes with its own special bonuses as well . . .

If you’re busy optimizing your site for search engines . . . dive into social media.

Social media can
· Bring you another source of free traffic
· Boost your search engine rankings
· Provide you with a wonderful place to test headlines for online and offline promotions
· Help you research your market.

If you’re working your email list but would like to see some stronger response . . . try a snail mail piece – a printed free report, bookalog or CD.

As much as kindles and online are all the rage, people still hold onto these tangible mediums if done well. If you craft your free piece with good information skillfully interwoven with the right sales messaging, a hard copy free report . . .

· Feels even more like a free gift to your prospects, solidifying your position as a trusted resource
· Sits on the counter, coffee table or on your desk staying top of mind with your prospect
· Is easy to lend to a visitor, friend or family member and harder to get lost like electronic files do.

If you’re busy working the mail but feel like your website isn’t keeping up . . . consider a site content audit and build your site to keep up. A good website can complement your offline business. It can . . .

· Bring in markets you hadn’t tapped before. With a nice mix of social media and SEO you can find people looking for your exact solution who are not on the mailing lists you tend to rent.
· Strengthen your relationship with your current customers. While a strong acquisition piece may build your customer base, easy access to information and shopping online may help you make them more frequent buyers.
· Strengthen your marketing by making it easier for customers to leave testimonials and easier for you to test headlines and offers

Obviously this exercise can go on and on and on . . .

Oh yes, and a little warning: Don’t make this an exercise in trying to keep up with the constant stream of what’s hot in marketing. You’ll very quickly start to feel overwhelmed by the new arrivals on the scene.

Every day there are new reports, new data and new innovations.

The point of this is not to bite off more than you can chew. Nor is it to fret that you’re not doing the latest and best thing that everyone else seems to be doing.

The latest is not always the best. In my last post I talked about a tried-and-true marketing method that has been used for eons and can work both offline and online.

The point here is to diversify. Carefully choose one or two new arenas to add to your marketing mix and then start integrating them into your marketing.

Don’t worry if they’re the best ones.

Don’t worry that you’re not doing everything the next guy seems to be doing . . .

Just worry about trying a few new forms of marketing, integrating them into your current marketing mix and making the most out of them.

Because there’s a second lesson that fits with both farming and marketing . . . it can sometimes take a few tries, refining your process through testing and experience, to fully enjoy a good harvest.

Last year was a devastating blow to us plum-eaters here at Surprise Farm Hill . . .

But we didn’t give up. This year we pruned aggressively, gave them some beautiful manure and a nice mulch of chipped wood.

As summer rolled around we carefully tended them with two organic sprays to control for fungal disease and the plum curculio.

And when July rolled around, our sturdy little tree was literally dripping with plums. We ate steadily and still couldn’t keep up with the harvest.

My freezer is filled with plum sauce ready to grace our yogurt and pork chops this winter. Now that’s a lesson I thoroughly enjoyed!

Want a whole bunch of ideas for diversifying your marketing so you can beat this bad economy? Check you my free report, 18 Ways To Beat The Bad Economy With Strategic Health Copywriting And Marketing.

Just sign up here and you’ll get it delivered to your inbox:

The majority of B2B websites in the nutrition industry make a deal-killing mistake right on their home page. It’s rampant. And it’s deadly.

It squashes leads. And it can rob your outstanding business of its distinction, tossing you and your sales team back into the morass of websites and businesses vying for your prospect’s attention.

What is it?

It’s that little button on the top right hand side of most websites that says, “Request a Quote.” Sometimes it appears in the only slightly less destructive form of “Speak To A Sales Representative”.

Why This Button Devalues Your B2B Nutraceutical Business

Seemingly innocuous, these little options are stealing your business away from you.

How could that be? Isn’t this what most prospective customers want when they come to your website? Isn’t this the best way to get them to contact your sales team?

Yes . . . and no.

Yes, it’s true that many of your prospects are interested in getting a bunch of quotes and comparing them to decide who to go with.

However, you don’t want to let this become the game.

And ultimately, your prospects don’t really either.

See, by putting this button on your website, you’re letting your quote define who your business is in your prospect’s mind. You’re letting your business be reduced to just another number. And you’re letting the value of your business – all your products and/or services – be defined by the cost of your goods and services.

When you let this happen you’ve already lost the online game. Because ultimately someone else online will probably offer goods and services for a better price.

And by making this the only incentive for getting in touch with your sales team, you’re letting price become the center of the whole lead nurturing and negotiation process.

Furthermore, you’re only inviting people who are close enough in their purchasing research stages to ask for a price to get in touch with you.  B2B sales cycles are tremendously long and only getting longer. By only focusing on people who are ready to get a quote, you’re missing out on the majority of your leads.

How This Button Hurts Your Prospects Too

For your prospects, this button does them a disservice because in reality, they want a lot more than just a price. They want help in making a decision.

It’s a rare major purchase decision that hinges only on numbers. Your prospects are interested in issues like quality, service, availability, and supportive research. They are worried about missing important considerations that factor into their decision. They are nervous about proposing a solution to decision-makers at their company without all the bases covered.

However, you can change the whole setup and become a super hero in the process.

You can change your business from being defined by price. And instead make your prospect value your business based on a much richer set of criteria.

You can even make price become a somewhat tangential factor in whether your prospect decides to pursue working with you further.

And you can position your business as a valuable partner in problem-solving way before price becomes even a part of the conversation.

Instead of inviting your prospect to get in touch with your sales team to get a quote, offer to help solve your prospects’ problem and help them in their decision-making.

How do you do this?

The Alternative That Will Bring Leads Who Value You

Replace that troublesome Request-A-Quote button with a compelling white paper offer.

Something like:

“6 Questions You Should Always Ask When Deciding On A Contract Manufacturer”

Or “Four Ways To Make Your Superfruit Product A Success”

(Actual white paper titles I’ve used for clients.)

Right on the top right-hand side of your home page (where the request a quote button usually lurks), advertise your white paper and ask your prospect to opt in so you can send them this valuable information.

Essentially, offer to help your prospect solve their problems instead of focusing on the sale and the price.

I’ve done this for my clients with rewarding results. In this troubled economy, one of my clients just reported an increase in leads of 20%. And especially nice, these leads were already pre-sold on my clients’ services.

You can do the same.

Avoid the price war and price discussion. Get rid of the quote-request button.

Use a white paper offer to get into the meat of the conversation – how you can help solve a prospective client’s business problems.

When you make that the hub of your interaction, you help your clients solve their business problems. And as a consequence you help your business grow.

Take this advice and use it to create a recession-busting dynamic duo using your white paper and website. Find out exactly how to do this in my free report, “How To Turn Your Website And White Papers Into A Recession-Busting Dynamic Duo”.

Sign up right here to request it:

As you may already know, we raise pigs.  And, just to warn anyone who is a little uncomfortable about the reality of meat – we raise them to eat them.  This article refers to this hard fact of my life.

See for first the 6 months or so on our farm, our pigs enjoy days filled with mud lolling, acorn chewing, sumac leaf noshing, and simply sleeping in the sun.  But when fall comes around, this carefree life ends.

It’s time to bring the pigs to the butcher.

To take them to their place of reckoning, we have to get them loaded on a trailer.  And here’s where the trickiness comes in.

Pigs are smart and perceptive.  Getting them onto a trailer is tough enough as it is because it’s completely outside of their normal piggie routine.

But woe upon you should you be thinking of bacon when trying to lure them on.

It’s farmer’s lore, but I certainly think there’s something to it.  If you’ve got pork chops on your mind, the pigs will pick up on this.  And instead of an easy transition, you’re left trying to move over 200 pounds of pork with 2 tons worth of will power somewhere it doesn’t want to go.

So when this day arrives, we’re careful to keep our minds strictly on the business on hand.

What does this have to do with copywriting and marketing?

Several things . . .

Bacon Breath Rule #1: Don’t Set Off The Ad Alarm

Hard hitting copy still works. There’s still a place in marketing for unabashed sales copy.

But you can’t always put it out there first thing.  Consumers have their ad radars up more then ever. With tighter budgets and ads flying at them from every direction, you’ve got to work harder to get their attention . . . and trust.

That’s why it’s ever so essential to strike up a conversation with them before they feel like you’re selling to them. Start the communication by introducing yourself, addressing a problem, gaining their interest. And then build a relationship. Eventually, you’ll be in a good position to make them an offer. And they’ll be more receptive to listening to you.

Good articles, white papers and autoresponder series can get you invited to take a seat at their table. If done right not only do these marketing matchmakers build a rapport between you and your prospect, but they also subtly sell your solution to them.

By the time you’re ready to make the full offer in a sales letter, you’ve got their attention, their trust and their interest in what you can do for them.

Bacon Breath Rule #2: You Can’t Pretend

It’s just about impossible to effectively promote a product you don’t believe in. Just like the pigs, your prospects can tell if something is amiss.

So to really promote a product, get passionate about it.

Get to know what the product does. Get to know what your prospects are struggling with. Understand how frustrated they are. And how eager they are for your solution.

Fortunately I’m in pretty good health. But every time I get hit by something – even something as minor as a cold – I take note of my misery. And translate it a bit into how it would feel to face this same discomfort day in and day out.

I use this understanding to help me understand – albeit somewhat imperfectly – what it’s like for someone facing a chronic illness.

So when I write about the solution I’m offering to my prospects I can address their skepticism and their desperate need for some relief.

This fuels me emotionally as I research and write. It fuels my copy. And it keeps me writing sales copy that rings true with the people I’m trying to connect with.

Copywriter Bob Bly just talked about this in one of his recent ezine articles. As he explains, it’s why some copywriters can be so effective writing what others consider hypey copy:

If you believe in what you’re saying . . . if you feel enthusiasm for your solution welling up inside of you so that you can’t help but crow like a rooster . . .

Your copy sounds passionate – not hollow. And your prospects can tell the difference.

Bacon Breath Rule #3: Reduce The Risk

Now obviously I can’t do this for my pigs. There’s no way of getting around their fate.

But your prospects are different. They are rightfully worried about being taken advantage of – fleeced, burnt, scammed.

They are rightfully worried that you could very well take their money and disappear with it. And they’ll be left with nothing to show for it.

When it comes to health, this can be even more of an issue. Many of your potential customers have been whipped around until they’re dizzy by conventional medicine’s merry go round of side effects and more drugs. With their money flying out of their pockets.

While a natural alternative looks appealing, new alternative health consumers have very few reference points for verifying your claims are true. They may not have yet accessed literature and experts that support your claims.

Meanwhile, they’re flooded with all kinds of negative press about supplements and alternative health care. Every time a miscreant spikes their product with Viagra, the press jumps on it as an example of how the whole industry is dangerous and corrupt.

For this reason, the more you can strengthen your credibility and reduce their risk the better. Use a spokesperson and expand on their credentials. Reference well-known media or experts in your copy where possible.

And always offer a good guarantee. A guarantee tells your customers that you stand behind your product. And that you understand how important it is for them to see for themselves whether your product will work.

Understand Your Prospect’s Fear And Skepticism

Now, don’t misunderstand me . . . I’m not for thinking about your customers like they’re lambs ready for the slaughter (or pigs).

But the mental exercise I go through each butchering day on the pig farm here translates well into similar mental gymnastics I use for building effective lead generation campaigns and sales funnels that sell.

Understand your customers are distrustful and skittish. They’ve probably been burnt by a few bad sales experiences. And this economy just makes it worse.

However, they still need you and your solutions. You just need to find the right way to approach them.

You need to mentally put yourself in a spot where you understand your prospects’ concerns, genuinely care about helping them and fully believe that the product you’re writing about offers a viable solution.

In other words – as us pig farmers say – Keep your mind on tofu and the job at hand.

If there is one powerful piece of copy I advise all my clients to use, it’s the autoresponder.

You can read all about why I like it right here:

Follow Up Autoresponders: A Natural Health Marketer’s Cure For A Forgetful And Tightfisted Market

And if you want to implement an autoresponder series with finesse, there is one tool you absolutely need to have to put this strategy to work – a good email autoresponder service.

Please note, the links in this post are affiliate links. I will receive a commission if you click through them to purchase the product. Note, I only recommend products that I have used myself or have researched sufficiently to be comfortable recommending.

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!