Transforming Businesses into Extraordinary Brands
Once a visitor reaches your website, your job is to keep them on the site as long as possible, help them progress in their buyer journey, and encourage them to take action. Content that is optimized for conversion delivers value, builds trust, and gets visitors to take action faster.
When evaluating your website content, there are six main opportunities where you can make small changes that result in big increases in conversions.
Sales pages and Landing pages are web pages with no navigation menu, no sidebar, no footer widget area, and no links off the page — except to a shopping cart or order form. Squeeze pages also have no navigation menu, no sidebar, no footer widget area, and no links off the page.
The premise behind these pages is to eliminate all distractions from the page, and keep visitors completely focused on taking one single action — they are used solely to increase conversions.
Let’s look at these types of pages a little closer:
Throughout Authority Intensive, I shared some of the wisdom being shared by speakers and Copyblogger staff on Twitter, and received quite a few requests (and a threat) from friends to share my notes and what I learned at the event.
When I sat down to write my event recap post, it became quite clear that this event would need more than one post to do it justice.
Yesterday I published the first post about the event, pointing out the brilliant strategy behind the meals and parties that kept all of the attendees together, creating more networking opportunities, more new conversations, more connections being made, and more business being done.
Today I’m sharing the wisdom (and there is a lot) served up from the panels and keynote speakers throughout the event and tomorrow I’ll be name dropping like crazy and introducing you to some of the awesome people I met and hung out with.
In fact, according to Matt Mullenweg in his State of The Word 2013 address, 69% of those whom use WordPress use is only as a content management system for their website, not as a blog.
The primary content region on a WordPress site is referred to as the content area. It can contain all different types of content, from text and images, to video and audio. The content area is where the primary web page content or blog post content that you write is added and formatted.
NOTE: Even though content can also be put in a sidebar or in a footer, content in those areas are put into widgets, so they have different names such as, sidebar widget area, footer Widget area, Home page widget area, after-post widget area, etc.
Like the email subject line, the copywriting in your email is also an important part of the your email marketing success — and the approach needs to be personal.
When you’re writing for email (and most types of marketing for that matter), you’re not writing to a general audience, to a big group, to just anyone — you’re writing to one person, to one subscriber that has a connection to you. You must think of your email marketing copywriting as the art of creating a conversation between you and a single subscriber.
You want them to read your email and feel like you are speaking right to them. Like they matter. Like they know you and you know them.
After a while, sending an email newsletter, week after week, month after month, year after year, gets boring — really boring.
Some business owners give up because they haven’t been testing their email newsletters or tracking their email marketing results — As a result, they have no idea if it is working or not, and they just stop. Other business owners keep at it, doing the same old thing, sending the same old newsletter, over and over because they were told they should by someone they follow, hired, or believe is successful — because even if the results are tiny, it is still producing results.
There is a fundamental problem with this email marketing approach. If you are bored of email marketing and of sending your email newsletter, imagine how your subscribers must feel?!
Yikes! If that made you cringe, it may be time to shake things up a bit and add some spice, some taste, and some interest to your email marketing.
As a business owner and marketer, you have a lot to say and a lot to share with your audience, prospects, and clients — and it is easy to get so focused on the content of your email newsletter or email marketing message, conversion goals, and click-through rates, that you lose sight of something as simple as the email subject line. But…
Your email subject line is one of the most important parts of your email. The absolute best email subject lines are short, to the point, descriptive, and enticing. They have one purpose — to get you to open the email.
If your subject line stinks, is boring, or seems irrelevant, or worse, seems like spam — no one will open your email, and it won’t matter how much time you spent creating the killer content inside, because no one will ever read it. That’s why your email subject line needs to be interesting and relevant to the recipient. And while it’s job is to be so awesome that it gets them to open your email, you also need to avoid getting caught in spam filters.
So, do you write a killer email subject line that is practically guaranteed to get people to open your email, but may get caught in a lot of spam filters? Or do you play it safe and go with a slightly safer subject line that may not get as many opens, but avoid the spam filters?
Do you subscribe to a lot of email newsletters? I do! I get them from other business owners I respect and follow, from my favorite stores, from my clients, from mentors and coaches, from companies I have purchased items from, and unfortunately from random businesses who are sending me spam I never asked for.
My inbox is often full, as I am sure yours is, and one of my favorite ezine features is super simple to implement — it’s just a reminder of why I am receiving the email.
It’s important to remind subscribers why they are receiving email from you. Many of your email marketing list members probably also subscribe to a lot of different email newsletters, which means their inbox is full too! And they may not remember ever opt-ing in even if you use a . So do them a favor when sending your email marketing broadcasts or your email newsletter — remind them why you are emailing them — and, if you really want to be helpful, remind them how or why they signed up in the first place.
It’s that time of year where business owners take time to send something special — a heartfelt holiday card or thoughtful gift — to clients and customers to show appreciation and thanks. For most businesses, producing a list of valued clients, customers, partners, vendors, affiliates, and contacts to send a holiday card or gift to is the simple part. The challenge comes with deciding what to say inside the card and finding just the right personal yet professional wording.
In my previous post on this topic, I provided 44 holiday messages that are perfect for small businesses, and due to its popularity, I bringing you even more examples of possible holiday card messages — Enjoy!
Once you understand your overall website strategy and approach, the next step, while developing your content and design, is to think about your website sidebar. You don’t want to just load up your sidebar with badges, widgets, and gizmos just because it’s cool, because someone else uses it, because it might work, or because you can.
Like your content, your sidebar needs a strategic plan!
Planning the sidebars of your website is just as important as planning your content, your sales funnel, and your irresistible free offer. Your sidebar exists on almost every page of your website. That means it affects your visitors’ experience on your site. It also affects the way visitors move through your site, what they click on, and how long they stay.
At Bourn Creative we believe that the design and layout of your content is equally as important as the visual look and structure of your WordPress templates. Design is more than how something looks; it is also how a visitor to your site “moves” through your site and are naturally guided to your intended action.
One small part of this design principle is choosing the right way to manage long content, and one way we accomplish this is by using the WordPress “Next Page” tag to break long content into sections that are more easily consumed. The next page tag should not be confused with the WordPress “More” tag used on blog posts to limit the content on blog index pages. Read this article on how to use the WordPress more tag to learn about the differences.
On a recently completed custom WordPress theme, our client had extensive content that was important information to have on one page URL instead of broken over several pages and/or subpages. We decided this strategy based on SEO and site visitor usability. Without the Next Page tag, the content would have created one extremely long page that would seem to endlessly scroll and slow to load.
A website is a basic requirement of business. And the process of creating your website is one of the most important steps you will take in starting or rejuvenating your business, second only to establishing your brand. And yet, in spite of its importance, the path of website creation is often prey to folly.
In fact, when beginning to craft the website that they hope will make their businesses stand out, many otherwise savvy business owners often fall victim to common misconceptions, dangerous shortcuts, and poor guidance. Well, you may be asking, how can we go about this important process in the right way, then? The key is to identify those potential pitfalls — and to grasp what your small business website should really be about — before you begin.
Entrepreneurs of the Information Age have had to adapt their marketing strategies to suit the times. It used to be that advertising was the bulwark of marketing, but that has changed with the lightning fast development of the king of all Information Age technologies, the internet. Now, one of the staples of your marketing strategy is the development, sharing, and selling of content.
You may have heard or experienced firsthand that generating quality content in blog posts, articles, videos, reports, ebooks, audio files, DVDs, teleseminars, webinars, and so on can revitalize your marketing by helping you:
And if you’ve been doing any of that for any length of time, you may have run into a common problem of content marketing — the problem of supply.
If you’ve ever been shopping for higher-end technology, you’ll resonate with the marketing ideas I’m going to share with you today, because part of shopping for technology involves reading about features, and today we’re going to learn why marketing with features isn’t enough to capture your customers.
To begin to understand what I’m talking about, just read (or try to read) this list of features posted on Amazon for a Nikon digital camera:
Now, if you’re NOT a photographer versed in digital photography, the features listed above aren’t going to tell you much. But if you’re a savvy shopper, you would be asking, “Well, just what IS a 5-Way VR Image Stabilization System, and how can it help me?” In other words, reading a list of features can only take you so far. What you really want to know are the benefits. Now, sure, a few of the items above state that with the given feature, “image quality” will improve, but none of them says exactly how or why.
That’s exactly the problem with marketing with features instead of benefits.
While getting started on brand strategy and design and website strategy with my clients, one of the first things I want to know is who the ideal client is. Who is the person the brand and website must resonate with and speak to. Who does it need to attract to my client?
How do you know who your ideal client is? Your Ideal Client is some one who:
But how do you find out exactly who they are? Grade Them.Look at all of your clients for a set time period and give each one a grade — A, B, C, D, F. Don’t think about it too much. Just go with your gut instinct and be honest — Don’t worry! No one will see this but you.
If you are selling ANYTHING online, or even offline, you know how important your marketing copy is. The words you use to describe your product or service and how you communicate the benefits of it are critical to making the sale. Lot’s of marketers and copywriters will talk to you about including the right call to action, writing benefit statements, and using action verbs.
But, what many marketers won’t give you is their secret formula to writing a simple sales page that actually converts. Here’s the basic formula you need to use:
I know you’re reading that thinking, “Great. But what does that mean?!” So let me walk you through a sales page from start to finish and we’ll review each part of the sales copy and what is for:
Updated: December 14, 2016 —The time of year all business owners must decide how to show clients and customers they care and appreciate their business. It is the season of the holiday card!. Whether you choose to send a Christmas card, Thanksgiving card, or New Year card, you’ve got to think of a holiday message or greeting for inside the card!
We know you stress out over what message to include in your holiday card because we do too! So I thought I’d share with you a list of 44 holiday card messages for small businesses and hopefully help make the process of selecting your holiday card message easier!
Holy Time Warp Batman… 11 Years Already! Jennifer and I recently made the short drive to Napa Valley to celebrate our 11 year anniversary and her birthday, with no kids attached. We stayed at the Silverado Resort in Napa and had dinner overlooking the golf course at The Royal Oak restaurant inside the 19th century main building.
We had agreed to just enjoy the scenery and leave work at the office, but something occurred during our dinner that inspired this article. When perusing the menu, something caught my attention. Under the standard Caesar salad offering were the words, “prepared tableside”. No further description. I had no intention of ordering yet another Caesar salad at a steakhouse, but the two words in italics peaked my curiosity to the point that I went ahead and ordered it anyways.
Including marketing and advertising legal disclaimers, with your online and traditional marketing campaigns, is not only a good practice but in many cases are also legally required by the Federal Trade Commission. All legal disclaimers for products, programs, or services that you are marketing should be clearly visible on the same webpage or printed marketing piece that your items are described.
I have gathered the following marketing disclaimers as examples to consult when crafting your disclosures with a professional legal advisor.
Currently, we have a good friend’s two youngest kids (ages 12 and 15) staying with us while they take their oldest on a two-week graduation trip to Paris (lucky kid right!).
We’ve been having a blast baking and eating junk food, swimming and relaxing, doing some great craft projects, and even going fishing (check out the photo!) at S and J Mandarin Grove, my in-laws’ organic mandarin orchard in Newcastle, California! My two kiddos, ages 4 and 6, have LOVED having their new “big sisters” to play with every day.
During their stay, I’ve drawn some interesting conclusions about the similarities between my young teenage house guests, marketing a business, and why you might be a lazy marketer.
Often I hear stories of my friends, business peers and networking acquaintances sitting in front of their computer with Email Newsletter Writers’ Block. They just can’t seem to think of anything to write, don’t like feeling pressured to write something fabulous, and secretly hate email marketing because they don’t want to be a copywriter.
So, what do they do? They put it off and procrastinate. Soon, it has been weeks, or sometimes even months and nothing has been sent out to their list. No announcements. No marketing. No helpful tips or information. Unfortunately, their list of warm leads is growing colder by the minute!
Here is a quick list of email newsletter topics or content ideas that you can use to help put an end to writers’ block:
