How To Write A White Paper For Online Marketing is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Pull marketing using white paper.

Learning how to write a white paper can be a great asset to your online business, when it comes to pulling customers into your sales and marketing funnel.

“Pull” marketing is about attracting customers to your business by providing value – and one way of doing that is creating white papers that provide sought-after information in your field. Not only does it attract customers, it enhances your credibility and reputation in your field.

Below we show you how to go about writing a white paper of your own.

The Focus Is The Customer NOT YOU!

The first important thing to bear in mind is that the white paper is not about you or your business.

It’s about imparting useful information that can attract people to download it – so you need to get inside the head of your target audience and consider what they want to know, how they want to know it and how you can present it to them most effectively.

Providing useful information means you will create a “lead magnet” to attract visitors wanting to know more; they download your report, enter your sales and marketing database and are there for further campaigns.

Crafting The Title

People will look at the title and make a decision whether it’s information they need to know – so take time to make the title interesting.

Often using the numbers 3, 5, and 7 is effective in grabbing people’s attention – such as “5 Ways to…”, “3 Steps to…” etc.

Pitching The Content

You want to present just enough content to be of value to your audience – 7 to 10 pages is often enough; don’t blind them or overload them with reams of information; you are whetting their appetite.

It’s not about you – but it is about letting them know that you know what you’re talking about and can provide value to their business; so keeping it relevant, succinct and incisive will serve you well.

Introducing Your Business

You can introduce your business on the last page, after you have presented the relevant information your customer downloaded your report to find.

If you are an accountant, for example, create a section in your white paper “5 Qualities to Look for in an Accountancy Firm” prior to introducing your own accountancy firm – it’s a good lead in, rather than just attaching it at the end.

Don’t Forget The Call to Action

Just because it’s a white paper doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a call to action after introducing your company. It’s the “pay off” you get for providing free and valuable information to your customer.

You can use the SEO Manifesto from our home page as a sample white paper to guide you on how to write a white paper for your business; many more valuable tips for your business marketing can be found in the FREE-to-watch Competition Crusher workshop: http://www.crusherworkshop.com.

6 Steps To Write Sales Emails That Convert is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

“I’ve tried sales emails and they’ve never really worked for me”…. does this sound familiar? If this is the case for you, then why not try changing your approach?

Sales emails can be a powerful weapon to keep in your online marketing armory, if you have built up a client database and you have products and services ready to be marketed to them.

Below we look at how to approach an autoresponder email campaign in terms of creating mails with the right tone, content and design.

1. Use Multimodes

People digest information in many different ways; some prefer to watch online video, others prefer DVDs that they can watch offline; others still like to load onto their iPod to listen to on the way to work or print out a PDF report to read in bed.

It’s important to cater for all types of data consumption, so bear this in mind when you do your marketing mails.

2. Keep It Chatty!

Many of the people you are writing to in your campaign you will have had some contact with before. It’s not necessary to be overly formal with them and it’s usually more appropriate to keep a chatty, personal, conversational tone.

People who have come from a corporate background into online business often struggle with pitching things at the right tone – work on getting it right.

3. Keep It To The Point!

Assume your recipient is busy and doesn’t have much time to read your email. This will help you keep the mail short and to the point.

Don’t always keep the same length of email – mix it up; some emails may just be a couple of lines (the “have you seen this yet…?” type of email) and others will require you to elaborate more.

4. Read It And Re-Read It!

The cardinal sin of email autoresponders is to send out a mail with mistakes. That’s why you should read your email and then re-read it before sending it out.

Another tactic might be to write it, wait a few hours, come back to it and then read it before sending, or get someone else to read it for you and give feedback.

5. Get The Anatomy Right!

Structurally there are some guidelines you need to follow to make sure your email is optimised:

• FROM – make sure you put a name they will recognise. Almost everybody looks at this first so it’s important to get their attention.
• SUBJECT –this is important too. Use something that hooks your recipient like a question that can only be answered by opening your email.
• GREETING – Make sure you add their name to the email – make it personalised and talk to only them.
• LINKS – make sure you add links liberally through your email – at the top, bottom and in the middle. Don’t make them wait to perform an action – give them many chances to click on the attractive blue links!
• CALL TO ACTION– tell them they need to click the link below.

6. Optimise Your Landing Page

Your email should be focused on your recipient performing an action – like clicking on a link. Make sure that you don’t try to sell anything in your email other than the client performing that action.

Then ensure your landing page is optimised – so anyone clicking through doesn’t have to spend time searching for the information they are looking for. Make it easy for them!

Writing great sales emails is just part of an online marketing approach that any serious business needs. You can find plenty of tips about other marketing approaches in the Competition Crusher workshop available for free by clicking here.

You don't have to be Shakespeare to write well.

9 Steps To Writing Great Sales Copy is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Some people freeze when it comes to writing sales copy; but it doesn’t need to be a fearful process. It’s possible for anyone to create a great sales message by following some simple guidelines and, while it may take some practice and fine-tuning, it will come.

Following are nine steps for writing sales copy that should help your business sell more.

1. Headline

You need to “hook” your visitors, whether they have come to your webpage from organic search traffic or via an email or other online marketing campaign. Prepare a headline that engages your audience and gets them thinking they need to read the smaller print that follows. You only have a few seconds to capture their imagination.

2. Story-Telling

Being able to tell a short story in your sales copy achieves several purposes.

Story-telling is traditionally how knowledge has been passed on, because information “sticks” better when attached to a story. Also it engages the audience on an emotional level because you can use the story to show the audience that you understand their problems and, in fact, explain their issues better than they can themselves!

It doesn’t need to be War and Peace but creating a tale that “agitates” the problem allows you to generate interest in the solution that you will introduce afterwards.

3. Who Am I?

Introducing yourself as part of the solution goes a long way too…show them how you got to where you are by experiencing many of the same issues that they are going through. This shows not only that you empathise with their problems but that you are a real human being! It is especially important to demonstrate this on the internet as people want to buy from people in the often faceless online world.

This is why video sales pages work well – everything we are writing about sales copy can be equally applied to a sales letter template or a script for a sales video.

4. Offer A Clear Solution

You have built up the level of expectation to now show what you have as the solution. Present a clear offer that shows your service or product solving specific problems the visitor may have.

5. Features/Benefits

Many people start here with their sales copy; the features and benefits are important and of course they need to be included, but they are far more effective when presented as a solution to a problems; that’s why you shouldn’t jump in before “preparing the ground” as described above.

6. Testimonials

Again, these are hugely important for demonstrating credibility and proof that what you are saying is true and can be delivered.

Gather these as you go, preferably in video form (you can always make transcripts for text-based sales copy.) One testimonial of a few sentences can be worth a page of you rambling on about how great you are!

7. Promise And Guarantee

If you can make a bold promise and guarantee for your offer it may pay dividends. Guarantees may mean a few more people asking for their money back, but it should be more than covered by the extra sales you’ll make from people feeling comfortable buying from you.

8. Scarcity

Some sales pages overdo it with the “scarcity” element and end up sounding completely fake; you should aim at creating urgency to buy now, but without the use of ticking timers that tell you that the offer closes in 5 minutes or that there are only 3 left! Make it realistic or visitors will see through it and it will create doubts in their mind.

9. Call to Action

Tell the visitor what they should do next; this might be clicking the BUY NOW button, sending an email, opting in, picking up the phone – anything that moves the sales process along. Make it clear and make it only one thing.

Working all these messages in will create compelling sales copy that can revolutionise your online business. Whether you need sales text or video scripts the same basic rules apply. You can also discover more great sales tips for your business in the Competition Crusher workshop – available absolutely FREE here: www.crusherworkshop.com

Create a headline that really grabs attention.

4 Online Copywriting Tips For Creating Web Content is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Online copywriting should be easy to understand.

Ever rocked up to a website and cringed at the web copy because it doesn’t hit the right notes at all? Well, online copywriting certainly doesn’t come naturally to everybody but it’s an important part of your web presence so following a few tips can help this aspect of your web marketing.

Below we take you through four of the main copywriting tips for generating web content that gets a strong marketing message across, without appearing too “forced” or “awkward”.

1. Write To One Person Not Groups

A great starting point is to really know your avatar. This means climbing into the skin of your target audience and picturing what they are looking for. Think of one person – your ideal customer; then write everything with this person in mind, as if you were writing it exclusively for them.

This will help you keep your copy on-point, relevant to your target market and it will seem to your visitors like it has been written specifically for them – providing you have attracted the right people in the first place.

Avoid using phrases like “you guys” or “we”; aim everything specifically at the “YOU” that you are trying to attract.

2. Keep Content At 8^th Grade Level

Don’t assume that phrases and terminology which are commonplace to you is known by everybody or you will potentially drown your visitors in jargon.

Keeping your copy at “8^th grade level”, with clear information presented in a simple way, will give you a far better chance of making it “stick” than if you over-complicate. Especially watch out for unintended double meanings that can confuse readers.

3. It’s About Results And Benefits NOT just Features

Bad copywriting lists all the features of products without talking about the benefits they bring and the results they achieve.

Remember that your visitor doesn’t care if your business sinks or swims; they are wondering what’s in it for them. Understanding this simple concept will improve your copywriting no end because suddenly you will turn it around from talking about all the information you want to get out, to talking about how that actually benefits the customer.

A fire alarm with a self-testing battery is a feature; a fire alarm with a battery that tests itself so that you and your family can rest assured that you are always being protected from fire in your home is a real tangible benefit.

This is one of the most important lessons you can learn with copywriting.

4. Polish Your Skills

Don’t worry if it doesn’t come naturally at first – this is the case for many people; but it can be improved with practice and by following guidelines like those so far detailed.

If you find it’s just not working then you can always outsource copywriting very affordably these days, with plenty of websites specialising in overseas contractors for hire.

With the widespread accessibility of video these days, you may think that copy writing skills will become less in demand. Nothing could be further from the truth – when you make videos you need a great script; most of the same copywriting rules apply to scriptwriting.

Improving online copywriting is just one aspect of running a successful web business; in the Competition Crusher Workshop at http://www.crusherworkshop.com you can receive similar advice and tips on all the other main aspects of setting up and marketing a web business.

Are Online Press Releases Really Worth The Money? is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Is It Really Worth The Money?

Using web-based press release services, such as PRWeb, to promote your business may seem like a great idea, but is an online press release really worth the money?

Traditionally speaking, press releases provide reporters with enough basic information to create a news article for publication. However, nowadays there are online press release services, which not only provide reporters with potentially newsworthy material, but they can assist your business’ Search Engine Ranking through quality backlinking. These services have become extremely popular in recent years, but is it right for your business?

To answer this question you need to decide upon your objective. What is it that you are trying to achieve by creating a press release? There are generally two major objectives. Firstly, to generate external content with quality backlinks to your website to help boost your Search Engine Ranking. Secondly, to generate a “newsworthy” article that has the potential to be picked up by traditional media (newspapers, journals, magazines, etc).

There are an abundance of online press release services out there and knowing which one to choose for your business could be a nightmare. Does it work? Is it reliable? How will I know if they’re trustworthy? And will I see a healthy return on my hard earned dollars?

These are just some of the questions you may have when looking for an online press release service to suit your business’ needs. Here at Melbourne SEO Services we’ve been using PRWeb for quite some time and we’ve learnt a few vital things along the way.

• Your press release must be newsworthy. It is not a platform to blatantly promote you or your business (although that might be the objective).
• If you want your press release to be picked up by the media, then it’s wise to tailor your article to something topical (something that’s currently happening in the news. ie. Will & Kate’s Wedding, The War On Terror, Facebook, etc).
• Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Write something that you would want to read yourself.
• Optimise you headline. Not only should it be catchy enough to rope an audience, it should also contain your primary keyword.

If you’re just looking to boost your Page-Rank through quality backlinks, then an online press release is definitely worth the money if created correctly. If you’re looking for some guaranteed media exposure, then you may be disappointed.

Nobody can really predict what a reporter might choose to produce as a news article. That said, there are some guidelines that you can use to give your press release the best chance of success. Click here to learn how. Once you’ve written your press release, watch the video below to learn how to submit it to PRWeb:

How Your SEO Skills Will Enable You To Sell Online is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

The majority of new people to the internet marketing trade with no SEO skills head straight over to websites such as ClickBank and Commission Junction to get their affiliate links so that they can start promoting straight away. Truth be told, a lot of them are not successful from the word go, most haven’t taken the time to learn SEO, and wouldn’t have an idea on what something as basic as keyword optimization is. Becoming an affiliate marketer is no longer as simple as finding a referral link and placing it around your blog or website in the hope that someone needs to buy that product, and this in itself is what is holding a lot of new internet marketers back.

So, what can you do to increase your sales? Let me give you a few pointers that have worked wonders for me….

Selling Online Vs Floor Selling

When you get a job working at the local music store, from the very second that you start wearing that work uniform, you have earned trust from customers based on the authority that glows from you whilst wearing that uniform. You are already established as an expert, and someone that can help. You could know nothing about the high grade maple cap on that guitar body, or those real ‘rock and roll’ T90 pickups, at the end of the day, if you wear the uniform, people recognize you as an expert, and will approach you for the sale.

Online, you don’t work on the floor, you are one out there in a sea of millions. Much like you would approach customers on the sales floor and ask if they need a hand, in the online world, you use your SEO skills to optimize for specific keywords. Not just any keywords, but buying phrases. Search queries that indicate that a visitor is either ready to buy, or that the visitor is ready to be closed on the sale.

Don’t Go For The Hard Sell Too Fast!

Imagine that a customer walked into a store, and without batting an eyelid, a sales person walked up and asked that customer, “Would you like me to wrap that book up for you today?”. This is the equivalent of selling too strong on your website.

A typical sales scenario on the floor:

• ”Hi, how are you today?”
• ”Is this what you are looking for”
• ”Does this suit what it is that you need it for?”
• ”Is there anything else that you need with that today?”
• ”How about I throw this extra impulse item in at half price?”
• ”Would you like to pay by cash or card?”

This is very basic (my personal method is much longer mind you…), however, you can see that you are aiming to get the answer “yes” from the customer as much as possible. This generates a positive buzz, and then by adding something else at the end of the sale as a bit of a bonus, you are going to ease the pain of the transaction on the conscience of the customer, making them more susceptible to purchasing from you again.

Lets put that into the perspective of the way that we sell online, keeping in mind that there are various methods online to do just that:

• -Visitor searches in Google for a phrase
• Visitor finds your website
• Visitor reads your informative content, plus the small recommendation on how they can enhance their experience using this other product
• Visitor sees the results that you have achieved using that product
• Visitor reads about the bonus that you are offering if you purchase from their affiliate link today
• Visitor clicks your affiliate link, and purchases
• You close the sale by sending the bonus via mail

This is a very generalized method, and this can be used to construct many more ways of selling. At the end of the day, generating an income online is not that much different to selling in a store, the only main difference is that online, your SEO skills will determine in large part how people find your web page, if they find it at all. Remember, people need to find your website first before you can sell an affiliate product to them.

How Can I Use My Mailing List?

Mailing lists are very handy to have if you are an affiliate marketer. There are many services out there that will enable you to start communicating with your visitors via e-mail, the better of them being Aweber and Get Response, and there are also other solutions such as MailChimp that will allow you to start a mailing list with no outlay at all.

A mailing list will allow you to send offers directly to those who are on your list, and even in some cases, you can be a little creative. The problem with this is that people generally will not join your mailing list if there is no incentive. To combat that, think about offering the customer something for free that requires a name and e-mail address capture before receiving that item for free. This is one of the oldest, yet most effective methods that exist, and can easily generate a list of targeted subscribers who would not even stop to consider purchasing your recommendations.

At the end of the day, affiliate marketing is not the easiest thing to get into. In my early days, it took me months to see my first ever sale come through. At the end of it all, the one thing needs to be remembered above all else. If you decide to promote a product, the main keywords that you choose need to be winnable in the search engines, more importantly, you need to be able to win those keywords, and this depends on your own SEO skills. What is my recommendation? Before you go too hard, take some time to learn SEO first, even just the basics so that you can start winning those buying phrases in Google. After this time, you need to be able to find a creative way to sell that product to those visitors that are actually finding your website. How you choose to do that will be the determining factor at the end of the day.

SEO Writing That Attracts A Crowd is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Writing SEO Style Can Be Easy and Fun

It’s time to show you how to take advantage of some sublime ways to attracts mobs of browsers using SEO writing that hooks.

Your biggest weapon in SEO writing is your first impression, your headline. It’s perhaps your only chance to turn someone passing through into a reader or customer. Without a headline or post title that does this job, the rest of your words may as well not even exist. With blog posts, publications and the like your headline often is your title tag. It features prominently in the search results but it has competition in the form of the other 9 results (not to mention the paid listings). For more in depth practical advice on creating a title tag you know to click the link.

So what are the things to bare in mind when it comes to writing great headlines for SEO?

• Write the same message in as little words as possible.
• Write at an 8^th grade level
• Write compelling headlines with a clear and concise message.
• Talk in the language of the person searching.
• Feature your keywords in the headline.

Apart from those you might need a little creative juice, so here you go…

SEO Writing – 11 Headline Formulas That Work

If you don’t think writing formulaically works then you clearly are ignoring the meteoric success of the Dan Brown books. These following formulas provide a little piece of inspiration as to how best write headlines with SEO in mind.

1. Unlock …  [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. Unlock Your Destiny with Mind Maps

2. Discover… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. Discover What Teeth Whitening Can Do For Your Health

3. X Reasons…  [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. 10 Reasons to Bank with HSBC

4. Take Advantage… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. Take Advantage of Cheap Car Rental

5. Make/ Build a [your keyword] You Can Be Proud Of

EG. Build a Trading Profit You Can Be Proud Of

6. New… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. New Skin Treatment Instantly Makes You Look 1 Year Younger

7. Save Time… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. Save Time Shoe Shopping

8. Exclusive… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. Exclusive Hotel Deals for You

9. You Too Can… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. You Too Can Make Money Blogging

10. Pay Close Attention… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. Pay Close Attention to Your Rising Gas Bill

11. The Perfect… [compel your reader and include your keyword]

EG. The Perfect Insurance Plan for Your Entire Family

Go and try these headlines out for size!