7 things you can add to help your site sell

Written by Todd Jamieson


**** Copyright Todd Jamieson 2004 ----- Todd Jamieson, EnvisionOnline.ca (www.envisiononline.ca) ****

In my conversations with hundreds of business owners I have met overrepparttar years,repparttar 108764 same questions seems to pop-up over and over again. Can you build me a site that gives me a steady flow of sales? We are bombarded daily with get-rich quick schemes. Most of these statements have no basis in reality.

So are web site owners making real sales off their web site? Absolutely. But what I have found through my experience that making your site successful takes a lot of hard work – not unlike running a business inrepparttar 108765 “real world”. What these successful web merchants learned early, is that running a web site takes a lot of energy, dedication and planning. Yes … planning – all engineered by you with real goals and objectives. Lets first try to draw parallels between a typical retail store transaction and a web site transaction.

A Retail Transaction At Widgets R Us

Imagine our friend Joe enters a store Widgets R Us inrepparttar 108766 local mall. Joe first findsrepparttar 108767 store by looking atrepparttar 108768 mall directory and then walks inrepparttar 108769 door. The second he walks inrepparttar 108770 door, he sees other people inrepparttar 108771 store. He catches a fresh scent of potpourri and noticesrepparttar 108772 beautiful displays. He looks downrepparttar 108773 aisle and sees a clear sign atrepparttar 108774 end ofrepparttar 108775 aisle listingrepparttar 108776 type of Widgets he is looking for. He travels downrepparttar 108777 aisle and seems interested in a large Widget that usually sells for $100 but is on sale for $80. Next torepparttar 108778 widget is a flyer listing allrepparttar 108779 features and benefits ofrepparttar 108780 widget. Just then, a sales associate approaches him. By reading his body language, she knows right away he is interested. She asks him a few questions to pre-qualify him. He asks a few questions back, and within a matter of minutes he hasrepparttar 108781 Widget in hand atrepparttar 108782 checkout. Clearly written atrepparttar 108783 checkout counter isrepparttar 108784 store’s return policy. The cashier asks him, how would you like to pay for this – Cash, Visa or MasterCard? Just beforerepparttar 108785 cashier ringsrepparttar 108786 order in, she asks “Would you like our extra warranty protection?” Joe, agrees. The cashier then completesrepparttar 108787 sale and provides a receipt to Joe and circles their return policy written onrepparttar 108788 receipt.

Direct Response Marketing

Written by yatin patel


As marketing dollars dry up, targeted advertising is gaining. How do you run your direct response program?

IMAGINE THIS: YOU OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN A MAJOR search engine by charging $10 to your credit card. You then place highly focused ads inrepparttar account pointing torepparttar 108763 relevant page of your e-commerce site. Byrepparttar 108764 end ofrepparttar 108765 day you have received 2000 visitors to your site atrepparttar 108766 cost of $1000, ($0.50 per click). And best of all, you haven’t even had to pay forrepparttar 108767 ads yet..

Further imagine that you have made 20 sales at $500 each, endingrepparttar 108768 day with $10,000 revenue. You just made a $3000 gross profit. You then payrepparttar 108769 search engine $1000 and you are left with a net profit of $2000.

Direct Response Marketing – Redefined This is today’s reality. Immediate Purchase Intent isrepparttar 108770 name ofrepparttar 108771 game when it comes to Direct Response Marketing. A traditional marketer on-line and off-line is not accustomed to having immediately measurable ROI like this. And Search engines are a cost effective way to acquire qualified prospects, and convert them in to buyers immediately.

Search is one ofrepparttar 108772 Internet’s most essential and wanted services. As popular as email, search has morphed into an advertising avenue that leveragesrepparttar 108773 web’s inherent ability to link consumers and small- to mid-sized businesses in ways that traditional media alternatives cannot match.

Where else can advertisers “self-serve” themselves to an audience of 200 million-plus consumers, communicate directly with only those prospects who are specifically and currently seekingrepparttar 108774 goods, services and information thatrepparttar 108775 advertiser provides, and at a cost of $0.15-$0.50 for each customer lead? No other advertising avenue, online or offline is growing as fast as search is currently. In my opinion, search’s impressive growth throughrepparttar 108776 worst ad market in a decade is a testament to its value proposition and potential.

Controlled ROI The great thing about search-based advertising is that, as an advertiser you can control your keywords and ad creative in real time by adjustingrepparttar 108777 position of your ads, based on its real-time measurable performance/cost analysis.

By using some simple software like GOTOAST you can do this optimization acrossrepparttar 108778 board in allrepparttar 108779 search engines, portals, directories and intermediate syndication channels such as Overture. These apps automatically checkrepparttar 108780 status and position of your bids as often as you choose and makes appropriate strategic bidding changes based on your parameters. It saves you money by making sure you do not overpay for your preferred position and helps increase sales by ensuring your listings are located where you want them, atrepparttar 108781 price range you are willing to pay. Whether you have thousands of keywords or just very active, competitive listings, for only dollars a day, it makes your life easier and puts more money on your bottom line.

Instant Gratification And ifrepparttar 108782 ROI works for you, OR you are smart enough to make this work for you, one can control as much as 1 million keywords through these types of software in real time. This can help you generate large amount of revenue with a tight control on ROI, which you can measure and control every minute. Tens of thousands of business owners already know about one ofrepparttar 108783 best kept secrets onrepparttar 108784 Internet: paying for small text advertisements on search engines on a “pay-per-click” basis. Probablyrepparttar 108785 best part about pay-per-click advertising is there is no waiting around. Instant Gratification. Qualified visitors to your web site, no matter what your budget is.

Search and Search Engines Search is becomingrepparttar 108786 fulcrum on which much ofrepparttar 108787 business onrepparttar 108788 Internet swings and has become one ofrepparttar 108789 interesting businesses onrepparttar 108790 Internet, with growing consumer usage, powerful advertiser adoption, advance technological progress, and enormous revenue and profit growth for many search players. Pay-for-performance search advertising has been so successful that it has focused every serious player’s attention on its commercial promise and profitability.

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