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12 Emotional Trigger Words That Encourage Action

Doug Williams @ 7:09 am

This blog entry was posted on June 30, 2010.

You have just seconds to grab a prospects attention. Use trigger words to attract visitors and then encourage action. Use emotional trigger words in headlines and your content writing. They motivate action and movement within the website.

Keywords and trigger words are both important in content writing. Keywords are used in search engine optimization and bring visitors to your website, usually via search engines. Trigger words create emotion and it is this emotion that encourages action.

In marketing, there are certain trigger words that create curiosity and interest. Trigger words are the words and phrases that trigger a user into clicking or buying. Coupling trigger words with a “call to action” is especially important to create a website that converts well.

12 trigger words that work to create positive emotions and help guide people into buying.

  1. Free: Free is a powerful motivator to anyone on a budget.
  2. Limited: Makes it exclusive or at least hard to get.
  3. Fast: This speed word triggers the purchasing reflex. Fast results or fast delivery.
  4. Guarantee: Make it risk free; a sure thing.
  5. Save: Save time, save money…
  6. New: Makes people curious; is it a breakthrough product?
  7. Simple: Better than easy, but closely related.
  8. Amazing: Attention grabbing. Combine with other power words to make it simply amazing!
  9. Proven: Take the risk out because it is tried and true.
  10. Important: Makes readers take notice. After all, they don’t want to miss anything.
  11. Energize: Effective in psychology, health and wellness
  12. You: Use the word “You” to create an emotional connection with your reader.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



43 Proven Ways to Generate Sales Leads

Doug Williams @ 4:22 am

This blog entry was posted on June 28, 2010.

Online

  1. Turn your website into a lead generation website with an email capture form.
  2. Use A/B split testing to improve your website and PPC conversions.
  3. Offer your prospects a free ebook or report if they opt in
  4. Interact with website visitors by supplying valuable information using auto responders.
  5. Add a clear call to action on your website such as “Request a Quote”
  6. Do educational email marketing to your list.
  7. Publish a weekly newsletter with “how-to tips”
  8. Market new products to existing customers and to your email list.
  9. Purchase leads from other lead generation websites
  10. Optimize your website for more targeted traffic.
  11. Advertise on the search engines (PPC advertising)
  12. Write a blog (business blog marketing).
  13. Write articles and post on article syndication sites.
  14. Put on educational events through the Web (webinars)
  15. Advertise on other websites using affiliate marketing.
  16. Encourage past customers to write testimonials on Yelp, Google Maps, etc.
  17. Encourage WOM advertising through social media (Twitter, a Facebook page, etc.)
  18. Utilize social bookmarking on Reddit, Dig, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc
  19. Participate in forums to build authority, relationships and leads.
  20. Video marketing is a great way to connect with people.
  21. Advertise on Facebook.
  22. Develop followers on Twitter.
  23. Be an educator on Linked-In Answers

Offline

  1. Use multiple sources for acquiring leads.
  2. Direct mail post cards or sales letters
  3. Follow up with existing customers every 90 days.
  4. Use a follow-up tool such as a post card or note card
  5. Hire a commission only sales force.
  6. Speak regularly at business or trade events.
  7. Put on a seminar or workshop
  8. Print advertising (newspaper, magazines, trade journals)
  9. Advertise on local cable TV.
  10. Advertise on radio by purchase cheaper remnant advertising
  11. Join a lead referral group
  12. Be active in professional associations and your local chamber of commerce.
  13. Encourage referrals from current customers.
  14. Develop strategic Alliances and referral channels.
  15. Offer payment for referrals to partners in related industries.
  16. Customer complaints can, and should be treated as opportunities.
  17. Publish regular press releases
  18. Make cold calls
  19. Distribute door-to-door flyers.
  20. Become a community volunteer.

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Filed under: Business Consulting,Internet Marketing



Should I Use Social Media In My Business?

Doug Williams @ 4:47 am

This blog entry was posted on June 26, 2010.

Social Media Marketing really went main stream in 2008. This is according to Google Trends. This was when many “early adopter” businesses began implementing social media in their marketing campaigns. But will social media marketing work for all businesses?

When the Internet went public in the early 90s, many businesses were slow to adopt this new media into their marketing. It was the early adopters that took full advantage and are now leaders in the Internet world.

Today if a company doesn’t have a website or use email, they will have a hard time reaching their market or even being taken seriously as a business. Today only about half of all small businesses even have a website. How does this translate into using social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the new frontier, much the same way as the Internet was in the early 90s. The Internet replaced traditional media (Newspaper ads, print Yellow pages, direct mail). I am not saying websites will be going away the way print newspapers have, but social media has become the best way to reach and interact with your best buyers.

There are still businesses asking “Are my customers are looking for me on the Internet?” The answer to this is a loud YES… no matter what type of business they are in.

The new question is “Are my customers using and reading social media?” The answer today is most likely. Very soon this will turn into a loud YES. Now is the time to work social media into your marketing strategies.

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Filed under: Social Media Marketing



Top 5 Mistakes Businesses Make With Their Website

Doug Williams @ 5:12 am

This blog entry was posted on June 24, 2010.

Most businesses make big mistakes in creating their website. They will just put up information up about themselves and the products or services they provide. They depend on their visitors to wade through the information and sort out what they are interested in. This greatly reduces the business they get from their website.

  1. Unclear Message: You have just 3 seconds to convince an arriving visitor that what you offer will be the solution they are seeking. Your home page needs to clearly state what you do and how it will benefit the visitor. People’s eyes are attracted to the page headline and they will scan the first paragraph. Make this first text powerful, active and attention getting.
  2. No Action or Offers: If visitors leave your website without taking action, then what benefit is there to having them come to your site? Your website needs to convince visitors to take some sort of action. Another error is to have too many possible actions where you confuse a visitor and they just leave. Make your offer clear, visually important and visible to visitors when they first arrive.
  3. No Traffic Strategy: “Build it and they will come” may work for an Iowa corn farmer (Field of Dreams), but it doesn’t work for business websites. Decide your traffic source such as organic search, pay-per-click or referral traffic before you start the design. Organic SEO is much more effective when designed into a site.
  4. No Phone Number or Address: Some businesses hide behind an anonymous contact form without any phone number or address anywhere on the website. This makes visitors nervous about doing business with you. After all, what happens if something goes wrong? How can they reach you? They immediately suspect that you are not even a real business? Place your phone number and address on your home page AND on your contact page.
  5. No About-Us Page: When someone comes to your website, they immediately want to learn more about who you are. In their mind, they are asking: “Why should I trust you?” The job of your about-us page is to answer that question. The about-us area for a website can be a single page or a section of pages, depending on your website. Read more: How to write an About-Us page.

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Filed under: Website Design



How Cloud Computing Has Changed How Businesses Operate

Doug Williams @ 4:25 am

This blog entry was posted on June 22, 2010.

The trend is moving away from having powerful office computers with in-office servers and toward cloud computing. In cloud computing, businesses use the Internet which is huge network of networks. Instead of having dedicated hardware with software loaded on each computer, cloud computing uses the Internet which is a vast shared computer network that businesses can tap into.

Subscription software or software-as-a-service (SaaS) will become the norm. Today most businesses have dedicated computers (desktops and notebooks) with individual copies of Microsoft Office purchased and loaded on each computer. These computers are connected with a network and server. This is not necessary with cloud computing.

  1. Netbooks: With cloud computing, all that is necessary to operate a business are netbooks. These are cheaper, slimmed down laptops that have minimal or no data storage. These inexpensive computers are all that are required to run our office of the future (or even today).
  2. Business Applications: Instead of individually owned copies of Microsoft Office, businesses can make use of the free SaaS alternative Google Docs. This is a web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and database software system. These web applications work from any Internet connected computer and data can be stored on Google’s servers or downloaded to the desktop.
  3. Email: No need to run Office Outlook on your computer to send, receive and read email. The cloud alternative is Gmail or Yahoo email. You just need to sign-up for an account and you are off and going.
  4. Computer Server: Need a server for your office? Why spend thousands of dollars for hardware and software? Just tap into the cloud and you are quickly up and going.

Cloud computing will save your business money, time and worry about obsolescence. Use the power of the cloud to power your business.

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Filed under: Internet Predictions



YouTube’s New Video Editor: No Software Required

Doug Williams @ 5:15 am

This blog entry was posted on June 20, 2010.

YouTube has now made editing your videos easier. YouTube has just introduced their new built-in online video editor. This can be found in YouTube’s “idea incubator” called TestTube.

YouTube’s editor allows you to do basic video editing like combining uploaded clips, trimming, editing and adding audio to your uploaded videos. You can do all of this without having to purchase or load software onto your computer.

This gives you the ability to intuitively arrange clips on a timeline, from inside your browser. To start editing , just drag the thumbnails of an uploaded video down to the filmstrip at the bottom. Your cursor will turn into scissors and you can begin trimming your video.

This isn’t the first time YouTube has introduced online video editing. In 2007, YouTube released their Remixer Tool. This was slow and buggy and was discontinued. The new system is a lot more simplified and early reviews say that it seems to work quite well.

YouTube’s new video editor is powered mostly by JavaScript. The interface is simple and quite easy to use. You can add music to your video from the AudioSwap library. YouTube however does reserve the right to display ads if you use their audio files.

The idea behind the video editor is to give the basic features of video editing they need in a cloud based application. This won’t replace the need for full featured desktop video editors.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



5 Ways to Optimize Your Adwords Campaign

Doug Williams @ 5:17 am

This blog entry was posted on June 18, 2010.

You have been running your pay-per-click campaign on Google for months. You were getting good results, so you just left it on autopilot. But you have noticed that your sales are slowly going down with your monthly expense staying at your maximum daily spend.

You need to tune and optimize your campaign. Where do you begin? You have an advantage; you have history and past performance to guide you. To maximize your effectiveness you need to track Adwords conversions. Apply this code to a thank you page that comes up after the sale or sign-up.

  1. Optimize Keywords: Keep the best keywords and remove the phrases with the lowest performance. If you have phrases receiving clicks and no conversions, then you may need to make changes to your landing page. You can change the form of keyword matching that exists.
    Broad match: Phrases contain the words in any order and can contain additional words
    Phrase match: The exact phrase and can include additional words before or after.
    Exact Match: Contains only the words you are looking for, in the exact order, with no additional words.
  2. Optimize Ads: Use the search phrase in the ad title so your ad attracts the attention of the searcher. Use A/B testing to test out variations of your ads while changing one factor at a time. Delete the under performers and keep the winners. Try changing wording, capitalization, display URL and landing pages.
  3. Optimize Networks: Track performance between search network and content networks. Separate into separate campaigns so you can manage and run tests separately. Usually the search network converts better than the content network. Always start with ads on the search network and then slowly add in the content network. In the search network you can remove websites that do not convert and keep ones that send you conversions.
  4. Optimize Time and Rates: You can not only control the days and times your ads appear. You can adjust your bids by raising or lowering your rates for certain days or times. This is controlled under the advanced settings and then selecting bid adjustment inside the ad scheduling area.
  5. Optimizing Landing Pages: Use A / B split testing to test and optimize your landing pages. Use the search phrase in the page headline. Clearly state your value proposition. Be sure to have a simple focused landing page with a clear call to action to get the best results.

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Filed under: Pay per Click



How to Market Your Chiropractic Practice on the Internet

Doug Williams @ 4:24 am

This blog entry was posted on June 16, 2010.

Over the past 10 years chiropractors have had to dramatically change their marketing and advertising methods. Gone are the days where advertising in the yellow pages or in the local newspaper actually worked. The online yellow pages aren’t much better. Your prospective patients have moved online to the web and will search for you using Google..

What does this mean to your advertising strategies?

Website: This is the heart of your Internet marketing campaign. You need a professional looking site to instill confidence and trust. The design sould be polished and professional. Include an educational or learning center where they can learn about your methods and latest treatment options that are available.

Use video as much as possible to better engage your audience and create a connection with you as a provider. Have copies of new patient forms that they can print off and fill out at their leisure. Use a patient portal system that allow online booking of appointments.

Trust building: Your website should have a professional image. Include trust logos on your home page including BBB, ICA, ACA and any certifications and affiliations that you have. Create a good about us page. Use of video showing you or at least your voice helps build a connection even on your website. Including a blog helps build you up as an authority in your field.

Organic SEO: Top rankings on Google bring in more patients and establish you as the natural choice to go to. People naturally assume that the top ranked chiropractors are the best to get treatments from. How do people search for chiropractors? They typically search using a broad keyword phrase combined with a local city name. Get the help of an SEO specialist to help you. The top 5 ways people search for chiropractors in descending order:

  1. “city” + chiropractor
  2. chiropractor + “city”
  3. chiropractic + “city”
  4. “city” + chiropractic
  5. “city” + chiropractors

Local Directories: Always sign-up and optimize local search listings. For Google, this is the Google Maps listing at Google Places. Bing and Yahoo have similar free listings. There are many other directory listings; some free and some paid. These help bring in referral traffic.

Web 2.0 Marketing: Create a facebook page and set-up a YouTube channel. Look at setting up a Twitter account. If you blog, you can have your blog automatically feed to your Facebook page and send out a tweet on Twitter.

Advertising Budget: How much should you invest in advertising? A rule of thumb is that any medical practice (physician, dentist, chiropractor, etc.) should invest 10% of their revenue into advertising and marketing.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Websites Need Regular Maintenance Just Like Your Car

Doug Williams @ 5:17 am

This blog entry was posted on June 14, 2010.

Your website should not be left like a neglected car and just forgotten. It needs regular attention and tuning to give its top performance and bring in new business and leads to keep your business purring along. You should regularly add new content, do SEO checkups and check the traffic levels.

  1. New Content: Every month add one new page to your website or add a blog and regularly (at least weekly) add a new blog posting. For eCommerce sites, add new products and grow your store.
  2. Broken links: Run a broken link checker over your website every month. It is easy to end up with broken links as you add and delete pages on your site. External links may cease to exist as websites shut down.
  3. Test your website forms: Check your email sign-up and quote request forms every month to make sure you receive inquiries, sign-ups and requests.
  4. Monthly backup: Be prepared for a catastrophic failure of your web server and perform a monthly backup of all files and databases to a CD or DVD.
  5. Website statistics: Once a month keep track of key metrics such as number of visitors, average time on site, bounce rate, links reported by key search engines, number of indexed page and rankings of primary keywords. Look at these results and make changes to your site.
  6. Browser testing: Monthly browser test key pages in all major browsers, particularly as new browser versions become available.
  7. Link building: Regularly work to build up your backlinks through blogging, web directory submissions, social media, press releases and article marketing.

Every month spend some time tuning your website and making changes. Treat your website right and it will deliver regular sales leads and new customers.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies,Web Usability



Business Website Design: Don't Make This Mistake

Doug Williams @ 2:52 am

This blog entry was posted on June 12, 2010.

Design of business websites is not meant to shock and awe an incoming visitor. Don’t get me wrong, business website design should get your attention. But when an arriving visitor comes to your website, they need to be able to immediately understand your offer. They need to intuitively be able to navigate around your site.

If a website is difficult to use, people will just leave. Your website has to have a certain predictability. Your visitor did not arrive looking for a lesson on how to consume your content. Use standard web conventions so visitors can easily evaluate your content and what you offer.

Predictability leads to trust, ease of use and satisfaction. Here is how you make your website predictable and comfortable for visitors.

  1. Logo: Your logo, branding or name should be located in the upper left area of every page. Clicking on the logo should take you back to the home page.
  2. Navigation: The main navigation is located near the logo and can be either vertically down the left side or horizontally across the top. These links should map out the primary pages or features of the site. These should all be internal site links.
  3. Hyperlinks: Usually underlined and / or in a different color to stand out from other text. Only hyperlinks should have underlined text. Visited links should shift to a different color than the other links.
  4. Buttons: Images that look like buttons should allow visitors to take action like submit, buy or take them to a new page.
  5. Images: Photos and graphics have describing text (ALT text) or text immediately below the photo (captions). Clicking on small thumbnails will show a larger version of the photo.
  6. Icons: Use standard visual symbols on your site to signify things like shopping cart, email, rss.
  7. Security Login: Identity confirmations are done using a username and password system.
  8. Search: Larger sites should have a search function based on text words used in the content.
  9. Footer: Include copyright information, privacy policy, contact pages, sitemap and other helpful links at the bottom of the home page.

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Filed under: Web Usability,Website Design



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