The goal of most business-to-business emails is to acquire leads, but most miss the mark and do more damage than good. Follow these best practices for better results.
Business-to-business email campaigns, as a generalization, look and feel the same to me. Many show up looking like long-winded, copy heavy, direct mail solicitations. Some have one giant image with marketing department-focused jargon. Most seem to miss the mark in understanding what may attract the right buyer and how to deliver real value and relevancy to the inbox.
Goals of B2B emails
Let’s examine the right approach to ensuring your B2B email campaigns help close the gap on your sales cycle, rather than damaging your new business opportunities.
The goal of most B2B email campaigns is to acquire leads, often accomplished by a white paper, webinar or case study, which require registration to obtain or attend. Make the path to the registration page easy for customers to transition to from the email.
For some high level, business-focused email campaigns, the goal is not to get an immediate click/lead but to get the email read and forwarded to the right person. Think about selling high cost software or IT equipment. Very few people will buy a $200,000 piece of equipment based on one email message. But if done correctly, your campaigns can get noticed by the right decision makers and the real one-to-one dialogue can begin.
Getting the email noticed and read can be a matter of feeding the ego, particularly on C-level messaging efforts. Make sure you acknowledge the importance (real or perceived) of your audience members and their time. Throwing them a bone can help get you noticed.
How to achieve your goals
Here are some best practices in B2B email marketing:
Know your audience: If you are mailing to IT network administrators, an image-heavy newsletter probably will not be well received. Instead, send a text-only message. Follow the cues of what your audience is like and don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach.
Mobile email triage is real: Escape the mobile email gauntlet. An increasing number of business executives use their mobile devices/PDAs to perform email triage. This means that if you have a weak message or lack something compelling or of immediate value to your email, you may have the busy exec delete your email while in a meeting. On the flip side, a unique email with a relevant purpose may get saved for the executive to read in the office.
Make it easy for the mobile audience: Click here to read on your mobile phone is becoming more commonplace on B2B emails and may help you escape mobile email rendering snafus.
From & Subject lines: Emails from a CEO to a fellow executive tend to resonate. Ensure your From line is from someone who matters. Combine this with a short Subject line that can break through the clutter while demonstrating a reason for the user to read this email.
Short and sweet: Whether read on an iPhone or laptop, make your message count. That means make sure it gets read. Long emails without clear calls to action will get skimmed and deleted. Make your value proposition above the fold and obvious to the people that will browse over your email looking for a reason to read (or delete).
Don’t oversell: Too many promises, customer raves or pricing information may overwhelm your audience and diminish your opportunity to have people click on a link where they can find the details of the service or product being offered.
Respect the audience’s time: Frequency is a significant issue for all mailings, but if a business subscriber doesn’t respond to the first two messages, it doesn’t mean you should send to him even more frequently.
Test: I received seven different emails from a lead generation company in the span of five minutes this morning. The emails actually contained decent messaging and links to at least one relevant case study. They had me until hello occurred seven times. Someone was asleep at the wheel when the campaigns were segmented and set. Do your due diligence before an email is sent as these campaigns did more damage than good.
Offer something unique: A white paper can often work, but they are everywhere, aren’t they? Provide access and perks that are gold to the C-suite audience. For example, one client attempting to register business executives for an annual event tested pricing breaks versus admission to a VIP event. Remember, the B2B audience usually isn’t spending its own money so you can guess which offer performed better.
Remarket: We had major success with one client recently by creating follow-up campaigns based on how each user responded (or didn’t) to the initial campaign. Using your metrics can guide you to a better and more relevant strategy. (You can find the case study of how this client generated $120,000 from remarketing here.)
The final touches
A B2B email campaign is a different animal from a consumer campaign. Let’s look at the three major differences:
Tone
Message
Measurement
Don’t spend countless hours writing flowery prose. Instead, spend time testing the right mix of design, messaging and calls to action.
Your tone should be much like it would be in a face-to-face meeting with your prospects: direct, professional and in a manner that makes your audience want to do business with you. Don’t waste your time building up to the pitch — state why you are sending this message and what’s in it for the recipient.
The message should clearly articulate the purpose and value to the subscribers while making it easy for them to identify and act on any call to action. Don’t bog them down with too many cross promotional messages or secondary marketing messages. Allow them to scan the email and find out what’s in it for them.
Your main measurement analysis should not be based on opens and clicks but on how many leads are generated. Careful attention should be paid to forwards and any additional email subscriptions generated from the campaign. A high open and clickthrough rate but lack of leads could mean you put up too many barriers to capture the lead. Ensure your landing page and relevant gateway pages (for example, the white paper sign-up page) are easy to find and utilize. This may take some coordination that goes outside the realm of a typical email manager.
G. Simms Jenkins is founder and CEO of BrightWave Marketing, an Atlanta-based email marketing and customer relationship services firm. Read full bio.
A B2B email campaign is very different from a B2C campaign. According to Simms Jenkins there are three major differences:
Your tone should be much like it would be in a face-to-face meeting with your prospects: direct, professional and in a manner that makes your audience want to do business with you. Don’t waste your time building up to the pitch — state why you are sending this message and what’s in it for the recipient.
The message shouldclearly articulate the purpose and value to the subscribers while making it easy for them to identify and act on any call to action. Don’t bog them down with too many cross promotional messages or secondary marketing messages. Allow them to scan the email and find out what’s in it for them.
Your main measurement analysis should not be based on opens and clicks but on how many leads are generated. Careful attention should be paid to forwards and any additional email subscriptions generated from the campaign. A high open and clickthrough rate but lack of leads could mean you put up too many barriers to capture the lead. Ensure your landing page and relevant gateway pages (for example, the white paper sign-up page) are easy to find and utilize. This may take some coordination that goes outside the realm of a typical email manager.
Simms lists these 10 best practices in B2B email marketing:
Know your audience: If you are mailing to IT network administrators, an image-heavy newsletter probably will not be well received. Instead, send a text-only message. Follow the cues of what your audience is like and don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach.
Mobile email triage is real: An increasing number of business executives use their mobile devices/PDAs to perform email triage. This means that if you have a weak message or lack something compelling or of immediate value to your email, you may have the busy exec delete your email while in a meeting. On the flip side, a unique email with a relevant purpose may get saved for the executive to read in the office.
Make it easy for the mobile audience: Click here to read on your mobile phone is becoming more commonplace on B2B emails and may help you escape mobile email rendering snafus.
From & Subject lines: Emails from a CEO to a fellow executive tend to resonate. Ensure your From line is from someone who matters. Combine this with a short Subject line that can break through the clutter while demonstrating a reason for the user to read this email.
Short and sweet: Whether read on an iPhone or laptop, make your message count. That means make sure it gets read. Long emails without clear calls to action will get skimmed and deleted. Make your value proposition above the fold and obvious to the people that will browse over your email looking for a reason to read (or delete).
Don’t oversell: Too many promises, customer raves or pricing information may overwhelm your audience and diminish your opportunity to have people click on a link where they can find the details of the service or product being offered.
Respect the audience’s time: Frequency is a significant issue for all mailings, but if a business subscriber doesn’t respond to the first two messages, it doesn’t mean you should send to him even more frequently.
Test: I received seven different emails from a lead generation company in the span of five minutes this morning. The emails actually contained decent messaging and links to at least one relevant case study. They had me until hello occurred seven times. Someone was asleep at the wheel when the campaigns were segmented and set. Do your due diligence before an email is sent as these campaigns did more damage than good.
Offer something unique: A white paper can often work, but they are everywhere, aren’t they? Provide access and perks that are gold to the C-suite audience. For example, one client attempting to register business executives for an annual event tested pricing breaks versus admission to a VIP event. Remember, the B2B audience usually isn’t spending its own money so you can guess which offer performed better.
Remarket: Create a follow-up campaigns based on how each user responded (or didn’t) to the initial campaign. Using your metrics can guide you to a better and more relevant strategy.
Most email marketers do not view soft bounces as being a major cause for concern, so rarely, if ever, have any specific strategies been in place for dealing with them. Soft bounces are a very strong indication that one or more ISPs were concerned enough about the reputation of the IP address you are using, your mailing volumes or the level of SPAM complaints you are generating to temporarily block your campaign.
Over the last two years our agency has begun to take soft bounces very seriously indeed. Compared with soft bounces, hard bounces are relatively straight forward – there are far fewer reasons for their occurrence and only one way of dealing with them, which is to remove them from your list.
The reason so many people don’t treat soft bounces seriously enough seems to be because most definitions of a soft bounce are outdated.
Here are but two typical examples of the definition of a soft bounce taken from well respected sources:
A soft bounce just means the recipient’s email account was ‘temporarily unavailable’. Maybe their server was busy, or the recipient was away on vacation, or their account was too full.
A soft bounce occurs when the recipient’s mail server replies with an error other than 5xx, or never replies at all. An example of a soft bounce error could be caused by a server that overloaded or a user whose mailbox is full.
Most current definitions of a soft bounce do not really convey any sense of urgency or importance, worst of all they seem to indicate that the bounce had nothing to do with your mail marketing practice at all. After all what can you do to stop someone’s server crashing or being taken down for maintenance or a subscriber’s mailbox filling up while they are on holiday?
Some ESPs set the default for removing soft bounces at 10 or more and best practice guidelines typically suggest removal after 3 subsequent bounces, further reducing the sense of urgency.
General definitions of a soft bounce and guidelines for dealing with them haven’t changed for at least five years!
In this time inbox sizes have dramatically increased so ‘mailbox full’ messages are highly unlikely to occur; Gmail currently offer 7GB of storage! I don’t know anyone who has exceeded their Gmail or for that matter Yahoo or Hotmail storage limit and even if there are such people, they are hardly representative of the average consumer. Even if you have a large number of people using their work email address, how many companies start bouncing potentially valuable communications without letting the user know that their inbox is due a spring clean.
I also suspect that bounces caused by overloaded ISPs (Hotmail etc.) or corporate servers are not as common as the definitions quoted above would seem to indicate.
This means that the most likely cause of soft bounces is ISP blocking.
The way ISPs deal with spam has become much more aggressive and incredibly sophisticated. For a start they are very quick to start blocking emails when they identify suspicious patterns of behaviour from a given sender, IP address or range.
Typical causes of blocking are: lack of authentication or accreditation; poor or unproven IP reputation; fluctuations in the volume of messages sent from the IP address you are using and spam complaints attributed to your IP address. It’s important to bear in mind that you may incur soft bounces because of the behaviour of companies sharing your IP address, making the way your ESP handles its shared IP addresses very important.
Emails blocked in this way are recorded as soft bounces, so your soft bounces are important indicators of how ‘Spammy’ ISP’s think you are at a given point in time.They are an indication of a drop in reputation for the IP address you are using, uneven mailing patterns and/or an increase in the level of SPAM complaints your email is generating. All of these things are things that you and your ESP can do something about!
The purest definition of a soft bounce is ‘A delivery failure with a 4XX/Transient bounce code’ examples of which are:
421 Grey listing = Re-try now and send again
451 no reverse DNS = Re-try now and send again later after you fix your DNS
Soft bounces should be regularly investigated because we believe that they are more likely to be caused bytemporary ISP blocking than temporary problems related to individual subscribers.
I would strongly recommend that anyone wanting to get a better understanding of where soft bounces fit in the overall scheme of deliverability should read the excellent 4 part series of articles on ‘How Email Works’ by Dennis Dayman of Eloqua
Spring has come a little early for Google, as their spring cleaning continues with the dropping of radio ads from AdWords and AdSense announced today, the company announced today.
The dropping of Print Ads last week and search box from Gmail, now this, will Susan Wojcicki, VP of Product Management be having a garage sale?
When the program first launched, Google saw the product as a sound and smart investment.
“Google Audio Ads brings efficiency, accountability, and enhanced ROI to radio advertising by providing advertisers with an online interface for creating and launching radio campaigns. You’ll be able to target your customers by location, station type, day of the week, and time of day. After the radio ads are run, you will be able to view online reports that tell you exactly when your ad played,” Inside AdWords noted.
But three years later that has all changed.
“So we have decided to exit the broadcast radio business and focus our efforts in online streaming audio. We will phase out the existing Google Audio Ads and AdSense for Audio products and plan to sell the Google Radio Automation business, the software that automates broadcast radio programming. Advertisers will continue to be able to use Google Audio Ads until May 31 and broadcasters will be able to publish inventory to Google until that date as well. We will work with partners to make sure that there is as little disruption to their business as possible and will work to find a buyer for the Google Radio Automation business,” the Traditional Media blog stated.
At least they have given people some notice. I have a friend that just spent some money on developing radio ads to use on the product – has a little over three months to get a return on that investment. Meanwhile Google very subtley added the announcement that 40 employees from that product group would be laid off.
“We regret the impact these plans will have on the Googlers working on these projects. We hope to find other roles for the majority of the people concerned and will work to make that happen over the next couple of months. However, given that we are exiting the broadcast radio ad business and selling the Radio Automation business, we expect that up to 40 people may not be able to find other roles at Google.”
In 2006 Google bought dMarc – the radio automation software company – for $102 million, we will have to see what they get when the divest themselves of it.
There is a new concept being talked about in the web marketing industry. This new paradigm, dubbed the 80/20 rule of search, has sprung out of the realization that many of the earlier beliefs about search engine marketing are no longer true, or perhaps were never true in the first place.
When they were first introduced to search engine marketing (SEM), many marketers believed that with this innovative new concept, web marketing could be handled solely through the use of technology, and that human interaction wasn’t necessary in producing successful online campaigns. However, after results fell short time and again, these marketers were forced to take a second look at their original ideas.
Marketers are now learning that words like “autopilot” and “set it and forget it” are no more than advertising ploys used by companies that simply don’t understand what it takes to manage search effectively.
The new belief is that for SEM to live up to its promise, it is time for a completely new model – the 80/20 rule of search. The idea behind this rule is that:
20% of the success of a paid search program is rooted in technology; and
80% of the success of a paid search program is derived from a human component.
20% – Technology’s Role in the Process
There are three areas where technology is crucial in search engine marketing:
Gathering and sorting huge amounts of data from numerous engines. This includes information on impressions, clicks, number of conversions, and dollar value of conversions. All of this gives us the ability to capture information for every keyword/search engine combination.
Calculating important ROI metrics based on the data collected such as ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend); CTA (Cost To Acquire); CPL (Cost Per Lead); and CPO (Cost Per Order).
Producing a wide range of reports, including top-level summary reports, detailed trend analysis, grouped keyword analysis, and individual keywords.
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The Other 80% – The Role of Human Intelligence
The 80% human component in the equation consists of marketers who interpret data and market conditions to make the best possible bidding decisions. These qualitative contributions involve developing expansive and relevant keyword sets as well as call-to-action marketing communications. They also include creating succinct landing pages that meet the expectations of search engine users and set consumers on the conversion path.
Keyword Development
Automated tools can certainly offer ideas for keyword development, but intuitive thinking is an essential factor in developing a robust keyword list. Just a few of the various issues to consider are product and brand names, synonyms, misspellings, singular and plural forms, features, benefits, and competitors.
Search Term Copywriting
Writing ads for search engines involves a combination of art and science that cannot be emulated by technology. One must adhere to the strict rules enforced by search engines while still drawing the reader in with a tempting promotion. Successful ads accomplish two goals: 1) encourage customers to click on your ad rather than your competitors’ ads, and 2) discourage non-qualified consumers who are not interested in your product or service. This task is not easy given that it must be achieved with three lines of text and no graphics.
When the proper marketing communication strategy is applied, the highest quality site traffic is delivered to your website with the greatest likelihood of conversion.
Destination Page Analysis
One of the biggest and most frequent errors made by companies in paid search engine marketing is consistently sending all searches to their home page or to pages that are totally irrelevant to the search term. Today’s web-users expect relevant information when they click on an ad, and when they do not receive it they quickly move on to their next option, which is usually your competition.
Review of Multiple Variables When Making Bidding Decisions
Each company must establish its own complex set of rules in making bid and position decisions. It is important to remember that being #1 isn’t always the right choice; often times dropping down in position makes more sense. Bid setting is not just about price, it’s more about relevant position. There are multiple variables that must be reviewed prior to making bidding decisions. Marketers must analyze the types of competitors listed above and below them on a search engine, the various marketing messages of competitors, the ROI effects of raising bids and conversely, of lowering bids, they must perform a historical position analysis, and they must consider the impact of affiliates, resellers and other third parties.
Conclusion
While the all-technology solution for paid search is clearly enticing because it involves less work and seems more cost-effective, the reality is that today’s technology is only capable of covering 20% of the requirement for an effective campaign. Technology is limited because it relies solely on quantitative factors and is unable to consider qualitative factors such as consumer search intentions, marketing copy triggers, and irrelevant landing page content.
That’s why it is imperative that the other 80% of a successful SEM program includes the human element. The result is a powerful combination of the complex intelligence of the human brain and cutting-edge technology. Apply this rule in your online marketing endeavors and you’ll soon benefit from the truly extraordinary power of the web.
Business owners are constantly looking for the most successful and cost-effective ways to grow their businesses and boost their bottom lines. So why are some businesses still not taking advantage of email marketing?
Studies show that the majority of adults who use the Internet have a positive attitude toward receiving email marketing communications, as long as they are from a familiar source. Most consumers look to email communications for special discounts and offers as well as informative articles relating to their specific lifestyle.
In fact, as proactive, educated consumers, many Internet users have come to rely on these email promotions to help them get the best deals possible. Once commonly viewed as SPAM, email marketing has evolved over the years, and is now considered one of the most effective ways to market.
If you have been reluctant to institute an email marketing program for your business before, there is certainly enough evidence to position this form of marketing as a valuable tool for any business to take advantage of. Consider these remarkable facts:
In the US alone, 88% of adult Internet users have personal email accounts.
Another 46% have email access at work.
Added together, that’s an estimated 147 million people across the country using email every day.
Email is also healthier for your bottom line than any other marketing application. Here’s how it compares to traditional marketing methods:
Email ROI per $1 spent: $51.45
Print catalogs: $7.20
Non-email Internet marketing: $21.08
Virtually any type of business has the ability to effectively market through email. Retailers, professional service providers, publications, learning institutions, and promoters are just a few of the business sectors that successfully market via this medium. Whether you are looking to generate sales, deepen your relationship with your clients or prospects, publicize an event, create buzz, or increase brand awareness, email marketing can work for you.
Perhaps the most attractive aspect of email marketing is its measurability. While it can be very difficult to measure the success of most types of marketing and advertising, a good email marketing program allows you to monitor your marketing campaign with up to the minute data for every email you send. You can see the number of emails sent, emails opened, bounce backs, unsubscribes, click-through rates, and more. All of this useful information can help you send highly targeted campaigns to the individuals most likely to respond to your offer, thus improving your future results.
The fact that email marketing is fast and convenient is just the icing on the cake. The bottom line is that in the present business climate, any company not taking advantage of this valuable marketing tool is missing out on considerable revenue.
While often very complex in their calculations and data processing, the critical operations performed by the major search engines in order to rank websites isn’t as lengthy as one might think. The processes they use to provide relevant results when a web search is undergone can best be described in the following four steps.
Send out the Web Crawlers
Search engines use invisible “bots” or “spiders,” which are really programs or automated scripts, that browse (or “crawl”) the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. Search engines use spidering as a means of providing up-to-date data. This type of technology is necessary because the rate at which people create new Internet documents greatly exceeds any manual indexing capacity. In fact, an estimated 20 billion web pages exist, and search engines have crawled about half of them.
Index the Pages
After a spider crawls a web page, it makes a copy of it and adds it to its database. This process is known as indexing. With so many search queries submitted each minute, it is very important that search engines are steadfast in their index management so that they can search and sort billions of documents in fractions of a second.
Process Queries
Search engines process hundreds of millions of search queries every day. When someone keys in a search term and clicks “Search,” the engine retrieves from its index all of the documents that match the query. It determines a match by finding the same terms or phrase entered into the search bar. Entering a multi-word phrase by itself can return literally millions of results, but entering that same phrase in quotes can greatly narrow the results, giving the user a more accurate listing of websites that relate to their particular search.
Rank Pages
A very closely guarded mathematical equation, called an algorithm, is employed by each search engine to determine how to sort and rank search query results. This algorithm allows the engine to rank the most relevant web pages first, and the rest in descending order of importance to the user.
What You Can Do for Your Website: Avoid Speed Bumps & Walls
You may not know it, but you could be hindering or preventing your website from being crawled by search engine spiders. As spiders crawl the web, they rely on the architecture of hyperlinks to find new web pages and revisit those that may have changed. Complex links and deep site structures with little unique content may act as “speed bumps” in the process by slowing down the spiders. Even worse, data that cannot be accessed by web crawlers are really like “walls” in that they completely prevent your web pages from being ranked.
Beware of the Following “Speed Bumps”:
URLs with 2+ dynamic parameters; i.e. http://www.url.com/page.php?id=4&CK=34rr&User=%Tom% (spiders may be reluctant to crawl complex URLs like this because they often result in errors with non-human visitors)
Pages with more than 100 unique links to other pages on the site (spiders may not follow each one)
Pages buried more than 3 clicks/links from the home page of a website (unless there are many other external links pointing to the site, spiders will often ignore deep pages)
Pages requiring a “Session ID” or Cookie to enable navigation (spiders may not be able to retain these elements as a browser user can)
Pages that are split into “frames” can hinder crawling and cause confusion about which pages to rank in the results.
Beware of the Following “Walls”:
Pages accessible only via a select form and submit button
Pages requiring a drop down menu (HTML attribute) to access them
Documents accessible only via a search box
Documents blocked purposefully (via a robot meta tag or robots.txt file)
Pages requiring a login
Pages that re-direct before showing content (search engines call this cloaking or bait-and-switch and may actually ban sites that use this tactic)
In order to avoid the above pitfalls and ensure that your website’s contents are fully crawlable, be sure to provide direct, HTML links to each page you want the search engine spiders to index. Remember to make every page of your site accessible from the home page, since the home page is usually the place spiders begin their crawl. It’s also a good idea to add a sitemap to your website in order to increase its navigation.
You put all kinds of work into creating a great PPC ad, filling it chock full of exactly the right keywords to catch the attention of your target market and drive them through to your salescopy.
And then what?
Well, if they simply go through to your homepage, you risk losing that sale!
Instead, deliver those click-through visitors to a custom-built “landing” page that focuses on the EXACT problem your customer is trying to solve when they click through your ad!
It’s a proven fact that if your potential customer arrives at your landing page and sees the search phrase they were looking for, they will stay longer on your site — which means a greater chance of them becoming a customer, lead, or opt-in.
Always remember that your visitors are looking for INSTANT gratification. If you can’t answer “What’s in it for me?” within the first eight seconds of their visit, you will likely lose the sale.
And as PPC advertising prices climb higher and higher, you need to make the best use of each click-through to increase your ROI!
So how do you create a landing page that sells?
1: Create keyword “groups” for each landing page
The first thing you need to do is some keyword research. You can do this in your pay-per-click search engine of choice, or using a tool like Wordtracker.
Make a list of your best keywords for your subject — the keywords that your target market is searching for.
Then, group your keywords by similarity, making sure that each group you create solves a particular problem for your audience. You’ll want to use each group of keywords to create a separate landing page.
Let’s say, for example, that you sell an eBook on dog training. You do your keyword research and come up with a list of dog training keywords.
The next step is to go through this list and organize your keywords into groups that focus on specific dog training problems. For example, you might decide to focus on three keyword groups like this:
How to Train Dog
Leash Training for Show Dogs
Puppy Training
House Train Dog
Then, all you need to do is create one landing page each for “How to Train Dog,” “Leash Training for Show Dogs” “Puppy Training,” and “House Train Dog.”
Of course, these keywords should also be the keywords you are bidding on in the pay-per-click search engines.
Always make sure the content of your landing pages reflects EXACTLY what your visitors will be looking for. If they click through an ad about puppy training and arrive at a landing page about training show dogs they are likely to leave right away!
2: Build your landing page with a specific action in mind
When you are building your landing page, you want to focus all of your energy on getting your visitor to take ONE action.
Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? …Or buy your product? …Or enter a contest? …Or give you feedback?
Whatever you do, don’t complicate your page by attempting to do too much at once. Focus on the specific desired action, and use everything on the page to drive your visitor to take that action.
Make sure your navigation is not distracting or overpowering. Keep the process as simple as possible, and remove all clutter that detracts from your focus.
Imagine that your potential customer is standing behind you, reading your landing page copy over your shoulder, and saying, “So what? What’s in it for me?”
Every step of your landing page should drive this potential customer toward the desired action. That means including plenty of benefits, and always including a call to action that TELLS your visitor what to do next.
3: Optimize your landing page for the search engines
The very first thing your customers should see when they get to your landing page is your main keyword phrase as part of your headline. Of course, this is beneficial for search engine optimization — but try to make it as compelling as possible, too!
The key is to couple your keyword phrase with the biggest benefit you site has to offer. For example, if your main keyword phrase is “how to train a dog,” your headline could be…
How To Train A Dog to Do Anything You Want
– In the next 48 Hours!
You’ll want to focus on your main keyword phrase (“how to train a dog”) in your copy, too, but try to work in some of the other keyword phrases in your group. That means you’ll want to use “why train your dog” and “how to train your dog” throughout your salescopy as well.
Here are some more great tips for optimizing your landing page for the search engines:
Use your main keyword phrase to name the page location. For example, the page could be uploaded to www.mysite.com/howtotrainadog.
Include your keyword phrases in your title tag and your meta description. You’ll find these at the top of your HTML code, and the search engines generally use these tags to create the listings that show up in the search results.
Include some fun images — but don’t distract your visitors from the desired action! — and use your keyword phrases to name your images. Use the same phrase in your alt text as well.
Use formatting to emphasize your keywords! Use bold, italics, and highlighting to feature your keywords. This will help improve your SEO… but don’t forget to emphasize the benefits for your readers, too!
HOT TIP! Use your keyword phrase in your call to action. For example, your call to action could say: Click here now to order “How to Train a Dog to Do Anything You Want”!
So now that you know what you SHOULD include in your effective landing pages, let’s have a look at what you need to avoid…
Conversion killers: What NOT to do on your landing pages!
There are a few simple mistakes that people often make on their landing pages… and they pay for them dearly. If you can avoid these four mistakes, your landing pages will be FAR more effective at converting your click-throughts into sales!
Mistake #1: Do NOT make users have to register to see more information. Google AdWords frowns upon this practice, and will usually either disallow your keyword, or raise your cost per click on that keyword.
Mistake #2: Do NOT use duplicate content on your landing pages! Make sure all the information on your landing page is unique — NOT duplicate content given to you from affiliate sites or manufacturer descriptions. Duplicate content can severely damage your search engine rankings.
Mistake #3: Do NOT forget to have an opt-in offer to collect email addresses on your landing page! Offer your visitors an incentive, like a newsletter, eBook, whitepaper, or email course so you can collect their email addresses and market to them again and again after they leave your site!
Mistake #4: Do NOT forget to TEST your landing page! Testing is the key to the success of any online endeavor, and with PPC advertising and landing pages, it’s absolutely crucial! Test different headlines, different keyword groups, different salescopy, and different offers until you get the results you’re after!
Make landing pages part of your PPC campaign and watch yourconersion fly!
At last count there were approximately 10 gazillion websites out there. Where’s a business owner to start when looking for valuable information? If you’re reading this, it means you’re on Entrepreneur.com, which is a good start. Read on for 64 more vital online spots you should know about.
Accounting Terminology Guide http://nysscpa.org/prof_library/guide.htm
If you need to know what a specific accounting term means, no matter how obscure, this is the site for you. Hosted and maintained by the New York State Society of CPAs, nearly 500 accounting terms are defined on this site, all sorted in an easy-to-use alphabetical list.
AccountingWEB www.accountingweb.com
Updated daily, this site offers accounting industry news, information, tips, tools, resources and insight–everything you need to prosper and interact with other accounting professionals.
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Adweek Online www.adweek.com
This is the online edition of Adweek, a popular print magazine focusing on all things advertising and marketing. This site features the inside scoop on what’s going on in the marketing departments of high-profile companies and corporations.
American Association of Franchisees and Dealers www.aafd.org
This organization represents the rights of both franchisees and dealers. Here you can learn about upcoming events, read some free publications online, order other publications from the bookstore, and become a member.
Backpack www.backpackit.com
Backpack is a web-based service that makes organizing your company’s information easy. Backpack lets you make pages that can contain any combination of notes, to-dos, images, files and so on.
Better Business Bureau http://us.bbb.org
Browse or search for a business or charity’s reputation. Included are instructions for how to file a consumer or B2B complaint.
BizBuySell www.bizbuysell.com
Looking to buy a franchise? There’s a good chance you’ll find one here. From restaurants in California to auto shops in Florida, you can search more than 25,000 businesses currently for sale, many of which are franchised.
Bizwomen www.bizwomen.com
Bizwomen is an online community for women business executives and entrepreneurs to connect, support one another, learn and grow. You can share and explore ideas with women across the United States or in your neighborhood to help grow your business.
Business Owner’s Tool Kit www.toolkit.com
With an emphasis on problem solving, this site features more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small-business owners and entrepreneurs.
Business Owners Idea Cafe www.businessownersideacafe.com
Managed by successful entrepreneurs and the authors of several guides on forming and running a business, this site includes numerous award-winning resources, along with practical advice, business news and humor.
BrandChannel.com www.brandchannel.com
Run by internationally acclaimed brand consultancy Interbrand, BrandChannel.com provides a global perspective on brands and the art of branding. Site features include in-depth feature articles, conference announcements, career resources and access to white papers.
Brandweek www.brandweek.com
A leading source of news and information for the branding industry, it’s also the only online trade magazine to offer saturation coverage at all levels of the brand-activation process.
Catalyst www.catalystwomen.org
Catalyst is a leading corporate research and advisory organization that works with businesses to build inclusive environments and expand professional opportunities for women.
Chief Marketer www.chiefmarketer.com
A content-rich website, Chief Marketer provides marketing executives with insights into key marketing issues, innovations and practical solutions.
CPAdirectory www.cpadirectory.com
When April rolls around and you find yourself scrambling to find a CPA, this site will help. Billed as “the largest online database of Certified Public Accountants,” here you can search for CPAs by ZIP code, name, industry or area of specialty.
Customer Service Group www.customerservicegroup.com
New Jersey-based Alexander Communications Group (ACG) uses this site to provide practical information free of charge to customer service professionals. If you work in the customer service industry, be sure to sign up for Service Starters, ACG’s free customer service industry eNewsletter.
Customer Service Manager www.customerservicemanager.com
If you work in customer service, this website is for you. Here you will find an active community of customer service professionals, along with daily news, reviews, articles and resources aimed at improving customer service.
Customer Service Zone www.customerservicezone.com
Customer service expert Robert Bacal’s website for customer service professionals, The Zone offers information to help businesses of all sizes and their employees provide efficient and effective customer service.
Direct Marketing Association www.the-dma.org
The Direct Marketing Association is the largest trade association for businesses that are interested and involved in direct, database and interactive global marketing. Here you can learn more about the DMA, become a member and access its services.
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Intellectual Property www.eff.org/issues/intellectual-property
EFF works to preserve balance and ensure that the internet and digital technologies empower consumers, creators, innovators, scholars, and average citizens. This section of the EFF website spotlights current challenges and solutions facing the intellectual property rights of everyone.
Entrepreneur.com / WomenEntrepreneur.com www.entrepreneur.com/ womenentrepreneur.com
Published by the same people who bring you Entrepreneur magazine, this is an excellent site for entrepreneurs, featuring a solid collection of articles and tips from experts, plus hundreds of links to other entrepreneurial resources on the web. WomenEntrepreneur.com offers additional articles, blogs and resources specific to women for starting and growing their businesses.
Entrepreneur Connect econnect.entrepreneur.com Entrepreneur‘s social networking site is a gathering place for thousands of business owners. Take part in discussions, join like-minded business owners in groups, and give and receive valuable advice from the trenches.
Entrepreneur.com’s Trade Publication Directory www.entrepreneur.com/tradepublication/category/index.html
Don’t miss one of the internet’s largest searchable databases of trade publications. From agriculture and biotech to purchasing and procurement, Entrepreneur.com has your industry’s trade publication listed here.
Fambiz.com www.fambiz.com
Fambiz.com is the internet’s leading website for owners and employees of family controlled companies. Managed by Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business, here you will find insight on every family run business topic imaginable.
Federal Trade Commission: Franchise and Business Opportunities www.ftc.gov/bcp/franchise/netfran.htm
This site has lots of information, including an FAQ section, Guide to the FTC Franchise Rule, consumer alerts, Before You Buy pamphlets, and state disclosure requirements.
Franchise.com www.franchise.com
Learn more about available franchise opportunities or advertise your franchise to potential buyers at this site, which aims to connect franchise buyers and sellers, as well as anyone thinking of starting one.
Franchise Expo www.franchiseexpo.com
If you’re thinking about buying a franchise, do your research here; you’ll find detailed information on nearly every franchising opportunity known to man.
Franchise Zone by Entrepreneur.com http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises
Dedicated to linking enthusiastic entrepreneurs with the top franchises, this site provides all the information you need to find the best franchises and become a successful franchisee. How-to articles, advice from experts and lists of the top franchises in various categories make this the first site to turn to for those considering the purchase of a franchise.
FreshBooks www.freshbooks.com
FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time-tracking service that helps businesses of all sizes save time, get paid faster and look professional.
Fundability www.fundability.com
Fundability is a marketplace where entrepreneurs and investors can find funding success. Founded by entrepreneurs and investors, Fundability’s Company SnapShot, Deal Search Engine, and DiligenceRoom provide intelligent online tools for the savvy entrepreneur.
Glide www.glidedigital.com
Glide is a complete mobile desktop providing a secure and scalable platform for personal and collaborative computing.
Google Checkout www.googlecheckout.com
This online payment system works alone or as an alternative to systems already in place. Customers don’t have to share credit card information with merchants that use the system, and identity protection is increased.
Google Docs www.google.com/docs
The folks at Google deliver a free web-based word processor and spreadsheet, which allow you to share and collaborate online. Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, and more.
Hoover’s www.hoovers.com
Hoover’s gives you access to up-to-date information about industries, companies and key decision makers. Great for professionals working in sales, marketing, business development, and others who need intelligence on U.S. and global companies, industries, and the people who lead them.
Idea Locker www.bkfk.com
One of the best invention/patent sites on the Web for novice innovators of all ages, this site is specifically designed for kids. It provides information on how to invent, famous inventors and discoveries.
Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov
Business owners can get all of their federal and business tax information–not to mention forms–directly from the source. It’s also a good place to stay current on tax laws that affect business owners.
Jobfox www.jobfox.com
Started by the former CEO of CareerBuilder.com, Jobfox walks you through creating a skills inventory and then tells you which employers are looking for people with those exact skills. The Jobfox site also provides a free trackable resume and career web page to showcase your skills, experience and work samples.
Kauffman Foundation www.kauffman.org
The Kauffman Foundation delivers an up-to-date and relevant website dedicated to furthering our understanding of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship and to advancing entrepreneurship education and training. Check out the Resource Center for getting started information on business operations, sales and marketing, human resources, finance and accounting, and the like.
LinkedIn Jobs www.linkedin.com/jobs
Whether you’re looking for a new job or trying to help someone else find the perfect job, LinkedIn can help you find and get in touch with the people you need to contact. Create a profile and click the Jobs tab to get started.
Microsoft Small Business Center www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness
A vehicle for selling various Microsoft small-business products, this site also provides plenty of excellent information and advice entirely for free. If you’re starting or running your own small business, Microsoft’s Small Business Center is an excellent place to learn from the experts.
Mint www.mint.com
Entrepreneurs can get help with the personal finances, money management and budget planning. In addition, Mint offers free financial planning software.
National Association for the Self-Employed www.nase.org
The NASE provides its self-employed members with support, education and training. The organization conducts surveys relevant to the needs of the self-employed and posts articles business owners can use.
National Association of Women Business Owners www.nawbo.org
NAWBO is a fierce advocate for women business owners, providing resources and support. It can help women get access to government contracts that most business owners don’t know about.
PayPal www.paypal.com
Perhaps the best-known payment system, PayPal allows web sites to receive and send money electronically. Business owners and customers find PayPal easy to use–and secure.
Salesforce.com www.salesforce.com
Easy-to-use web-based customer relation management tools for your entire company, including online solutions for sales, service, marketing, and call center operations.
Small Business Administration www.sba.gov
Here you can learn how to start your own business and finance it. The site also provides information on business opportunities, local SBA offices, laws and regulations, and much more.
Survey of Current Business www.bea.gov/scb
The monthly Survey of Current Business is the definitive source of information by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis about its economic accounts. Monthly updates present the latest national, international, regional, and industry estimates, and keep business leaders up to date on relevant BEA issues and initiatives.
Survey Monkey www.surveymonkey.com
Put your finger on the pulse of your customers with this free basic service. Create and publish custom online surveys to gather data you can use.
TradePub.com www.tradepub.com
If you’re looking for a trade publication, you’re likely to find it here. This site features an extensive list of free business, computer, and engineering trade newsletters and magazines, all of which you can subscribe to for free.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce www.uschamber.com
Find your local branch, figure out how to start, learn about new taxes and much more at the national Chamber of Commerce site.
U.S. Copyright Office www.copyright.gov
Find all of the forms, publications and information you need to copyright your original work.
U.S. Department of Labor: Office of Small Business Programs www.dol.gov/osbp
The OSBP promotes opportunities for small businesses, especially disadvantaged businesses, women-owned businesses, HUBZone businesses and businesses owned by disabled veterans.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office www.uspto.gov
Official site for searching the U.S. patent database. Includes international treaties, statutes and patent news.
VentureDeal www.venturedeal.com
Easy-to-use database with the latest information on U.S.-based venture-backed technology companies, senior management, company financings, and M&A transactions. Updated daily, this site offers a convenient way of accessing critical information related to business development, funding searches and venture capital investment goals.
VisualCV www.visualcv.com
VisualCV reinvents your resume using technologies that transform the way in which resume data is presented, accessed and shared. VisualCV allows you to easily build and manage online career portfolios that come alive with informational keyword pop-ups, video, pictures and professional networking.
Wesabe www.wesabe.com
The site offers financial advice, analysis and planning for business owners.
Word of Mouth Marketing Association www.womma.org
Official website of WOMMA, where you can find the latest thinking on a variety of Web 2.0 marketing strategies, including word of mouth marketing.
Work.com www.work.com
The small-business owner’s manual on where to go, what to know, and how to get the most value from the ever-growing array of web resources for business. The site features more than 2,000 how-to guides written by business experts and organized by common business tasks and challenges.
Women’s Work www.wwork.com
Women’s Work is dedicated to helping women move from standard 9-to-5 jobs to flex careers–telecommuting, small business and other options. This site is packed with articles, advice, how-to guides, flexible career choices, and success stories to inspire and motivate.
Wufoo www.wufoo.com
Wufoo is a web-based application that removes inefficiency and tediousness from the form-building process. Wufoo reduces what used to take trained professionals days (if not weeks) into something that can be done by anyone in minutes.
Yelp www.yelp.com
Yelp provides a fun and engaging website for “passionate and opinionated influencers to share the experiences they’ve had with local businesses and services.” Watch out because “yelping” can be quite addictive.
Zimdesk www.zimdesk.com
Zimdesk provides all the features and functionality you would expect from a standard desktop PC. The difference is that Zimdesk runs from an internet browser, allowing you to access all your applications, files, games and accessories from any computer.
Zoho www.zoho.com
Zoho offers a suite of office productivity tools online, including a word processor, spreadsheet program, invoicing tool, presentation creator, web-conferencing functions and calendar organizers.
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