http://www.revoco.com http://backend.userland.com/rss http://mybloggie.mywebland.com/?v= http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=84 11 Nov 2008 08:48:57 am GMT +0 General http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=84 A Few Quick Tips about Improving Email Response Rates Checkout http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/ for more internet marketing tips [b]Email Segmentation[/b] You'll already know by know how much value I put on regular email contact with all my members and potential members. I think it's really important to help people on a regular basis by providing great tips and advice, in the hope people will join my private members' club or even one of my web consultancy courses. But sending out emails is just the half of it. To be most effective and get the highest response rate, you need to [b]personalise[/b] your emails as much as possible and that involves [b]segmentation[/b]. This can be as involved as you like and I'm certainly learning and improving all the time but let me give you a few ideas as to where and how to personalise/segment your emails. Firstly, call people by their [b]name[/b], especially in the [b]subject[/b] of the email. That's a no-brainer! Then you need to split up who's already bought from you against those that are still "prospects" as it can be off-putting to existing customers to be treated as if they've never bought from you. And yes, I'm guilty of this as well and if you're an existing client - sorry ;-) If you can, take this a degree further by splitting up your emails by [b]department[/b]. So, if you run a sports shop and someone has bought weight lifting equipment from you, they'll likely be looking for different bargains and advice than someone who's bought a dartboard! By the way, it is insane to ignore people that have already bought from you. You should always send a few, sequenced emails reassuring them of their decision and offer thanks and product-specific support. Naturally, someone that has bought a car from you will want to be treated differently to someone that has bought some packaging materials and also the frequency of the emails should be considered as well. People are likely to buy more packaging materials on a regular basis for example. In either case, your emails should always be [b]informative[/b], not just a sales message! Now, I appreciate that what I'm about to say will largely depend on how good your CRM(customer relationship management) is, but if you want to be really cute, you should further divide your emails into : How they came to signup.(Did they use the search engines to find you and download information about weightlifting equipment from you, or did they join our newsletter after a friend recommended them on their mailing list which caters for discount sporting goods?) [b]Location[/b]. A car buyer in Huddersfield will be a lot more interested in an offer about a new showroom opening locally than in say, Luton. And Lastly - [b]demographics[/b]. Yep, that means age, gender, marital status, race - you name it. Basically, what I'm saying is that if you have a decent list(and if you don't - start making one!) then just like I keep preaching about having multiple streams of niche traffic with regards to search traffic, you should have multiple streams of niche email open rates. Conversely, try and make your email signup forms specific, rather than 'general' as well, for better signup conversion. Using the example from earlier, A weightlifter would far prefer to join a mailing list offering "101 Weightlifting Tips" than "101 Sporting Tips". Why not get loads more Internet Marketing Tips? Just go to http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/ today and register for a month's trial. 'till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips A Few Quick Tips about Improving Email Response Rates Checkout http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/ for more internet marketing tips [b]Email Segmentation[/b] You'll already know by know how much value I put on regular email contact with all my members and potential members. I think it's really important to help people on a regular basis by providing great tips and advice, in the hope people will join my private members' club or even one of my web consultancy courses. But sending out emails is just the half of it. To be most effective and get the highest response rate, you need to [b]personalise[/b] your emails as much as possible and that involves [b]segmentation[/b]. This can be as involved as you like and I'm certainly learning and improving all the time but let me give you a few ideas as to where and how to personalise/segment your emails. Firstly, call people by their [b]name[/b], especially in the [b]subject[/b] of the email. That's a no-brainer! Then you need to split up who's already bought from you against those that are still "prospects" as it can be off-putting to existing customers to be treated as if they've never bought from you. And yes, I'm guilty of this as well and if you're an existing client - sorry ;-) If you can, take this a degree further by splitting up your emails by [b]department[/b]. So, if you run a sports shop and someone has bought weight lifting equipment from you, they'll likely be looking for different bargains and advice than someone who's bought a dartboard! By the way, it is insane to ignore people that have already bought from you. You should always send a few, sequenced emails reassuring them of their decision and offer thanks and product-specific support. Naturally, someone that has bought a car from you will want to be treated differently to someone that has bought some packaging materials and also the frequency of the emails should be considered as well. People are likely to buy more packaging materials on a regular basis for example. In either case, your emails should always be [b]informative[/b], not just a sales message! Now, I appreciate that what I'm about to say will largely depend on how good your CRM(customer relationship management) is, but if you want to be really cute, you should further divide your emails into : How they came to signup.(Did they use the search engines to find you and download information about weightlifting equipment from you, or did they join our newsletter after a friend recommended them on their mailing list which caters for discount sporting goods?) [b]Location[/b]. A car buyer in Huddersfield will be a lot more interested in an offer about a new showroom opening locally than in say, Luton. And Lastly - [b]demographics[/b]. Yep, that means age, gender, marital status, race - you name it. Basically, what I'm saying is that if you have a decent list(and if you don't - start making one!) then just like I keep preaching about having multiple streams of niche traffic with regards to search traffic, you should have multiple streams of niche email open rates. Conversely, try and make your email signup forms specific, rather than 'general' as well, for better signup conversion. Using the example from earlier, A weightlifter would far prefer to join a mailing list offering "101 Weightlifting Tips" than "101 Sporting Tips". Why not get loads more Internet Marketing Tips? Just go to http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/ today and register for a month's trial. 'till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips...

]]> http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=84 http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=83 31 Oct 2008 09:19:14 am GMT +0 General http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=83 About your phone number. Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips [b]Don't put people off![/b] I was running a seminar recently and the subject came up about Skype, the company that Ebay bought for loads of money not so long back. And then it hit me that not everyone realised the reason they did it or indeed the power of the whole concept. As you know, Ebay gets paid every time a seller either lists an item and then it gets paid even more when a sale is made. So it's really in their interest that sales are made! They knew that if people can communicate with one another, then this would help sales to be made and consequently increase their profits. So they bought Skype - the company that facilitates free calls over the internet. This means that buyers and sellers could now communicate all over the world, in real time and with video as well if they like, enabling them to sell and buy more. Brilliant move! Skype also means that people can contact your business, free of charge, if you let them. But get this : Even if you don't sell all over the world, lots more people can and would contact you if you have Skype, not only because it's free but because it can be convenient and anonymous as well. Not everyone wants people calling them! But, surprisingly, even if you completely ignore Skype and have a freephone number on your website, you'll still be putting alot of people off. Specifically, people that are abroad or people that use mobile phones. And that includes using local rate numbers as well. Think about how many people use mobile phones these days and most of the time, they have to pay to call a freephone number or local rate - don't ask me why but it's maddening! [b]So, here's an idea.[/b] Put your freephone number on your website - next to your normal number - next to your Skype ID as well. Zero overhead and more enquiries and sales. Great move! And please, if you have an 0870 type number, just get rid of it. If you don't believe me, there's a site called "saynoto0870.com" which loads of people use, proving that these types of phone numbers are universally hated. Of course, there's other ways people can hear you(if not speak to you) as well. For example, you can listen to me at http://mklink.com/demo.mp3 if you have speakers...! 'till next time, Mike Knight. Want better results? Get your free trial at http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/ About your phone number. Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips [b]Don't put people off![/b] I was running a seminar recently and the subject came up about Skype, the company that Ebay bought for loads of money not so long back. And then it hit me that not everyone realised the reason they did it or indeed the power of the whole concept. As you know, Ebay gets paid every time a seller either lists an item and then it gets paid even more when a sale is made. So it's really in their interest that sales are made! They knew that if people can communicate with one another, then this would help sales to be made and consequently increase their profits. So they bought Skype - the company that facilitates free calls over the internet. This means that buyers and sellers could now communicate all over the world, in real time and with video as well if they like, enabling them to sell and buy more. Brilliant move! Skype also means that people can contact your business, free of charge, if you let them. But get this : Even if you don't sell all over the world, lots more people can and would contact you if you have Skype, not only because it's free but because it can be convenient and anonymous as well. Not everyone wants people calling them! But, surprisingly, even if you completely ignore Skype and have a freephone number on your website, you'll still be putting alot of people off. Specifically, people that are abroad or people that use mobile phones. And that includes using local rate numbers as well. Think about how many people use mobile phones these days and most of the time, they have to pay to call a freephone number or local rate - don't ask me why but it's maddening! [b]So, here's an idea.[/b] Put your freephone number on your website - next to your normal number - next to your Skype ID as well. Zero overhead and more enquiries and sales. Great move! And please, if you have an 0870 type number, just get rid of it. If you don't believe me, there's a site called "saynoto0870.com" which loads of people use, proving that these types of phone numbers are universally hated. Of course, there's other ways people can hear you(if not speak to you) as well. For example, you can listen to me at http://mklink.com/demo.mp3 if you have speakers...! 'till next time, Mike Knight. Want better results? Get your free trial at http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/...

]]> http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=83 http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=82 14 Oct 2008 08:29:43 am GMT +0 General http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=82 [b]Using the Google Keyword Tool.[/b] Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips If you didn't already know, Google now gives you keyword search figures to help you with your PPC campaigns. Prior to this, it only gave away little green 'bars' - i.e. images representing estimated usages for keywords. (Hoo-Bloody-Ray!) I'm not entirely sure why they decided to do this as Google like to keep things to themselves, although my guess is that people overspending on the daily budget that was estimated for them by Google could well be a deciding factor. Anyway - it means of course you should use it - especially if you're using PPC. And if you're not using PPC - then my suggestion is that you setup a Google account anyway, just to get the benefit of this tool. (Personally I'd suggest that you try PPC anyway at this point) Basically, Google shows you the popularity of keywords(& phrases) and their expected CPC. It lets you sort the columns by whichever field you like and export the data directly into your PPC campaigns. But you can use this information in other ways. You can decide which key phrases are suitable to be targeted for natural SEO. So, choosing keywords for your navigation, or page titles, alt tags, anchor links, product descriptions, meta tags, page content in fact all the usual stuff is now made easier and more 'scientific'. As with before the update, you can still get a count for mis-spellings, synonyms and other suggested key phrases, together with predicted search volumes. My suggestion is that the higher the volume of keywords being displayed, the more you'll need to use [Exact Match] or [Phrase Match] from the drop down list on the top right hand side. Otherwise, you can have a lot of irrelevant data. You can 'seed' the keyword query either by directly typing in a keyphrase or entering a URL. If you enter a URL, Google scrapes the keywords out of it and lists these. A good tip I read - don't use your own URL unless you are at the top of the natural rankings. Simply find your competitors' website address that always seems to be doing well and use theirs! There's loads of interesting data that isn't displayed by default so have a play with the drop down list at the top where it says 'Choose columns to be displayed' For example, if you're looking for fluctuations in search volume(for example you're selling stuff for Christmas) then have this field available and you can see the relative amounts over the last 12 months. (It's my guess that this drop down list will have other stuff added to it over time) Rather than giving you a blow by blow account of HOW to use it - I suggest that you simply have a play with it. If you DO want more help with using it, try joining the MKLINK Internet Marketing Masterclass - available below... Just go to http://www.mklink.com/training/ today and register for a month's trial. Did you know? You can get paid to refer MKLINK. Why not become an MKLINK affiliate? Visit http://mklink.com/affiliate_signup1.php 'till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips [b]Using the Google Keyword Tool.[/b] Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips If you didn't already know, Google now gives you keyword search figures to help you with your PPC campaigns. Prior to this, it only gave away little green 'bars' - i.e. images representing estimated usages for keywords. (Hoo-Bloody-Ray!) I'm not entirely sure why they decided to do this as Google like to keep things to themselves, although my guess is that people overspending on the daily budget that was estimated for them by Google could well be a deciding factor. Anyway - it means of course you should use it - especially if you're using PPC. And if you're not using PPC - then my suggestion is that you setup a Google account anyway, just to get the benefit of this tool. (Personally I'd suggest that you try PPC anyway at this point) Basically, Google shows you the popularity of keywords(& phrases) and their expected CPC. It lets you sort the columns by whichever field you like and export the data directly into your PPC campaigns. But you can use this information in other ways. You can decide which key phrases are suitable to be targeted for natural SEO. So, choosing keywords for your navigation, or page titles, alt tags, anchor links, product descriptions, meta tags, page content in fact all the usual stuff is now made easier and more 'scientific'. As with before the update, you can still get a count for mis-spellings, synonyms and other suggested key phrases, together with predicted search volumes. My suggestion is that the higher the volume of keywords being displayed, the more you'll need to use [Exact Match] or [Phrase Match] from the drop down list on the top right hand side. Otherwise, you can have a lot of irrelevant data. You can 'seed' the keyword query either by directly typing in a keyphrase or entering a URL. If you enter a URL, Google scrapes the keywords out of it and lists these. A good tip I read - don't use your own URL unless you are at the top of the natural rankings. Simply find your competitors' website address that always seems to be doing well and use theirs! There's loads of interesting data that isn't displayed by default so have a play with the drop down list at the top where it says 'Choose columns to be displayed' For example, if you're looking for fluctuations in search volume(for example you're selling stuff for Christmas) then have this field available and you can see the relative amounts over the last 12 months. (It's my guess that this drop down list will have other stuff added to it over time) Rather than giving you a blow by blow account of HOW to use it - I suggest that you simply have a play with it. If you DO want more help with using it, try joining the MKLINK Internet Marketing Masterclass - available below... Just go to http://www.mklink.com/training/ today and register for a month's trial. Did you know? You can get paid to refer MKLINK. Why not become an MKLINK affiliate? Visit http://mklink.com/affiliate_signup1.php 'till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips...

]]> http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=82 http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=81 30 Sep 2008 07:24:04 am GMT +0 General http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=81 [b]A Handy(Free) Split Tester Tool.[/b] Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips Here's a handy way to know you're on the right track. Anyone who has listened to my seminars or followed my work will know about the importance of split testing. To recap very briefly, it is a way to see which adverts are more attractive to your potential customers. It's a practice of improving your sales results - a legacy from traditional direct marketing if you will. [b]An Example[/b] You post a mailshot to ten thousands prospects with one headline and another ten thousand to another list of prospect - with a different headline. You then pick the winner that produces the best results. This way, over time and with repeated testing, you are constantly improving your advertising. But of course it can be applied to web pages, emails, PPC adverts, direct mail in fact almost all forms of advertising. It's a very simple tool. The good old fashioned A and B Split test. However, one question I get asked all the time - especially when people are trying to optimise their Pay per Click advertising, is how many samples do I need to take to get a positive answer? For example, if I have 10,000 impressions of advert A and 10,000 impressions of advert B and advert A converts at 2% whilst advert B converts at 5% then I am almost 100% sure that the statistics are meaningful and an extremely good indicator of future performance. But of course if I'm running pay per click or mailshots or whatever - this could be expensive, so we need the minimum sample to be able to make valid predictions. The more often we get valid samples - the faster we optimise our advertising and the more money we make. However, if our sample is too small - we can not be sure our data is valid and can make expensive, inaccurate predictions. The solution? You need a tool that does the maths for you and gives you stats that you can be confident to work with. Just go to http://www.splittestaccelerator.com/freetool.php and have a play - it makes interpreting your split test results a breeze. Would you like to save money on your internet marketing and get more sales? [b]Checkout our services :[/b] Internet marketing club http://www.mklink.com/freetrial Google training http://www.mklink.com/google.php Full website analysis service http://www.mklink.com/report.php 'till next time, Mike Knight. [b]A Handy(Free) Split Tester Tool.[/b] Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips Here's a handy way to know you're on the right track. Anyone who has listened to my seminars or followed my work will know about the importance of split testing. To recap very briefly, it is a way to see which adverts are more attractive to your potential customers. It's a practice of improving your sales results - a legacy from traditional direct marketing if you will. [b]An Example[/b] You post a mailshot to ten thousands prospects with one headline and another ten thousand to another list of prospect - with a different headline. You then pick the winner that produces the best results. This way, over time and with repeated testing, you are constantly improving your advertising. But of course it can be applied to web pages, emails, PPC adverts, direct mail in fact almost all forms of advertising. It's a very simple tool. The good old fashioned A and B Split test. However, one question I get asked all the time - especially when people are trying to optimise their Pay per Click advertising, is how many samples do I need to take to get a positive answer? For example, if I have 10,000 impressions of advert A and 10,000 impressions of advert B and advert A converts at 2% whilst advert B converts at 5% then I am almost 100% sure that the statistics are meaningful and an extremely good indicator of future performance. But of course if I'm running pay per click or mailshots or whatever - this could be expensive, so we need the minimum sample to be able to make valid predictions. The more often we get valid samples - the faster we optimise our advertising and the more money we make. However, if our sample is too small - we can not be sure our data is valid and can make expensive, inaccurate predictions. The solution? You need a tool that does the maths for you and gives you stats that you can be confident to work with. Just go to http://www.splittestaccelerator.com/freetool.php and have a play - it makes interpreting your split test results a breeze. Would you like to save money on your internet marketing and get more sales? [b]Checkout our services :[/b] Internet marketing club http://www.mklink.com/freetrial Google training http://www.mklink.com/google.php Full website analysis service http://www.mklink.com/report.php 'till next time, Mike Knight....

]]> http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=81 http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=80 17 Sep 2008 12:35:30 pm GMT +0 General http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=80 [b]Everyone likes a bargain and Ebay is a great place to get one.[/b] When times are hard, it can be a great place to buy stuff and save money. But a lot of people spend more money than they need to. There are various strategies to buying items on Ebay and getting it cheaper. Conversely, there are loads of ways of getting people to bid MORE on items that you're selling. However, let's just assume that someone is selling something that you're interested in buying - cheap. Here's a tip. [b]DON'T BID ON IT![/b] Many people simply see something they like and then put a bid on it and keep bidding until the end of the auction. Stupid! This pushes the price up because of course other bidders will want the item too. Additionally, listings with more bids get more searches and consequently attract more visitors. Plus, when you start in a bidding war, psychologically, you'll find it harder to let go and very often bid more than you had intended - meaning you'll spend more. [b]What's the alternative?[/b] Well, in my opinion, it is far better to evaluate the maximum price that you'd be prepared to pay for the item at the outset and then simply bid once. At the very end of the auction! Right at the very end - a few seconds before so that other bidders will find it a lot harder to outbid you. It's called "sniping" and you can bet your competitors are doing it. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it can be very time consuming to stay up all night looking at how the bids are progressing and then waiting till the last second to place the killing bid which can sometimes be late at night or early in the morning. Additionally, other "Snipers" may have a better internet connection and pip you to the post. So you can automate it with software. We use powersnipe - checkout my affiliates tools page at http://www.mklink.com/tools.php but of course there's loads of other software out there you could use - some are free and paid for by advertising. Anyway, It's saved me a fortune. You don't even need to have your pc switched on as it all runs from a third party website. Is it a Dirty trick? Maybe. Does it save money? Definitely! Your call... Why not get loads more Internet Marketing Tips? Just go to http://www.mklink.com/training/ today and register for a month's trial. 'till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips [b]Everyone likes a bargain and Ebay is a great place to get one.[/b] When times are hard, it can be a great place to buy stuff and save money. But a lot of people spend more money than they need to. There are various strategies to buying items on Ebay and getting it cheaper. Conversely, there are loads of ways of getting people to bid MORE on items that you're selling. However, let's just assume that someone is selling something that you're interested in buying - cheap. Here's a tip. [b]DON'T BID ON IT![/b] Many people simply see something they like and then put a bid on it and keep bidding until the end of the auction. Stupid! This pushes the price up because of course other bidders will want the item too. Additionally, listings with more bids get more searches and consequently attract more visitors. Plus, when you start in a bidding war, psychologically, you'll find it harder to let go and very often bid more than you had intended - meaning you'll spend more. [b]What's the alternative?[/b] Well, in my opinion, it is far better to evaluate the maximum price that you'd be prepared to pay for the item at the outset and then simply bid once. At the very end of the auction! Right at the very end - a few seconds before so that other bidders will find it a lot harder to outbid you. It's called "sniping" and you can bet your competitors are doing it. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it can be very time consuming to stay up all night looking at how the bids are progressing and then waiting till the last second to place the killing bid which can sometimes be late at night or early in the morning. Additionally, other "Snipers" may have a better internet connection and pip you to the post. So you can automate it with software. We use powersnipe - checkout my affiliates tools page at http://www.mklink.com/tools.php but of course there's loads of other software out there you could use - some are free and paid for by advertising. Anyway, It's saved me a fortune. You don't even need to have your pc switched on as it all runs from a third party website. Is it a Dirty trick? Maybe. Does it save money? Definitely! Your call... Why not get loads more Internet Marketing Tips? Just go to http://www.mklink.com/training/ today and register for a month's trial. 'till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips...

]]> http://www.revoco.com/blog/index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=80