Now, don’t let the word “copywriting” strike fear into your heart.  The top priority of anyone interested in making money, whether it’s in a retail store or on the internet, should be their copywriting skills. This is simply putting your sales message into words.

One trick that all great marketers do is they create a swipe file.   What is a swipe file?  Simply put, it’s just a file of already successful ad campaigns.  They are constantly on the look-out for examples of great copy from their competitors, from other industries, and even their own most successful efforts.

Swipe files are incredibly useful tools.  Everybody gets stuck for words and ideas at some point. When this happens it’s good to have an example of past successes to go to and refresh your creative juices and get the words flowing again.

What should your swipe file consist of?

You should gather any material that has spurred you to action, whether its purpose was to get you to buy something or just leave your name and email address.  If you are about to fill in the order form, print out the page and file it away. When you browse through the newspaper, if a particular ad catches your eye, cut it out and file it in your swipe file.  Then when you are about to create a new website or flyer, pull out your file and study what’s in it. Really try to figure out what was in the ad that cought your attention or made you want to act on the offer.

Look for layout designs (bulleted lists are a big marketing tactic), action words, headlines and sub heads. You’ll notice certain words popping up along with questions and statements that are all fairly alike but are tailored to specific products and services.  What types of graphics were used?  Where were they placed?

Having a variety of examples is the key to a good swipe file. Gather a wide array of different styles and mold the message to your particular target audience. Study the material and write out many different versions of the same ad.  Practice your art and perfect it.

A word of caution: never copy another company’s ad word for word. That’s plagiarism and it’s illegal.  Not only is it illegal, but it’s a good way to lose credibility with your potential customers.  Use your swipe file as an aid only, to sharpen your copywriting skills and make you better at marketing.

Happy Marketing!

Trina

If you ever have a small business question, please reach out to me at Trina@SuccessPointConsulting.com.  I’m here to help.

If you scour the web looking for low-cost or no-cost ways to promote any product or service online, you surely will see the suggestion of article marketing. Well-written original articles have proven to be one of the most powerful forms of advertising on the internet for the small business owner.

Article marketing can take several forms. One of the most obvious is writing articles to post on your own website or blog. This is a great idea. Search engines love unique content and are always trolling for something new. Adding keyword-rich unique articles to your website or blog on a regular and consistent basis will keep the search engine bots coming back frequently to update their indexing of your website.

The next most commonly used article marketing strategy is for a marketer, like you, to write an article and submit it to an article directory. Since the idea is to have original, fresh content, you should not submit the same article to different directories. Each article should be unique. You can use the same theme, but the words and ideas need to be different.

Article directories are where webmasters or ezine editors go to find new content to publish on their sites, blogs, or distribute to their readership in the form of ezines. They are also visited by people researching online for information. When you submit an article to an article directory, attached to it is what is known as an author’s “resource box” or “bio”. This is a piece of text that you write to promote your personal website or a particular product. This is where you include a link to your website, your blog, or other articles you have written so that interested parties can click through to learn more about your products.

Once you get the hang of writing articles, you may want to consider submitting some of your articles to sites that actually pay you for well-written articles, like Associated Content, or Constant Content. These sites have high editorial standards, and many writers find they can earn additional money by submitting articles to these sites.  It may not be much, just $2.00 to $8.00 per article, but you can also earn lifetime residual income from the amount of views a particular article receives, so it can add up over time.  Obviously, you will want to promote your articles on the pay-per-view sites as much as you can.

Having your articles posted at article directories has a twofold benefit. The first benefit is that it gives you a one-way link from your author’s resource box back to your website. This improves your website’s ranking in the search engine placement. This is what Google calls “PR” (short for Page Rank).  A link back is like a “vote” for your website. The more votes you get, the more important your website will appear to the search engines. The more backlinks you build linking to your website or blog, the higher position your website or blog will appear in search results.

The second benefit is that real people read these articles.  If people choose to read your article, it is logical those people may be interested in your subject matter and, therefore, are potentially customers for the items you are offering on your website. This makes them “qualified traffic”, i.e. people who are more likely to be converted into actual customers.

Free advertising, in every form, is worth the effort. Getting links and real live visitors from article directories is just the start of the benefits of article marketing, though. The real power of article marketing is in its viral effects. Have you heard the phrase, “Do the work once, get paid forever?” That’s the idea behind viral marketing.

To benefit the most from the viral effect, articles need to appeal to human readers and have:o Interesting content
o Good grammar, spelling and punctuation
o Material that will not get dated too quickly
o Desirable keywords

An article with all of the above will potentially spread throughout the Internet for literally years to come, at no additional cost. It is for that reason that spending time on article marketing is one of the best uses of your time for any online marketer.

Here at Success Point Consulting, we love to help small business owners get started with Article Marketing.  We will write a package of 10 articles on topics and keywords you select for only $85. You are then free to do whatever you wish with the articles.  You can use them as blog posts, submit to article directories or ezine publishers, or use them however you see fit.  For  more information, contact Trina@SuccessPointConsulting.com.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  Remember to check out our new ebook: Money in the Bank: A Step by Step Guide to Establishing Business Credit.

Here’s the Answer to “How Do I Get Business Credit?”

I’m excited to announce the release of my new ebook, Money in the Bank: A Step-by-Step Guide to Establishing Business Credit. Many small business owners have wondered, “How do I get business credit?” but have not found many answers.  It’s not taught in high school or college.  Most business start-up books don’t mention it.  They often have no idea how to obtain business credit the right way.  Many have tried on their own, applying the rules of the personal credit game, only to be denied over and over again.

Establishing business credit can be tricky if you don’t know the process and what creditors and financial institutions are looking for.   But banks and other business creditors lend more money to businesses every year than all home mortgages, car loans, and personal credit combined.  Yet the SBA reports that almost 97% of all small business loan applications are denied.  Why?  Because the business owners have not taken the proper steps, nor dealt with the “right” creditors, to establish business credit in the name of their business.

There are millions of dollars available to businesses with a high Paydex score and a proven track record of on-time payments to companies who report to D&B.  But that’s the key.  Not all business credit will help you establish a Paydex score.   You need to know which companies to use, and the sequence in which to establish the relationships.  Apply to a four tier company with no history from several one or two tier companies and you’ll be denied every time.

This step-by-step guide gives you the information you need to obtain business credit.  You’ll learn about the prerequisites that must be completed before you apply.  You’ll be introduced to creditors who are most likely to grant your company credit, even if you are a brand-new start-up.  You’ll learn about the Paydex score and Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) and why having a good relationship with D&B is crucial to your success.

Click here for more information and to purchase Money in the Bank: A Step-by-Step Guide to Establishing Business Credit.

And as always, if I can help your business reach it’s Success Point, whether it’s help with online, offline or mobile marketing, taxes, business credit, organization management or communications, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Trina

Enjoy!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

I now have a Mobile Marketing Channel:

Just text

To:  90210

Message:  successpoint

to subscribe to Trina’s Monday Morning Marketing Tips

Every Moday morning, right to your cellphone, you’ll get a short marketing tip that you can use right away to market your business.  How fun is that?  Subscribe today!

Online classified ads are a very simple, but often overlooked, marketing technique to get your business message out.  It is easy, it is inexpensive, and a recent study showed that 47% of all internet users browse at least one classified ad site a week. It takes a little bit of time to register and submit your ad to alot of sites, but if your competitors AREN’T taking full advantage of those potential inquiries, you may want to consider at least testing a few sites to see what happens.  Some of the sites offer a paid submission service and it is my understanding that for a winning ad, it pays to use a submission service.  But don’t do it until you are convinced the ad will pull in response.  No reason to pay to have a non-performing ad mass distributed.

Besides generating sales and inquiries, another great use for classified ads is testing of offers, headlines, and messages.  You’d be better off failing to connect with customers with a classified than with a pay-per-click ad.  Many of the top internet sellers use classified ads merely as a testing ground before they launch a PPC campaign.  Put out several different versions of ads and see which ones garner the most response.  Then keep tweaking the ad until you have the best ad you can make.  Then transfer it to a pay-per-click campaign, and you’ll likely see better response than if you had started with PPC.

As with all online marketing strategies, you need to use target keywords in your ads.  Most classified ad sites are searchable, so make sure you are using words your potential customers are looking for.  And yes, major search engines like Google and Yahoo scan the classified ad sites and will note your backlink. 

Try to grab attention of your readers.  Funny or odd subject lines that cause people to stop and go “Huh?” often work.  I recently stopped and read an ad with the headline “If a frog asked you to go to the movies, would you say Yes?”  It caught my attention at least. 

Here are some of the bigger Free Classified sites that you may want to try:

• http://www.inetgiant.com
• http://www.ecki.com/links/advert.shtml
• http://www.usfreeads.com
• http://www.boconline.com
• http://www.craigslist.com
• http://www.kijiji.com
• http://www.backpage.com
• http://www.sell.com 
• http://classifieds.excite.com
• http://classifieds.yahoo.com

 Each site has their loyal following, so you have to research a little to find out where your product or service would perform the best, but it’s worth trying.

Good luck and let me know if you have had any classified ad success stories.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  Special Offer:  I’ll write 5 versions of a classified ad and submit them to all ten of the classified ad sites listed above for only $100.00.  That’s 50 submitted ads.  What’s your time worth?   If you are interested, please email me at Trina@SuccessPointConsulting.com.

At my house, not that long ago ...

  Heck, for that matter, I don’t even get HBO or Showtime.  I don’t own an iPod.  I don’t have a “smart” phone or Blackberry.  I resisted getting a phone with a camera for quite a while because I couldn’t imagine walking around taking random photos.  However, now, if anyone asks about my nieces, I can whip out my phone (that is always with me) and show them pictures from the latest cook-out.  And believe it or not, I now often appreciate getting photos emailed to me from friends and family, straight from their phones. 

I also resisted text messaging for quite a while.  I used to get annoyed with certain friends and colleagues who refused to answer their phones and talk, but would respond to a text within seconds.  Now, oddly enough, I find myself being more and more like them.  I am discovering the appeal of text messaging.  (Though I still don’t approve of texting and driving, my dear friends — and you know who you are!)

So when a friend suggested I look at a new mobile marketing company that is about to launch, I was a little skeptical.  But I went, I looked, I listened. And I walked away a believer.  Mobile marketing is going to be big.  I knew that print and direct mail marketing that I did for so many years of my career was becoming less and less effective.  When is the last time you actually used those yellow page books to look up a business?  I don’t get magazines sent to my house anymore, but I still read the headlines and certain articles online.  Just think about all those advertisers that no longer  have access to me.   Not all of them followed where my eyes went.  

I have seen the full potential of websites, blogs, and social media outlets like Facebook, and Twitter, and LinkedIn for business.  I watch in fascination the people who are embracing FourSquare.  And what I see are the people who are really good at marketing, really good at understanding human behavior, and who really know who they are and what their brand represents, are the ones taking advantage.  I think the same is going to be true of mobile marketing.  You have to get your message in front of people — you have to go to where their eyes are.  Why do Super Bowl ads work?  Because of the eyes.

For those companies who have, or want, repeat business, mobile marketing could be a no-brainer.  Restaurants, bars, stores.  Having a slow day?  Text a special offer to everyone who has opted-in previously – ”Unadvertised Special: 20% off all blue jeans until 6 p.m.”   Or “Buy one Get One Free Entrees tonight.”  Any organization with members, like a gym or church, can send out reminders about special events or encouraging words on a regular basis.  And what about the daycare center or school that has to close because of bad weather?  Public speakers and bands can notify their followers of the appearance dates and locations.  The possibilities are endless.  I can’t wait to see what kind of small business success can be generated from the phone.

Those companies who want a competitive advantage, who are willing to be creative and take a chance, and who know their customers and their brand, are going to embrace mobile marketing, quickly.  I think this new company,                     iZigg Mobile Marketing, has got it right.    

Go to where the eyes are, and the eyes are on the cellphone.  It’s coming.  There are some folks doing it now, but not nearly at the scale that it’s going to be.  Remember when companies didn’t put a website or email address on all their marketing materials?  But now, it’s automatic for most.  Soon it’s going to be the mobile marketing short code.

Some of the things I like about iZigg:  1)  It’s the right kind of product at the right time; 2) I think the packages seem pretty competitively priced from what I’ve seen; 3) They seem to have financing, technology, relationships, and leadership that position them ahead of any current players in the market; 4) They have purchased the exclusive rights to short code 90210, which means their branding is going to be recognizable very quickly.  Not only is it memorable for the promoting business, it’s going to be universally associated with iZigg; and 5) They have chosen to take it to market using network marketing, which means that it will grow fast everywhere.  There’s a reason Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, and Richard Branson (all billionaires) have all come out in the past few years and announced that network marketing is the most powerful business model at work in today’s economy.  Because it works.

So, I’m getting involved.  I am going to be encouraging all of my business clients to try it.  I’m going to help them set up campaigns to test it out.  I will have several test accounts available, so if you are interested, please let me know.  Some won’t work, but some will.  And we’ll start learning about this new marketing method.  I’m excited about the possibilities.

If you want more information on iZigg, or if you know anyone who is looking for a network marketing or mobile marketing sales opportunity, just email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com and I’ll get you hooked up with more information.

Until next week,  here’s to your success,

Trina 

This is the part of the process where a good software program, like the full version of WordTracker or Market Samurai, really comes in handy.  But if you only have one or two websites and you only do this process occasionally (which you should update your research every 6 months or so because phrases go in and out of popularity), then you can get good results by using the free Google keyword tool.

So surf over to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. This is Google’s free keyword tool and it is the model on which all other tools are based.  Google is currently Beta testing a new interface, which I don’t use because they limit your results to the top 100 keywords. As you’ll see, in really competitive niches, I will often look at 300 or more keywords and phrases, so the new interface makes it a pain.  So for now, if I’m going to use Google, I immediately click on the link at the upper right hand side of the page that says “Previous Interface.”  

Once I’m there, here’s the basic process that I have found works for me and my clients:

         1)  Select the second choice “website content” in the first section. 

         2)  Type in your website address in the search box and hit “get keyword ideas.”    This will create a list of what keywords Google is currently associating   with your site.  It’s not unusual to see some phrases that really don’t apply.

         3) For each “section” go to the bottom and hit the “add all” link.  This will create a  list of selected keywords in the right hand bar.

         4)  Compare this generated list with the list you created on your own.  Add any missing phrases to your list by scrolling down to the bottom and hitting the “Add Your Own Keywords.”

CAUTION:  DO NOT EDIT the list at this time.  Even if some of the phrases are just wacky, don’t remove them yet because they’ll just get added back in.

         5)  Once you’ve completed this list, hit the “Get more related keywords” box.   This will automatically move those keywords into the “get keyword ideas” box at the top of the page.  Type in the Captcha and hit “get keyword ideas.”

         6)  Go to the bottom of each section and add any new keyword ideas to your selected keyword list.  Again, don’t edit, just add. 

         7)  Repeat this process until very few new keywords come up – often takes 3 to 5 repeats.  You should now have a list of 200 to 300 or more potential keywords.

         Once you are satisfied that you’ve gotten more keyword ideas than you could possibly use hit the “get more related keyword ideas” one last time.  This time, though, go through the list in the top box and delete any obviously non-relevant words or phrases.  

         9)  Once you’ve edited your list, click on “Filter my results.”  Select the box that says “don’t show new ideas, give me data on my selected keywords” and then hit “Get Keyword Ideas.”

         10) NOW is when you really start to edit and refine.   Click on “Global Search Volume” heading.  This will sort the results according to volume.  Everyone is different, and your actual numbers will depend on your target audience, but I typically will remove every word or phrase that has more than 150,000 searches per month.  Those words and phrases are just going to be too competitive and it’s going to be almost impossible to get ranked for them, at least in the short-term. I then usually scroll down to the bottom and look at the phrases that say “Not Enough Data.”  I will remove all of these, too.  (Now, you are removing them from your list on the right hand side, not from the results box.  If it’s too confusing, you can go ahead and repeat steps 5, 8-9 to get rid of the phrases in the main results box.)

        11)  Find the box at the top of the results that says “Match Type.”  Change the selection to “Phrase.”  You’ll see the number of searches change.

        12)  Then you can start to evaluate the keywords and phrases you have left.  Look at the Advertiser Competition column.  Solid green means the phrase is very competitive, that alot of other sites are targeting those same words.  The gold is in the phrases that are NOT solid green, so start with those.

        13)  Now is when it gets fun.  Open up a new tab in your browser and open up a Google search box.  Type the phrase:  allintitle: followed by the search term you are interested in within quotes e.g.  allintitle: “divorce rules Ohio”.

        14) When the search results come up, look at the top right hand side of the page.   There will be “Results 1 of XXXXXX sites.”  This is the number of competing sites for that particular keyword or phrase.

         15)  Do this with every potential keyword phrase.  As you pull up the results, look at the sites that come up.  If Google is pulling up well-established competitive sites, it’s going to be hard to compete.  However, if the Google results are Wikipedia, and Ezinearticles.com, and directory listings, then, even though there may be more than 50,000 competing websites, they could be “soft” competitors and there is opportunity for you to dominate the phrase with an aggressive SEO campaign.

        16)  Create a spreadsheet that shows you the phrase, number of global searches, and number of competing websites.  You may also want to make a note of the top 3 or top 5 search results.  Look at the data.  Though there is no hard and fast rule, it is a common theory that the “sweet spot” for SEO is a search term or phrase that gets at least 2,400 global searches per month and has less than 50,000 competing sites. With dedicated SEO promotion, a site can often appear on the first page of Google results of a sweet spot term in less than 30 days.  If you’ve got one or two keywords that fall into that category, congratulations, you are on your way to online success.  Keep this data and compare the results in 6 months.

Congratulations, you’ve just learned the basics on how to conduct keyword research.  Next week, we’ll look at what to do once you have your target keywords selected.

Here’s to your success,

 Trina

The key to getting your site or profile found in an online search is keywords.  Period.  Whether it’s on Google or Bing, or even LinkedIn or Twitter, what words you use and how you use them will have a major impact on your results and ultimately, your online success.

Choosing the “right” keywords is part art, part science.   There are dozens of programs out there that will generate words and phrases for you.  I’ve used WordTracker, Market Samurai, and Good Keywords, in addition to the very accessible free Google Keyword Tool.  They all have their flaws and their biases.  But like so many programs, the outcome is only as good as the input.  “Garbage in, garbage out” as the saying goes.

The place you have to start is getting into the mind of your potential site visitor.  What words or phrases would they type into a search box if they were specifically looking for you but didn’t know your company name?  I don’t mean to burst anyone’s bubble, but few people with any sort of search engine experience will type in just “dentist” if they are looking for a new family dentist.  I know, I know, I hear you.  “But Trina, Google says “dentist” was searched 13,000,000 times last month.”  It was.  And those people received in their results the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wikipedia, the ADA, and many directories for dentists.  Plus the local results for Google maps.  If you truly wanted to compete on the word “dentist” then concentrate on getting listed in the right directories, and get a listing on Google maps, don’t try to use the phrase as the keyword on your website.  It is more likely your ideal new patient would type in Dentist Clintonville or Dentist Clintonville Ohio, which had 36 searches.

So the first step is to create a list of all the phrases you “think” a visitor would type if they were looking for you, your products or your services.  Think of phrases that are 2 to 3, even 4 words long.  If you take a common phrase and narrow it, you’ve created a “long-tail keyword.”  Long-tail keywords are going to bring you lots more of targeted, specific traffic than the general, short-tail keywords.  An example of a short-tail keyword phrase would be “family dentist.”  “Family dentist Columbus Ohio” would be an example of a long-tail keyword. 

The next step, if you are running Google Analytics on your site (which you should), go to Traffic Sources report section and look at the list of keywords in the right hand column.  Click on the “View Full Report” under the list to see all of the phrases people have been typing and ended up on your site.  Aren’t you amazed at the variety?  I know I am.

The third step is one that many people skip.  Take a look at your competition.  Type in the phrases you think people are using, and the ones you pulled off Google Analytics into a Google search box (or Yahoo, or Bing, it doesn’t really matter) and then click on all of the competitors.   Put your cursor somewhere on the page near the top but under the header and right click.  Select “View Source” and up pops their site coding.  Near the top, you should see their meta tags.  Look for “meta name = keywords” and then copy down all the words and phrases they are using.  Then go back to their site and read their home page, looking for those words or phrases.  Make a note of how many times each phrase appears.  Now, it’s true.  Some sites will have 20 keywords in their tags, and only 2 of them show up in their text.   That’s not good optimization, but who am I to judge?  Now, with most blogs, it’s a different story, but that’s for another day.

You’ll now have a list of what you think people search for, and what your competition thinks people search for.  Next week, I’ll review what to do next.

So, what tricks or tips do you have to find the “right” keywords?  Do you believe your keyword selection is contributing to your online success?  If you’re willing to share, please let me know.

Until next week,

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  Yep, you guessed it.  I’m going to be offering a seminar in July:  “The Key is Keywords.”  Details are being worked out now.  Stay tuned.

Thank You, Military

It’s now my turn to give back a little.  I’m excited and honored to have asked to serve on the Board of Directors for a just-forming non-profit called Get ‘em Talkin.  Get ‘em Talkin will be providing services to veterans of any era who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and their families.   I will be lending my marketing, business development, and operational knowledge to the endeavor.  It’s a big idea and there’s a great group of folks gathering to make it happen.   The main service will be in the form of phone banks where servicemen and women or their family members can talk to a real live person in a safe, non-judgmental environment.  The volunteers on the phones will be trained to listen first, assess the situation and the caller’s needs, and then make referrals to appropriate services if necessary. We are just beginning to locate all the resources and reach out to other organizations.  But just in the short time we have been noodling this idea around, it has become obvious that this service is badly needed.

Our VA health system is overwhelmed.  Especially in more rural areas, veterans have a hard time getting regular medical treatment, much less mental health services.  But these servicemen and women are hurting and need our help.  And it’s not just those who served, their families often suffer right along with them.  Unpredictable rages, withdrawal, nightmares, depression.  It tears a family apart.  One of the first steps in dealing with the traumas of war is “to get ‘em talkin.”  Talking it out helps the individual bring the trauma to a place of reality where it can be dealt with. 

We are just getting started, so there’s still a lot to do.  We’ve put up a first blush website, so you can get a little more information at GetemTalkin.org.  We’ve also put up a Facebook page, so be sure to “Like” us and leave comments.  We don’t have our donation system completely set up yet, but that’s just around the corner. 

If you have an interest in getting involved and helping to launch this service off the ground, please let us know.  You can use the Contact Us page on the website OR just email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com and I’ll make sure we include you.

Have a terrific Memorial Day and remember to say THANK YOU to all the veterans and active-duty personnel.

Sincerely,

Trina