How To Write An Effective Landing Page

 

The first page your visitors see when visiting your site from an email you've sent them determines whether they stick around and buy or get bored or frustrated and leave. Use these seven tips to create a landing page that will entice them to stay.
Imagine the following scenario . . . You're selling a product and want to generate leads. So you send an e-mail to an appropriate list in which you offer a must-read White Paper, guide, or report loaded with valuable information.

All the reader has to do is download the document from your Web site. In your e-mail you provide a "hot link" (a live, linked URL) for them to click on. The link automatically takes the reader to a specific page on your Web site.

In the jargon of electronic direct mail this page is called the "landing page" or "jump page." (In other words, it's the Web page you land at, or jump to, from the e-mail.)

Why is it so important to create a special Web page for the e-mail reader to visit? Why can't you simply send the prospect to your home page and make the offer a clickable item there?

Well, first of all, if you dump potential customers onto your home page, they could get lost. They could have trouble finding your offer and might give up. Or they might see something else of interest on your site and click away to that. Hey. You don't want them randomly browsing your site. You want them to respond to your specific offer!

The bottom line? When you send the reader to a landing page, you're in control. Which is where a direct response writer always wants to be.

Exactly what should you do on your landing page? Keep reading and I'll share a few ideas with you.

1. Thank the reader for responding. You can begin your landing page with a brief headline like: "Thanks so much for responding to the e-mail we recently sent you!" This maintains continuity of communication. When they get to the landing page and see this message, they know they're in the right place and that they're at a special page created just for them.

2. Capture crucial data. The whole idea of lead generation is to get people to raise their hands and indicate some level of interest, however modest. When they identify themselves, by responding to your offer, they enter the sales funnel. Then, you begin the job of converting prospects into buyers. This means that before they get to download your White Paper, your demo, or whatever, they must provide some information about themselves. Beginners think that you should let people take advantage of the offer without having to provide the info you're after. Wrong!

3. Don't ask too much of them. Ask for the minimum information you need. Maybe name, title, company, and e-mail address. The fact you need to remember is that the more information you ask for, the more you'll turn people off. Never ask people, at this stage, when they're planning to make a purchase or what their budget is. Way too pushy!

4. Provide a promise of privacy and make your policy clear. For good reason, prospects are reluctant to give up personal information. They know all too well that if they're not careful they may get an e-mail telling them that they're eligible for a share of a Nigerian prince's estate. Have a good privacy policy and make it crystal clear!

5. Keep the copy short. The landing page is not the place to write a novel. Thank them. Convince them that their data will be kept private. Thank them again. Let them click to the download. Get out.

6. Use different landing pages to test different offers and creative treatments. You can test variables by sending prospects to unique landing pages. Just measure the click through rate and you'll find out fast what works best. E-mail is much underused as a testing medium.

7. Don't forget to follow up. After people take advantage of the offer on your landing page, work those leads! You should have follow-up messages ready to roll automatically. The whole idea of lead generation is to capture contact data and then press ahead with e-mail, postal mail, telemarketing, whatever. Failing to follow up aggressively is a big (and common) mistake!

The take-away message? Creating a great e-mail is crucial, but so is providing a landing page that does its job . . . getting the crucial data you need to begin an ongoing marketing effort.

Get More... Here

50 Free Or Cheap Advertising Ideas For Offline and Online Marketing!

There are many ways to advertise without putting out a lot of cash. Use these tips to your advantage. Modify them and make them your own. 
Just remember that the only way to succeed with your business is to do something.

No one has ever found success by doing nothing.

1. Put your website on notepads, pens, newsletters, bumper stickers, coffee cups. 

2. Flyers.  When you buy your morning paper, slip some flyers in with the rest of the newspapers.  

3. Business cards (You can make up your own or get them free through VistaPrint)

4. Article marketing is one of my favorite method of advertising. If you write articles and then use a service to publish them, your articles become viral.Your articles will spread like a virus and could have the 
potential to be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.

5. Participating in online discussion forums is an excellent way to get the word out about your business, and it is free. Build relationships first and use your signature file to let everyone know what you do 
and who you are. 

6. Free classifieds. Online classifieds as well as your local newspaper. 

7. Targeted ezine advertising is one of the most cost effective ways to advertise your business. 

8. Solo ads. Test, test, test. Your success depends on your ad and your heading!

9. Mail out postcards. 

10. Purchase leads that are targeted and related to your business. If possible get their phone number and followup. 

11. Bookmarks for libraries, do not forget to talk to your librarian first.

12. Purchase cheap seed packets, put a tag on them with your website as well as a saying like, I am in the business of helping people grow.

13. Use your knowledge and publish a newsletter or ezine. One your build up your list you can offer paid subscriptions or ads.

14. Word of mouth (friends and family).

15. Forwarded emails or replying back to unsolicited email.  Add your testimony to your signature line.

16. Buttons.

17. Pens to hand out with a short advertisement and your URL.

18. Welcome baby cards for hospitals.

19. If your domain name is a string words, try capitalizing each. This helps people who just take a quick glance remember it.

20. Create an information type handout that briefly explains your business. 

21. When you go to a garage or yard sale, ask if you can leave a few of your flyers there.

22. Community Colleges. Every student needs a part time job.

23. Put a business card in all outgoing mail including anything that has a postage paid envelope.

24. Visit establishments you do business with (doctor offices, health food stores, karate/dance studios, etc) and ask if you can leave flyers.
  
25. Car magnets. You can put magnets all over your car.

26. Promote your business for free in local magazines, newspapers, community newsletters, etc. Many rely on voluntary writing contributions. 

Translate your knowledge into an article. It is free advertising and an effective way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

27. Leave your business card in restrooms at restaurants or on cork boards around grocery stores.

28. Get a booth at school events and share what you offer.

29. Look into putting an ad in school sponsored publications (directories, PTA booklets, etc). Usually not to expensive.

30. Set up a free giveaway box in any store that will give you permission.

31. Post flyers at apartment complexes if they will allow it.  

32. Place flyers under windshield wipers of cars.

33. Newspaper classified ads are cheap and effective. Ask about having your ad appear with a color background to make it stand out even more. 

34. Buy a personalized stamp and put your ad on it. Stamp the back of any envelopes that you mail.

35. When it comes to advertising and marketing, repetition plays an important part in your campaigns success.

36. We all get junk mail with the postage paid envelopes. Just send a flyer back to the company and use their return envelope. 

37. Personalized Tshirts.

38. Make up Gift basket raffles for Church bazaars, concerts held during summer, at your local community hall, or any town function. Do not forget to put your business card or some 
other advertisement in the basket.

39. Put flyers on car windshields at your kids sporting events. 

40. Leave a business card with your tip for your waiter/waitress.

41. Reply to spam email with your own business advertisement.

42. Give your business cards to friends and family and ask them to give them out to people they know who would be interested in part time income.  

43. Put up flyers at the local colleges, libraries and grocery stores.   

44. Ask your local chinese takeout if you can post a flyer in their window. 

45.  Create a post it stack of your business cards with a glue stick and then post them at pay phones.

46. Business cards with a magnetic back really stick in people's minds as well as on their refrigerator. 

47. Leave business cards by the change machine in the mall arcade or at the ATM machine.    

48. Put your website address on your sun visor using vinyl letters.

49. Find an old metal tin (or new), put a magnet on the back, put your business cards in them and then just attach this to your car when you go into a store.

50. Be different and get noticed. When you are unique then you are one step ahead of your competition.

There are many ways to promote your business without spending a fortune. Think outside the box. Most people notice things that are different, 
something that draws their attention or even makes them laugh.

Keep it simple, keep it cheap and before you know it your success will be achieved without going broke. 

READ MORE... 

Q & A- Where can I advertise to get good results?

A: Here's the thing. If we were to tell our affiliates to advertise at Website XYZ, that Website would instantly and immediately be reduced to no value for anyone. Like a good fishing hole, if everyone fishes there, there will no longer be any fish to catch for anyone. Hence, we simply cannot recommend specific places to advertise.

That said, here are a some tips for finding good advertising sources:

1. There are BILLIONS of Websites and blogs.

 Use a search engine like Google to find Websites and blogs that interest you. Now start surfing. When you find one you like and/or that you know has a good amount of traffic, contact the Webmaster (there's usually a "Contact Us" link in the footer or header of most sites) and ask about advertising on their site. You might be shocked at how cheap you can get banners on some fairly high traffic sites.

Also, don't be surprised if some of the Websites you start advertising on decide to become affiliates themselves (sponsored by you of course). Each time this happens, you will have just created FREE (which is even better than cheap) advertising for your business!

Note: Do NOT broach the topic of them joining SFI initially or they will consider your contact to actually be SPAM and they will probably report you as a spammer. Get your ad on their site first. Later, you can start dropping a few hints (e.g. "By the way, you might want to consider allowing me to sponsor you in SFI. It's free to join, but I can show you how you can earn about $60 a year on each person who signs up from your Website."). You can have them sign up immediately under you by clicking on your banner on their Website.

Over time, you could have dozens or even hundreds of popular Websites carrying your banner ads for FREE—generating a commission check that grows and grows every month.

2. Think newsletters!

Hundreds of thousands of Websites publish newsletters that they send to their subscribers daily, weekly, or monthly. Many Websites feature a newsletter signup link on their homepages. When you find one, contact the Webmaster and ask if they will run an ad for you in their newsletter.

Here again, you may be amazed at how cheap newsletter advertising can be, and yet many of these newsletters have a large and dedicated readership. That is, they have a LOT of subscribers, and their subscribers carefully read every issue of the newsletter (including your ad).

For sample ads you can use to attract new SFI affiliates or to refer new TC customers, see the Sponsor text ads and/or the Refer text ads pages.

Or, if you're a Team Leader, you can submit your own ads at:
https://www.sfimg.com/Input/SubmitAd

By the way, just as the first strategy created FREE Website advertising for you, so too can this create FREE newsletter advertising for you. Just remember to be patient in soliciting the newsletter publishers. Start running your ads BEFORE you ever bring up joining SFI, and when you do, do it tactfully. If they see it, they'll get involved. If they don't, that's OK too.

Here are a couple more tips related to newsletter advertising:

A. Generally, you'll get a much better rate by agreeing to run your ad in multiple issues as opposed to just one issue. Be sure to check on this. Running an ad multiple times is also important because most people dismiss an ad the first time they see it. It may take five to seven exposures before the reader decides you must be legit or you wouldn't keep advertising and actually inquires.

B. If the newsletter doesn't accept advertising, ask if you could "sponsor" the newsletter. That is, at the top or bottom of every issue, it would say something like,

Southwest Garden Tips Newsletter is sponsored by
SFI
200 Countries. 24/7 Income.™
<Your /free Gateway URL here>

3. What about OFFLINE advertising sources?

Because SFI is so rooted in online marketing, many affiliates never consider offline advertising. The fact is, there are huge opportunities for successful offline promotions still out there as evidenced by the continued onslaught of direct mail pieces in your mailbox, billboards, radio ads, etc.

Now, unless you're highly experienced in the field of advertising, I do NOT recommend newspaper ads or advertising on radio or TV. A possible exception would be if you were doing it as a co-op and sharing the costs with several other SFI team members. Even as a co-op though, I advise proceeding very carefully in this area as the risks are high. That is, you could put out a large amount of money and get very, very little return.

What DOES work offline is classified ads in magazines. There are tens of thousands of magazines. Many of them have a classified ads section. And many even have a Business Opportunities section. Not only that, but rates are often quite reasonable.

What magazines might you try? I won't suggest specific titles, but there are, no doubt, thousands of titles that will probably pull for you. The only way too know for certain what will work and what won't is to actually test them by running an ad.

For sample ads you can use to attract new SFI affiliates or to refer new TC customers, see the Sponsor text ads and/or the Refer text ads pages.

That said, here's one good piece of advice to keep in mind. To use another fishing analogy, "fish where the fish are biting." In other words, if you see a publication that has business opportunity ads in it, it's probably working for them and probably will so also for you. You can confirm these even further by looking through back issues (people generally don't run the same ads repeatedly if they're not getting results).

Of course, the opposite COULD be true, too. In other words, If there are no biz opp ads, you may want to avoid the publication. However, again, the only way to know for sure if a source will work is to test it.

One more thing to keep in mind: What we've found in offline advertising in the last few years is that you will often not get great QUANTITY, but the QUALITY is excellent. That is, the people you get from offline advertising will generally be much more responsive and active affiliates.

JOIN FREE... HERE

The 10 Best Ways to Use Your SFI Website

The most valuable use for your own website is to promote your TripleClicks ECA or TConnect page.

Your website will help to promote your products and sales.

Below are some of the things you will be able to post on your website.

1) Promote the auctions, games, and music contests.

2) Explain how to join TripleClicks for FREE. Check out how at: https://www.tripleclicks.com/member_benefits.php

3) Explain how to sell their products or have a garage sale.

4) Promote the monthly Music contest and how to enter the contest. Check out these steps at: https://www.sfimg.com/Support/Solution?id=73902&referrer=search

5) Post banners that show TripleClicks and SFI on your websites.

6) Post the Deals Of The Day and The Auction Results.

7) Talk about SFI and what it is.

8) Explain how to become an affiliate and a business owner.

9) Explain how to receive marketing and advertising education.

10) Here are all the different questions about marketing, advertising and tools to post and pass on: https://www.sfimg.com/Support/indexcategory=26444&folder=42568&referrer=search.