I've read several blog posts and discussions on offering free products to your website visitors recently, and it seems the consensus is that free products are the price you pay for getting a visitor's contact information.
It makes sense... I'm not likely to give someone my email address unless I'm going to get something out of it.
Usually, the free products are a one-shot deal - a video, a PDF report, or something else that I see once, and then forget about. It's not that the products are always of poor quality (although they sometimes certainly are); but rather that I have a hundred other things competing for my attention at any given moment.
For this reason, I prefer multi-part free products, such as email mini courses or video courses. These products give you the chance to get in front of your potential clients several times, instead of just once.
For example, I wrote "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy", available on the Java Joint Media home page, appropriately enough, as a six-part course, distributed every two days. I picked out the best tips for crafting sales copy that captures visitors' attention and leads them to the sale, so I know when someone subscribes to the email course, they're going to read every single part.
Subscribers get a wealth of great information on using sales copy to increase their income, and I get six opportunities to remind them of the products and services Java Joint Media provides.
Studies show it takes seven contacts to convince a reader to buy. Shouldn't your free products help you make more of these contacts?
If you're going to offer free products to build your email list, you can get the most out of these products by dividing them into several parts. This technique will help you build sales, instead of just an email list.
Showing posts with label email course. Show all posts
Showing posts with label email course. Show all posts
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Are Squeeze Pages a Bad Idea?
I received an email this morning from a client that asked whether or not she should use squeeze pages as part of her list building strategy. Since this is a question I receive quite often, I decided to share my thoughts on squeeze pages with our readers.
In case you aren't familiar with this marketing tool, squeeze pages are dedicated pages (and often, a dedicated website) that uses long copy to entice readers to subscribe to the owner's email marketing list. Squeeze pages usually have few or no outbound links, to minimize the reader's temptation to click away from the page.
Squeeze pages also often use incentives, such as free reports, email mini-courses, or web-based tools, to get visitors to give up their email addresses.
I can't really discount the value of squeeze pages -- a number of internet marketers are very successful with squeeze pages, and have built impressive marketing lists by promoting them along with their full websites and other marketing tools.
Squeeze pages have a few distinct advantages. First, they are fairly easy to build. If you use dedicated URLs for your squeeze pages, you won't have to worry about checking your links or making sure that multiple pages compliment each other visually. You can use a website creation tool such as PageBreeze to easily create squeeze pages in just a couple of hours each.
Second, squeeze pages are easy to optimize because of the long copy style and the level of description you will need to use to convince visitors to opt in to your email marketing list. Once you have selected your keywords, you can quickly write copy for your squeeze pages around your keywords, without having to check the keyword density for multiple pages.
Third, squeeze pages allow you to easily segment different product groups you may have available on your main website. You can use squeeze pages to put your visitors in the correct mindframe to be receptive to product offers, and once they have subscribed to your list, you can use email marketing efforts to further entice your prospects to buy certain products. Once they have decided to buy, you can redirect them to the correct page on your main website. After the sale, you can introduce them to other products on your website, or direct them to new squeeze pages to promote other products.
My one reservation about squeeze pages is that many marketers load them with content similar to strong sales copy. When I land on squeeze pages and see long, drawn-out copy loaded with Impact font headings, bullet points, and testimonial boxes, I find the benefits (the free products) as quickly as I can. If I can't find them right away, I find something else to do. I don't have time to read tomes of website content lauding some free product that may or may not be worth reading.
Maybe I've just seen so many squeeze pages that they're beginning to lose their effectiveness. I know I'm not alone in losing my patience with squeeze pages -- I'm hearing from more and more internet users that are starting to groan every time they see one.
As effective as squeeze pages have been for internet marketers, I have to wonder if more and more people are going to burn out on squeeze pages over the next few years. If that happens, marketers will need to quickly drum up some other way of building opt in lists.
My short answer is that I don't see anything wrong with squeeze pages right now, but I'm not sure they're a good long term strategy. While squeeze pages are not jet on their collective deathbed, I'm cautious about relying on them as a permanent marketing tool.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
www.javajointmedia.com
In case you aren't familiar with this marketing tool, squeeze pages are dedicated pages (and often, a dedicated website) that uses long copy to entice readers to subscribe to the owner's email marketing list. Squeeze pages usually have few or no outbound links, to minimize the reader's temptation to click away from the page.
Squeeze pages also often use incentives, such as free reports, email mini-courses, or web-based tools, to get visitors to give up their email addresses.
I can't really discount the value of squeeze pages -- a number of internet marketers are very successful with squeeze pages, and have built impressive marketing lists by promoting them along with their full websites and other marketing tools.
Squeeze pages have a few distinct advantages. First, they are fairly easy to build. If you use dedicated URLs for your squeeze pages, you won't have to worry about checking your links or making sure that multiple pages compliment each other visually. You can use a website creation tool such as PageBreeze to easily create squeeze pages in just a couple of hours each.
Second, squeeze pages are easy to optimize because of the long copy style and the level of description you will need to use to convince visitors to opt in to your email marketing list. Once you have selected your keywords, you can quickly write copy for your squeeze pages around your keywords, without having to check the keyword density for multiple pages.
Third, squeeze pages allow you to easily segment different product groups you may have available on your main website. You can use squeeze pages to put your visitors in the correct mindframe to be receptive to product offers, and once they have subscribed to your list, you can use email marketing efforts to further entice your prospects to buy certain products. Once they have decided to buy, you can redirect them to the correct page on your main website. After the sale, you can introduce them to other products on your website, or direct them to new squeeze pages to promote other products.
My one reservation about squeeze pages is that many marketers load them with content similar to strong sales copy. When I land on squeeze pages and see long, drawn-out copy loaded with Impact font headings, bullet points, and testimonial boxes, I find the benefits (the free products) as quickly as I can. If I can't find them right away, I find something else to do. I don't have time to read tomes of website content lauding some free product that may or may not be worth reading.
Maybe I've just seen so many squeeze pages that they're beginning to lose their effectiveness. I know I'm not alone in losing my patience with squeeze pages -- I'm hearing from more and more internet users that are starting to groan every time they see one.
As effective as squeeze pages have been for internet marketers, I have to wonder if more and more people are going to burn out on squeeze pages over the next few years. If that happens, marketers will need to quickly drum up some other way of building opt in lists.
My short answer is that I don't see anything wrong with squeeze pages right now, but I'm not sure they're a good long term strategy. While squeeze pages are not jet on their collective deathbed, I'm cautious about relying on them as a permanent marketing tool.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
www.javajointmedia.com
Thursday, October 18, 2007
"Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" is ready!
I mentioned a few days ago that we would soon be offering a free sales copywriting email course on our site.
It's here, a whole two days early!
"Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" gets to the bottom of what it takes to put your visitors in the right frame of mind to buy your products. Use these secrets in your sales copywriting, and you will see your conversion ratios increase dramatically.
And you won't pay a single penny for it. Not ever.
In fact, feel free to forward the email course to your friends and business associates. We don't mind. All we ask is that you leave our text and website links intact. After all, even though we're not charging for this information, we did put quite a bit of time into making sure we included only the best and most useful tips. We wanted to make sure that if you are willing to trust us with your email address (and don't worry, we won't share it with anyone), you should get information that has real value.
While we're on the subject of value... you know how some internet marketers give you something for free, and then tell you it has a value of $XXX, to make it look like other people really pay hundreds of dollars to obtain what you're getting for free?
Frankly, I don't have any idea how much "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" is worth to you. We've never sold it, and we're not planning to. If you put the tips and techniques to work in your sales copy (or hire us to do it for you), it might be worth tens of thousands of dollars -- maybe more. If you casually read the email course and decide to go get a beer and a cheeseburger instead, it might be worth nothing at all. That sounds harsh, but it's the cold truth. You decide the value by what you choose to do with the information.
However much money it makes you, it's yours for the taking.
If you're ready to take your business to the next level... to stop wondering why your visitors are browsing but not buying... to start seeing sales pour in while you're out with the family, golfing, or taking a long afternoon nap... then I invite you to take advantage of this offer.
Visit the Java Joint Media home page to get started learning the "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" right away!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
http://www.javajointmedia.com/
It's here, a whole two days early!
"Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" gets to the bottom of what it takes to put your visitors in the right frame of mind to buy your products. Use these secrets in your sales copywriting, and you will see your conversion ratios increase dramatically.
And you won't pay a single penny for it. Not ever.
In fact, feel free to forward the email course to your friends and business associates. We don't mind. All we ask is that you leave our text and website links intact. After all, even though we're not charging for this information, we did put quite a bit of time into making sure we included only the best and most useful tips. We wanted to make sure that if you are willing to trust us with your email address (and don't worry, we won't share it with anyone), you should get information that has real value.
While we're on the subject of value... you know how some internet marketers give you something for free, and then tell you it has a value of $XXX, to make it look like other people really pay hundreds of dollars to obtain what you're getting for free?
Frankly, I don't have any idea how much "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" is worth to you. We've never sold it, and we're not planning to. If you put the tips and techniques to work in your sales copy (or hire us to do it for you), it might be worth tens of thousands of dollars -- maybe more. If you casually read the email course and decide to go get a beer and a cheeseburger instead, it might be worth nothing at all. That sounds harsh, but it's the cold truth. You decide the value by what you choose to do with the information.
However much money it makes you, it's yours for the taking.
If you're ready to take your business to the next level... to stop wondering why your visitors are browsing but not buying... to start seeing sales pour in while you're out with the family, golfing, or taking a long afternoon nap... then I invite you to take advantage of this offer.
Visit the Java Joint Media home page to get started learning the "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" right away!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
http://www.javajointmedia.com/
Saturday, October 13, 2007
New Email Course Nearly Complete!
Every internet marketer worth their salt has a subscription form on their website. It's no secret that in order to build long-term relationships with clients, an online businessperson needs a marketing list, so they have an audience to tell about new products, enhanced services, and special offers.
That said, think about how many emails find their way to your inbox each day. Do you really need another email newsletter, unless you can be sure it will contain information that is useful and relevant to you?
For this reason, we began working on an email course several weeks ago, to reward our new subscribers for inviting us to send them the Java Joint Media newsletter. Carla and I felt that if people were going to trust us enough to subscribe to our newsletter, we had better provide them with top-notch information that they could start using right away.
We talked and debated about it for a few days -- we only wanted the best tips and techniques, instead of rehashed, vague information that could be found on a thousand other websites.
Then early one morning, over a cup of dark roast (big surprise), we hit on an idea for an email course that would send our subscribers lightyears ahead of their competition! That's really what any internet marketer should really give you for the privilege of having you on their email list -- information that lets you leave your competition in the dust.
Now, we can't give out details just yet, but we can tell you that the email course will be ready by the end of next week. If you're already a subscriber, don't worry -- we'll send you an email with a special link so you can get your hands on this information, too.
Be sure to check back early next week for more details on this exciting email course -- we can't wait for it to go live, so our subscribers can start seeing their sales numbers explode!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
That said, think about how many emails find their way to your inbox each day. Do you really need another email newsletter, unless you can be sure it will contain information that is useful and relevant to you?
For this reason, we began working on an email course several weeks ago, to reward our new subscribers for inviting us to send them the Java Joint Media newsletter. Carla and I felt that if people were going to trust us enough to subscribe to our newsletter, we had better provide them with top-notch information that they could start using right away.
We talked and debated about it for a few days -- we only wanted the best tips and techniques, instead of rehashed, vague information that could be found on a thousand other websites.
Then early one morning, over a cup of dark roast (big surprise), we hit on an idea for an email course that would send our subscribers lightyears ahead of their competition! That's really what any internet marketer should really give you for the privilege of having you on their email list -- information that lets you leave your competition in the dust.
Now, we can't give out details just yet, but we can tell you that the email course will be ready by the end of next week. If you're already a subscriber, don't worry -- we'll send you an email with a special link so you can get your hands on this information, too.
Be sure to check back early next week for more details on this exciting email course -- we can't wait for it to go live, so our subscribers can start seeing their sales numbers explode!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
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