Message 1

Thank you for contacting xxx Customer Service.

We have received your message and will respond within 24 hours.

As a subscriber, you are very important to us. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Message 2

Thank you for contacting xxx Customer Service.

We are unable to locate your subscription by your email address. Please send your complete name and address that you used to sign up to xxx Digital.

Once we receive this information, we will be able to assist you.

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Message 3 (huh? I sent you that information already)

Thank you for contacting xxx Customer Service.

We are unable to locate your subscription by your email address. Please send your complete name and address that you used to sign up to xxx Digital.

Once we receive this information, we will be able to assist you.

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Message 4 (huh? It's a digital product, according to the order confirmation with immediate access.)

Thank you for contacting xxx Customer Service.

We do not locate your subscription at this time. Please allow up to 48 hours for your order to process. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused, and thank you for the opportunity to be of service.

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Message 5 (huh? I already emailed you 5 times, and now I need to email you again in 2 days to remind you?)

Thank you for contacting xxx Customer Service.

We regret to inform you that your order has not yet been processed. We are unable to assist you with access or refund your money until your order is received.

It can take up to 48 hours from the time you place your order for it to appear on our system.

Please contact us at the time for further assistance.

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

And this is precisely why I recommend developing your basic writing skills before you try to delve deep into copywriting and other forms of sales writing.

How to Improve Your Writing Skills

Good Grammar is the Minimum

When it comes to copywriting, no one is going to be impressed by your good grammar. In fact, no one will notice your grammar at all unless it is bad. And this is precisely why it is important to think about good grammar being the starting point for any sales letter—not a lofty goal to achieve.

If you have a weak background in writing, there’s a good chance you are frequently making grammatical errors that most readers perceive as a poor reflection on you. For instance, you might use sentence fragments often; or you might have subject-verb agreement issues. Either way, you are probably repeating these mistakes again and again without even noticing it.

In fact, writers make these mistakes all the time. And when they do, it not only makes them look bad, but it can even confuse the reader by providing the wrong information.

So what can you do about it? You can start by identifying your areas of weakness; and then practicing grammar drills to improve.

Doing “grammar drills” isn’t on the top of the list of the things you want to spend your weekend doing, but if you truly aspire to be a MASTER copywriter—not a mediocre copywriter—you must start by mastering grammar first.

When it comes to doing grammar drills, you have a number of options. I personally recommend that you use one of the following three sites, all of which provide free information and drills:

1. http://odl.vwv.at/english/odlres/res8/Grammar/grammar.htm

-This site will familiarize you with with basic grammar construction rules through various grammar exercise such as multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks.

2. http://dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/drills/index.shtml

-Providing a wide variety of grammar drills ranging from agreement and pronoun reference to sentence strength to words commonly confused, this site will allow you to master grammar in no time.

3. http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/alle_grammar.htm

-If you want to be a master when it comes to grammar rules and construction, this is the site to go to.

As with most things in life, your time is probably best used concentrating on your problem areas. So, rather than re-learning English grammar in its entirety, you should eliminate your weaknesses. You can use the following tests to identify which areas you should work on:

1. http://www.wordl-english.org/diagnostic_grammar.htm

-This site provides a three-part test that will clearly define your weak grammar areas.

2.http://www.dailywritingtips.com/grammar-test-1

-If you want to know how much you know about basic grammar in a short period of time, opt to take this 20-question test.

3. http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/grammar_mastery.asp

-To acquire a more comprehensive report on your grammar knowledge, taking this site’s 50-question exam is the best choice.

Imagine you had two different sales letters created for you. How do you know which one is likely to produce the better response? The only way is split testing them and comparing the results.

In 1886, retail businessman John Wanamaker famously quipped, “I know that 50% of my advertising is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”

But the truth is much worse.

In fact, most advertising is wasted, because most advertising is not based on what’s been proven to work.

So to go back to my earlier question: how do you know which ad will perform better?

To answer that question, you must first have a history of test results.

That is, you must have a pretty good idea as to what types of elements in an ad produce the best response, based on real-world tests.

• Not what you think or I think what will do best.
• Not your mother or next-door neighbor.
• Not even the million dollar ad agencies.

In fact, nobody would really know what to focus on, UNLESS they had access to these proven test results.

And in order to get these test results, there would have to be some way to specifically measure the results of any given ad. We would need to know which types of elements performed well and which did not. Then we could analyze the ads and determine the common techniques used among the successful ones.

Well, fortunately much of this work has been already done for you.

There are over a hundred years of history on advertising test results in which you can base your assumptions. So if you knew which kinds of ads performed better, then you might be able to take an educated guess as to which of the two ads would perform better than the other.

Of course, that kind of information is just a “starting point.”

You still need to split test your own ads. That means you’ll be using 2 or more versions of your ad, sales letter or whatever and compare their conversion rate.

The one that’s better is the winner. Once you have your winner, you immediately start testing him against another ad.

In the ‘split testing‘ articles on this internet business blog I’m going to show you how to test your own sales letter the right way, so you can cut the dogs loose and go with the winners every time.

No matter how successful your sales letter is, I can’t stress the importance enough of testing it to improve it even further. Sometimes the tiniest tweak can be responsible for boosting a sales letter’s conversion rate considerably.

But how will you ever find out which tweaks those are unless you split test them?

• Sometimes it’s fairly obvious what you could do to improve their response.
• Other times what we may think will work better can actually make things worse. In the end it doesn’t matter what you or I or other copywriters think.

It only matters what your prospects think, and they weigh in on how much they like your headline or offer by purchasing and becoming a customer.

The equivalent of printing money on demand.

Remember, the name of the game is to always try to beat your control (your former winner and best-performing sales letter).

Once you have a proven sales letter, it truly is money in the bank.

When you know your average response rate, you can predict what getting more of the same kinds of prospects to your website will do to your bottom line.

When you get right down to it, who wouldn’t want their average conversion rate to be as high as possible?

I don’t know of anyone who wants a lower conversion rate, but I do know plenty of people who don’t test.

Whether they realize it or not, they are settling for less than they’re capable of achieving.

With a good marketing funnel in place, you ideally want to match each message you portray to your market’s desires. That means everything from the initial pay per click (PPC) ad, article, ezine ad, or whatever method you use to funnel traffic to your site—all the way on down the line.

Everything.

1. Your opt-in/name squeeze page
2. Your email autoresponder sequence
3. Your audio and video podcasts
4. Your teleseminars
5. And certainly your sales page

You see, the real purpose of testing is to develop the most profitable marketing funnel. So you test all elements of your funnel, not just the entry point. It’s easy to see that each tiny increase in one part of the funnel will MULTIPLY with all other improvements of the other parts of your marketing funnel.

That’s ‘compounded’ split testing profit.

• Brand-building, and
• Direct response advertising.

What is brand-building?

The brand-building model of advertising is generally used by large corporations to create an awareness of their brand.

The result brand marketers are hoping for is that, when the time comes to buy that type of product or service, the prospect will think of their brand first.

For example, when you see an advertisement for a coffee brand on TV, they don’t expect you to jump up, run to 7/11, and get a pack of coffee.

But they hope that when you are in need of coffee next time, you will grab their package instead of any competing brand.

Brand slogans, jingles, and the like are frequently used with branding ads for specifically that purpose.

Brand-building, however, is expensive, time-consuming, and requires a lot of brand equity and trust over time before people make decisions to buy from them.

Large corporations typically spend millions of dollars in advertising costs in order to blanket their target audience with as much exposure as possible.

Direct marketers, however, have their doubts if brand building is money well spent.

The Right Choice? Maybe a bad one for AT&T.

In the 90′s AT&T had their million dollar slogan: “The Right Choice.”

Would you or I buy from AT&T because THEY TOLD us they were the right choice? Not me. Not you. Not anyone.

They’re not using it anymore.

Like many big companies changing course all the time, they’re generally having a problem developing their brand identity. Just see what they spent their advertising millions on over the years, changing their focus all the time:

• 
  Your world. Delivered (2005)
  
• The world’s networking company (2004)
  
• Talk is Good (2003)
• Innovative Networks.Innovative Thinking. (2001)
• Right Now (2001)
• We Bring the World Closer (1982)
• Reach Out and Touch Someone (1981)

Army Strong, a $200 Million Brand Building Slogan.

In fact, the US Army paid $200 million to a marketing firm to come up with their new slogan: Army Strong.

That’s $100 million a word!

I’m willing to bet if they took that $200 million and invested it in direct response advertising, they would have gotten a LOT more bang for their buck.

Can you imagine if you dumped a ton of money into an advertising agency and they produced results for you like the AT&T slogan, or the Army slogan?

Well, hopefully you didn’t do that, but if you did, there is still hope. There is a completely effective way to market your business and get real results.

What is direct response advertising?

Direct response ads are designed to get prospects to take some specific action right there and then.

Remember what I said above about brand-building: the idea is that the customer REMEMBERS the brand when he needs the service or product. He is not supposed to ACT when he sees the ad.

With a direct response ad you want the customer to whip out the credit card and buy right away!

Because if they put the ad aside and do something else, the chances are much smaller that they’ll come back later and buy.

With direct response advertising, you’ll frequently see scarcity selling tactics used to get them to act immediately.

• “Call within the next 10 minutes…”
• “Only the next 200 people to sign-up will qualify…”
• “The price goes up this weekend…”

You get the idea. You’ll also find a clear call to action in direct response ads.

• “Register now to start your membership immediately.”
• “Simply check off which report you’d like and return the postage-paid postcard today.”

Direct response advertisers can usually track sales from any given ad to the penny. (That is by the way what the whole ‘split testing’ category at internet business mastermind is about: Tracking the success of your ads, sales letters and squeeze pages, and then optimizing it for better conversion.)

Whether it’s a coupon to be clipped, a special phone number to call, or a business reply card, everything in direct response marketing is coded and tracked.

Why direct response marketing is cheap and easy for an internet business.

You probably figured out by now that I’m an advocate of direct response.

It gets results and you can track how the results were accomplished.

In the ‘old days’ of snail mail direct marketing a huge amount of work and money was involved to get any direct response sales letter out. You had to mail a statistically large enough group for any ad to find out if it would be successful.

Then all the incoming sales and customer inquiries had to be tracked manually. Then you had to manually analyze which parts of your promotions made you money, and where you lost money.

For your internet business it’s so much cheaper and easier.

It’s cheap because you don’t have to print 200,000 letters, and even better, you don’t have to stamp them. You’ll just put up a web site and drive traffic to it.

It’s easy because all the tracking and analyzing is done on autopilot. You don’t have to do it manually.

The only only thing you need is a serious split testing script. That’s a one time investment, and once you have it you can test as many sales letters, ads, and squeeze pages as you like for years to come.

By ‘serious’ split testing script I mean serious. Don’t go for half baked spit testing scripts. Your split testing script will increase your business more than any other software you will ever buy.

The only work and time involved is to enter a few variations of what you want to test to your split testing script. Once that is setup, the script will do the work on autopilot. It will monitor your direct response campaigns 24/7 and increase your conversions without you lifting a finger.

Once you see how direct response advertising combined with split testing boots your income, you won’t think about buying ads for branding much anymore.

Basically you’re testing 2 versions of your web page to find out which one performs better:

• Which of 2 split tested squeeze pages gets the most confirmed subscribers?
• Which of 2 split tested sales letters gets the most sales?
• Which of 2 split tested PPC Ads gets the most clicks?

Most of the work is done by split testing software running on your web site. The only thing you have to do is to setup the 2 versions of your web page. Then the split testing software will control the test, record all data, and show you the results.

In the diagram the split testing software is represented by the gears

1. Each time a visitor arrives at the page, the split testing software sends him to one of the two versions of your testing page.
2. Each time a conversion happens (for example a sale), the split testing software will collect the information which web page that visitor has seen.
3. In the end you simply compare which version created the better results. You pick the winner and put it online, you dump the loser.

The result of your split test may look like this.

In this split test sales letter B clearly sells better than sales letter A. So you’d end this split test, you’d drop sales letter A, and continue running the winner, sales letter B.

If you’re smart, you’ll immediately start creating a new sales letter C and running a new split test C against the former winner B.

It’s important that repeat visitors see the same page each time. Otherwise you could not find out which version is responsible for a conversion.

1. When visitors arrive at the website, the split testing software checks to see if it’s a repeat visit or not.
2. If it is, the visitor is sent to the same sales letter as last time (to ensure the same offer is shown).
3. If it’s a first-time visitor, a sales letter is chosen at random, and the visitor is sent there.
4. The engine records which sales letter the new visitor is sent to (either by setting a cookie on the visitor’s computer or saving the visitor’s IP address), so return visits can be routed back to the same sales letter.

As you see, it’s not so hard to understand split testing. If you’re just starting out, keep it simple. Don’t hop on super complicated setups for your first test, maybe do something very easy, like just using 2 different headlines.

You’ll find more split testing articles here, and you can leave your questions below.

People ask for sales letter reviews and advice on how they should set up their site to be successful.

• How does my headline look?
• Is this a good price to sell my product?
• What kind of font should I use?
• What’s the best ending digit for a price?
• Should I send them to an opt-in page first, or send them straight to my sales letter?
• Will a picture of me help to add more credibility and lead to more sales?
• Should I use a header graphic?

And what’s the answer that marketing veterans and novices alike always give in response?

You guessed right!

“Test it.”

And while that answer is the right one for those types of questions,

• it’s amazing to me how many people know about split testing and still don’t practice what they preach.
• Still others know they should test but have no idea how to do it properly.

I’m not an expert on split testing. I’ve gotten better at it with practice, as will you. I’m also not an expert in statistics.

The nice thing about split testing is that it doesn’t require a lot of marketing know-how to do it. Neither do you have to be an expert in “statistical mathematical experiments”, or even software engineering.

Anyone with a few basic tools and a solid understanding of the basics can increase his profits using split testing.

Here the ‘ol cliché is true: it ain’t rocket science.

There is software available for your website that will automate much of the split testing process, letting you concentrate on the big picture.

The purpose of this ‘split testing’ category at internet business mastermind is to give you the bigger picture of split testing.

My split testing articles will explain the simple concepts for beginners, as well as giving you in depth ideas if you have already mastered the basics.

Once you get it, go out, get the tools, and skyrocket your profits.

Last night I was working on the German translation for a customer service text.

I got sidetracked – because for about a week now I’ve also been studying the rhetorical techniques of Barack Obama.

And sometimes, when two unrelated things come together, something new is created.

So a few hours ago the ‘Customer Instructions, Barack Obama Style’ came into existence.

The Original Customer Instructions.

This is sent to the customer after a purchase. It’s an instruction on how to obtain the ordered product.

If you’re in internet marketing, I’m sure you’ve had customers yourself that didn’t read the instructions and then panicked…

“A verification email has been sent to the email address you provided. Since Servers do not make exceptions please wait a bit and be sure to check your Spam folder too.

When you see the verification message, click on the link you will find inside. Once done you will receive a new message with the information to access your purchase. Please follow the instructions and everything will go fine.

If you think Servers made an exception for you, please first wait to see if you get the email message – servers are slow some times; and then recheck your spam folder.

Only if you’re certain that something must be wrong with your subscription then submit a ticket to our helpdesk and be sure to include your full name and a copy of the original receipt.

Thank you for helping us to serve you better, faster and more efficiently.”

Next the rewritten version.

Let’s save our customers from the trouble of not getting the confirmation email.

It’s best to read it slowly while imagining Barack Obama’s powerful voice, brimming with certainty and reassurance.

Customer Instructions, Barack Obama Style – Delivered After Purchase.

My Friend,

I stand on the shoulders of our forbears when I say to you:

You will be served.

I am humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed.

That we are in the midst of a purchase is now well understood.

We, the Internet Marketers, have remained faithful to our ideals, and true to our founding documents, the terms of service.

1. One places an order, one receives a confirmation mail.
2. One opens his mail, one finds a link.
3. One clicks his link, he gets his goods.

So it has been.

So it must be.

• Your Faith may be shaken; our Server stands tall.
• Your patience may be lost; our Server loses no one.
• Your mailbox may be empty; our Server delivers.

Orders may be placed by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled …

… our Server makes no exception.

You will be served!

Our confirmation emails have been sent during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the purchase is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.

In that case you should heed the call from ancient scripture:

“My spam folder runneth over.”

The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to demonstrate patience in the wait for our email, to re-evaluate our spam folders.

Then for those, who waited without gain …

For those, who searched without reward …

Know this…

You will be served!

• Do not hesitate to call in the duty of your community.
• Do not hesitate to submit a support ticket.

Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year.

• We will harness the deepest depths of our databases.
• We will conquer the vastness of hyperspace.
• We will restore your email to its rightful place.

All this we can do. All this we will do.

You will be served!

(APPLAUSE)

Disclaimer And Resources.

1. I have the utmost respect for President Obama and for his ability to deliver speeches that move millions. My seemingly disrespectful text above is in no way intended to diminish this. It is instead intended to give you a chuckle, no more no less.
2. I’m fully aware of the severeness of the problems that the original inaugural speech addressed. That I’m using similar words in a ridiculously unimportant context is not denying the hardship that people all over the world feel right now. Switching context is just a technique of humorous writing, used by many writers.
3. I do not intend to hurt anybody by re-wording a few words from the bible.

In the opening sentences I said, there’s nothing to learn here.

Well, ’twas a lie.

Actually there is something to learn.

What if you just learned, that any boring topic can be delivered on your web site using the very same rhethorical techniques that master influencers use? That peple who move millions use?

If that sounds interesting to you, stay tuned. I promise I’ll provide further insights on influential writing VERY soon.

For those that can’t wait, here’s a great starting point. These are the original Barack Obama speech transcripts I used to write the parody above.

Barack Obama’s victory speech on election night.

http://www.barackobama.com/2008/11/04/remarks_of_presidentelect_bara.php

Barack Obama’s inaugural address.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-obama.html

Barack Obama Photo by Pete Souza /The White House

The first step in the process is to develop a newsletter or other email communication with them. It does not matter what you call it. Rather, it matters what is in it. Here are some examples of quality content to provide to your readers.

• Provide Informational Articles.

Your clients want to read something helpful to them. They want to read something that teaches them something. For example, let’s say you are selling an informational product on acne. In your email message to your readers, you write about the causes of acne. This provides them with some type of information.

• Make your subject line effective.

A common problem that many people have when using any form of email marketing is that they just do not get their readers to open up the email. How can you do well if the reader is not even reading what you have to offer? Use your subject line as a tool. In the above example, the subject line could be, “what causes acne and what you can do about it now.”

• Make your email personal.

If you have ever opened up an email and read it knowing that they were just selling something, chances are good the information with was a simple made up, canned response. That’s boring and actually worthless. Use the reader’s names. Be sure to write to them, not to academics. Be personal, yet professional at the same time.

• Don’t overdo it with graphics.

Another problem with email marketing like this is that people go overboard with graphics. You have seconds to impress your reader and get them to actually read the email you have sent. If you have so many graphics within it that it takes forever to load, they will close the email and move on long before actually seeing what you were going to talk about.

• Tell them what to do.

Perhaps the most important aspect of any email used like this is that it has to provide your readers with a way of reacting to what you have sent. Tell them what to do or what they can do to learn more. Give them the link to follow that takes them to the answers to their questions. For example, in the above example, after detailing all of the causes of acne, follow up with a link that takes the individual to your acne cure website. The link may read, “Finally, there is help for any of these acne causes.”

That’s all it takes to get the email going. An effective campaign does get people back to your website. In fact, internet marketing can work in many ways to gain you resources including higher sales potential. Take the time to put internet marketing in place and you will see traffic to your website come in from a variety of sources. You are likely to see your sales go up as long as you have provided your readers with the helpful tools and resources they need to make wise decisions.

If you are not sure if it can work for you, consider traditional sales mechanisms. You could pay a heavily trafficked website for an ad in the thousands of dollars range and hope to get enough readers back to your website. Or, you can invest your time, not your money, in getting quality traffic that is already interested in you!

Now that you have gone through all of this work in step 1 and 2, you still do not have a profit in hand.

Why not?

Because the step that will generate the actual sales and profit is the third and final step in your internet marketing plan.

You’ve arrived at the most important step in our strategy – you’re finally going to send out your email marketing message.

Here’s your internet marketing strategy in a nutshell:

1. Potential customers find you, your products or services on the web.
2. They allow you to contact them and send them emails.
3. You provide them with information they can use and benefit from, through email, and keep your business in front of them all the time. (Today’s topic.)

Now, you will take the information and resources that you have worked so hard to develop and make them into something that’s going to turn a profit for you.

Keep in mind that while this process may seem like it is long and has a lot of work to it,

• you are going to automate much of it,
• and secondly, you are going to do all three things at one time.

This way, you are likely to start making money from internet marketing right from the beginning of starting the process.

Your Email Marketing Plan

As part of the process of using the permissions given to you by those who have visited your website, you will need an email marketing plan.

The plan is quite specific. You need to send emails to those who are on your list that allow them to gain something and learn something.

You’re plan should lay out a series of emails covering interesting topics for your readers. For example you could plan to send out 1 email per week and write down several topics to cover a few weeks in advance.

In this form of internet marketing, you are attracting people to your website by

1. Telling them something important. They think, “Hey, this is great. This is just what I need.”
2. They then head over to your website from the link posted in the email.
3. They can then make a purchase from you or do what you wish for them to do.

To make sure this happens, you need to send emails are well received and that have the best information they can offer to the reader. This way, they are most likely to visit your website.

Still unsure of what you can do with your emails? Here are a few ideas to work with.

What To Send In Your Marketing Emails

• Share information on the topic related to your website, your products and services.
• Share a good book, informational product or other item that in some way relates to your business indirectly.
• Share live event information. Perhaps you are doing an educational seminar or a web cast, and want to invite your readers to come to your website to attend.
• Perhaps you are running a sale and you wish to provide your readers with information regarding it.
• Perhaps you are providing some recorded trainings and want to share the details with your list.
• Encourage them to send you feedback and questions.
• Answer questions you receive in future emails to your list.

Internet marketing is only as successful as you make it.

Therefore, if you invest a little time in it, especially in writing these emails, chances are good you will get good profits from it. Take your time to produce a quality, highly effective email that is sent to your readers.

That’s it for today’s article. Tomorrow you’ll discover the 5 most critical guidelines for successful emails.

Let’s recap the 3 step strategy we outlined in the last article:

• Potential customers find you, your products or services on the web.

• They allow you to contact them. (Today’s topic.)

• You provide them with information they can use and benefit from, through email, and keep your business in front of them all the time.

Your web site visitors and potential customers allow you to contact them and to market to them.

The next step in our internet marketing strategy is to get people to let you talk to them. With the advent of laws regarding spam and other inappropriate means of communication, it has become very important for any Business owner to be sure to stay on the good side of the law.

As a Business owner, you need to have the permission of a consumer, client or website visitors to send them any form of communication.

Why you should do this, you may be asking. As part of the process of developing a successful Internet marketing business, you need to get your product or service in front of the client.

As you will see in Part 3 of the internet marketing strategy, this is the key to your success in selling.

There are many ways that this can be done. The bottom line is that it has to be done.

You want those that find you on the web to come to your website and a lead capture page. This way, you are able to get their permission to send them more information.

There are many lead capture tools available to help you to accomplish this. You can also create your own, and not something that is difficult to do on your own, even if you are not a techie.

What happens is simple:

• Individuals find your information on the web.

• They follow it to your website’s lead capture page.

• They sign up when they arrive there.

• You have a lead to sell to, market to or otherwise use.

Now, you can advertise to them. Mission accomplished!

Tomorrow we’re getting to the meat of the series: What information to send to them and how to turn them into customers.

Any Business owner can apply the lessons learned to their own Internet business. There are three main parts to developing a successful internet marketing campaign, but the good news is that none of them are difficult, costly or overly time consuming.

Here, we’ll explore these three parts and find out how you can put them to use no matter what type of Internet marketing business you have.

Here’s Your 3-Step-Internet-Marketing-Strategy

Step 1: Potential customers find you, your products or services on the web.

Step 2: They allow you to contact them.

Step 3: You provide them with information they can use and benefit from, through email, and keep your business in front of them all the time.

To better understand how to do this, keep reading.

Part 1: Potential Customers Find You

The first step in the process is to get people to find you online. Remember, with internet marketing, they are coming to you. You are not going out searching for them and advertising directly. So, how do you get more people to find you online?

Your Own Business Web Site First

There are several ways to accomplish this.

First, the ultimate first step is to have a useful website and/or blog where you can present your offer and where they will be able to buy in the end. While your main info may be on a static site, I recommend adding a Blog: you can talk with, work with and interact with your visitors.

You will need to ensure it is information based rather than a sales gimmick.

Online, self-focused ‘business brochure’ type blah blah is less likely to work than other methods of marketing, especially in internet marketing. Make sure your website tells visitors that you are providing a service to them, information to them.

Do not use the typical ad style used by companies to build brand or just to hype a product.

Lay Out Your Net – Other Places Where They Can Find You

Next, you will need to get your information out there. You’ll create many entry points all over the web where they can stumble upon your information.

Once your own business web site is online, there are many other ways to build that successful internet marketing. You can easily find dozens of ways to do this.

3 very profitable and free methods of promoting your business.

Social Networking Websites

We talked about that a lot in the second part of the ‘Internet Marketing Strategy’ Series. Remember Barack Obamas huge list of profiles on social networking web sites.

One of the most attractive, enjoyable ways to get your business out there is, in fact, to talk about it! Social networking is what it sounds like. It is a method of communicating with others about anything you want to, really.

Most social networking websites were not started to help businesses to grow, but most of them can be used this way. Going back to our example, Mr. Obama used many of them to get to his people.

This is what you are looking for, too. You are looking for a way to give people information. Once they have that information, they can then come to you to get what they need. This works in any type of Internet niche, too.

There are many, many websites that can be used like this. The key is to really use those where you think the best results can be found, but also where you find yourself enjoying it.

To find more of these social networking websites, visit this Wikipedia pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

There is no way that you can go to all of these websites, but the key is not to invest all of your time in them, either. You should find one, two, or three to really dive into and to work with.

In the internet marketing niche the most popular are Twitter.com and Facebook.com.

Article Directories

This is an excellent way to gain popularity. You should develop articles and detailed outlines related to your business or product and then get it out into the mainstream. You can post them on various article directories.

I’ll cover article marketing in more detail in an upcoming ‘Article Marketing’ series starting within a week. Keep your eyes open or subscribe to the rss news feed to receive the upcoming articles.

Press Releases

Submitting a press release to press release web sites is fast, no cost or low cost, and it has benefits no other form of internet marketing provides.

One major benefit of using a press release is that you are utilizing a good medium to place your website and business in front of many readers.

Another benefit is that it gives your business or website a legitimate and professional look. You can be known as a credible expert on the topic.

If the press release works correctly, readers will not just think of you as someone who created an advertisement, but someone who may be very knowledgeable on the topic at hand, especially if you are interviewed by the media.

There are many web sites where you can submit a press release about your company.

That wraps up today instalment of the ‘Internet Marketing Strategy’ Series. Thanks for being here, feel free to leave your comments and questions.

Does internet marketing work? The short answer to this question is yes, but there are plenty of fantastic examples of how it works.

A good one is to consider the election of Mr. Obama.

Regardless of whether you are from the U.S. or not, and no matter what side of the ticket you were rooting for, one thing has to be said. Mr. Obama’s ability to use Internet marketing, including internet marketing methods, helped him win this election, according to many professionals.

Mr. Obama’s campaign is the most successful internet marketing campaign ever conducted.

The e-strategy blog called his campaign “The Perfect Political Storm”.

They wrote:

His brilliant use of the Internet and his get-out-the-vote efforts will be studied as a textbook example not so much of a multichannel marketing campaign as an every channel campaign. The campaign will be studied within the political world for bucking history and actually getting young voters to cast their vote.

Obama used the many, many tools in Internet marketing to help him to win his election because he and his campaign moreover knew the importance and success it could bring.

The world goes to the web to learn what it needs to, in today’s culture. More so, the Internet provides an easy, affordable way to reach millions of people every single day. No other medium offers this.

How did Obama use internet marketing to win the Presidential Election of the United States?

Using internet marketing tools, websites, and even things like GoogleAds helped him to make it happen.

First of all he had his own website.

http://www.barackobama.com

Besides giving information about his campaign the very purpose of this site was (and still is) to get people to subscribe to his email newsletter.

Once you do this you’ll get regular promotional emails. And most often you will be asked to support him with donations.

Before you enter his web site you are forced to see the name squeeze page. (If the president elect can do it, then you can do it too to build a list of prospects.) The design and content of the squeeze page changes often, but the purpose is to get visitors to part with their email address.

Social Networking For The Campaing

Next he (or rather his campaign) created a Barack Obama profile on ALL major networking web sites. That includes the 2 most used web 2.0 sites that we people from the so called ‘Internet Marketing Niche’ are using and promoting: Twitter and Facebook.

Barack Obama on Twitter

In fact, http://twitter.com, a useful tool that allows individuals to put out a 140 character message about what they are doing right now was used by Mr. Obama as one of the many methods of internet marketing.

By gaining a huge following and communicating through them in short clips, he could converse with everyday people, put his message out and do it all without spending a penny for it.

http://twitter.com/barackobama

At the time of writing this, January 5 2009, Barack Obama has a following of 154,537 people on Twitter.

I’m working on it too, hehe. I ‘collected’ my first follower on Dec 27 2008 and today, 9 days later, I’m at 946 followers.
http://twitter.com/ralfskirr

Barack Obama on Facebook

Another example of this is Facebook. Everyone on the web knows that Facebook.com is a haven for younger generation individuals who like to find each other and chat. The trend has grown. In fact, businesses, politicians, and even employers are using it as a tool to connect with others. Mr. Obama’s Facebook page was yet another form of internet marketing that helped him to get his message out.

http://presby.facebook.com/barackobama?q=barackobama&ref=ts

You wouldn’t believe it, he’s already set his eye on the significant year 2012.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/BarackObama2012/40275089374

And here’s me again. http://www.facebook.com/people/Ralf-Skirr/1019486454?

There’s A Marketing Lesson To Be Learned…

I’m not throwing my own accounts in for promotional purpose only. I’m throwing it in to bring your attention to a very important fact:

You and I are nowhere near the multi million dollar budgets Barack Obama’s campaign had, right?

Yet the very cool thing is – we can use the very same web sites that powered his campaign and it doesn’t cost a dime.

I have my own Twitter and Facebook account just like the President elect has, and you can do it too. It’s on a smaller scale, but that’s a good thing because your personal or business goals are on a smaller scale too.

We’ll come back to that in the next part of the IM Strategy series.

Barack Obama’s Personal Blog

Just like many small business internet marketers he’s keeping a blog too:

http://www.barackobama-2012.blogspot.com/

As you can see, there are excellent ways that internet marketing works. For most of the general public, you aren’t trying to win the presidential election. Nevertheless, these tools can still be used to help virtually anyone to gain success in getting traffic to their website.

Here’s just a few of the profiles Obamas internet campaign has created. You could – as part of your own internet marketing strategy – make use of the same networks.

Barack Obama on Facebook
http://presby.facebook.com/barackobama?q=barackobama&ref=ts

Barack Obama on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/barackobama

Barack Obama on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/barackobama

Barack Obama on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom

Barack Obama on Digg
http://digg.com/users/ObamaforAmerica

Barack Obama on Twitter
http://twitter.com/barackobama

Barack Obama on Eventful
http://eventful.com/performers/barack-obama-/P0-001-000000162-8

Barack Obama on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama

Barack Obama on Eons
http://www.eons.com/members/profile/barackobama

Here’s an excellent visual representation that illustrates Obama’s campaign.

It’s worth checking out, you could easily create a similar map for your own campaigns. Pay special attention to the social networking illustration on the right.

See it in full size as PDF.

That’s it for today, tomorrow we’ll finally reveal the 3-step-internet-marketing-strategy. We’ll explore these three parts and find out how you can put them to use no matter what type of Internet marketing business you have.

As usual: Your Comments Are Welcome…

Internet marketing may be the buzz word that is out there commonly heard by most Business owners. Yet, what does it mean?

As a Business owner, you do need to know what this type of marketing is as it will likely be one of the most important, profitable strategies you have in low cost marketing – and it is highly effective.

First, understand what it is and then learn how to implement an internet marketing strategy within your own business. Most business owners can find success using this method to help them to develop their internet business. It works in any sector, industry or niche.

It works whether you want to promote a brick and mortar business or whether you want to do internet business.

When applied effectively, it is a low cost, long term success strategy no marketer should go without.

What Is Internet Marketing?

The short definition of what internet marketing is may seem too simple. It is simply a term that means that the business owner uses the Internet to help attract people to the business they are in.

To take this to another level, internet marketing can be defined as bringing people to you rather than going after them. The best way to see this is to take a look at the opposite method, the way that most print or “non online” advertising is done.

In traditional advertising, countless dollars are spent to find the consumer most likely to invest in the product or service. Billboards are placed along freeways for radio stations, for example, since people listen to the radio most often in the car. Advertisements go to the most likely consumer rather than the consumer coming to the product directly for a need.

In internet marketing, ideally the consumer comes to you and your product or service because they have heard that it is something that can benefit them, in some way.

The Key To Internet Marketing Success

One of the keys to building a successful internet marketing strategy is not to be overly sales like. Everything and anything that you do should be done based on subtle sales information. You are providing information to the client. You are not hard selling what you have to offer to them. The consumer is attracted to you because you are giving them valuable information and tools to use.

Don’t fail on that point: informational is key, not sales ads.

Internet marketing is not often about catchy slogans and flashy ads. Rather, it is a method of bringing people in to information, products and services because they are already interested. Ultimately, this allows for the business to do well since the advertisements are being presented in a pleasant manner.

There’s a specific way to deliver that ‘sales producing’ information. That will be covered in the upcoming installments of this series.

Mastering this will help your business to grow quickly.

The ‘Internet Marketing Strategy Series ‘ offers a simple 3 step strategy to implement internet marketing for your own business.

In the next part of the series you’ll see a real life example. You’ll discover the most successful internet marketing strategy ever conducted.

As of today, October 1, 2008, there are 1,463,632,361 people with internet access. That’s 21.9% of the global population.

Meaning: 1.5 billion potential customers for you and me.

[ UPDATE: On June 30, 2010 the number is grown to 1,966,514,816.. That's close to 2 Billion. ]

Heck – we’d have to screw up badly not get enough customers for our business out of 1.5 billion people, right?

But maybe you haven’t embraced the idea yet that the internet can generate new customers for almost any business you can think of. And it might generate a healthy influx of new customers for your business as well.

Globally you’re looking at

• 578,538,257 now 825,094,396 customers online in Asia
• 384,633,765 now 475,069,448 customers online in Europe

• 248,241,969 now 266,224,500 customers online in North America

• 139,009,209 now 204,689,836 customers online in Latin America

• 51,065,630 now 110,931,700 customers online in Africa
• 20,204,331 now 21,263,990 customers online in Australia

If you’re a business person you’re probably worrying about how to get the customers you need to pay the bills and finance your life style.

Now think about it: having access to 21.8% of the word population makes it easy to get all the customers you’ll ever need for your business. That’s not only true for any internet business, but also if you’re running a local brick and mortar store.

So how can you use a web site to get more customers for YOUR specific business?

How to use the internet for your local business.

Most brick and mortar businesses, shops, restaurants, offices, and practices need local customers. Using a company web site you can expand your client base and your profits in a 3 step process.

Step 1) Use a company web site to attract local customers.

Your company web site is your internet business card and if used correctly it can bring in new business faster than you think. For years the internet has been focused on general non-local information. This is changing right now. In fact in 5 to 8 years the internet will be the #1 source for local information.

I know that you probably believe the local news paper or yellow pages still do the job – but that’s changing quickly. 5 years from now – whether people want to know the local movie schedule, find a home delivery restaurant or an exterminator – they will get all the local information from the internet. In many places around the world this trend has already manifested.

The upshot is that you need to take advantage of local internet search and it will come quickly.

Be smart about this: most of your competition will still be missing this new opportunity. Just as 20 years ago EVERYBODY UNDERESTIMATED the explosive growth of the internet and commerce, today large numbers of your competitors underestimate the importance of LOCAL INTERNET SEARCHES. The first thing you need to do is to get a company web site that focuses on your local customers.

Once this is done …

Step 2) Expand your business beyond the local area

If you’re selling products

Physical products can easily be sold nationally or even internationally with an online store on your web site. Consider expanding your business that way if you sell any shippable product, as books, movies, cosmetics, apparel, computers, PC games, office supplies, electronics, furniture, toys, jewellery, fitness equipment, pet supplies, etc. etc.

If you’re new to the internet you may feel an online store is too complicated. In that case consider accepting orders via email or online contact form instead. Also – bear in mind that finding local consultants is not nearly as difficult as it used to be. They can set you up with a shopping cart usually for far less money than you might anticipate.

If you’re selling services

1) Many services are not bound to your geographic location.

My own business for example is available to customers worldwide. I sell internet marketing services and consulting on web sites in German and English language. Thus my services are accessible for roundabout one billion people – that’s 1,000,000.000 instead of just the 100,000 in my home town.

2) Some services have to be performed locally.

Could you still use the internet to expand your profits? Let’s see how…

• Sell Related Products. First of all you can start selling related products through your web site. Imagine a hair stylist. Of course the main business can only be performed when the client is ‘at hand’. But the hair stylist -having a web site- could start selling hair care products online and thus create additional revenue.
• Monetize Your Expertise. Second, any business person could and should monetize their Know-how and experience, see step 3 below to learn more.

Here’s a table of service categories and how to get new customers using a web site.

Step 3: Monetize your know-how

The first thing to do is to position yourself as recognized expert in your industry. You do this by publishing articles on your web site. It’s exactly what you can see in action on this very internet business blog – I’m publishing articles to position myself in the area of internet marketing. You can do the same in your industry.

Don’t worry whether you “deserve” to be called an ‘expert’. Generally speaking, 99% of the population will know less about your business than you do. It is these people that you want to attract. After all, you’re looking for customers, not to impress your competition.

Monetizing your expertise can even go one step further:

Create information products (for example, reports, booklets, video instruction) about what you know and sell them through your web site. Many of those can be sold digitally. People will download the information product and you don’t even have to take care of shipping goods.

To get you started, here’s a list of common information products.
You could create

• an e-book
• a teleseminar
• an audio book
• an online course
• a web site with a protected member only area
• a real seminar, maybe held in your local store

You set up an automated system once, and it’s working for you 24/7.

Selling information online is a multi billion dollar business.

If you know more about your product or service than your average customer, then you’re perfectly ready to sell your knowledge.

Summary – 3 Steps To More Customers:

No matter whether you’re a freelancer or run a local brick and mortar business, there are 3 ways to grow your business with a web site:

1. Create a business web site to attract local customers.

2. Sell related products and services through your web site.

3. Monetize your expertise: Publish articles to position yourself as authority and sell information products to make money.

Final words. Thanks for reading my article, I hope it has given you a few ideas about how you can generate more money for your business using the internet. I encourage you to post your thoughts and questions below. I read each and every comment and will be happy to answer your questions.