Technorati Tags: Niche Marketing, Web 2.0

Some years ago I tried my hand at the sales game. I got a job selling vending machine leases to any company that might have a use for such an item. This included manufacturing companies that could place them in their lunch rooms and bars and restaurants that might want to own their own cigarette machines or electronic games. I chased all over town searching for customers and after 6 months I left the company with 4 sales under my belt. The sales had been made to what my sales trainer had call a “Stone Mooch” the kind of person who had so little sales resistance that anyone could sell them anything. If you run an internet business, you might get a visitor like that and they will instantly accept your offer. However in my experience those people are few and far between.

When you walk into someones office cold you have about 15 seconds to establish a rapport with the client and that first impression is what makes or breaks the sale. The same is true of the internet. In this case it has to do with the visual aspects of your page and your opening sentence, headline or whatever you page heading contains. Google calls it the “Bounce Rate”. How long do visitors stay on your site before the hit the back button and go elsewhere? When you install “Analytics” you will see how many visitors stay and how many leave and how long they stay. If your bounce rate is over 75% chances are that you need to change the opening statement on your page, so your visitors will stay long enough to hear your message.

Switching gears here, the new media such as Twitter and Facebook etal. provide an opportunity to link directly to sales pages and ads for goods and services without needing to go thru any intermediary site. For several years this technique has been seriously discouraged by Google on internet pages. It is a good way to get your site slapped and you could get banned from using PPC. The fact that it is done on the Twitter and Facebook platforms does not change anything. You may not get the “Google Slap” but the usual result is the same. Strong chances are that you will not get any serious sales activity by directly linking to a sales page without first building some rapport and trust with your client. Shoving a contact into a sales page when they are cold or moderately curious is a formula to create mistrust and usually a high bounce rate. Especially when you are the 47th person touting the same offer.

So what is the better approach? Create curiosity for your offer and bring them to your page. Offer an item or information which is valuable. Give away good content, give away some more good content and get them to sign up for your free “Mini-course”. When you have established a rapport then you can direct them to sales page by way of a personal email. Now you have a person who is at least willing to look at what you have to sell and if they trusted you enough to give you their address then they may trust you enough to take up your offer. In Affiliate marketing this is doubly true. Since the product is not your product your recommendation needs to be genuine and sincere, your reviews should be honest and if you offer a bonus, it should be of the nature that enhances the offer your are trying to sell. Bottom line: unless you feel that you audience is comprised of “Stone Mooches” your direct linking sales approach will not produce very many sales for you.

Technorati Tags: Direct linking

Easy Web 2.0 Internet Marketing: Strategies For Quickly

Building an Audience with Social Media

Quickly now–tell me the names of five of the most influential people in your marketing niche?

Have them?

Okay, So if I was able to take a survey of all the readers of this article and ask them the same question of “who” the most influential people were I would bet that the same list of people would show up. There would be a half a dozen people who were consistently mentioned as the shakers and movers in the industry.

Why do you suppose that is the case? Because these marketers have invested the time and energy to make themselves known as the most famous and influential people in their niche. Want to know something else? That investment is making them fabulously wealthy.

They have taken the time and trouble to establish themselves as the authorities in their respective markets , they are the ones who seem to be on the cutting edge. They are the ones releasing new products and new “twists” of the old which make you shake your head and say “why didn’t I think of that?” These are the ones who seem to have all the answers and solutions, who are able to draw others to their offers with little effort; and they are reaping big rewards.

In the internet marketing world people such as Frank Kern, Dan Kennedy, Andy Jenkins and Eben Pagen come to mind. These so called “Guru’s” are the ones who are looked to for new and exciting marketing ideas. We can explore how they got that way in a while but first we should take a look at what happens when you are able to establish yourself as an authority in the niche that you are involved in.

When you develop your brand to a point where people in your niche market are looking to you as the trend-setter and leader there are a number of favorable results.

1. People begin to see you as the leader who is incredibly skilled at what you do. They look for your input and ideas and listen when you have something to say.

2. Your clients and your competitors think of you as the most knowledgeable person in your field of expertise.

3. You establish yourself as the Authority in your market. You are accorded celebrity status. The media and others will seek you out for advise on matters regarding your expertise.

Your offers and emails are anxiously awaited and they are read when you send them. You receive requests for interviews, and become the subject of media articles. You are able to increase your bank account at will with a simple mailing, fill an auditorium for a seminar or host a thousand people on a paid webinar.

Why? Because you have established yourself at the “Go To” person in your niche. You have control over your market. Your daily site traffic is counted in the 100′s. Your products are sought and bought by sell out markets. You collect leads and build your list at will. You can mail your list with affiliate offerings and get excellent responses as well.

Does this sound too fantastic to believe. If this picture sounds unrealistic, too good to be true, too unachievable, it’s not.

And this guy is living proof of that.

Check it out now

Rich Schefren has created more established authorities than
anyone else in the online marketing world…

His coaching system is legendary, launching the multi-million dollar careers of virtually dozens of successful entrepreneurs.

Household names like Mike Filsaime…Tellman Knudson…Shawn Casey…Joel Comm…Ryan Deiss…Jim Edwards and many more can
trace a major portion of their success back to what Rich taught them.

And on Thursday, September 3rd at 8PM Eastern Time, Rich released his webinar to do the exact same thing for you. This is a part of the Founder Series.

Take a Look This new series of audio/video plus PDF courses is mind boggling. Plus you get access to many of Rich’s previous courses. Incredible value.

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