Sales Focused Copywriting For Direct Response Marketers Who Want More Clients...More Sales...More Cash In The Bank!
Gee, is there any marketing problem that a Groupon promotion can’t solve?!?
As always, Tom Fishburne provides a light-hearted and thought-provoking insight into an aspect of contemporary marketing with his post “holy groupon”.
Here’s my take on how Groupon and it’s numerous competitors (I notice Google has a coupon program in beta right now) fit into your marketing mix, if at all…
Google offers a free conversion and traffic tracking tool that you should take advantage of, if you aren’t already. The tracking tool is comprised of a bit of Javascript code that you put at the bottom of your landing and “thank you” pages—really any page on your site you want metrics for. Now whenever someone lands on your site and orders your product, Google will track those conversions for you for free.
But Google Analytics goes way beyond simple conversion tracking. With it you can discover the answers to such questions as “what percent of my visitors read my privacy policy before ordering?”
Or “Of those who read my terms and conditions, what’s the spread between those who end up buying versus abandoning?”
One caveat: Google doesn’t update its stats in real time, but the tool is perfectly useful for checking your metrics with the last day or even from a few hours ago.
There’s much more that Google Analytics can do for you, so rather than repeat their well-written content and “how to” instructions, I recommend you read up on the latest version of Analytics and get started here:
Whoa…half of the year is almost gone…
…as I am sharply reminded by preparing this look ahead at upcoming events in July 2011.
Events, occasions and anniversaries, of course, that astute marketers can use as the basis for a campaign or promotion,
Starting with Australia…
…this is a pretty lean month.
It’s the start of the new financial year.
Also the start of the second half of the calendar year. I’ve used this as a reason to encourage people to review their goals, revisit plans and recommit.
It’s also the dead of winter.
Outside of that, you’ll need to rely on local events, company specific occasions or more off-beat anniversaries (see below for more ideas in that area).
In the wider world…
…in the northern hemisphere it’s summer, so scope for appropriate seasonal promotions.
In the USA, July 4 is Independence Day.
Other occasions to note…
If you’re promoting a product on your site, and your site is a database-driven shopping cart e-commerce system, then you probably have links like the following for each product page:
http://www.mysite.com/store/products.php?id=28475&desc=product%20description%20here&cat=980&refer=477840
Often times when sending a link out like that in an email, it gets chopped up. Then when the reader clicks on the link, they get a page not found error. Not a good thing to happen!
Or, if you have the link in an article or ezine, you could face similar problems.
Plus the link is just not intuitive enough.
It would be much, much better to have a link like this:
http://www.mysite.com/productname
Well, you can have this when you use server-side redirects.
Here’s how it works (if your site uses PHP):
When people read editorials and articles, they tend to read the captions under the photos.
The same will happen in your sales letter. So each and every photo should have a caption under it.
If it’s a picture of your product, the caption can be an additional call to action (e.g. “Get Yours Today!”).
If it’s a photo of a person, add a relevant caption, but every caption should provide some call to action.
Remember, if it doesn’t advance the sale, get rid of it or replace it with something that does.
Caption Example:
Steak: Food For Kings
Better Caption Example:
Cook Juicy Steaks Like This Every Month...Have Them Delivered Right To Your Doorstep
One further refinement is to make the caption a clickable link that takes the visitor right to your order page.