Saturday, October 17, 2009

How To Increase Your Sales When You'd Swear No One Is Buying

I've discovered one of the neatest little tools. It really is a goldmine in these tough times. I guess it would be even in good times.

This is one fo the secrets to increasing sales in a recession, and at any time.

How would you like to have a tool that shows you exactly how many people are looking for you, how they are looking for you, and assuming that you should capture X% of those you can tune up your sales and marketing until you capture at least that many. A scientific formula for your sales.

How Many People Are Looking for You . . . RIGHT NOW

I was talking with a small construction company owner just before Christmas. He absolutely swore no one was buying. He was lamenting at how the new home construction market had gone to hell in a handbasket when the real estate market crashed. And then he even said that Christmas is always the worst time of the year. So, he was saying that this month was the worst of even a really bad time.

Finding That There Were 13,000 Looking

However, when I used the tool that I mentioned above to show him that there were over 13,000 people right here in Kansas City looking for construction, remodeling, and any number of other ways people were looking for his services he was shocked. And then I told him that my rule of thumb is that we should be able to get in front of about 5% of those, 650. And then we went and did it.

And then there was the landscaper who said the same thing and I showed him that there were 2,000 people right in his neighborhood looking for landscaping right at Christmas when he told me no one was buying. And he Mary Kay Lady that increased her calls from 1 a year to 72 in the next two weeks.

OK, do I have your mouth watering yet?

The tool is Google Keyword Tool. Just get on Google and search for "Google Keyword Tool."

Once you are on that page type in the words you believe that someone would use to search for what you do. Start with the obvious, how you describe what you do, then think what pain is your target market experiencing.Look for that. Then what solutions do you provide and type that in next.

If you are doing business only in your city or community be sure to add that description. Let's use the landscaper, we might look for "landscaper Kansas City," "landscaping Kansas City", etc. However, before adding the geographic location you might use the tool to broaden your wording from landscaping and beyond. Google will give you more variation if you don't type in the geographic location first. So expand your mind, and then add the geographic location to the most searched for words.

Although you could build a long list of words to type into the block all at once, don't. If this would generate too big of a list Google has a tendency to drop some of the words without telling you. So, type in only 2-3 words at a time that are closely related. When you get that list, right at the bottom of that list Google will allow you to download that list into Excel. Do that. Use Excel to accumulate all of your lists.

Once you get your first list into Excel, rename it, save it as an Excel, or .xls file. Then cut and paste every new list into this list, or create groupings of search words into different tabs.

Google will tell you how many are searching for each word, and it will expand on the words you originally typed in to show you other ways people are searching for words similar to that word.

Now you know how people are looking for you and how many for each of those words. Use those words in your marketing materials, in your sales discussions because that's what your customers are REALLY looking for, and that may not have been the way you thought people were looking, or you might have thought NO ONE was really looking. But I'd bet you are surprised at how many actually are, even in this recession.

Where are they? They Aren't Calling ME

So, what do you do when you see that that many are looking but you are setting here . . . right now . . . without being able to reach anyone?

Marketing is a simple formula. It's the number of people who get to see or hear your marketing message times the conversion rate of that message, and that tells you how many leads, calls, sign-ups, or whatever it is you want those people to do. Let's say that you find that 1,000 people are searching for widget blocks. I typically assume that 5% should be obtainable. So, 1,000 x 5.0% = 50 people monthly.

And if you aren't getting in front of that many people monthly, right now, that likely means that the way you've been reaching out with your marketing has been the wrong way or to the wrong people. The construction company above continued to market the way he had always marketed, pretty much just waiting for the word of mouth from his customers to bring him new clients. And that wasn't bringing him anyone under the current conditions. Yet, Google told us that there were 13,000 right here looking for him. So, we had to find them.

As we looked there were lots more people looking for a remodeler than for "new home construction" or "contractor" or just plain "construction." Maybe more people are fixing up older homes than building or buying new homes. So, my client did two things, he started sending mailers to older homes, and he also started a Google Adwords campaign focused on "remodeling" words, "remodeling," "bath remodeling," "kitchen remodeling," "whole house remodeling", and low and behold he got 43 responses at a time when he had sworn no one was calling. And I'd bet he's the busiest construction company in the city.

So, find how people are looking for you, and how many?

About the Author:
Still having trouble finding where they are, or how to capture them?
Alan Boyer has just completed his new guide "How to double a business" even when others are losing business. Get your "Secrets to Double a Business Nearly Overnight" for free at http://www.leaders-perspective.com/Double-Your-Business.htm

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Never Deviate From Right Email Marketing Solutions

Email marketing is the basic requirement of all online companies. There are infinite online companies in the world wide web and they have to deal with email marketing procedures. But there are a few online companies that have successfully been doing email marketing. Each of these online companies faces email marketing problems. Almost every online company needs email marketing solutions. Often online companies face problems, while emailing their promotional emails to the targeted customers. And, if you are armed with the right email marketing solutions, then never deviate from them.

If you are looking for efficient email marketing solutions, then get in touch with email marketing companies that can help you out with their effective services. The only thing that you need to take care of is to contact a reputed online email marketing company that has got good brands in its respective fields. If you have sufficient amount of budget, then contact the quality service provider, then can enrich the brands of your products and services instantly. Many online companies have been successful in these fields and there is no doubt that you would be successful here.

There are incidences that showcased on having relationship with a poor email marketing companies many online companies have lost their businesses. So, you need to learn from these incidences and use the learning, while you deal with your various email marketing issues. As much as possible, you should try to gain knowledge in email marketing fields. Concentrate on how to come up with the best results while you implement new email marketing solutions. Before you accept the handed over email marketing solutions from the email marketing company, you should check these solutions as well. Do some practical tests and then confirmed whether you should carry on with the project or not.

Email messaging is the only way of reaching to the wanted customer. It's been fruitful for many existing online companies, and there is no doubt that you will be successful in this field. Have a pack of effective email marketing companies in your kitty and start with the desired email marketing projects. Thus, you should never try to deviate from your existing right and effective email marketing solutions.

Author: Lalita N.