STEP FOUR: CREATE ONE PAGE DIRECT RESPONSE MINISITESChapter 14 - What is a Mini-site?I am constantly hearing this same dilemma repeated over and over again: "What can I do to sell more of my products/services?" Pay attention to the advertising that comes your way each day and you will see exactly what should not be done. Small businesses often try to compete with the big established brands in their markets. Those who fall into that trap have collateral and messaging that are self-centered and loaded with unnecessary information about the company. This type of marketing is totally useless. In essence, it s a waste of the marketer's time, the company's money and a failure to earn the right to do business with the prospect. If we tracked every ad or campaign that was produced I am sure we would find that the vast majority of them never accomplish their main objective: to sell the product! Key Point! The results that you get from your advertising are not controlled by the dollars you spend. Just because an ad costs a lot of money does not mean it is any more effective than one that costs thousands less. Many Internet marketers and small businesses get confused when they are planning to build their online businesses. In a recent article for paid subscribers, entitled "Trotline Marketing: Spinning off Multiple Micro-Focus Stores" in Web Commerce Today, 11/15/2001 www.wilsonweb.com/wct5/trotline_marketing.cfm Yahoo! Store designer and marketer Rob Snell explains how he is achieving much higher sales and profits in his own and his clients' stores. He does this by finding which parts of their online stores are doing best, and then he creates carefully architected and named micro-focus stores designed to maximize sales. With rare exceptions, mini-sites that are narrowly focused on a clearly defined product niche are much more likely to succeed than broader category stores for two reasons.
A direct selling sales website or mini-site can be compared to a virtual salesperson. Unlike a traditional information site or transaction site, the only purpose of a direct selling mini-site is to mentally take the prospect through the same mental sales process they would follow if they were face to face with a professional salesperson. If your virtual salesperson is good, the visitor will buy on the first visit. A great direct sales mini-site is a master of first call closing. The offline equivalent to a mini-site is a direct mail piece that you get in the mail. Most direct mail has a single purpose. The sender wants you to do something: The letter ends with a single offer that is supported by the body of the message and a strong headline. Your mini-site should do the exact same thing. Unlike a traditional website, a mini-site consists of only one page and one hyperlink. You either click on the link to order what has been offered, or you click the back button on your browser. Those are the only two choices. I have been collecting mini-site pages for over a year and have included some of the better pages in the tools section. Domain names Listen to the experts about what domain name or URL you should use for your websites and you will be told to stick with one URL and an easy structure. A big company is worried about customers visiting their site. They want you to visit their site and theirs alone. If a big company has a whole bunch of URLs, they will confuse the customers guessing at domain names and lose traffic. A big company with a brand should have only one URL, not several. Why? Because it helps your customers remember your brand -- and how to find you online. You will be told that consistency is everything when it comes to branding. This consistency of URL is vital because it is mentioned in every campaign. It is your home page, your message, your brand, your company. If you are a small business, do not worry. Your customers will not be guessing at your name or your brand, as they type a domain name into their browser. They have probably never heard of you. And they probably will not be touched by all your TV and newspaper ads, billboards and radio spots. They have found you because of word of mouth or word of mouse advertising. Key Point! Small businesses do not care about branding. They care about selling. Your direct sales sites are about selling a product or solution, not about branding a company. Your customers are not going to be guessing at your company name if they are looking for a solution or information regarding a problem that they have. Use a domain name that is part of the solution. For example I use: - Multiple domain names are cheap and can be registered easily. I use www.register4less.com or www.godaddy.com for all of my domains. Worry about the sale of your product not the branding of your company. For the small business, one company does not equal one address. Pricing How much should you charge for your product or service online? Charge what the market will bear. I do not know what that is and you will have to find out. Some marketers use complex formulas and algorithms to decide what they should charge. Test the price points that you think will work and then maximize your sales and profits. The great thing about Internet marketing is that it is easy to test different prices. Prices can be changed on the fly and you find out what works and what does not in a short period of time. Never stop testing prices. A price is useless unless readers know exactly what they are getting. If you have to introduce the price, do it in the same sentence as the offer. A price is useless unless readers know what emotional benefits they are getting from the product or service you are offering to them. Remember the visitors two questions? What is it? Answer them first, and then tell them the price. That is one of the reasons I am not a big fan of shopping cart systems. If not presented properly, a shopping cart looks like a menu in a restaurant. A standard menu is just a big list of all the different dishes and prices. Nothing s being sold; the person ordering is already hungry and has made the decision to eat. This menu approach causes problems when prospects come to a small business website and have not made up their minds to buy anything. A list of prices is useless at this point in the sales cycle; they do not know what it is they are getting or what it would mean to them if they did. Make it easy for your new customers to get started. Create special programs or introductory offers that introduce the customers to your products and services. While hitting a home run with every customer that visits your site would be nice, the reality is that if you are a small business you are going to work over time to become a trusted supplier to a new customer. Why not start with a base hit first, build the relationship and instead of making a sale, build a client. Bundling If you are having trouble getting started with clients, consider bundling or adding a premium. A bundle is a group of complimentary products or services with a perceived value that is greater than if they were purchased individually. Every fast food chain knows this: Do you want the sandwich or the combo? Bundling products can also protect your profit margins, increase your revenues and maintain your uniqueness. Be creative with your bundles and your competitors cannot compete. Price objections are also easily defended when your products and services are bundled with additional added value. If you have bought a computer lately, you know how effective the right bundle can be in swaying your decision. Are you buying a CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse, hard drive, scanner, printer, memory etc. or did you want to buy the X100 and get a free monitor, Microsoft Intellimouse, inkjet printer and $1000.00 of free software? Accepting Credit CardsE-commerce, merchant accounts, and online shopping cart systems are just fancy terms for being able to process your customer s payment for your goods and services online. During the early days of the commercial Internet, the ability to process these transactions was a technical highlight of many sites. In fact, amazon.com patented its ability to allow a visitor to purchase online with a single click. For the small business there are a number of factors when considering how to accept payment online from your customers. The basic assumptions that I am making are:
There are a number of good third-party web companies that can set up your site to accept and process credit cards. They are generally easy to use and flexible enough to handle the transfer of money in exchange for what you are selling. How Credit Card Gateways Work These third party credit card payment processes for websites allow you to put a buy now or order link on your website. By adding a buy now button with the script that they provide to your site, a visitor that clicks on the link is brought to a secure billing page which allows them to safely enter credit card and contact details into a form. This third party processor checks to validate the credit card and makes sure that the contact details are filled in on the order form. If the order is successful and the credit card is processed successfully, the visitor is then sent to a thank you page. If they have bought a physical product, the details of the order are listed. If they have bought a digital product, a link to download the product is provided. As the seller in this arrangement you will receive a notification by e-mail that someone has bought from you and how much has gone into your account. Everyone wins. The credit card processing company takes a small transaction fee from the amount for processing the order, your customer gets what they want and you get money in your account. All of these third party payment processors use a simple line of html code that allows you to create these buy now links on your site. They all accept the major credit cards and use a safe and secure web page on which your customer can order. How to Pick an Online Credit Card Processor The first thing you need to consider goes back to what you are selling. If you are actually selling a physical product that needs to be shipped to a customer you need a company that handles physical goods. If you are selling a service or digital product, there are companies that specialize in those virtual sales where a product is not physically shipped. You should also know what type of billing you need. Is it a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription? In what currency do you want to process and complete the transaction? Do you want to allow for a referral fee or for an affiliate commission to be calculated? Is the purchase going to be for one item or a bundle of items that requires a cart system? The companies that I have used successfully include: Paysystems, QuickpayPro, 1Shopping Cart, ClickBank and PayPal. Key Point! Each has strengths and weakness and is best suited for a certain type of purchase. Key Point! If you are selling digital goods under $50 and only want to sell single items with a one time payment use ClickBank. It is easy to add a buy now link and you automatically get paid every two weeks. One of the nice things about ClickBank is that it has a built in referral system for paying those other businesses that send sales to you. If you are selling both products and services that require sale prices greater than $50 or have a catalog of different products consider PayPal. I really like PayPal. You can sell items with prices up to $1000.00. It allows you to sell subscriptions, goods, services and has a built in shopping cart if you have a catalog of products to sell. ClickBank allowed you to start right away; PayPal requires that you verify a credit card before you could start selling with their system. Be aware that the transactions are processed in US$. This means that anyone anywhere can purchase using a credit card. However, bear in mind their credit card will be charged the amount that you set out in US funds. Visit the site that fits your sales plans, pay the setup fee and start selling. 
Custom Search
|
 |