Vision Of Success

I just read an interesting article about the ease of a website in relation to how many sales it brings in.

The fact is most customers abandon an online shopping cart before completeing the order. As they work their way into your system, the difficulty prevents them from making the sale easily, and makes them choose to move on to another site instead.

Walk through your site as a customer. Do you require customers to open up accounts, choose uernames and passwords, and provide unnecessary information before allowing them to buy? Do they have to go through several pages before the sale is complete?

Or can they do it all on one page, see their order, hit the “Buy Now” button and complete the sale in a matter of minutes?

The easier you can make it, the better your sales will be.

Lori

What’s the best type of ezine, html or text?

While the experts continue to argue, I recently saw one survey within the ezine industry that showed their readers preferred:

HTML - 79%
Plain text - 21%

Your ezine will have better delivery rates as a text document, but readers have stated they prefer the looks of an html ezine.

The best thing for you to do is to understand your marketplace. Look at your open rates and your click through rates. If you are consistently having good results with an html ezine, then continue to use it.

Ask your readers which they prefer. Offer a variety of options, including a click thru to a copy on your website, for those that can’t read your ezine in their email program.

Lori

I sent out a postcard campaign a little while ago. Recently I had one returned with A LOT of comments on it - all with the basic message of “please take me off your list”.

While I never let people like this bring me down, I happily took this person off of my mailing list and went about my day.

But it got me to thinking about this poor business owner, and all of the knowledge he’ll never receive.

You see, when you receive “junk mail”, don’t stand over the trash can and throw it all away. Instead take a look at it, and see which pieces motivate you to take action. What’s good about each piece? What’s bad?

Then keep a file and place the good and the bad each in its own folder. (Or if you’re like me, it’s own plastic tub.) Then when I’m in need for a new idea, I head to my tub and start sorting through my “good” file. I can always find a piece or two that motivates me to create my own campaign.

In fact, that’s how I created the last campaign I sent!

Too bad one business owner will never be successful, and use the free tools that come his way every day.

Lori

I’m a big fan of Jeffrey Gitomer, (maybe because we both write for the Business Journals ) and love reading his ezine every week. I think the one thing I’ve always noticed about his writing is how upbeat he is. He’s always motivating you to take action - to take the next step towards success.

I finally had a chance to read his “Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude” and once again, it’s a great read.

His “little book” series aren’t meant to sit down and digest in one sitting. Instead, read a few pages a day, and digest what he has to say. Use his books to motivate you to change the way you are currently doing things, and make your day more successful.

For example, in one section he speaks of Brain-Ups.

When you wake up in the morning, do you do push-ups to get your body muscles moving? Well a Brain-Up is a similar task for you brain. Flex your thinking muscle - your attitude muscle.

1. Create positive thoughts.

2. Read positive thoughts.

3. Write positive thoughts.

4. Think and plan positive actions for the day.

5. Speak positive words to yourself and others.

5.5 Ignore all bullshit.

Taking the right actions first thing in the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day!

So like many things, I’ve added Jeffrey’s 5.5 tasks to my list - and I love how much more energy I have.

Give it a try.

Lori

Do you have a website and wonder why its not working for you?

Does the phrase “Internet marketing” trigger more questions than answers?

If you are a creative professional, ready to grow your business by using the Internet, its time to invest in GetKnownMarketing. This online marketing strategy manual will help make sense of being online, and give you real answers to your most common questions.

Learn all about my new for 2007 GetKnownMarketing now.

http://www.getknownmarketing.com/

I’m always amazed at the ideas people come up with.

I just read about a new guitar that’s hitting the market. The problem with guitars is their size. If you want to bring it on an airplane, it’s hard to fit in the bins. Well one company has solved this issue by making a folding guitar.

http://www.devillain.com/centerfold/

Not only can you see what a great invention it is, you can also see the great marketing opportunities. What was always a problem before, can now be your biggest selling tool.

You don’t have to have a new product to create a great selling tool. What  makes you differen? What makes your clients say “wow”? You can find it … it just takes time.

Lori

Google announced this week that it is partnering with EchoStar to sell commercials over the DISH network. What does this mean for marketers?

It means you can now by tv ads in a similar way to Google Adwords. Imagine being able to pinpoint exactly your target demographics, and find a way to advertise to them, whether it be online or on television.

What makes this so interesting is how many forms of advertising are becoming available to even the smallest of buisness. If you know your target market, you can reach them like never before.

A great article that goes over the details of this transaction is at http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39286604,00.htm

Who is your target market? How can you reach them? The more you can define this question, the more options are going to be available to you.

Lori

Several people had referred this software to me, so I finally headed over to their site and watched the demo. Wow. I was sold. So we picked up the software last night, and I can see this is going to have a huge impact on the way that I write, and how much I get done.

If you write a lot, check this out.

http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/

Lori

After working hard all day, one in awhile you just need to smile.

A friend sent me this video, and it really was a great way to end my day. I hope you enjoy it as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno

Lori

Social media sites are what 2007 will be all about. The more connected you can get online, the more your business will grow.

I’ve been playing around with Digg http://digg.com/ and will be trying to work my way up in ranking in the future. One of the fun tools to watch is at http://digg.com/spy There you can watch real time what others are reading. It’s interesting to see how fast it changes, and exactly what people are reading. Give it a try.

Lori