Discounting Your Way to Profits

According to recent statistics, the use of coupons has reached an all time high.  In fact, coupon distributing sites have popped up everywhere. Why? Because coupons create interest and generate traffic and have high redemption rates. Or, in plain English: millions of consumers are using them. And there are no short order of companies offering them: from discount codes for Abercrombie to coupons for walgreens, you’d be hard pressed not to find companies offering them,  meaning  your competition is offering them as part of their marketing mix too and you should probably start thinking about developing one for your business. Let’s discuss some basics.

Design – does the coupon flow with your overall branding strategy? A good design focuses not only on the discount received for the product or service, but should also create brand recognition. Secondly, does the promo make sense? Not all promos are good promos.  The last thing you want to do is have so many awesome deals that you lose your shirt on all of them.  Many companies have complained about market and profitability erosion by using those Daily Deal sites. So use due diligence and make sure your coupon doesn’t dilute your brand or your revenue stream.

Distribution – There are many ways to get them into your customers hands.  Create coupon codes and syndicate these via social networks, create an email blast, use Google offers, etc. Get them out, track where they came from, and how much they converted for.

Some final words.  Redemption rates go down you if have too many offers being distributed simultaneously. To overcome analysis paralysis, provide a clear detailed objective, include a product image, use your logo, make sure you have some sort of tracking, and a expiration date. Do this and you will increase your paying client base, your branding and repeat business.   And those aren’t bad results when you figure you are now discounting your way to profits.

The ABC’s of CRM

Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) implies building relationships with your prospects and customers. It is a proven way to close deals both pre and post sales. So how does this work? There are many ways in which you can build relationships with your prospects and customers. Let’s discuss a few of them.

One of the most effective marketing tools to build relationships is ‘correspondence exchange’. These are predefined messages that are  sequentially sent via your autoresponder. Your audience clicks on a link for more information, which will initiate a sequence of messages. This link can be placed in your website or in your newsletter. This can be setup to work before a sale, and after the sale (i.e.: “Thanks for your order” and then continues with the intent of offering additional products or services). Additionally newsletters are a very powerful tool to build relationships with your subscriber list. Each subscriber to your publication is a potential customer. If they continue to read your newsletter,  a relationship is created. Over time they will trust you and your offerings and become customers.

How’s your Customer Service? This area is crucial to your CRM. No matter how good a deal they got from you, if your customer service skills are lacking, kiss that customer and any future purchases goodbye. Gaining trust is hard.  Losing trust is easy. Treat all your customers as VIP (within reason) and they will remain trusting (and paying) customers for life! Speaking of trust, go through your landing page as if you were a potential client. Your content can help you build rapport with your visitors. When you create professional looking and sounding content, your credibility starts to increase, which leads to trust and ultimately, a sale.

Lastly, consider this bit of advice giving to me years ago: the IM space is not about money, it’s about people. Get the people and they will bring the money. So build solid relationships and reap the financial rewards.

Are You a Doctor In Your Profession?

I was pondering over something recently.  It was triggered by this comment someone made about why they entered the medical field to become a doctor:

“For 7 years I studied general medicine.  I filled out the gp application and finally passed my gp exam and then got my degree and professional credentials. But for 5 of those years I went without going to parties, sacrificing family time, studying 5 to 8 hours a day, even though I spent 7 hours in class. In the later years of my studies, there were the 12 hours shifts, many of them without sleeping, and then more schooling later in the day. After a year of residency in a hospital with 36 hr, sleep-deprived, mal-nourished shifts, I spent a year in social service, alone in a community hospital seeing over 800 patients. But to succeed in today’s world you have to specialize. I competed against 15,000 physicians in a national exam and my specialty only approves 545 doctors.  For the record, I got 135th place and I won a scholarship to study a postgraduate degree which I did in a highly specialized hospital for 4 years, and again, 36 to 48 hours shifts with little sleep, eating poorly, and sacrificing friends and family because of the commitment I made ​​to all of the hospitalized patients of a 11-story hospital.  The responsibility was immense but I did it – I graduated with 7 other colleagues.  I am board certified in internal medicine and have a sub specialty in Geriatrics.

At 30 years old I got married, and now at 32 years and I just became a Dad.  Do I have any regrets?  I strive to be a good doctor (a knowledgeable physician) and a good health care practictioner (a good person who treats his patients well) and I’m very satisfied . I devoted 13 years to the most jealous girlfriend (MEDICINE) and sacrificed many things.  Many started this path with me, but didn’t stick it out and aren’t as satisfied as I am. But it’s never too late, you just need discipline, perseverance, dedication, organization”.

So why did I bring this up? Doctors don’t become doctors overnight. As online marketers, we tend to be conditioned to look right away for the pot of gold on the other side of the rainbow, only to realize it takes a lot of time, work, “discipline, perseverance, dedication, organization” to get to that other side. Are you a “Doctor” in your profession?  Most will not be willing to make sacrifices.  But a small few, will crawl on, sometimes in agony, and will make their goals a reality.  If you haven’t already, I hope that is your outcome.

Upward and onward…

 

PPC Secrets

Pay Per Click (PPC) provides one of the most effective ways for affiliates to promote their offerings, as long as it’s done properly. Not everyone uses PPC. Some promote products through articles, others use SEO tactics, blogs or a combination of these, but many see a quick profit by leveraging PPC campaigns. Here are some tips that will maximize your results on your PPC campaigns to quickly monetize traffic.

1. Choose the right product to promote it.

If you want to promote products that are highly profitable, choose those that pay high commissions. For instance, on Clickbank, find products with a Gravity greater than 1. New products show up all they time in their marketplace, but if its initial gravity is zero, commissions for their sales will be low. These more than likely will be a time and money-suck. Oh and don’t worry about the competition.  You will always have it.  But just because a product is popular, that doesn’t mean you can’t market it successfully.

 2.  Be original

To succeed with PPC, be creative and keep away from all the keywords or search terms used by your competition. For example, if you are promoting a weight loss product, think outside the box.  More than likely your competition will target “weight loss”.  So why not be nichey and think of unusual terms (that still generate a ton of search), such as “lose weight during pregnancy” or “losing weight by running”. Search for keywords or phrases that allow you to get a high position of your PPC advertising but at a low cost, preferably at $ 0.20 cents per click or less. If the product you are promoting does not have too many competitors, your market niche will appeal to buyers, since it is not overrun by too many competitors.

3. Tracking

When you start your PPC campaign, you may lose money. This is VERY common.  Many lose money, and give up, and consequently never see success. Those who stick it out by testing and fine-tuning their ads and landing pages, see click increases and then conversions.  But you would never know whats working and what isnt’t unless you track everything.  You do need to track your campaigns meticulously. Use one keyword per ad group, so you can track each.

4.  Use different PPC networks.

When starting out, use Google Adwords.  Follow your conversion rate, the percentage of clicks on Google and how you optimize your campaign. You can then start thinking about using other networks. Once you have a profitable campaign, transfer your methodology to other networks, such as Bing.

Does all this sound a bit daunting? It can be.  And that’s why  many leverage the expertise of a Pay Per Click agency.  They have the knowledge, experience and ability to plan and implement effective digital campaigns for your business. Come together on what you consider success and let them achieve tangible results for you, usually for a very modest service fee.