Evaluate and Create Your Call to Action By Laura Lake, About.com

Filed In:

1. Marketing Plan and Strategy
2. > Strategy Tutorials
Do you have a call to action in your marketing materials?

Go ahead take a look. In your marketing materials do you tell them what to do next?

Let's consider that your potential customer has picked up a piece of your marketing collateral, perhaps it's that fantastic brochure you just had designed. They begin to read it and as they flip through the brochure they realize hey might be able to use your services, but they get to the end and they don't know what to do, because you presented them with no call to action.

You didn't tell them to call you. You didn't tell them to visit your website. They contemplate, they ponder and then they toss away your brochure without even contacting you.

Sound absurd? It happens all the time, that's why I want to talk to you about the importance of your call to action.

When it comes to marketing, your call to action is the most important part of your marketing campaign. It's truly amazing to me how many companies don't include a call to action on their marketing materials or their websites.

The best way that I've found to create an effective call to action is imagine the questions the consumer has when viewing your marketing information.

Let's just take a look at a few that come to mind immediately.

* How do I contact them? Are they available via telephone, internet, fax, or email?
* Why should I buy from them? What do they offer me? Will they save me money? Will they make my life easier? Are they better than their competition?
* Is there any immediacy? Are they running any promotions if I contact them before a deadline date? Will I receive a discount if I act now?

Does your marketing material answer all of those questions?

If you said yes, fantastic. Let's continue with ways to make sure our call to action is strong enough and if not how can we make it stronger?

Your call to action must include every way possible that they can contact you and buy from you. Include your telephone number, your address, your website address and of course your email. Share with them how your product will solve a problem they may be encountering. Solution-position your product so it touches the spot of pain your consumer is feeling and flesh out those benefits, now tell them how to get those benefits.

If you do these simple things you can create a strong call to action that will in fact increase the potential customers that contact you just from reading your marketing material.

Word of Mouth vs. Viral Marketing: What's the Difference? By Laura Lake, About.com

Filed In:

1. Marketing Methods

Word-of-mouth marketing or viral marketing? What's the difference?

Recently I shared with you a few tips on how to generate word-of-mouth marketing for your business. I received a few emails as well as comment post on the difference between word-of-mouth marketing and viral marketing, so I figured what better time to explore the differences in these two types of marketing.

Word-of-mouth marketing is when a business does something and their consumer tells five to ten friends. Word-of-mouth marketing has an echo affect. The initial sound is loud and then it fades into the background.

Viral marketing unlike word-of-mouth marketing has a compounding affect. A consumer tells five to ten people and then those five to ten people tell another five to ten people. The driving force behind most viral campaigns is the passion a consumer carries. It's like a virus that continuously infects more people and spreads without requiring anymore marketing effort.

While the two are similar as you can see they are not the same.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a key component to the growth of a small business. It's often word-of-mouth marketing that keeps small businesses running in the early days of operation when there is little to no marketing budget. The consumer shares their experience with your products or services and they share it with their family and friends. This increases your consumer base and increases your sales.

Viral marketing is more about reaching out and touching the passion point of your consumer, so that the passion drives the message and the message continues to reach the masses without assistance from you. You can orchestrate a viral campaign, but very seldom are viral campaigns that are orchestrated as successful as those that are just driven by the passion of a consumer. In order for it to reach a level of success your consumer must feel they have a personal stake and investment in the success of your campaign.

It's important to also realize that the success of a viral campaign depends on the vehicles use to transmit the message. There are companies that are more virally equipped than others. In order to create a strong viral link the message must be able to transport from television advertising, to radio and other extended means of broadcasting to the power of the Internet.

In conclusion the major different between word-of-mouth marketing and viral is that word-of-mouth is often driven by you the marketer or business owner and viral marketing driven by the passion of your consumers and it's success does not depend on you.

Momentum Stock Message 25th February 2008

Is the current bear cycle over? I do not know for sure but I am edging towards yes. How long will it last? No idea. I am not into “predicting”.

Why do I say this current bear cycle is over?

1) Well the markets averages have actually stopped going down. Whilst they aren’t exactly “pumping” they have stopped going down. Not a bad sign. And after a big 4 –5 month sell off it is about right on time. I do admit the market can surprise and another leg down is definitely not impossible. Only time will tell I am afraid.
2) Another very good point is I am seeing life in momentum stocks again. For the first time since November 07 I am seeing volume and price pick up in some of my “watch list stocks.”

There’s no “fool-proof” system to get you in and out exactly on “cue.” You have to accept it’s an art and not a science. But I’ve been quit accurate in the past.

Momentum Stocks 25th February 2008

FSLR
DRYS
GOOG,
ISRG,
AAPL,
RIMM

Mark Crisp

Mark Crisp

Why Momentum Stock Trading

Why momentum trade stocks I am asked from time to time?

Because I do not have to get in right at the bottom of a stocks move to make profits. There’s no ego attached here. If I can catch half of a good trend then I am happy.

Also I have no idea what stocks are going to move. I really don’t. So I wait and let the market tell me which stocks it has fallen in love with. I can then simply wait for my buy signal to be triggered. Sometimes I miss these moves. I do not catch all big moves. I am happy to catch a few every year.

Study the past. Study past big winning stocks and you can see what works.

Momentum Stocks:

JRCC,
COIN
FSLR
SWC

Regards

Mark Crisp

Penny Stock Buying. Is it Really a Viable Method To Get Rich?

There is surely no better way to make massive returns on your money than in penny stock investing.
There is no point in joining the party too late. You need to get in before the crowd are aware of this penny stock investment. As soon as word is generated about a company, the price of the penny stock soars until it no longer falls in the category of penny stocks at all. So how do you get this kind of information if the media isn’t disseminating it to the public yet?

The first thing you can do is research on your own. Penny stock companies usually post their financial data for investors to find, even if they’re not being blasted over the airwaves just yet.
You have to become a Sherlock Holmes of the penny stock investment world. Sniffing out the very best opportunities. Sometimes you’ll get wind of a small news item where stocks aren’t even mentioned and it gives you just enough information to leverage an investment of penny stock before the company starts heavily promoting their stocks in connection with the news.

Creating wealth in penny stocks means doing your due diligance and then acting on it with total commitment.. Some investors prefer to wait and see what will happen with a company before they buy stock.

This kind of approach nullifies the opportunity they have to take advantage of the low stock cost, because once investors know for sure that a company is on the rise, everyone will be scrambling for a share and the stock prices will rapidly trend.

One way to stay abreast of up-and-coming penny stock companies is to join one of the many penny stock advice forums on the Internet and watch what others have to say about the choices available to penny stock investors.
Always make sure you do your own investigation into the company as well, but having other investors with a like-minded attitude can help you learn what to look for before shelling out too much money as a unwise.

"5 Facts That Will Have You Re-writing Your Web Site In A Hu

Do you know the differences between writing copy for the web and writing copy for print? Some of the answers will go against your intuition and against cultural norms. But, these facts detail how people read on the web. There's no use in arguing against them. Instead we should embrace them and use this knowledge to our advantage. Here's what the facts are and how they're going to affect your website. 1) Where Do Eyes Go First When Your Homepage Comes Up? Contrary to what you might think, it isn't towards the graphics or photos like in print advertising. Instead your prospects eyes will first go to the copy. Specifically your headline and sub-heads. Therefore, your first chance to engage the prospect is through copy. Not graphics. Seeing as most web users look at a web page for only 3-15 seconds before deciding whether to stay or move on. The fact that they look at copy first has massive implications for your website. Fancy graphics won't make a prospect stay on your website. But a really strong headline and strong sub-heads will. 2) How Much Of Your Copy Do Users Actually Read? The fact is that online users, on average, read 75% of the length of any given page. This is big news because most web pages will have the important conclusions, calls to action, and order information on the bottom 25% of any given page. That's a big no-no. Because it will never get read. You have to have your call to action and order information presented early on your web page to ensure it gets read. 3) Why Do Most Banner Ads Produce Poor Click-Through Rates? 1.25 seconds. That's how long an average user will look at your banner ad. That's just enough time to perceive one image or 6 words (based on college student's average reading speed of 350 words/minute). Therefore, banner ads that have animation, taking 4-5 seconds to run through a cycle, or more than 6 words must be reconsidered. However, if you really must keep your animated banner ad because "it just looks so cool!" I would suggest that you at least keep your company logo visible throughout the entire animation sequence. 4) Why Is Reading Online More Frustrating Than Reading Print? Turns out that reading from a computer screen causes a person's reading speed to slow by 25% when compared to reading print. That means reading long copy can be very frustrating online. Break up the copy to help users through. Have a few one line paragraphs. Use headlines and sub-heads to summarize information. So users who are tired of reading word-by-word can quickly scan the rest of your document. 5) Are Your Web Page Users Not Getting The Whole Picture? If you haven't made your web page truly scannable, prospects to your site may only be getting part of the sales message. Only 21% of online users read word-by-word. The other 79% scan a web page headline to headline. Sub-head to sub-head. Picking up only the larger, bolded or italicized copy. Your sales message has to be read both by scanners and word-by-word readers. Therefore all your major selling points, benefits, call to action and order info must be in easily scannable type. Otherwise your website will only generate 21% of the sales it could be. And for the money you put into your website, that's not good enough. So, if online reading is so different from offline reading. Clearly your web copy has to follow suit. Take home message? Make sure your website is performing on all cylinders. Have a professional web writer write your website. It will save you money in the long run.
About the Author
Aran Kay is a marketing consultant and independant copywriter with experience working for Nintendo, Direct Energy, Kellogg's and more. He has written numerous marketing articles and includes a selection of them on his web site. http://www.professionalcopy.ca/ is also your source for "The 52 Best Marketing Web Sites." It's a great resource and yours FREE just for visiting.

"10 Immutable Laws Of Successful Selling"

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Word Count: 641Character Width: 60Resource Box: Laurence Winmill at

http://www.bookshaker.com/

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"10 Immutable Laws Of Successful Selling"- by Laurence Winmill(c) Laurence Winmill. All Rights Reserved

.http://www.bookshaker.com/

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How would you describe yourself as a Salesperson? Talkative,Caring, Outgoing, Confident? Perhaps you regard yourself asa Trained Professional, or a Self Taught Enthusiast orperhaps you simply believe you were born with a NaturalGift. Whatever you believe there are certain characteristicsand disciplines that you must display with consistency ifyou are to become truly Successful as a ProfessionalSalesperson. Here are ten laws...1. Customer Focused - People do business with people theylike and trust. In order to gain respect and trust you haveto build rapport with your customers. You must listen totheir "Wants" and then give them what they "Need" and thenunder promise and over deliver, exceeding expectations atevery given opportunity.2. Attitude - It's Attitude that makes the absolutedifference. It is your number one differentiator, thequality that separates you from the rest. Attitude is thesmall word that makes the big difference and sets apart theWinners from the Losers.3. Communication Skills - Train yourself to become a GreatListener. It's the exceptional listener that identifiesCustomer's Needs and Wants and then talks passionately abouthis or hers products and services in relation to thoseNeeds.4. Empathy & Drive - You must have both these qualities ifyou are serious about Selling. You have to be able to putyourself in the Customers situation and understand how youwould be thinking and feeling if you were them. But thisalone is not enough; you must also have an in built desireto succeed at every opportunity. You are passionate aboutSelling and your desire for success pushes you above andbeyond ordinary results. You simply want to be recognised as"One of the Best at what you do".5. First Impressions - You get one opportunity to make agood impression. The first 10 seconds are critical. Voice,Appearance, Presentation, Body Language and Words allcrammed into a 10 second introduction. Make sure yours makesa lasting impression.6. Two Way Communication - The key to two way communicationis the ability to ask the right type of questions, whichbuild rapport whilst encouraging the Customer to talk abouttheir "Wants" and more importantly their "Needs". Youskilfully steer the conversation, probing the answers untilyou are certain that a " Need" has been identified.7. Organisational Skills - Good Sales Professionals have tobe organised. They know the importance of Business Planning,Territory Management, Customer Prospecting and Profiling.They also understand that organisation is the key tobuilding a better business, because they always find time toexceed their Customers Expectation Levels.8. Objective Learning - Focus on learning how to get betterat what you do. Read books, watch videos, network and useyour brain's full potential. Push yourself to new limits.Attend training sessions, join professional sellingorganisations and seek qualifications in subjects relevantto what you do. Become recognised as a Sales Professionaland fulfil your true potential.9. Work Life Balance - Find time for family and friends.Have an interest outside of work and spend quality time withthose closest to you. Never lose sight of your roots, showreal interest in those around you and apply the same desirefor success in this area as you do in your professionallife.10. Goals - Set yourself targets - Set them daily, weekly,monthly, annually, for life and review regularly. "A persongoing nowhere always get there", so avoid being this personby mapping out some realistic targets and goals. The keyword is realistic because when you get use to achievingtargets and goals, you'll effectively create a habit thatwill be difficult to break - and more importantly it's ahabit you will not want to break!So there you have it, ten simple but highly effectivedisciplines for "Better Results In Any Selling Environment".Good luck and make your start today!=======================================

Who else wants to boost their personalinfluence? Laurence Winmill makesselling and influence easier - quicker.Buy his books at

http://www.bookshaker.com/

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About the Author
Laurence is a motivational speaker, trainer and author. He specialises in Customer service, sales and marketing. During his career he has sold a diverse selection of products & services with significant results. Laurence has managed at the highest level and built, dismantled and rebuilt some of the very best sales teams in Newspapers, Advertising, Insurance and Pharmaceuticals.