Web Design Barnstaple: How to treat you subscribers - Updated for July 2016

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Creating rapport is an element that only the top
marketers practice and it’s one of the few things
that sets them apart from the average marketer.

By creating a rapport or relationship with people
in your peer group and with your customers, you
start to build on the initial contact you have with
them and they start to get to know you.

Once they get to know you, they start to trust you. Only then
will they buy from you or promote you to other people.

Listening is a key skill here. Listen to your JV partners
and your customers and deliver what they want. Try to
hear what’s happening beneath the surface or between
the lines.

If they want a product in another format, then realise
that this means that they want ease-of-use. It also means
that your customers take on information in a number of different ways.

Once you have rapport with your clients, you can
begin to practice persusasion. This sounds like a
‘dark art’ but in fact it simply means showing the
benefit of your products and services in a way that
shows people why they would want or even need them.

Only when you’ve listened to the market can you do this
effectively, as you’ll know what makes them tick. Find out
what their desires are and then tap into them.

Ensure that you use the personal touch when
communicating with your partners and customers.

You may have heard the phrase: ‘People Buy People First’

This is very true when it comes to online marketing.
Just think of the online personalities that have sprung
up as a result of them making a connection with their
own ‘tribe’ or group of fans.

It’s also worth noting that people buy people like them.
If you can demonstrate that you share their values and
aspirations, people will be far more likely to connect with
you on an emotional level, simply because you help to
reinforce their values.

Align yourself with the values of the market, be genuine
about it and then deliver your own value to help them fulfil theirs.

 

Web Design Barnstaple: Choosing A Web Host - Updated for July 2016

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In addition to buying a web address, an online business will need to be hosted somewhere. After all, a website is essentially a collection of graphic and text files uploaded onto a remote server so other surfers can access your files. If you don’t have a web host, then what you basically have is a lot of files on your own personal computer that nobody else can see.

The first major choice that an enterprising business owner will have to make in regards to web hosts is if he or she would like a free or a paid web host. There are advantages and disadvantages with both.

The major advantage for a free web host is, of course, the fact that it’s free. Taking advantage of not being forced to fork out cash monthly for web hosting can save a business hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. For those of you who are starting on a shoestring budget, a free web host can be a real option for saving money.

There are several disadvantages inherent with free web hosts, though. The first being advertisements – the vast majority of free websites force ads onto their pages in order to pay for the hosting, which can be a major turn-off to visitors. (There are some free web hosts that don’t force advertising, but many of these close due to lack of revenue – since if people have the option to turn off advertising, most will!) In addition, several of the free web hosts don’t allow FTP, or File Transfer Protocol access. While this may mean nothing at all to you at the moment, once your online business really takes off, having FTP access means that you will be able to do so much more in regards to customizing and optimizing your site.

Generally speaking, it’s much more recommended for businesses to spring for the paid web host if at all possible. There are some places where you can get basic web hosting for under ten dollars a month, and you can switch web hosts at a later date should your requirements exceed the capabilities of the cheaper web hosts.

Should you elect to go with a paid web host, the amount of options out there could compete with the number of stars in the universe. You can choose to be based out of your own country or go international – while being based in your own country may seem like the obvious option, if you’re trying to appeal to an international crowd and your target is English speakers, being based out of the US is probably the best idea, even if you are located in another English-speaking country. You can choose to pay as little as five dollars a month or as much as five hundred.

It’s worth your while to put a good amount of research into the various web hosts out there before settling on one. A general rule of thumb regarding web hosts is that the old adage is true – you tend to get what you pay for. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the £200 host will suit your needs better than a £10 host. It all depends upon the technical specifications of your company and how much service and capabilities you need to keep it running.

Web Design Barnstaple: Choosing a Web Address - Updated for July 2016

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A web address refers to the title your customers will type into the toolbar at the top of the screen. The web address of the media giant Amazon is amazon.com. You can check out what Disney is up to at Disney.com, and so forth. When you have your own online business, people will be able to type in your web address in order to see what you’re up to, as well!

This may seem like a somewhat obvious concern, but you will have to think up a web address that is catchy, evocative, and easy to remember, which is no small feat. By this point in the history of the Internet, a great deal of the short, snappy names have been taken. For instance, if your business is called Good Times, well, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to land goodtimes.com for the purposes of your site.

It’s gotten to the point where many people choose to name their businesses based off of what web addresses they can land rather than basing the web address of the name of the business. In fact, it’s probably a smart idea to check out what web addresses are available before building your site if you have the luxury to do so: those who are building websites to bolster a previously existing business won’t have this luxury, obviously.

There is a lot of fuss on the Internet regarding using hyphens in web addresses. In an overarching sense, whether or not to use hyphens in your web address comes down to personal preference, but it is true that most people don’t stop to note hyphens in the names of addresses unless giving specific directions to a site. Thus, if you have a great name that is available only when you use hyphens (“blue-money.com”) but goes to a different site when the hyphen is removed (“bluemoney.com”), it’s probably best to think of another name, lest you end up accidentally sending customers to an unrelated site or, worse, a competitor.

Also of contention are the extensions for web addresses, which can include .com, .edu, .net, .org, .us, .info, .biz, and many others. There are also country specific web addresses such as .co.uk. Of course, the most popular one of these is the .com, and in general, if you can land the web address of your dreams that also happens to be a .com, then the stars are smiling on you and it’s your lucky day.

However, if there’s no chance of that happening, .org and .net are well-known as well and most customers find them perfectly acceptable alternatives. Just make sure to publicize your website with the full web address should you not have a .com extension. The country-specific domain names are great for local businesses – after all, if you’re working out of Australia and are only serving the Australian community, having a .co.au site helps identify you as a local resource and will heighten the chances of your website popping up when a consumer does a search for local businesses.

Web Design Barnstaple: An Autoresponder – Do You Have One Yet? - Updated for July 2016

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We mentioned a little about about autoresponders in the
previous email but I want to go over them a little more
to make sure you have the right one.

To make sure you’re getting what you need out of your
autoresponder, simple compare your autoresponder with
the ones of choice by top marketers.

Chances are they are using the best in the business, so
go check the emails you get from names you trust and see
where they’re coming from. You can do this by checking
the unsubscribe link.

Another way to make your decision is to make sure the
autoresponder you use has an anit-spam check feature.
This is a way for the autoresponder companies to check your
outgoing messages for urls and keywords that might make your
email get blocked or never seen by anyone due to it having
a high spam rating. By knowing this in advance, you can
edit your message to optimize the potential of your email
getting to your subcribers.

Another element of e-mail marketing is making sure you have
statistics like open rates and click rates. Being able to
see how many e-mails are being opened can tell you if your
subject line was any good or not. If you keep track of your
e-mail stats you’re one step ahead in optimizing your
potential sales.

With all of this to take into account, I truly recommended
you take a look at Aweber if you don’t have an autoresponder
yet. It has all the features I mentioned above plus many
other cool benefits.

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Web Design Barnstaple: So you want to build a list? - Updated for July 2016

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If you are interested in internet marketing then one of the
first steps to take is to build an e-mail list of potential
customers. This is a list you develop overtime which contains
the e-mails of everyone who has subscribed to your newsletter.

Once you have someone subscribed, you can send them e-mails with
content and information and most importantly, new offers which
can lead to sales.

In order to get people subscribed to your list you first need
an account with am autoresponder company. One of the most popular
email autoresponder companies is called Aweber. They handle
the storing of your email list and also allow you to send out
emails. You can automate the entire process so there is little
work involved once you have your squeeze page up and follow-up
emails in place.

Of course, before you start sending out e-mails you have to first
build your list. Not many people are willing to give out their
e-mail for free unless they know you won’t send them spam messages
or give them nothing of value.

So this is why most marketers choose to offer a free gift or some
sort to entice people to sign up. The good thing is, you don’t
have to be a product creation guru to start building your list.

Your offer can be a plr report or something with master resell
that you have the rights to give away. A quick and easy
way to set yourself apart from others when building your list is
to have a new ecover made for your product so that it looks
totall original.

This will only cost you around $5- $35 or so but can make a huge
difference in your list building efforts since you took the time
to make your squeeze page and free gift look unique.

CALL TO ACTION

Web Design Barnstaple: Sales Funnel Basics - Updated for July 2016

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Sales funnels are often talked about in internet marketing
circles, but not always defined. Quite simply put sales funnels
are put in place because the marketer is trying to get the
potential customer to take a certain action in every stage of
the sales funnel that will eventually lead to a sale or multiple
sales.

For example, if you imagine the shape of a funnel, then you know
its extremely wide open at the top and as you move lower into the
funnel it gets extremely narrow.

As a marketer you are trying to get as many people as you can
into your sales funnels because it’s much easier to maintain a
customer than it is to acquire a customer.

Once you have a customer in your database, then as a smart
marketer you can continually offer products and services to that
person, which means more and more money in your pockets if they
should take you up on your offers.

A simple sales funnel might be that you have written an ebook
that you want to sell on weight loss. If you can get people to
your website, then you can show them a sales page that offers
your particular ebook on weight loss. If they make a purchase,
then they get the ebook on weight loss – the end of the sales
funnel.

But what a smart marketer might try and do instead of the above
example is develop a lasting, long term relationship with their
customer. So instead of sending the potential customer straight
to a sales page, they offer them a free mini ecourse on How to
Lose 20 pounds in 10 days, naturally and without exercise. And
all they have to do to get the course is submit their email
address. That would be the 1st stage of the sales funnels this
marketer has in place.

The mini ecourse offers great information that is beneficial to
their customer and the more the customer reads the more they
start to trust. After the mini ecourse is over you might offer
them a low priced product that the customer can purchase. The
2nd stage of the sales funnel. And depending on what action that
person takes will lead them to another part of the sales funnels.

Suppose you have a higher priced product that is closely related
to your low priced product you offered, but has so much more
value. You are not going to offer that product in the earlier
stages of your sales funnel because if people don’t know you
they don’t trust you and they certainly won’t buy from you. So
sales funnels build trust and ultimately sales. However you
decide to build your sales funnel think about what you want from
your customer at every stage of the funnel and how you can
profit while still offering value for every stage of the
process.

CALL TO ACTION