by: Dina Giolitto
The sole most important reason why you aren't converting sales is this: your credibility isn't cutting it. Why is that? Because your articles are not providing hands-on tricks, tactics, secrets and strategies that your customers are dying to get their meaty paws on.
These words I mention... they're not just words that marketers throw around to impress you. These marketers are trying to communicate something that most people don't catch because they're simply too distracted to get the message.
The message is this: Successful marketers make specific plans, and carry them through.
You cannot market "randomly," throwing out an offer when you feel like it, and expect to make substantial profit. If you do, I assure you that you'll only succeed in running yourself ragged.
The good news is, if you've been doing the marketing freestyle boogie and not making sales off it, you can make a plan to change for the better and start as soon as tomorrow. Remember, if you've been doing it wrong all this time, that doesn't mean it was all for nothing. Your name IS out there after all! But it does take planning, preparation, timing and follow-through to properly execute a marketing campaign that makes you money.
When you write articles, develop content and send out free information to your subscribers, that information must be something that they can put to practical and immediate use.
Your talent as a wordsmith is a huge plus in this industry, but it will only get you so far. You must include substance in your content if you want people to stare at your emails and go, "WOW, that person REALLY has it together. Maybe I should keep following along with what they have to say."
Two things you MUST explain when writing content that will reach your key customer:
1. WHICH resources you used to create your marketing materials.
I'll give you mine now.
http://nvu.com - a free web page editor
http://formmail.com - a low-cost form creator tool
http://ezinearticles.com - the best place to submit articles on the web
2. HOW you go about creating your materials.
Here's an example of how I would go about explaining how to put together an e-book.
1. Write five short articles.
2. Save the articles to a Word document.
3. Add a Cover Page, disclaimer, page numbers, copyright line, contact email.
4. Write an introduction letter to your customer.
5. Save as a .pdf file.
6. Upload to your web server and add the link to an email that you mail to your subscribers.
These are just two small samples that illustrate what you need to tell your readers if you want them to view you as an authoritative source. You MUST tell them HOW. Anyone who fails to instruct their audience is guaranteed to lose favor within five information mailings.
It's bad enough that the web is so distracting. Make it your number one priority to catch your customer's attention and then tell him something he can put to constructive use immediately. Do this right, and you just gained yourself one loyal customer for life.
Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.
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About The Author
Dina Giolitto is a copywriting consultant and ghostwriter with 10 years of experience writing corporate print materials and web content. Trust her with your next e-book, article series or web project, and make a lasting impression on your audience of information-hungry prospects. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for more details.
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