In the last edition of this newsletter I challenged you to make 2008 the year that you sit down, put pen to paper and document some goals for the 12 months ahead.

Well for those of you who have yet to find the time, or a pen, to complete the task here are a few simple ways for you to configure your Google Analytics account so that it takes the lead in your new path of goal setting.

Previously, I have discussed how the Site Overlay feature in Google Analytics allows you to ‘see’ the pathways visitors take when wandering through the pages of your website. By setting up goals for your Analytics account you can now record when these visitors end up viewing the most important pages your site provides.

These pages are usually the ones that say ‘thank you’. Thank you for registering, thank you for contacting us, thank you for your order – all pages that ideally every visitor to your website should see.

A standard installation of Google Analytics allows you to track four of these pages as goals. The goals area of your account can be found with its own navigation area, on the left-hand side of the screen.

Goals are quick and easy to set up – but don’t let the speed of their creation fool you. Once established, Analytics goals, and the subsequent data they provide, can uncover a whole new level of understanding when it comes to determining the behaviors of your visitors and the true value of the alternate streams of Internet traffic your website attracts.

To create a goal you need to know the URL of the web page you want to track. This page also needs to have your Google Analytics tracking code on it. If you are not sure if the page you want to track has the code, and you know people have found it before, then just search for it in your Analytics content reports. If it is not there, then check that the tracking code is installed properly.

Usually, the URL of the page you want to track is the same for all visitors who find it. If this is the case then you can just copy it directly into the Goal URL set-up field.

However, if the page URL is different each time your visitors find it (as is sometimes the case with some content management system URLs) then you will need some help to describe the URL in such a way that Analytics can track its use. Just make contact with us if this is the case with your installation and we can advise on the work required to set up a goal for a page like this.

When setting up your goal you can also configure it to track the expected pathways you imagine visitors will take when arriving at your goal page. For instance: look for product; add to shopping cart; login or create account; agree to delivery terms; confirm delivery address; and finally, confirm sale.

What’s more, your goal reporting will show you how effective your site is in moving people from stage to stage as it plots the relative percentage drop off in visitor volumes along your configured paths.

Once your goal is set up, I suggest you complete some test actions so you can expect to see some data in your reports in the next few days. (Remembering Google Analytics reporting is not live.) When you check back, all going well, your account will show your goal reports with both test and – if you are fortunate – some live actions.

So what now?

Well, here are just a few ways I use the Google Analytics goal data collected within my own account.

Firstly, it helps me keep my Google AdWords costs down. One of the key tasks when running an AdWords campaign is determining which keywords are delivering the best conversion rate for their click cost (or even better cost per conversion).

Finding this data is a breeze once I have linked my Google AdWords and Analytics accounts. Now with goals set up for the actions that need tracking I can quickly and easily find a cost per conversion at an AdWords campaign, ad group and even keyword level.

Plus, if you dig slightly deeper in the reports you can start to see how your keyword bidding affects your ads position and its relative conversion cost.

Goal tracking also helps me see the different behaviours that occur between new and repeat visitors. For instance, you may have a website whereby visitors come once to research, leave for a few days and then return to purchase. The Fireclick index I have mentioned in previous newsletters will provide you with benchmark conversion rates for these types of visitor actions.

And as I mentioned before, you can start to evaluate how different types of traffic effect your goal completion rates. As an example, you may be tracking a newsletter sign-up process as one of your goals. Your reporting may show that traffic arriving directly to your site has an 8.9% completion rate for this task, while visitors arriving from referring sites that carry your article content show a healthy 18% conversion rate. While the referring traffic may be lesser in volume the net growth in new subscribers it produces could make it more valuable. But what about using Analytics goals to track e-commerce transactions?

Well, you can configure a goal for this task but then you wouldn’t be able to know the exact transaction value for each sale.

Fortunately, with a little bit more work building the Analytics code on your order confirmation page you can pass directly to your Analytics account, which captures all the order summary and product detail information you want for future tracking.

I’ll cover this in more detail in next month’s update. Suffice to say there is a ton of valuable data that this extra work unlocks for those using their website for direct sales.

So there you have it; have fun with this great feature and why not take some time today to set up some simple goals in your Google Analytics account and begin to learn even more about your website’s ability to convert visitors to customers

A few months back I was involved in an online client campaign that generated over a million dollars in new revenue over a three-week period. It was such a success that I’m not allowed to mention who they are or what the campaign was but suffice to say it went off.

The startling thing for me was how the simple things the team did made such a big difference to the overall success of the campaign. I can’t share them all but here are the four that are for public consumption – check them out.

Firstly, time was properly allocated into producing a clear plan that everyone could follow. This process involved everyone it needed to – and had as its output a very simple MS Word document that everyone could understand (not a convoluted MS Project document). There were regular meetings as the campaign progressed and this same document was updated for all to see and follow. No fancy technology here – just a commitment to document the start and ongoing activities.

Secondly, the time allocated for planning was well spent. Instead of focusing on the technology to choose or the creative angles to follow, we dissected in detail the key decision points – or stages – the prospect had to pass through to become a customer. In this case there were a few – it wasn’t a simple case of visiting a web page and handing over a credit card. Each decision stage was thrashed out with regards to understanding how best to convince the prospect to move along to the next part of the sales process.

Then the group matched the message for each stage to the media most likely to succeed at delivering it. In the end we had five media choices running – web, email, direct mail, phone and direct sales. The personal touch was not lost. As not all prospects were expected to complete all the stages to become a customer online, outbound calling was performed by experienced sales people who were: a) briefed on the campaign and its goals; b) provided with full details of the prospects they were calling; and c) told the exact stage the prospect was at.

Finally, a strong website analytics tool allowed us to make decisions on how to further tune the campaign to boost results. For instance, knowing actual conversion statistics linked to inbound traffic streams allowed us to pick and choose which additional promotional channels gave us the best cost per conversion to allocate further promotional budget as the campaign progressed. Plus, by using tools like this, we ensured that there were enough data collected about the campaign to make its second incarnation even better.

It may all sound quite a complex affair but I can assure you that if allowed I could map out the process with all its sales stages on a whiteboard in less than three minutes. So why not take these same four stages as a guide to what you should cover with your next campaign – I can’t guarantee a seven figure response but your chances of success will improve.

Like the seven strategies that I will carry across to 2008 there are also a few software tools that have proved their worth so much in ‘07 that they will remain on my desktop for ‘08. Here are just two that will end up saving you hours of needless work.

This first tool paid its way in the first week I had it running. We manage a lot of different website accounts on behalf of clients – AdWords, Analytics, email software – they all require separate logins and passwords to be remembered. We tried storing these data on a central Intranet, but it quickly got out of control – then we found RoboForm.

This great tool securely stores all this data in one place and integrates cleanly with both Firefox and IE. Now we just pick the site we want to enter from the list RoboForm provides and let it do all the hard work of finding the page, entering the correct details and submitting the form, and then returning to us the client web page we want to start working on. It’s best to check out the site and download the free trial to see it for yourself – go to www.RoboFormTool.com.

My last tool pick has been on my Toshiba Laptop for at least 2 years and as far as I can see it will remain there for a very long time. We are in the business of imparting information and sometimes a picture of what we see onscreen with some highlighting and text to draw the eye to the area we are discussing is all we need to get the message across. SnagIt from TechSmith allows us to capture screen pictures in seconds, highlight them with extra colour and then annotate the parts that need more text. From here we can do a quick copy and paste into an email message and the job is done – now everyone can see what we are talking about. Again there is a trial version – go to www.techsmith.com to download it.

I want to show you a simple way to improve both your website and your email marketing.  It will take just a few minutes, involves no new technology and is free to implement.  In fact it is so basic most people will laugh it off as a joke and leave it alone.  However, I know that there are a few souls who are more committed to online marketing success who read this newsletter.  For them, here’s a tip they can implement and then go back to their coffee while it’s still warm.  

So are you ready?  Great – let’s start with your website.

Firstly, bring it up in your browser.  Now take a screen grab of the home page and print it out on in portrait orientation on an A4 page.  Go grab the paper from the printer and bring it back to your desk.  Now for some marketing origami.  I want you to fold it neatly into thirds with the fold lines running parallel to the shortest edge of the paper.  Then unfold it and lay it face up in front of you.  You should be left with a picture of your home page with two lines crossing through it – one a third down from the top, the other a third up from the bottom.

All OK?  Take a slurp of coffee for making it this far.

Now look at the top third of the page and tick off the points from the list below that appear in this section. (The list is not complete, but includes most of the key ones.)

• The business name and what the business does.
• Its unique selling proposition.
• Any third-party endorsement of this claim, e.g. testimonials.
• Navigation prompts to a) learn more; and b) make contact.

It’s a short list so you should have ticked them all.  Well, some of them at least.   Locate all five in the top third of the page and you can skip the rest of this short article and get back to following up the mass of prospect leads you no doubt have.  

For those finding less than five, well, why don’t you peek into the second third of the page to see if the missing components are there.   I wouldn’t bother to look at the bottom third in hope of finding any still missing – anything placed here might as well not be on the page for the amount of attention it receives.  And this, my online marketing friend, is the true reason behind the task.

Depending on your online marketing activities, first-time visitors should make up between 30% and 60% of your total visitor traffic.   (See the note later on in this newsletter on Benchmarking to see what the norm is for your industry category.)  While each visitor will have their own reasons for arriving they will all a) be skipping through your pages at speed; b) have very little knowledge of what you do; and finally, c) have a very limited amount of attention to spare.

It’s almost like they arrive with a stop watch in hand and the seconds start counting down as soon as your first page loads.  (As a guide to how long they have before the alarm sounds, look in your Analytics logs for average time on site for New Visitors.) Content placed higher up the page receives the most attention.   And, just like the old Direct Mail term of placing all the key information ‘above the fold’, the same principle applies online.

We can also take this concept and apply it to your direct mail online equivalent – email marketing.  Best grab another slurp of coffee for making it this far.

In this case you could argue that the audience already knows you well enough to be on your list so there is more attention on offer.  Not so fast.  Spam has put pay to that idea and the rising volume of day-to-day email is forcing downwards the Inbox attention on offer.

So, just as you did with your website home page, take your last prospect-based email message (these subscribers have the least amount of attention for your messages), convert it to paper and fold it into thirds as before.  Now look at the top third and from the list below see what you find:

• The prospect’s name.
• The headline and core proposition of the message.
• A strong reference to the action you want them to take to move them up the prospect conversion ‘ladder’  you have designed for them.  (You have one, right?)

Images that carry any of these messages don’t count.  As you probably know and just needed me to remind you, a growing proportion of subscribers read their emails with applications that suppress images.

Again, if the top panel doesn’t contain all of these three components, then look down into the one below.  Were your results an improvement on your home page?   From my experience, all high-performing email campaigns use these top two panels to get their message across – with more in the top than the middle.  

So there you have it – you can go back to your coffee now. If you are a quick reader and folder then it should be still be hot enough to enjoy while you consider how you fared.
   
For those who own a website that has the primary task of new visitor lead generation then the results of these tests will be quite important.  If this is you, then I suggest filling in the gaps as quickly as possible and then monitoring your home page bounce rate to see it track downwards as these changes come into play.  For the rest – well, it only took you a few minutes and managed to get you out of your seat and walking around the office!

How We Became An Email Marketing Agency

Our story with email marketing starts back in November 2000 with Chris Price joining a small email marketing Software Company in Auckland.  He had spent over 8 years in the outsource printing and mail house industry and was now ready to take on its electronic alternative.

His team was as small as they get – two programmers and him, acting as sales, marketing and customer services all rolled into one. When he left four years later, the business had grown to a staff of 16, with two offices and over 50 clients.

But it was on the first Friday afternoon of the business launch over 9 years ago that is of interest here.  Chris found himself on a podium of what was then the Direct Marketing Association (now the Marketing Association) luncheon, staring out at 350 direct marketers, introducing an overseas expert speaker on email marketing.

The speaker’s first question was a classic.

“Please raise your hand if any of you receive any unsolicited or SPAM email messages”, he asked.

Nobody raised their hand.

“Well I suppose the spammers have yet to discover New Zealand.  Don’t worry – it will only be a matter of time,” he quickly mentioned and moved onto the next slide to cover his predictions on how the use of email marketing would play out in this country.

How right he was.  We all started to receive SPAM the next month and it has been arriving unabated since.  Nevertheless, there were some positive points mentioned in Derek’s predictions that, like the growth of SPAM, have also eventuated.

Prediction No 1 – Most marketers will have a space for email in their business communications plan.  If you want to deliver a short message to your customers within an even shorter timeframe, then email is the first choice.  You can’t beat it when you want to tell thousands the same message in a morning.

Prediction No 2 – Email will allow your customer acquisition process to take on a whole new dimension.  Now prospects can start to receive your communications by sharing just their first name and email address. This is a first step that most feel more comfortable with, rather than providing a phone number and physical address.

Prediction No 3 – Email marketing will drive down the cost of marketing communications.  What took a marketing department two weeks to dispatch and cost a dollar per pack can now be sent in days for cents.   No surprises that this revelation on its own seduced many to transfer a large majority of their communications into email when not all were fit for the task.  However, marketers were quick to find out how little time customers have when it comes to consuming a 35 page brochure online.

These three statements highlight just a few ways that, since November 2000, email marketing has changed the way in which we think about implementing effective customer and prospect communications.  There is always a part to play for email marketing in our customer’s lead generation and/or customer loyalty strategies.

The problems this type of work solves.

There’s a lot I can add here so here are just a couple to consider.

Customers forgetting about you and your service.  “If only I knew you sold that as well THEN I would have purchased it from you and not your competitor.”

Your prospects failing to make a decision because of the lack of any ongoing communications that nurture them towards making a final commitment.

How it will make your site sell more.

Most websites are built for the prospect who wants to make a decision NOW.  It should not surprise you that this represents a small proportion of your available market opportunity.  Email marketing is for those that will say yes, but in the near future.  In most cases there are more people in this group than you would initially imagine.

What needs to happen BEFORE this type of work is completed?

There’s a mix of technology, content and strategy within any successful foray into email marketing. Some clients arrive with none complete, others come with a couple – we help them produce the necessary detail in each to make a success of their future efforts.

What coaching content do we offer in this area?

There’s been a few.  Try these areas:

Email marketing your way through a recession

Email marketing double coaching pack

Our Online Lead Nurturing Services

When it comes to research, the online space is hard to beat.  Latest figures show that technology buyers conduct nearly 75% of their research/information gathering online, and nearly four out of five technology buyers search the web at least weekly for new information.  Of those that find what they are looking for, 93% consider the information they found online to be of greater or equal value to the content they received through print, events etc. (Source: Knowledge Storm & Marketing Sherpa, 2007 Connecting Through Content Series.)

So, if you are not already active in online lead generation, now may be a good time to start.  The prospect attention seems to be there – all ready and waiting to be tempted by some suitable content, which will ideally reward you for your efforts with a fresh new prospect lead.

For most of us the arrival of a new lead is cause for a celebration.  Yes, that AdWords ad is working well or, perhaps, that copy change on the landing page is starting to hit its straps.  You really are starting to master this lead-generation lark, you mutter under your breath – and you would be partly right.

You see, generating a lead is one thing – converting it into a customer is another.  Frequently, I see that success at the first stage is not always translated into a similar level of achievement with the second.  Of course, you are not expecting a 100% conversion rate between the two – not all leads have the same propensity to become customers.  But still, there can be a wide difference between the total leads generated and the resulting customers converted for many businesses using the online space for lead generation.  This is the area of focus of our Lead Nurturing services; contact us today if you would like more information on this solution area.

I’m convinced that you can achieve some big improvements with your website marketing just by spending an hour a week – for say a couple of months – completing the right tasks required for your situation. This is great news for those of you who have limited time to spare – but not so hot for those not knowing what to put on their list. If both of these points accurately describe your situation then this article should get you started.

But first, it may help to realise that you are not alone in your plight. This month I met a number of people struggling with the understanding of what website marketing task they should start off with. All this made me think of a simple way to guide their planning. Ideally, it needed to be short and succinct – something that could be described, say, on a restaurant napkin – but nevertheless, a handy guide that would accurately point them in the right direction.

Here’s what I came up with. To begin, let’s help all those troubled marketers with e-commerce aspirations. Here’s a simple financial model to kick things along. An online shopping site should expect to convert between 2% and 4% of its total visits into orders. So if you own a site like this first take a look at your monthly visit count, reduce this down to 3% of its total and then multiply this by a conservative average order value. This should give you a budget gross sales value for your site.

How does this differ from what you already achieve? If the budget gross amount is above your normal monthly value by a reasonable amount (i.e. your figures reveal your own site has a conversion rate of below 2%) then most of your problems are inside your website. You can double check this theory by locating the search terms people are using to find your site. If these keywords match the ones you would expect ideal prospects to use then your problem is not in attracting the right people – you seem to be doing this already – it’s all about doing more with those prospects you already have.

Shopping cart design, product selection and general online merchandising work (and I realise the last one is a large catch-all) are areas in which you need to spend your time. Who said it was going to be easy? It’s just like opening a physical shop, laying out your wares and then expecting all the customers that arrive to buy what’s on offer. At least when you have some physical walls you can corner your visitors and not let them leave before they purchase something! Online visitors, however, can effortlessly flit from yours to a competitor’s website in seconds. Nope, get used to it – owning a successful e-commerce site is one of the hardest things to achieve online. OK, the rant is over for those who expect success here to be easy – now let’s talk about those who are doing well.

If the budget gross amount you have on your napkin is below your existing site sales value by a good margin then things are looking up. For you, the task is to bring more traffic to your site to make this ‘shopping engine’ crank even faster.

But how fast can it go? Here’s a quick tip on how to find out. By running a Google AdWords campaign you can see how often your main keywords are searched on (impressions) within Google. As a rough rule of thumb for a business category of medium competitiveness and after you have completed some solid Search Engine Optimisation, I would suggest you can allow for up to 10% of this total traffic to arrive on your website.

Now take these revised figures and run them through your conversion model to see what top-end revenue figures your site could achieve. If it all looks very promising then push on and start along the optimising route. At least now you have some way of coming up with a cost justification argument for the consultancy work required. Call if you need more help defining this justification model for your website.

So what about those owning lead-generation websites? Well, compared to their e-commerce cousins, they require fewer tasks to be achieved to ensure their success. But, like them, your work begins with some percentage point comparison. Just as I did for e-commerce, I want you to take your monthly visit count and reduce it to just 6% of its total. Roughly speaking, this should represent the total number of leads your site should be delivering you. Some sites we manage achieve 5%, others a whopping 36%, but to start go with 6% and see how you fare.

If you are way down and your search keywords match those of ideal prospects then, as mentioned before, your work lies within your own pages. If you are way down – say sub 2% – then you are not offering the right content to tempt people enough to become a lead. Not everyone visiting will want to make a purchase decision when they arrive on your site – many will be interested in learning more before they buy. Offer up the right content to these folks and see your lead conversion rates rocket through the 10%, 20% and 30% mark. Yes, they will need some further nurturing to convince them to make a purchase decision but at least you now have their details to work with.

There you go – that should fill up the napkin for now.

Remember, our monthly coaching group includes owners of both e-commerce and lead-generation websites who are just like you. Each of them faces the same time challenges you have when it comes to improving their website marketing. The difference is that, now that they are coaching members, they have both me and the group to call on to guide them through their task list. Why not join us for a trial month and see how we can help?

Sample content to be placed here.

Want more sales leads from your website?

As more Kiwi’s move online each month – are you worried that your website is missing out on the action?

With the current uncertain economic outlook are you looking for ways to drive greater performance out of your internet presence?

Or finally, does the sales graph of your online e-commerce store resemble the flat plains of the Waikato rather than the steep upward climbs of the Southern Alps?

If You Answered "Yes" To Either Of These Questions, Then This FREE 60 Minute Webinar Is Just For You.

During this session you will learn

• Your key success principles.  E-commerce and lead generating websites – what are the top four points you need to focus on for success in either area.
• Proven action steps for you to apply.  Month one, two and three will be broken down in detail with a list of tasks shared for you to take away and apply to get things back on track. 
• Case studies – three case histories that reveal different paths to success.  I’ll cover the problems that held them back, what they did to overcome them and share the results of their work.

Act fast if you want to apply this knowledge to your website.

Here Are The Upcoming Webinar Dates:

• Thursday March 27th, 11:00am NZ Time 15 places available
• Wednesday April 16th 2.00pm NZ Time 15 places available
• Tuesday May 13th 11.00am NZ Time 15 places available
• Tuesday June 10th 11.00am NZ Time 15 places available

Registrations will be taken on a first come first served basis. 

We will try to alter this sign up page as registrations come in so you can see the spaces available – everyone will receive an email confirming their registration status.

Why are there only 15 spaces available for each session?

On the Webinar I will use some rather cool technology so you see my computer screen as I take you through the presentation notes and on a tour of some websites that will help to further explain the points I cover.

Note: Webinar attendees will be sent a recording of all this on a CD Rom for later review.

Here’s a screen shot of the tool I will use for the webinar – note there’s space for just 16 sessions and I’ll grab one of these to run the show.

So get in fast.

Not sure What a Webinar is?

No problem,  it‘s simple really.  "Webinar" is short for "web-based seminar".

Its an online seminar that you listen to through a normal phone line teleconference while also watching a my computer screen as I take you through the presentation.

I will provide you with a local phone number (Auckland – Wellington & Christchurch) which you will use to call plus FREE access to the screen sharing technology I use.

The Webinar will be recorded and made available on CD Rom  to those on the call.

SPECIAL BONUS ONCE YOU SUBMIT YOUR WEBINAR REGISTRATION

Once we receive your details we will mail you out details of the call and a complimentary copy of our latest 8 page Website Marketing Update newsletter. You should receive this within  48 business hours from the receipt of your information.

You will ONLY Receive Material Related to this Webinar

We respect your privacy, and promise to NEVER sell your address or any of your information. We also promise to never abuse your address – we will ONLY mail you information related to the webinar you have signed up for.

We were 20 minutes into the Website Marketing group coaching call when things really started to get interesting.

Hi my name is Chris Price and I would like to introduce you to a new way to access proven website marketing expertise through our innovative new monthly website marketing coaching program.  But first some details on why this program is now available. Every week I listen to prospects who share with me these types of problems. “It seems that everyone else just wants to sell me a complete consulting package – its either they do it all or nothing.  Why isn’t there a way to learn from them but implement these changes myself? It’s a bit like wanting a BYO cafe when all you can find are fully licensed high class restaurants.” “We’re finding that having someone support us to market our website is a lot harder than it was locating the expertise to get the thing built in the first place.” “How can we access practical website marketing knowledge that is specific to New Zealand business?”

Thanks for dropping by – join us as we turn websites into income producing assets.

When it came to the first point, I must admit to running a business that used to be part of the problem.

Yes clients did and still do come to us wanting our small team to take control of the lead generation success of their website from strategy plans to actual implementation.  They pick us to do all the work for them so they can just sit back and enjoy the benefits each month – here’s a list of clients for you to peruse.

Before this coaching program started we couldn’t help you if you wanted to do some of the work yourself – we weren’t set up that way and frankly didn’t have the capability to cost effectively deliver the advice required.

Well things have now changed.

It all started a while back with me joining a few coaching programs myself that were delivered by other online marketers overseas. (We now subscribe to over a dozen paid services just to keep up to date with the latest learnings.) I learnt a lot by being a user – I experienced what worked and more importantly what didn’t when it came to receiving hard core practical marketing information to implement.

All this got me wondering – wouldn’t it be ideal if I could create a cost effective service where I could pass on my internet marketing secrets to others spread around New Zealand and virtually coach them to success?

Well it’s been a few months in the making but I am now ready to launch.

Here’s how I plan to coach you in the secrets I know: –

Just to spice up your interest on the actual detail that will be covered – the other night I sat down and took just 5 minutes to jot down some of the detailed tactical content I want to cover – here’s what I came up with.

• Single step and two step online lead generation – which of these tried and tested online lead formulas would be best for your business with case studies on each for you to see them in action. 
• Prospect lead generation for the service industry – what are the proven lead generation strategies on offer.
• Email marketing – how the new legislation affects New Zealand website marketers – what to do to ensure your website and email communications are compliant.
• How poor website navigation and web page interlinking can unnecessarily hold you back when looking for high search engine rankings
• E-commerce website optimisation – what are the industry benchmarks for e-commerce success.
• Where are the common gaps buyers find in e-commerce shopping carts and how to ensure they are plugged tight on your site.
• What are the key online marketing activities e-commerce marketers use and which ones provide the best return for the time and money invested.
• Setting up your AdWords campaign for the first time – what are the key elements and how best to organise them.
• Which of the four lines of AdWords text is frequently responsible for making or breaking an AdWords campaign
• How to manage your AdWords campaign using a free software tool that can literally save you hours when compared to the standard web interface Google provides you.
• The key points of Search Engine Optimisation – yes it’s a science, just not rocket related – and how to have the maximum impact with minimum effort
• Building inbound links into your site – how to find out how many you have and why improving this statistic is so important
• Hits, visits , page views, bounce rates – what website statistics actually mean and more importantly which ones matter when building a website for lead generation purposes.
• Accessing website analytics tools – how to access effective website analytics tools for no cost and then properly configure them to reveal the most information in the shortest of time.
• Landing pages – what classifies a webpage as one and why they end up as the most important pages on your website
• The key landing page design elements – which parts have the greatest impact when it comes to convincing prospects to sign up.
• Landing page copy – an easy to use formula that will have you creating persuading copy in minutes.
• Prospect follow up – OK so you now have a torrent of online leads coming in – how to keep up by putting your follow up process on autopilot

I’ll be frank – this program is not for everyone.

It is for those willing to try things and make some positive changes to their website.  It’s not for those content to sit back and absorb everything while expecting things to magically change without someone actually having to do something.  (And yes for those that want it our team can step in and help where needed – extra fees will apply.)

Here’s how you will receive the content

There are three different ways you can receive this content – Silver, Gold and Gold +

Here’s a table of what each includes:

Pricing Schedule For Permission Website Marketing Coaching
As at January 08	Monthly Plans
Inclusions:	Silver	Gold	Gold +
Printed Newsletter subscription
Printed Monthly Newsletter On Website Marketing – Value $30.00
Our Monthly Online Marketing Training Module
Training documentation on one area of online marketing – Value $75
Self running presentation supporting the training documentation – Value $35
Our Monthly Teleconference Module
One hour teleconference – Value $85
MP3 recording of the teleconference – Value $25
Monthly Access To Our Coaching Support Website
Unlimited access to the restricted access forum – Value $20
Access to online archive of newsletters – Value $35
Access to online archive of documentation and supporting presentations – Value $55
Access to online archive of teleconference recordings – Value $70
Our Monthly Tele-coaching Module
Thirty minute monthly tele-coaching call – Value $125
MP3 of the coaching call – Value $25
Total Monthly Value	$160	$430	$580
Monthly Coaching Fee – prices are plus GST	$47	$93	$167
First month introduction price – prices are plus GST	$5.95	$5.95	$100.00
Welcome Pack Value	$250	$250	$250
Welcome Pack Fee For First Subscriptions	FREE	FREE	FREE
	Click Here To Purchase Silver Plan	Click Here To Purchase Gold Plan	Click Here To Purchase Gold + Plan

Click here to join us and be part of our group.

You may be thinking how can I be sure if these fees are justified?

I want to remove all the guess work.

Therefore for the Silver and Gold programs you can access all the content for the first month at a highly discounted fee of $5.95 plus GST.  For Gold + members the first month’s introduction fee is $100 plus GST

After this first month we will check with you before continuing your subscription and the regular program price.

This ongoing fee will remain at this rate for the life of your membership even when the price rises proposed have been implemented. Remember you can cancel membership to this group at any time. However if you choose to come back at a later stage you will pay the rates current at that time.

Plus receive a FREE Quick Start Website Marketing Welcome Pack with Your New Subscription – Worth $250.00

Even with you joining at your highly reduced rates you still qualify to receive our comprehensive welcome pack.

Your pack will include: –

• Copies of the last two month’s of our printed newsletter – Value $60.00
• CD Rom self-running presentation on The Fundamentals of Google AdWords. $75
• CD Rom copy of the previous month’s online marketing training module including the self running presentation and the PDF notes. Value $110
• Your own copy of the Unsolicited Elecronic Messages Act 2007 – Value $5.00

Total Value $250.00

Here’s my no quibble guarantee

This coaching program comes with the standard Permission NZ Ltd satisfaction guarantee.

If you are not completely satisfied with the content or service you receive from my company then you can call on our 100% satisfaction no quibble guarantee. Basically if you are not happy – you don’t pay and in this case you get to keep all the content you have received to date.

So why isn’t all this stuff free?

You may be aware that I ran an online survey with my prospects and customers about this service before starting things off.

Some of the feedback I received has been put directly into this program (for instance the free trial component).  Other comments expressed concern that while this content should be created, I should make it freely available.

I thought long and hard about delivering the “free option”.

I too have listened in on “free content” – reports, webinars and recorded seminars that have all been sent to me under the promise of being great content.  It never was that great.

The information was never complete – there was always the promise of getting all the true facts once you had – gone to the paid seminar, purchased the complete report or engaged with the full service consulting service.

The illusion of free content is ever present on the Internet – especially when it comes to website marketing expertise.

I didn’t want this content to need any extra financial commitment by you to make it work – hence its cost.

And if the opportunity that remains unlocked on your website doesn’t justify the proposed fees then sorry but again this course isn’t for you.

So there you have it. 

All the best

Chris Price
Director
Permission NZ Ltd
09 623 6575

P.S The status quo is always appealing.  But what about if your website gave you just one more lead today than it did yesterday? What would that be worth?

P.P.S I personally guarantee that by following the steps we will cover in this course you will get results. So fill in the form today and grab your space before all are gone.

01 Course 1: Web site Lead Generation.

Can your Web site work harder to deliver you more sales leads? This course outlines the basic theory around on-line lead generation and steps you through a simple methodology for you to apply.

Course subjects include:

• A proven methodology for on-line lead generation
• The six common options used to attract prospects
• How a registration page can make or break your sales efforts.
• Managing the follow-up process

Find Your Online Advertising Gold In Email Marketing

Serving nice coffee is one of the many benefits that bricks and mortar shops have over their web cousins. One other less obvious are the roads and pathways that line their front door.

From these roads, malls and neighbourhoods people have no option but to drive, walk and ride past their shop. For customers these nearby excursions serve as a gentle reminder to drop in and pick up something. For prospects it could be the chance to peer through the window to check things out. All this “foot traffic” helps make the mantra for many a successful physical store be location, location, location.

But what about those same stores online?

Some mistakenly call the Internet the information superhighway. But I see no ordered way in which people traverse from website to website. To me it’s more a spider’s web of individual paths than an group treck across well worn roads.

So if there are no highways or malls to help bring people back to the front of a web store what can store owners use in their place?

Well for those online retailers that are well funded there is always traditional media advertising. Billboards seem to be the flavour of the month at the moment for those owners with deep pockets. The ads look good in whatever form they take – the agency is your best friend but you need a storehouse of cash to keep this strategy going to create ongoing traffic.

Then there’s online advertising. Here you can take those billboards, face them towards the web and see what happens. Banners of all shapes and sizes can be wrapped around high traffic sites to hook people back. Yes banners, remember those squares of advertising that you mentally block out when bouncing from website to website?

Paid search advertising is another tool to entice new and repeat visitors – especially if your site is hard to find in the generic search options. But those keywords are rising in both popularity and cost.

So all of these options will bring first time visitors to your site for a varying amount of cost per visit but having to continue to invest in any of them to make visitors return is too costly for most to achieve.

This is where effective email marketing can be rather handy.

Email is by far the cheapest and most effective way to call people back to your website. Asking, cajouling, begging and bribing all website visitors to subcribe to your email list has to be high up on your website goals.

Well written email newsletters create their own virtual “foot traffic” by enticing visitors to return to your website pages through the links contained in your copy.

But while this logic is sound and the Internet is abound with successful case studies of email marketing being used this way it still amazes me how many website fail to entice their visitors to join any email newsletter of sorts.

Yes they have billboards extolling their website, some even tell their story with television but when you visit there is no “hard to say no” option to join a newsletter so they can bring you back for cents when they brought you there with dollars.

It doesn’t take much to design an email communication that has strong appeal and set up a web form to capture subscriptions.

Please make sure it’s part of your website strategy – and failing that make mine a flat white when I drop by your bricks and mortar store next time.

Serving nice coffee is one of the many benefits that bricks and mortar shops have over their web cousins. One other less obvious are the roads and pathways that line their front door.

From these roads, malls and neighbourhoods people have no option but to drive, walk and ride past their shop. For customers these nearby excursions serve as a gentle reminder to drop in and pick up something. For prospects it could be the chance to peer through the window to check things out. All this “foot traffic” helps make the mantra for many a successful physical store be location, location, location.

But what about those same stores online?

Some mistakenly call the Internet the information superhighway. But I see no ordered way in which people traverse from website to website. To me it’s more a spider’s web of individual paths than an group treck across well worn roads.

So if there are no highways or malls to help bring people back to the front of a web store what can store owners use in their place?

Well for those online retailers that are well funded there is always traditional media advertising. Billboards seem to be the flavour of the month at the moment for those owners with deep pockets. The ads look good in whatever form they take – the agency is your best friend but you need a storehouse of cash to keep this strategy going to create ongoing traffic.

Then there’s online advertising. Here you can take those billboards, face them towards the web and see what happens. Banners of all shapes and sizes can be wrapped around high traffic sites to hook people back. Yes banners, remember those squares of advertising that you mentally block out when bouncing from website to website?

Paid search advertising is another tool to entice new and repeat visitors – especially if your site is hard to find in the generic search options. But those keywords are rising in both popularity and cost.

So all of these options will bring first time visitors to your site for a varying amount of cost per visit but having to continue to invest in any of them to make visitors return is too costly for most to achieve.

This is where effective email marketing can be rather handy.

Email is by far the cheapest and most effective way to call people back to your website. Asking, cajouling, begging and bribing all website visitors to subcribe to your email list has to be high up on your website goals.

Well written email newsletters create their own virtual “foot traffic” by enticing visitors to return to your website pages through the links contained in your copy.

But while this logic is sound and the Internet is abound with successful case studies of email marketing being used this way it still amazes me how many website fail to entice their visitors to join any email newsletter of sorts.

Yes they have billboards extolling their website, some even tell their story with television but when you visit there is no “hard to say no” option to join a newsletter so they can bring you back for cents when they brought you there with dollars.

It doesn’t take much to design an email communication that has strong appeal and set up a web form to capture subscriptions.

Please make sure it’s part of your website strategy – and failing that make mine a flat white when I drop by your bricks and mortar store next time.

Are you putting off your next edition? Has it been a long time since hit “send”? And, was your last edition less news and more letter ?

It’s a common occurrence to see motivations wane when the tasks of turning out edition after edition of email newsletter dawn on those responsible. Plus this is especially the case when these publishing tasks are usually appended to rather than instead of other monthly actions.

So to help lighten the load here is a few tips to help those editions remain rolling out.

Firstly keep in check your expectations of how much content you actually require for each newsletter edition. It is better to have three news items of merit then a total of nine with six that are just there to make up the space. As subscribers we all welcome a newsletter that quickly gets to the point while bringing us information we value.

Secondly take a lead from the success of previous email newsletter editions. Most email deployment tools worth their salt will be able to tell you how many subscribers decided to click your links to “read more” on previous articles. Use this information work out what content areas are being well received and then plan out more along the same vein of interest.

Thirdly create some “electronic buckets” to snaffle away prospective newsletter content in as it comes your way during the month. I keep a “read and review” folder in my email folders list so I can copy messages across that are worth using in my next edition. And my web browser has a similar folder where I can store away pages that are worth considering at content creation time.

And finally if all else fails try planning.

Now I know for some this will be the first on the list but for others that are more tactical than strategic a good content plan can help get some direction on what content is worth producing. Take one whiteboard add some chocolate include a jug of strong coffee – let marinate for 30 minutes with a keen crowd and you should turn out a cunning content plan of your own.

In its basic form this will have a content area for each edition and some initial suggestions on who will create what to fill the three spaces on offer.

Have fun and do keep publishing again, it’s not that scary once you get stuck in.

Your Email Marketing Agency Needs a Brief – Struggling With What to Include?

Are you putting off your next email newsletter? Has it been a long time since your team hit “send”? And, was your last edition less news and more letter ?

It’s a common occurrence to see motivations wane when the tasks of turning out edition after edition of email newsletter dawn on those responsible. Plus this is especially the case when these publishing tasks are usually appended to rather than instead of other monthly actions.

So to help lighten the load here is a few tips to help those editions remain rolling out.

Firstly keep in check your expectations of how much content you actually require for each newsletter edition. It is better to have three news items of merit then a total of nine with six that are just there to make up the space. As subscribers we all welcome a newsletter that quickly gets to the point while bringing us information we value.

Secondly take a lead from the success of previous email newsletter editions. Most email deployment tools worth their salt will be able to tell you how many subscribers decided to click your links to “read more” on previous articles. Use this information work out what content areas are being well received and then plan out more along the same vein of interest.

Thirdly create some “electronic buckets” to snaffle away prospective newsletter content in as it comes your way during the month. I keep a “read and review” folder in my email folders list so I can copy messages across that are worth using in my next edition. And my web browser has a similar folder where I can store away pages that are worth considering at content creation time.

And finally if all else fails try planning.

Now I know for some this will be the first on the list but for others that are more tactical than strategic a good content plan can help get some direction on what content is worth producing. Take one whiteboard add some chocolate include a jug of strong coffee – let marinate for 30 minutes with a keen crowd and you should turn out a cunning content plan of your own.

In its basic form this will have a content area for each edition and some initial suggestions on who will create what to fill the three spaces on offer.

Have fun and do keep publishing again, it’s not that scary once you get stuck in.

This article from MarketingSherpa is a good one about content testing – read more here.

Here’s my top areas of email newsletter testing: –

• Time of send
• From name
• From email address
• Subject line

All these drive stong open rates- without an “open” any content testing is dead in the water.

But with a growing concern about the unreliablity of the measurement of opens you need to track click throughs to gauge your success.

Hence you now need to add in any content testing to this list to help you see what is working while remembering the golden rule of testing to test just one thing at a time.

(Those with a monthly newsletter cycle could take some time to uncover the gold.)