Leave a Pearl - Take a Pearl, Marketing Wisdom from 2004

[Linda Buquet]

Tell us a story about ONE important Internet marketing or online business lesson you learned in 2004.

I think much of the value in sharing a story or idea like this is in just sitting back for a moment and thinking over your year. It's amazing how many lessons we learn in a year's period of time that we forget later due to just being too busy. Some of those gems should be remembered and shared - not just forgotten.

I believe that every marketer on this forum has learned at least one valuable lesson this year that will benefit others, if you tell it. Here's your opportunity to share a pearl with our members - and also to get one back from others.

[jawn_tech]

I've enjoyed countless articles, assistance, and resources by WPW (especially catalyst's professional and knowledgable assistance in the affiliate section!)

If I had to pick one though, I'd have to give the trophy to CRich for his article about ad placement, referring to the heatmap study that was done on a number of searchers, that shows which areas of a page receives the most visual attention. That article and thread, called "Ad Placement: You're Getting Warmer" can be found here: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=29719

[MaineWeb]

This year I discovered the value of "free"! I've written many articles to help business telephone system users with their phones and keep adding more. They proved quite popular, so I added an autoresponder feature whic will send the information via E-mail, often over a period of several days. This generates leads and gives me several opportunities to remind them who we are and what we can do for them. I use Sendfree.com, its around $20/month for unlimited usage. So far, no one has opted out.

I know I've learned so much here, I don't even know where to start.

[mlevenhagen]

#1 Lesson... I've learned that forums are an incredible source of information and help.

There is nothing like getting feed back from people that are doing what you're doing everyday... experts who don't mind sharing their knowledge and opinions. That and the fact that's it's a great way to build relationships and seek out partners...

If you hang out long enough, you will learn anything you want and, in turn, become the expert...

P.S. I vote WPW as the best forum of 2004:)

[brian.mark]

This year, I learned the value of making my site immune to the changes that Google makes (daily sometimes). By getting a good ranking in Yahoo and MSN (current and beta), using ppc campaigns, and tracking everything as granularly as I can to maintain ROI, I have increased business 400% over last year for toolbarn.com.

Also, I learned to diversify my keyword lists. Just because "tool parts" seemed like a valid way for people to find toolpartsdirect.com didn't make it the best term. By diversifying and optimizing 1000's of pages on the site for different keywords, as well as applying the lessons listed above, I was able to increase business on that site by 200% over last year.

More than anything, I learned not only that I shouldn't put all my eggs in one basket, but also how to accomplish that.

Brian.

[acornwebworks]

As some of you know, I run a computer learning center for people with disabilities. (And many, many thanks to those of you who have helped us out.)

Since so many of our consumers live on disability income (around a wildly exciting $800 a month) and cannot work...for a variety of reasons, including limitations due to their disability, unwillingness of people to hire them, particularly as there are so many people without disabilities available, and the legitimate fear of losing their medical card, I teach a number of classes on self-employment for people desperate to earn the small amount they are allowed without losing their benefits.

I had long talked about the importance of testing, but had a real eye-opening experience while teaching one of these classes. I had had the good fortune to be able to buy a brand new product with resale rights. It was inexpensive and the market wasn't saturated, so I decided to use it as an example for this class. We used Google Adwords and the web copy that came with the product. While I changed a few things in the web copy, the class was responsible for the Adwords campaign. I had already set it up about a week before and changed one word so that we could see the effects (a drop from a 3.5% CTR to 2.8%).

But the class got involved in deciding what keywords to use, what to keep after testing, and the testing of the actual ad itself.

The CTR was decent but we weren't making any sales. We discussed whether or not it was the sales copy, but the class decided that the Adwords campaign wasn't attracting the right people. So they decided to make one more change. The discussion was great and we actually ended up changing two words based on previous testing. Within an hour of this last change, we made our first sale! Since then we have been averaging 5 sales a week, or a net of about $80 a week.

Now that might not seem like a lot to you folks, but it's 40% of what these folks are getting on disability!!!

The cool part (to me) is that several of the students had tried to make some money on the Internet and had been very discouraged. Now they are feeling more confident and have learned that there really are things you have to do to be successful and that testing - rather than throwing something up and crossing your fingers - is one of them.

[By the way, if anyone has a new product that they're planning on selling resell rights to that isn't beyond our tiny budget, please let me know. I'd love to get all the students involved in finding their own success stream.]

Happy New Year!

Kendall

[greeneagle]

One thing good to remember is:

People do not buy products, they buy the expectation of benefits.

When someone purchases drill bits they are really buying holes where they need them.

When women buy cosmetics, they are not buying formulated and blended chemicals, they are really buying hope. Charles Revson (Revlon Founder) was quoted: ""In the factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope." That hope consists of differentiating glamour, personal fulfillment and sex appeal.

Automobiles are glamourized the same way. Most of the time buyers are not buying transportation. They are buying hope. The hope consists of prestige, comfort, personal satisfaction...

Examples are endless.

Market to basic human drives.

Ken

[Linda Buquet]

An affiliate friend of mine has a really good forum sig line that goes something like this:

If you have a site about fishing and you sell fishing poles - remember what you are really selling is relaxation.

[jawn_tech]

Greeneagle and Catalyst,

Now I would have to say that this thread is now one of the greatest pearls I've come across for 2005!

What you two just said about marketing was great, and clearly stated.

Nothing short of awesome! Worth clicking on 'print'....