Author Archives: Greg

About Greg

I help my clients by developing and implementing a well thought out digital strategy and focusing multiple resources and team members on a very tiny number of blazingly important leverage points that are laser focused on delivering an impressive ROI.

Align the 3 P’s for Better Marketing Results

published by on 18th April 2012 under Digital Strategy

Why do a lot of  online marketing initiatives fall flat on their face? In most if not all cases it is because at least one these three crucial factors is incompatible or out of alignment with the others, resulting in an ineffective marketing situation.

In order to launch a successful marketing campaign, your mission (should you want the right results) is to ensure that your business aligns to bring all three of these criteria into play in the most effective ways possible, using leading strategies and resources in order to do so.

Component #1 - Prospects: In a lot of cases, unhappy outcomes are the result of trying to persuade the wrong prospects.

The ideal prospect:
*    Has a need or desire that your business fulfils.
*    Cares deeply and has a strong sense of urgency to have their need or desire fulfilled.
*    Are able and willing to pay the required price in order to have their need or desire fulfilled

IMPORTANT: It is vital that the Prospect, (i.e. who your business is specifically designed to serve) is clearly and succinctly defined.
Once this is done you can then move on to directing your online marketing efforts to accomplish two distinct goals:
1)    Finding and attracting prospects who match your ‘ideal prospect profile’ to your website.
2)    Driving away all those incompatible with the target profile as effectively and as swiftly as possible.

Debunking the P for Plenty myth of online marketing:

Before we continue I would like to debunk a dangerous myth – The more traffic, the better!

The debunked down-low truth: The more ‘profile specific’ traffic the better! There is a big difference between the two, let me explain briefly.

Driving prospects that do not harbour a need or desire to use your service / product is ineffective and just plain bad marketing practice. The devil is in the details. The savvy marketer knows this, but more so knows how to filter out those prospects that neither want nor need the service you are providing, and conversely, knows how to focus on and attract all the prospects that do fit the profile and are actively searching for the service you provide!

By clearly developing and defining your ‘ideal prospect’ profile you will be much better equipped to attract ‘target specific’ traffic to your website and have an infinitely higher chance of converting these prospects into loyal customers. What’s more you will save yourself the compounding headache of directing impotent, wasted marketing efforts at prospects that have no intention of buying your products or using your service.

With this in mind, and once you know just WHO you are providing your service to, it’s time to focus on the next crucial component in the triad, which is the WHAT you are offering, or rather, the Proposition.

Component #2 – The Proposition:
A great proposition must –
*    Include an unquestionably strong USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
*    Offer a powerful UVP (Unique Value Propositon)
*    Meet and answer all of the prospects’ immediate and most pressing needs, questions, desires and demands
*    Overcome any doubts the prospects may have.

Crafting a proposition that accomplishes all of the above requires considerable energy, effort and most importantly, expertise.

You need to work on crafting a compelling offer that speaks directly to your ideal prospects in order to sell the action you wish them to take.

This brings us to the third and final component in the process – The HOW.
How are you going to develop a process that funnels your ideal prospects to your web site so that they can be presented with your incredibly powerful, tailor-made proposition which effectively compels them to sign up, pick up the phone, visit your store, order your product, download your brochure… etc?

Component #3 – The Process:
The process is what brings the other two components into play and ensures that you achieve your overall objective as efficiently as possible. In order to do this you need to play the match game:

1)    Match your Process to your Prospect
2)    Match the Process to the Proposition
3)    Match prospects to Place

It is crucial that you utilize the most effective means of disseminating and conveying your proposition (message) to your ideal prospects (target market) by making use of the best media resources and strategies (process) at your disposal. For smart digital marketing that delivers results, contact FIRST today.

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Ten Excellent Tips To Get The Most From Your Website

published by on 4th November 2011 under Conversion (CRO), Digital Strategy

It’s a sad fact that there are a lot of businesses whose websites are under-performing, leaving thousands of dollars on the table without even knowing it. When it comes to websites most businesses are frustrated with poor conversions, sales and the lack of qualified traffic the website receives.

If you are going to be investing in online marketing and using your website as means of building and growing your business, it is essential that you extract maximum value from your investment by ensuring your website is performing to its full potential.

Having the best looking site has NOTHING to do with whether it will bring you more clients, make more sales or grow your business. A fact lost on many organisations. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to have a good looking site, but the design element of your site should never be your first consideration.

The simple truth is this: the internet is one of the greatest business building inventions EVER, but you have to use it the right way or it becomes a huge black hole that you pour money into.

So how do you ensure your website gets the most from your online marketing efforts?

Here are 10 tips to help you get the most out of your website

1. Focus & Purpose. Your site should be built with a specific purpose in mind. If this is unclear you are going to be shooting blanks in the dark. Ensure your website is set up to achieve a specific outcome from the onset.
Some common purposes include:

  • An extension of our current advertising (radio, newspapers, etc.)
  • To educate customers and prospects
  • To develop a list of qualified prospects
  • To make/ increase sales
  • To compete in the global marketplace

2. Show them the Value. If you don’t immediately show your visitor just how valuable your site is, then they will leave… QUICKLY. On the Internet you only have a few seconds to capture your visitor’s attention, otherwise they are gone… and they AIN’T COMING BACK! It’s a known fact that people will do business with companies or people they like and trust. Your website should answer these 4 questions in the mind of your key prospects:

  • Is this what I was looking for?
  • Who is this company?
  • Can they help me?
  • Can I trust them?

3. Beware of the glorified brochure syndrome. Your prospects are tuned into channel WIIFM, (What’s In It For Me). Your site needs to speak directly to your ideal customers and you need to show and tell them that you have what they are looking for and how they can get it. Visitors come to a site expecting to find answers to their questions, solutions to their problems or for entertainment value.

4. Function over form: Flash based sites look good but you will really struggle to get them to rank well in the search engines. So many sites focus on the design element and miss the point all together. Your website must be easy to navigate and designed in a way that makes it easy to find information. One of the goals of your website design should be to keep usability easy, and simple.

5. Let your business occupy their head space. Remember this: your visitors will only be on your site for a short time, and once they leave they are NOT coming back. Unless, unless, unless you do one very important thing…YOU NEED TO CAPTURE THEIR CONTACT INFORMATION!!!

6. Follow up: Once you have your prospects contact information you can then follow up and build a relationship with your prospect.

7. Basic SEO elements are missing. Good luck trying to rank your site if it is missing basic SEO fundamentals.  Before you ever lay down a byte of HTML code for a site you have to know and understand at least the basics of SEO and how it fits into the design. The number one aspect of SEO for web design is selecting keywords relevant to your site.

9. Keep your site up to date. Have you ever seen those sites that haven’t been updated in four years? Full of outdated material, outdated pictures, maybe even a copyright date that says “2001”?

Nothing will drive people away faster than a site that looks like a ghost town… remember, your visitors don’t trust you… and they are looking for any validation of that mistrust that they can find.

10. Measure to see what’s working. You need to measure and see what’s working and what isn’t. So many web site owners have no idea how to track, manage and gather statistics so that they can make better strategic decisions. This is crucial to the success of your online endeavors. A tracking solution like Google Analytics provides invaluable intelligence that no website should be without.

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