Improve Your Follow Through Marketing Skills
By Mary Jane Brenner
Posted Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Are you getting people to your site, but just not turning out the number of sales you'd like to see? Perhaps you're not following through with each visitor as much as is needed.
No matter how good your promotion is, you won't be taking full advantage of it until you have a complete follow through plan.
Naturally, there are many ins and outs regarding getting more sales from your web site. However, let's walk through the basic plan you should have in place. From there, you'll be able to adjust all those ins and outs as necessary.
ADVERTISING
The main purpose of advertising is to interest people enough to get them to your web site. Obvious statement, I know, but many people try to accomplish too much with their advertising. It's not the time to try and solicit sales, just interest.
Lead people to your site by intriguing them with the main benefit your product or service provides them. Interest them in what they have to gain by checking out your site. Then instruct them to do so. Give them a reason and an instruction to visit your site.
SITE HEADLINE
I don't know how many times I've clicked over to a web site only to feel completely lost as it had nothing to do with what first interested me.
Don't lose people! Your promotion piqued their interest on a specific topic. Mention that topic right in the title of your web site. Then expand from there. People will most likely read what you have to say since you've already interested them with your advertising, but not if they think you've changed subjects on them.
IMMEDIATE FOLLOW-UP OFFER
Sometimes people are in a hurry. Sometimes they look at your site and sense a sales message coming on. Sometimes they just change their mind before your page loads up. Whatever the reason, people don't always read your site.
However, what if you could offer them an immediate free taste of what it is you're offering? Offer free information by way of an ecourse, ezine subscription, or ebook download. Or offer a way to get a free sample of your product, or enter a contest to win free products.
Whatever it is, do it immediately. Design some way to capture the name and email address of your site visitor as soon as possible. This will give you a way to follow up on the initial interest you created in them from your advertising, even if they don't read through the message on your site.
EXPAND ON YOUR MAIN BENEFIT
From there, expand on the main benefit you first offered to them through your advertising and site headline. Give them more to go on. Relate other benefits, full information about your product, and testimonials of previous customers, all the time focusing on what they will gain from your product or service.
SECONDARY FOLLOW-UP OFFERS
Give yourself repeat chances to initiate follow up contact with your site visitors and to keep them interested in what you have to offer. Mention your initial follow-up offer again, offer other related information, resources, descriptions, testimonials, ezine subscriptions, contests, whatever. Do your best to try and capture the name and email address of each visitor to your site in such a format that you can stay in contact with that person over time.
SUMMARY
Remember the first benefit you used to attract people's attention to your site in the first place? Don't forget to include that in a summary of your product's benefits at the end of your sales copy. It was what interested them in the first place, right? Don't forget to include it in a re-cap of what you are offering.
CONCLUSION
Everything varies according to what you are trying to sell, of course. At times, selling is not what you are trying to accomplish with a web site either. However, these basics remain the same. They are the essence of follow through Internet marketing, and they can help you achieve better results from your promotion.
Ask yourself how you can improve the way you follow through with visitors to your site and I'm sure you'll soon be seeing better results.
About the Author:
Mary Jane is the Publisher of Succeed Online News, You'll find Internet Marketing Tips, Techniques and Promotion Resources. Tools, & Articles on all phases of Small Business Development, & E-Commerce Solutions! (http://succeedonlinenews.biz/) , admin@succeedonlinenews.biz MJ also owns 2 Instant Turnkey Info Biz Sites, (http://succeedonline.biz/) (http://www.ecommercesucess.com/)
