Do you want more sales by the end of next week. Here’s a 4-step approach that I generally implement for private clients. Adapt it how you see fit but pay attention to the extra notes I’ve provided.
1) Scrap your company/corporate web site.
…or at least forget about it for this strategy.
2) Create landing pages for each category of prospect you sell to.
It depends on your product or service but in most cases the landing page is not to sell the product but to generate a sales-lead.
Use split-path and or multi-variate testing to refine and optimise conversion rates — which is the number of people who visit the page and actually do whatever the page asks them to do. (Like buy a product, or enter their name and email to download a whitepaper or free report.)
3) Aggressively promote the landing pages.
Forget search engines! We want much faster results than that.
For near instant response go for one or more of the following:
* Direct mail (buy/rent a targeted list of prospects)
* Strategic alliances
* Outbound tele-sales to discuss the landing page ‘lure’ and walk them onto the site
* and MAYBE Google Adwords… always point adverts at landing pages — NEVER at your main web site’s homepage.
* E-Mail your existing list if you have one. More than once. (Innovate your communications).
* Plus whatever tactics have worked well for you in the past… but this time also incorporate your landing pages.
4) Follow up sales-leads — relentlessly.
Build in automatic follow-up where possible using facilities like Aweber’s email auto-responders.
It’s a simple strategy. But it works tremendously well, especially for any business that sells to other businesses. (B2B).
I’ve used the above system to generate hundreds of sales-leads in less than 7 days — and then gone on to sell to a high percentage of them. (Take ‘lifetime value’ into account and you’re looking at serious business growth each time you do this.)
How long will it take you to convert sales-leads (if that’s what your landing pages do) in to actual sales? I don’t know. What’s your standard lead time?
Other tactics like blogging, split-path and multi-variate testing all add spice to the mix, but if you simply do the above 4 steps, your Internet Marketing strategy will produce substantial results — results which are then dependent on only one thing…. your customers desire for your product. (And that can be directly influenced by your sales copy anyway.)
This could all be up and running in a couple of days and your first mailshot out of the door on the same day. Go for it!
If you’re not sure about the technical aspects of landing pages and Google Adwords, here’s a roadmap of a few of my products that will help you do the above without even needing a web developer, consultant or graphic designer:
First, my book The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy explains how to create effective landing pages.
My Google Adwords training programme explains how to drive prospects onto landing pages (NEVER to a home page.)
My Shrink Wrap Your Brain! programme includes a video section on how to create landing pages. But more importantly, you can use it to create ‘instructional’ or ‘how to’ presentation videos for your target market — and that could be what prospects get for submitting their contact details via landing page.
Those 3 products give you everything you need to implement step 2 and 3 from list above — and because I advise you register new domain names for your landing pages you can simply forget about your corporate site.
Step number 4 is the most critical — and mostly up to you and your sales team to drive each day.
This is a common system I implement for high paying private clients and my own business. It works.
Try it and let me know the results you get.
-Ed.




November 27th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Hello!
I featured this post in our latest blog carnival. Here is the link:
http://bsetc.ca/blog/2007/11/27/internet-marketing-virtual-assistance-blog-carnival/
Thank you!
Erin Blaskie
Business Services, ETC
http://www.bsetc.ca
November 27th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Hello Ed!
Excellent advise to ignore the corporate site for this approach. Actually AdWords can be used in many cases to initially drive traffic to the landing page, while you are still testing/improving the conversion rate. Your following direct mailing will be more effective then. But I admit that you might not even reach your target crowd by AdWords in some B2B scenarios. Your John.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Hi Ed,
Just a quick thought on using Google Adwords to drive traffic to your targetted landing pages. You are absolutely correct that this is the best practice to use with google adwords. To get the best ROI, you need to send visitors to targeted pages.
Good advice.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Interesting blog post. What would you say was the most important marketing factor?
April 26th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@John Taylor – Hi John. In one word… testing. (Not what most people expect me to say – although I expect the creator of PsychicOptin — a self-confessed “Testing & Tracking addict” won’t be surprised at all!
NB: If anyone’s wondering what I regard as the second most important marketing factor… it’s ‘speed’. Read Michael Masterson’s excellent book “Ready, Fire, Aim” for a superb explanation of why.