Ad Copy Sparklers – 10 Ways to Spark Interest in Your Customers
Ad Copy Sparklers – 10 Ways to Spark Interest in Your Customers by Marie Gervacio
Add a little sparkle to your ad copy and increase your sales. Get started today with one or more of these tried and true techniques.
1.Hand Written Letter. Write your ad on a piece of paper scan it, optimize it, then publish the ad on your web page. Your sales will always increase when you add a personal touch.
2. Publish Famous or Respected Customers. Listing famous or respected customers who have purchased from you on your ad copy spark interest and trust. Others will think that if these people bought from you then they should also trust your business and purchase your products. Make sure you get permission from your customers before listing them on your website first.
3. Show Before and After Photos. First show the problem picture. Besides this show the picture which show how your product solves the problem.
4. A Review. Including a review about you, your business and or your product will instill respect for you with you customers. Increasing credibility increases sales.
5. Show Value. When offering free bonuses in your ad copy also list the dollar value beside each bonus.
6. Hire an Endorser. Hire a famous person to endorse your product or service. Make sure the person is well known to your target audience. Include their picture along with their statement on your ad copy.
7. Include Your Picture. Showing people that you are not hiding behind your ad copy will increase their trust. Also include your contact information below the picture and a brief statement or quote.
8. Donate Percentage to Charity. Tell your potential customers on your ad copy that you will donate a specific percentage of their purchase to a specific charity. Doing this will show them you care about people. They may just buy your product to donate to that charity.
9. Ask Yes & No Questions. Ask potential customers plenty of yes and no questions in your ad copy. The questions should remind them of their problem, show how your product solves their problem and make them think what will happen if they don’t purchase your product.
10. Offer a Prize. Tell your potential customers they will receive a free prize if they find the five words in your ad copy that are misspelled or spelled backwards. The longer you can keep someone reading your copy the greater chance of them purchasing
Marie Gervacio is founder and editor of Article Blender.com ShineYourStar.com, and SimpleBeautyTips.com. Get free content for your website, ezine or blog and/or publish your articles at http://www.ArticleBlender.com
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Search Engine Marketing & Keyword Consulting
Search engines seem to be all the rage these days. Internet users want easy accessibility to various sites for shopping, entertainment, business, etc. And the best way to do this is with the help of search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Overture.
So, how do advertisers get their listings on these ever-popular sites? Google and Overture, the two major players in search engine marketing, offer two ways–organic (natural) or paid listings. We’re going to explore the latter and how you can make it work for you, particularly with respect to keyword match types.
Google Match Types:
Google AdWords is Google’s own advertising system, allowing advertisers to “create your own ads, choose keywords to tell us where to show your ads and pay only when someone clicks on them,” boasts its site. It is basically a way to purchase Google’s search engine keywords.
In order to get users to see your Google ad placement, you must first determine what keywords you will apply in relevance to your ad. Google has four different keyword matching options, each with their own stipulations as to how you can target different sets of users. General keywords generate the most impressions but often result in fewer clicks. On the other hand, by changing your matching options you can better target your ads. The options are as follows:
Broad Match: The most basic and common option – you include your keyword/keyword phrase (usually best to go with a phrase because users generally search for 2-3 words) in your keyword list. Say you list “tennis shoes” …your ads will appear when a user searches for the words “tennis” and “shoes” in any order. Furthermore, your ad will appear when a user searches for plural terms or similar variations.
Phrase Match: When you enter a keyword in quotation marks like “shower curtains” your ad will show when a user looks for this exact term in this order. It can also be viewed when someone does a search for “green shower curtains”, but not for “curtains” or “shower”. Phrase matching is obviously more targeted than broad match and is more flexible than exact match, the next option.
Exact Match: This is the most targeted option of the four. You surround your keyword in brackets – [jewelry cleaner]- and subsequently your ad will only show when a user searches for “jewelry cleaner”, in this order and without any other terms. Undoubtedly, this is extremely targeted. You are likely to receive more clicks than impressions.
Negative Keyword: Perhaps you sell dog collars of all colors–except green. You can set your keyword for dog collars but add the word green as your negative keyword. In other words, simply type in -green. If someone wants a green dog collar, he/she will not see your ad.
Overture Match Types:
Search engine marketers should note that while Google and Overture offer similar services, they apply different terms. So, be conscious of this fact when distinguishing between the different options.
Overture allows you to bid differently for each match type. There are currently three of these options, but Overture also allows for negative keywords, like Google.
Standard Match: This is the equivalent of Google’s broad match option. If your bidded search term is “diamond ring” your ad will appear when someone types that exact phrase, singular/plural variations of the words, or misspells any word/s.
Phrase Match: Overture will preserve your search term in its exact order but will also allow for other terms to be included in the query, as well. e.g.- The bided search term is “golf shoes”. If a user enters “golf shoes in size 10″ your listing will show.
Broad Match: True to form, your listing will appear when your search term is used in the broadest form. For example, if a user types in “car used in James Bond movie” and your term is “used car”…your listing will appear.
Regional Targeting:
It is important to note that there are also regional targeting options for advertisers. Google recently implemented this feature and it is sure to gain momentum. Regional targeting allows advertisers to not only specify a particular country, but states and regions, too. This option can benefit advertisers that are trying to reach people in particular areas.
If you are selling your product or services but can only provide them to a very specific area, this is a very effective option to implement. Prospects in your targeted area/s will see your ad even if they enter very general terms.
Determining what keywords you will use is an extremely difficult task. Both Google and Overture have keyword tools to assist you, but it still takes time, strategy, and good ole’ playing around to figure out what words are the most effective.
Search engine marketers need simply to put themselves in the shoes of Internet users. What terms do they commonly use? What combinations?
With some fine-tuning and research, any advertiser is sure to gain from paid search listings.
Help with website design and search engine marketing can be found at www.onlinewebconsultants.com. The specialist here are experienced and certified in search engine optimization and search engine marketing.
The author of this article is a certified SEO expert specializing in search engine marketing and search engine optimization. He also has a back ground in web design and website linking services. For help with any of this please visit www.onlinewebconsultants.com .
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Bonnie Jo Davis of DavisVirtualAssistance.com
Name: Bonnie Jo Davis
Tell us a little about yourself:
I’m a single mom of one child that is leaving for college this month. I own my own business and
do most of my work on the computer.
What is your business name and web address:
Davis Virtual Assistance
http://www.DavisVirtualAssistance.com
What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
My inspiration was the first thirteeen years that I worked
at an office and my son was in day care before and after
school. I wasn’t interested in working at home but he
was so unhappy at day care that I arranged with my
employer to work part-time from home after school
every day. I liked it so much that I started my own Virtual
Assistant business working from home full-time.
Tell us a little about your business:
My clients are small business owners, professional speakers,
consultants and coaches. I provide them with all the office
management, administrative and marketing support they need
to keep their business running smoothly.
Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women:
Don’t believe it when someone discourages you from starting your
own business. Anyone can do it if they recognize their talents and
put them to good use serving clients.
What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
My only marketing method is writing and submitting articles around
the web. I do it for myself and clients and it is far more effective
than any other method.
Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned from:
My biggest negative experience was accepting a client that I knew would
drive me crazy. We are totally mismatched personality wise and we
recently decided not to work together anymore. My advice for others
in this situation is don’t take on a client for the money… it’s not worth
it.
Online Business: Beating Your Competitors
Today competition is tough.
We have companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, EBay, Amazon, and a whole slew of companies, many of which came from the 1990’s.
It used to be normal to mark up prices quite high on software and hardware, every company making millions or billions of dollars through quality products and services. But it seems like the times have changed. Today, it is really difficult to provide a quality product and make good money from it. Why? Companies like Google have come along and taken the lead with a new form of money-making.
Advertisement and Marketing.
This seems to be the new trend — who can provide the lowest cost product yet still make a good sum of money from it somehow. How do they do it? Again, advertisement and marketing is the sure fire answer to this problem.
Take a look at Google. They provide almost all their services for free, and only have a few products in which they actually charge money. Yet they are one of the Fortune 500 companies of today.
Exactly what do they do?
It seems Google has provided services in which benefits virtually all parties who participate in it. It’s a win-win situation! Take a look at Google Adsense and Google Adwords. Google Adsense allows people who participate in it to sign up, add an ad banner to their website, and earn money. The ads on those banners provide Google with money as people who participate in Google Adwords pay Google to receive traffic. Google is the mediator and takes some of the revenue from the Adwords participants and gives the rest to the Adsense users.
Now, if Google can provide quality services for a low or even free cost, there will be millions of people running to them for such offers. With this many people Google can get an increase in participants on both AdWords and AdSense generating them even more money. It’s that simple! Well, of course, a lot of planning and marketing is involved behind the scenes, and it has to be done just right for it to work.
So you ask, how can I beat my competitors?
Simple answer, but difficult task.
The answer lies in providing quality services and products in which have out-beatable prices that your competitors can’t match. Of course, this is easy, but you’re asking “How the heck am I going to compensate for my outrageously low prices?”. Marketing and Advertisement! It takes a unique and creative idea, and perfect implementation to make it work, but as you can see, the payoff is quite large.
Take FreeIpods.com for example. They are making a great deal of money, how? You may think it is crazy that they just “GIVE” away free Ipods. Well, it really isn’t free. First of all, you have to sign up, refer five others, and sign up for one of their advertiser’s deals. Of course, referring five people is just a part of a pyramid scheme that multiplies the amount of people they drawn in, but how does the advertising work? Well, since they force you to sign up for one of their advertiser’s deals, the advertisers don’t generally charge you, but they make sure you have to cancel their offer within a certain timeframe or you WILL be charged. They know some people will not think about this and accidentally forget, and be charged. Also, I believe that when you signup for a free ipod, you are giving them the right to sell your address to advertising agencies who will send you spam through your snail mail. Another thing is that the company KNOWS not everyone will fill the requirements of referring five friends and getting them to all do the same — which will cause people to be advertising their website for FREE.
Now, FreeIpods.com is a bit gimmicky in the sense a lot of people aren’t to happy about their address being distributed to other advertising agencies or getting charged on their credit card because of something they forgot about. But that is just yet another example of such techniques being used to generate revenue.
So what am I saying exactly?
The times have changed and the methods for making money are no different. Creativity and a flawless system implemented smoothly is the key for out-doing your competitors.
It seems as if Microsoft is even starting to see the light, much later than they would like of course. If you haven’t already heard, Microsoft is making plans to provide free versions of their software — even the Windows Operating System itself is being considered.
A quote taken from a CNET article states:
“Even as Microsoft readies a host of new ad-supported online services to battle rivals, the software maker has been mulling a plan to offer free, ad-supported versions of some of its desktop products, CNET News.com has learned.
Although no specific plans have been made, executives within Microsoft are examining whether it makes sense to release ad-supported versions of products such as Works, Money, or even the Windows operating system itself, according to internal documents seen by CNET News.com.
As Web advertising grows and consumer revenues shrink, we need to consider creating ad-supported versions of our software,” two Microsoft researchers and an MSN employee wrote in a paper presented to company executives earlier this year. The document was prepared for one of Microsoft’s twice-yearly Thinkweek exercises, in which Chairman Bill Gates and other top executives gather to consider potential new avenues for the company to follow.”
The article can be found here.
Now how exactly is this going to help Microsoft? Creating free versions of their software allows people to get to know the companies products and take a liking to the software. With advertisements Microsoft can generate revenue to make up for the loss of free software, and perhaps gain more users for their software as many will end up paying the price for ad-free software. If they can find a way to implement the advertisements in such a fashion that doesn’t disturb users, perhaps they could use this new system for further products or services in which can overall benefit their company. Providing software at a free or low cost will keep Windows users loyal as they will see no reason to switch over to using other software that is free, lessening the competition all around.
[b]Final Thoughts[/b]
If you’ve read and understood this article, and these ideas haven’t even come into mind before you read this, this should be quite enlightening. How will things be in the future? With so many competitors trying to out-do the others, companies are forced to lower their prices, and that is where a bit of creativity and an ideal system comes in. Think about this when you think about marketing your next product or service.
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Promoting Your Site Outside of Google and SEO
Without a doubt, SEO, as a marketing activity, has the largest benefit of any marketing activity with which a website owner can engage. The sheer amounts of traffic that search engines such as Google can bring to a website are mind boggling, especially when considering a website in a niche with a lot of demand. As website owners, the benefit of a top ranking in Google for a relatively competitive keyword or phrase is obvious.
But as website owners, we often tend to get a case of tunnel vision. The rewards of that top ranking in Google loom so large in front of us that we forget the many other methods of marketing our websites which, when used together, can be just as powerful as a top ranking. Furthermore, these outside methods may also help us with our SEO.
As the search engines get smarter in the way that they determine which websites are important to users, it is necessary for us to make our websites more important within our industries. What does this mean? This means that we have to be visible – outside of the search engines. Search engines are a great reward for our hard work, but the legwork needs to first be done.
Public Relations (PR) – The Greatest Untapped Source of Traffic
Public relations is to the traditional “brick and mortar” store marketer what search engine marketing is to many website owners. Organic search engine rankings are effective because they act as an unbiased, third party recommendation of your website. Users who find your website through a search engine is more likely to trust your website because they typically trust the search engine itself.
Public relations acts in exactly the same way. When a user reads an article on your company, sees your name mentioned or reads a quote from you as an expert on a subject, trust is immediately given to your company. The resulting traffic is essentially free and will convert higher than any traffic that results from a paid advertisement.
If you are anything like me, hearing the speech on public relations is one that you do not necessarily want to hear. PR takes time, effort, a lot of creativity, and constant attention. There is no guarantee that public relations will result in a payout, especially if you have trouble getting worthwhile mentions in the media. Chances are fairly good that you are being a bit hypocritical.
Most website owners have no reservations on spending time and even some money on trying to rank well in the search engines. Anyone who has worked in the SEO field either on a personally owned website or as a consultant knows that SEO takes time, effort, creativity, and constant attention. There is no guarantee that SEO will result in a payout, especially if you have trouble getting a worthwhile ranking in the search engines. Sound familiar? (if not, read the paragraph above this one)
The fact is, public relations is actually much simpler to achieve success in than SEO, especially if you have a budget to pay for public relations. The PR field has been established for a much longer time than SEO and there are definite standards that you can follow to see success.
Public relations is most successful when you have a budget to hire a full-time professional (as is SEO). It is, however, possible to be successful in public relations without a professional, it just requires more work on your part. Whatever your situation is, you should at a minimum be sending out press releases, making contact with reporters and writers, and networking with industry experts.
Article Tip
Many website owners do not consider that a successful PR campaign can help their SEO. Often times, successful PR campaigns will lead to high valued links from major news media, which is more valuable for SEO than any regular link building or on-page optimization efforts.
Network, Network, Network
Another activity that is largely ignored by website owners is networking. In a more traditional business, networking is an absolute necessity. In order for most professionals to survive in their careers, they need to build a network of professionals that they know they can help and can in turn help them. Everyone is looking for some advantage in business, having a network of competent and skilled individuals that you can work through will give you an incredible advantage over your competitors.
Like PR, many website owners ignore networking. As a marketing activity, network can often feel like a waste of time, and approaching a stranger to form a business relationship can often be intimidating. Many website owners also have questions as to who they should network with. Because there is so much uncertainty with networking, this is often a task that is ignored.
So let’s go over a few of the uncertain aspects of networking. Who should you network with? Everyone and anyone who is willing. It is absolutely impossible to know who will be able to offer a contact or a service that you will one day find to be invaluable. When network, remember that you are trying to establish a relationship, and relationships are two-way streets. Be willing to offer your contacts or even a favor to the person you are trying to establish as a true contact. Spend time to understand what the person actually does, where their expertise lies, and where they may need help.
Be proactive with your networking. Do not be afraid to contact the author of an article or the owner of another website with feedback, either in agreement or disagreement. Most web professionals invest a great deal of time and energy into their work, so having feedback from others is usually nice to have.
One of the great tricks I have learned from some of the great networkers that I have known is to make the networking personal. In other words, feel free to stray a bit from usual business. Most people have interests outside of their business lives…get to know these interests. If you are given the opportunity to actually engage in a conversation with someone, allow the topic to stray into a non-business area. The result will be more of a real friendship.
Most of all, do not be dejected if a person does not take the time to reciprocate your efforts. Networking is similar to sales, and specifically cold-calling. You often need to make many contacts before you see some success. Having a solid network of professionals that you can tap into when needed will certainly give you a distinct advantage over your competitors.
If you want to get started networking today, feel free to send me an email. I am always looking for new professionals to get to know. Just click on the contact us link at the top of this page to get our contact form.
Always Remember Your Customers
Hopefully the majority of your customers are happy with your service or product. If you have been successful in establishing enough trust to sell your product or service to a customer, then you have started a relationship which you should certainly try to continue.
Phrases like ‘community building’ have been used far too often on the Internet, but that does not mean that they do not have any validity. Although it is not always necessary to build a community among your users (you may not want them to know who each other is), building a long-term relationship with your customers is always a good idea. If you were successful once in establishing enough trust for them to buy your product or service, then the barriers of establishing trust for them to buy additional products or services in the future should be less.
Traditional recommendations for establishing a relationship with your customers include developing a mailing list or establishing a forum. These can certainly be effective ways of building a long-term relationship with your customers, but they may not be the best ways for your business. If your business has fewer clients but a higher revenue per client, more personal attention may be required. If, on the other hand, you rely on a large volume of clients, something as simple as having your website remember their name can help establish a relationship.
Keep Your Goal In Mind
As I mentioned earlier, website owners have a tendency to get tunnel vision over SEO. The world of the search engines is exciting and enticing. It is constantly changing and growing, and the benefits of seeing a top ranking in Google not only brings a nice boost in traffic, but it also would bring a bit of validation that your website is judged to be the best in your niche.
Unfortunately we get involved in a game similar to a dog chasing its tail. While we are waiting for Google to validate our website as the best suited website in our niche, Google is looking to see who has actually established themselves as the best suited website in our niche. If you are a relative unknown in your industry, Google will not give you a top ranking. So instead of working on getting a thousand links through what may now be useless link exchanges, or working on finding that perfect keyword density, spend some time establishing your business as an expert in your field.
There are plenty of websites that enjoy top rankings in the search engines without conforming to what we would consider to be perfect on-page optimization or other metrics of SEO. SEO in today’s world goes beyond simple metrics. Google is looking for expert websites, not a website that has been optimized ad naseum.
The marketing methods described in this article are certainly not new. That is the beauty of them. These methods existed before the Internet sported websites such as Google, Yahoo, or an Amazon.com. They were successful before there was such a term as SEO, and they are still successful today. Focusing your energy on these marketing techniques may or may not result in giving you a top ranking. One thing is certain, though – they will help you grow your business without needing a top ranking.
This article was found at Site Reference
About This Author:
Promoting Your Site Outside of Google and SEO was written by Mark Daoust.
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