Free Marketing Tips

[Simpkins]

Originally Posted by Steve Can you tell us a little about how doing it that way is better than putting the coupon on the flyer itself? There are a couple "schools of thought" on this. I think this helps you track your efforts better and is pretty simple to do. You have a page on your site that isn't linked to from any other part of your site and isn't indexed by the search engines. The only way to get to this page is by typing the full address in your browser. OK, Let's make some numbers up that makes math easy on me Let's say you passed out 1,000 flyers or door hangers or however you advertised this. You see that you have had 100 visits to that page on your site (any simple analytics program will show this) and you had 2 phone calls. This tells me that your offer wasn't that enticing. 100 people were interested enough to see what you were offering but only two called. Change the offer. Otherwise you pass out 1,000 flyers and receive two calls, was it the offer itself, the layout of the flyer, or any other variable that could be thrown in there....? I think this helps you track your response rate better. Any other thoughts on this idea? It seems to make sense to me and I've used it with success, but I'm not always right

[Simpkins]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Organic Good book, you can never get enough marketing info Also liked the visit the website for $10 cupon . May also need some help on my site too. Thanks organic. Thanks everyone. I appreciate the feedback I've been getting. Keep it coming.

[Steve]

Ok, the thing I wonder is this. How should you track your advertising with your incoming phone calls?

If you are tracking that information, how does it help you or not to know that say 100 people visited that specific page?

Does it matter the number of visitors to the page or is the real important number, the amount of calls that came in?

[Simpkins]

Originally Posted by Steve

Ok, the thing I wonder is this. How should you track your advertising with your incoming phone calls?

One of the first questions out of my mouth is "How did you hear about us?" They will always let you know.

Originally Posted by Steve

If you are tracking that information, how does it help you or not to know that say 100 people visited that specific page?

The thing that helps is the number of calls/emails/other form of contact, you get vs the number of visits to the page. So if 100 people "responded" to the flyer (visited the page) and you received 1 phone call/email/other form of contact (either they contact you and say they heard about you via the flyer or they present the coupon they printed off) you would know that you need to change your offer/word it differently/otherwise play with it.

Originally Posted by Steve

Does it matter the number of visitors to the page or is the real important number, the amount of calls that came in?

Same as above... They "numbers" themselves aren't important, it's the percentage of people that follow through.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

So the basic idea is

1. You get no or very few visits the problem is the flyer you passed out or it could be the target neighborhood

or

2. You get a lot of visits to the site but the conversion rate is way off. Then the problem is the sales page.

This kind of thing helps to target specifics.

But on the other hand, if your way you only get 2 responses and just putting the coupon on the flyer and you only get 2 responses the result is the same with one step removed.

Is the problem still the flyer and those extra visits were the curious cat types?

The whole problem with marketing is that there is no surefire way to know what will work from one house to the next.

What I mean is were the visitors really interested from the flyer or just curious? There is no way to tell. I visit sites all the time that I have absolutely no intention of purchasing from.

[Simpkins]

Good point doctor. That is one of the things about tracking results. Nothing can be 100% accurate. The best we can do is make educated guesses. The "education" part comes in by seeing the visits and comparing to the calls, otherwise it's just a guess. We most definitely would have to account for curious folks like yourself but if 100 people visited and 2 people called, I think it would be safe to say that the offer wasn't that enticing. While some of the visits no doubt came from curious individuals, I doubt 98 people didn't have something better to do with their time than to satisfy their curiosity.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

Good points.

[Steve]

Is the problem still the flyer and those extra visits were the curious cat types?

Is it possible these potential customers would be converted if they had called? Would there be a better chance of that if they talked to someone on the phone.

Or would they simply not call because they wouldn't want to talk to someone on the phone yet. They were merely investigating a little more?

[Simpkins]

Originally Posted by Steve

Is it possible these potential customers would be converted if they had called? Would there be a better chance of that if they talked to someone on the phone.

Or would they simply not call because they wouldn't want to talk to someone on the phone yet. They were merely investigating a little more?

It is hard to say with any accuracy on this as well. As we've been discussing, their are so many variables to take into consideration. For example, is the person they called experienced in dealing with people? If not and words are stumbled all over etc. this would have an impact.

Second question. Some may not have called because they aren't "ready" to talk to someone, that's true. People hate being in a high pressure situation. This is why the copy of your sales page (and all other areas on your site) should help put them at ease. They don't want to call and ask a simple question because they don't want to deal with Joe.

________________________________________________

Meet Joe, a 32 year old used car salesman that is still using selling techniques from the 80's.


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There is SOOO many things that can go wrong in the sales process. This is why it is important to narrow it down as much as possible, as to exactly where you "lost" them. For instance, taking the advice given above, staying that printing the coupon on the door hanger, you've eliminated an extra step.

Sure, you have one less thing to take into consideration. But you aren't eliminating anything at all. The variable is still there, you're just choosing to ignore it.

[Simpkins]

I've given this some thought and since I've received several inquiries as to prices and what to expect etc. I threw together a little sample page. Please note that no links work and this isn't what your site would look like. I'll create a unique look for each site I build. This is just a quickly thrown together sample. I can build you something like this, integrate paypal, create a contact form, optimize it for search engines, submit to the free major search engines, and list your business with several free business directories for $150.00. I am wanting to build my portfolio up and I promised you guys a special deal in my book so this is my offer.

I require 50% payment to get started with the balance due upon completion. This price also includes the price of your domain name and the first month of hosting. After that, you can expect to pay about $11-$12 per year for domain name and roughly $5 per month for hosting.

If you have any question email or pm me.

Oh yeah, I about forgot. You can see the sample here.