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Gerry Black Articles

Guest post by: Gerry Black

"Arm Around The Shoulder" Online Copy Will Boost Sales - Click To Read Article
Many marketers force prospects to work too hard to make a buying decision. They throw a bunch of features and benefits on a web page, pepper it with "we this" and "we that" and enter the "pick me" lottery. Why not boost your odds by giving your prospect what he wants and helping him get it? Your online copy can lead him straight to your solution if you follow some basic guidelines that lead him through your selling process.

Your Online Copy Must Deliver Proof of "Cred" - Click To Read Article
In the year 2000, there was a movie starring Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan called Proof of Life in which Ryan's husband was kidnapped by guerilla rebels and held for ransom. Before she could pay, Russell Crowe stepped in as the hostage negotiator and said she wouldn't pay without some sign the husband was still alive. He demanded "Proof of Life" from the kidnappers. The selling equivalent of this is proof of credibility. Before a sales prospect will consider doing business with you, he will want to see clear signs that you are the real deal.

Why is this key marketing truth so often ignored? - Click To Read Article
So many websites and emails lead with what the business owner does usually in the form of some incredibly boring "seen it all before" list of services or features. Whatever happened to SELLING??!! Is it that difficult to bring yourself to use the word YOU and actually create a sales proposition? Your web copy, emails, sales letters and free reports are usually being read by.....one person. Not a group of people who sat down together in the lunch room with their peanut butter sandwiches and decided a fun activity would be to look at websites or read emails together. If your copy is going to convert readers into prospects, it needs to be personal and give the reader what he or she wants.

How to fix sputtering marketing - Click To Read Article
Is your marketing generating a steady stream of sales leads ? If not, ask yourself this question: Do you have a marketing plan? You may know what your business goals and objectives are. And you probably have a website and are doing some advertising or promotion. But without a game plan, your marketing activities are reduced to a few unconnected activities that are unlikely to produce the results you want. A marketing plan helps you tie all your marketing activities together so you can create a roadmap that will lead you to your objectives. And a simple, one-page marketing plan will take you a lot further than no marketing plan at all.

These Website Mistakes Are Expensive! - Click To Read Article
As a professional copywriter and marketing consultant, I continually see two huge mistakes business owners make when creating their marketing materials. First, they seem willing to plunk down a ton of dough for a website that isn’t going to generate sales leads. Second, they use a brochure copy style instead of a prospect-focused, direct response copywriting approach. This article will help you avoid these profit-killing mistakes.

Who's Driving Your Marketing Bus? - Click To Read Article
No one has a bigger interest in marketing your business that you. And yet, every day business owners willingly hand over their marketing reins to web designers, SEO specialist wanna-bes and newspaper ad salespeople in hopes they will come up with the magic marketing bullet. Guess what? It rarely happens. The following story is a classic example of what I see each week.

Using LinkedIn - 5 Easy - To - Follow Tips to Profit! - Click To Read Article
Social Media Marketing. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking this multi-headed mysterious monster marketing strategy doesn't seem to be going away. In fact, it's growing exponentially in popularity. Here are are 5 LinkedIn Fundamentals - from a pro - that you can use right now to start boosting your business:

How to Create a LinkedIn Profile That Sells! - Click To Read Article
Leveraging the tremendous power of LinkedIN as a business building tool starts with the creation of a compelling profile. Your LinkedIn Profile is very important because it's what anyone who refers you will use as an introduction starting point. If it's weak, they won't want to send anyone in their network to it. This article identifies 6 ways you can inject some selling power into your LinkedIn profile.

Use your "hidden" mind reading power to easily attract more clients - Click To Read Article
In marketing, knowing your prospect's needs, wants, challenges and problems are important keys to selling them. Now suppose you had a way to know almost exactly what your prospect wants when he or she lands on your web site or reads your email marketing message ? Think that would be give you a better chance to make a sale? Read on to discover how to put this profit-building insight to work growing your profits.

7 Questions Your Home Page Must Answer - Click To Read Article
There's a time-tested school of thought professional direct mail copywriters draw upon to inspire them to create attention-grabbing and compelling promotions. It goes like this: Picture your prospect sorting through his or her daily mail standing over a trash bin. The primary objective is simple: dump as much of the stuff as possible. A similar approach is used by people looking for products and services on the internet. Your prospect arrives at your web site with his or her finger on the mouse. Here are some guidelines on how to prevent them from clicking away giving you an opportunity to make a sale.

How to start an avalanche of referrals - Click To Read Article
There is no better new customer than a referral from a happy customer. But most businesses don't have a plan in place to generate referrals. They simply take them as they come without giving much thought to how they might be able to create a steady stream of referral business. Before you can do that however, it's important to understand the following referral truth. Satisfied customers do not send referrals in droves. The referral avalanche comes from clients and customers who are enthusiastic, inspired and awed from their experience with you. Bottom line: Being good ain't good enough if you want tons of referrals. If you continue to simply meet your customer's expectations, your referral rate won't change. So what can you do to have your customer rave about you?

Burnt Out: Are you caught in the IN trap? - Click To Read Article
"I'm caught in a trap...I can't walk out..." When Mark James aka Francis Zambon wrote those lyrics in 1968 as part of Suspicious Minds, I doubt he had us in mind. I'm sure Elvis didn't. But those words ring true for many business owners struggling today trying to maintain margins. They are mired working IN their business leaving little time to work ON their business. But are they really trapped? Read today's article and decide for yourself.

Web Site Traffic: 9 Ways To Attract Qualified Prospects - Click To Read Article
A compelling online presence won't be of much use in helping you achieve your sales objectives if nobody visits your site. While there are a number of ways to drive qualfied prospects to yoru site, some are more effective than others. Here's a look at some effective ways to increase traffic.

Sell to WANTS and watch your sales soar! - Click To Read Article
Have you ever given some deep thought to what it is your clients are actually buying when they decide to do business with you? Sure, they buy your services and products but I mean do you have a clear understanding of WHY they decided to take action and do business with you. As business owners, this is an important question to consider if we want to maximize the effectiveness of our marketing. 95% of what we buy is driven by emotion and is something we want. Is your marketing telling your prospect what he or she WANTS to hear?

Is Your Marketing Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish? - Click To Read Article
A colleague of mine and I were having a conversation the other day about a marketing mystery. Isn't it odd that we spend so much time, money and energy trying to make a difference in the lives of our customers so we can earn a reasonable profit and yet, often, we're our own worst enemies when it comes to doing the things that will help us achieve that objective? Even though many of us become knowledgeable about effective marketing strategies, somehow, some of what we learn never makes it to the front line - the point where our sales proposition is laid bare in front of our prospect for consideration. This article identifies three things that could be hurting your marketing results along with some suggestions on what you can do to correct them.

Email Marketing: How To Get Your Emails Opened - Click To Read Article
Without question, email marketing can be an effective and cost-effective way of generating sales leads. The trick is getting your recipient to open your message. And that's getting tougher to do as people become very selective as to what they will and won't allow past their cyber force field. Research shows that when people receive your emails, the first question most of them ask themselves is, WHO is this from? not WHAT is it about ? So that's the real sniff test. But assuming you are able to penetrate the outer shield, you need to know how to make sure your email marketing message hits the mark. Here are 9 ways to increase the odds in your favour.

6 "Easy-To-Implement" Marketing Mindsets - Click To Read Article
Marketing is not an exact science. It often takes trial and error to determine what marketing strategies and tactics will work best for your business. However, you can create some marketing momentum by getting your mind in marketing shape. Here are 6 ways you can jumpstart your marketing.

Your Marketing Funnel: A Key To More Sales Leads - Click To Read Article
A marketing funnel is an important tool in your quest for growing your profits faster. If you picture a funnel, you know it's wide and open at the top, and narrow at the bottom. At the top of the funnel, is where most of your prospects will enter. At the bottom of the funnel is where you will find your most profitable clients. The middle should offer in-between levels of services/products and prices. The idea is to create a marketing funnel that gives your prospects the option of jumping in where they want, and then move them along so they can benefit from your higher priced products and services.

The Selling Power Of The Monkey's Fist Approach - Click To Read Article
Many marketers miss out on profits because they try to take a selling shortcut that almost always fails. They proceed directly to their offer instead of taking time to develop the "know, like and trust" factor that is almost always required before a sale can be made. The website version of this is a marketer who simply lists products and services and expects the prospect to read the list and call up to order. Marketers who use this one-shot approach are almost always disappointed in their results. Try this technique and watch your conversion rate grow!

Attract Web Traffic The 'Virtual - Click To Read Article
There are of many ways to drive traffic to your website. Here's one for those of you who don't have deep pockets to run a pay-per-click Adwords campaign or an opportunity to flash our web site URL on Oprah. Start posting. Next to Adwords and article marketing, posting to online forums can be one of the most effective marketing activities you can engage in for instantly driving traffic to your web site.





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