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Just as some words and phrases have special power to persuade, others at best seriously weaken and at worst totally destroy the impact of a PR or ad campaign. Therefore, it's critical that a copywriter know the difference.

 

The Copywriter's Objective

In every promotional communication, the copywriter's goal is to convince the reader to do one or more of the following:

 

• Accept an idea
• Believe in a company or product
• Recognize his need or desire for the product
• Purchase the product
• Leave the door open for future sales opportunities

Whatever the goal of a specific individual campaign, the copywriter must keep that goal firmly in mind throughout the writing process.

 

Right Words/Wrong Words

A skilled copywriter achieves goals such as those listed above not only by using the right words (aka power words) but by avoiding the wrong ones. The right words effectively convey the desired idea, elicit a specific emotion, and inspire a preferred action naturally and organically, while the wrong ones convey misconceptions or elicit negative emotions about a product or company, create ambivalence or confusion in a prospect, water down an appeal, or in extreme cases outright block the desired action.  The accomplished copywriter knows that avoiding ineffective language is equally critical to - and goes hand-in-hand with - using powerful, positive, persuasive prose.

The following words have been divided into categories based on the nature of the problem they create for your promotional copy:

 

Weak Words

Words such as OK, Good, Satisfactory, and Satisfaction weaken your copy and water down your message.

Reason:
These words tell your prospect to expect only mediocre results from your product or service. They also imply that the best he can hope for is to have his most basic needs met.

Alternative:
Try telling him instead how much better your product is than the competition's and why. Then, rather than settling for his mere satisfaction, try helping him envision all the wonderful ways your product will enhance his life. Even phrases such as "satisfaction guaranteed" or "money-back guarantee" are weak - again because the first one promises the bare minimum result and the second encourages the notion that your prospect might not like your product. Instead, try substituting, "We'll do whatever it takes to meet your needs" or "We go the second mile to keep our clients happy."

 

Negative Words

Words or phrases such as Return, Refund, Objection, and Why not plant seeds of doubt in your prospect's mind.

Reason:
They encourage him to consider the notion that he might want to return your product and/or request a refund, and this is not where you want his imagination to go. Such words practically invite him to create a mental list of objections to your appeal. Even the final phrase, which seems almost positive on its surface, can be one of the fastest ways to get your prospect's mental gears rolling in the wrong direction and start him thinking of all the reasons why he shouldn't purchase your product.

Alternative:
Try saying instead, "Here's why you'll love our product," "You'll be glad you've made the decision to own _______," or "Once you own _______, you'll discover so many new and exciting reasons why you've made the right choice."

 

Indefinite Words

Words like If, Whether, Maybe, Possibly, Perhaps, Potential (adjective), and Consider drain your promotional campaign's impact and steal your prospect's confidence in you and your product.

Reason:
The above words make your prospect question her need for your product or, even worse, cause her to doubt your ability to deliver the intangible rewards she seeks from the purchases she makes. She'll wonder whether your product is really necessary or its quality high enough to warrant her interest and justify the monetary and energy expenditures required for obtaining it.

Alternative:
Try saying something like "We just know...," "We're sure...," "We're certain...," or "We're completely confident that our product will do all that we've promised and more." Then, to fire up her imagination, ask questions or make statements that inspire her to visualize your product making a difference in her life. Visualization triggers such as the following can turn your prospect into your greatest sales ally, virtually commandeering her own imagination and using it to sell her your product:  "Can you imagine...," "Imagine for a moment...," "Can you see all the ways _____ will improve your life?" "Would you benefit from _____?" and "I'll bet you can think of even more ways to use our product to enhance your well-being." Feel free to use the word "Potential" as a noun, though, since it, too, will make your prospect visualize a better future.

 

Insecure Words

Words such as But, Hope (as in "I hope you'll consider..."), Mind (as in "Would you mind?"), Interrupt, Bother, and Busy demonstrate insecurity, self-consciousness, and lack of confidence in oneself, one's product, or one's ability to effectively market that product.

Reason:   
These words are tentative and reactionary and they lack conviction. They relinquish control of the encounter to the prospect, instead of retaining the privilege of gently yet definitively guiding his thoughts in the direction in which you want them to go. They invite him to consider your communication an intrusion, rather than the most serendipitous encounter he's been fortunate enough to have in a long time. And they place you in a defensive position.

Alternative:
Try using "Yet," "Still," or "Nevertheless" in place of "But." "However" can also work, if used judiciously. Otherwise, it could sound a bit stuffy. (For the same reason, don't use "Nevertheless" too often.) Feel free to use "Hope" as a noun, though (as in "You'll find new hope as you incorporate our _____ into your life.")  Never apologize for giving your prospect what you know to be the greatest news she's heard all week - even though she may not realize it yet. Instead, let your enthusiasm shine through, as you offer her the opportunity to share your amazing secret. While your prospect may be busy, it's your job to make her feel as if she simply doesn't have the time to ignore your fabulous offer.

 

Sales Words

Words and phrases like Buy, Purchase, Order, Shop, Customer, Buyer, Budget, Bank Book, Bank Account, Checkbook, Price, Cost, Cash, and Money all remind your prospect that this is a sales encounter and that the bottom line will equal money flowing from him to you. This is definitely not the aspect of the transaction you want to highlight in your sales copy.

Reason:
People tend to be impatient with sales pitches. Chalk it up to too many family dinners interrupted by telemarketers; too many TV shows, videos, and even movie theater screenings punctuated by repeated commercials and trailers; and too many website visits ruined by banner ads, pop-ups, and other types of unwelcome advertising. Even old-fashioned print media seem to contribute more than ever to the advertising overload of today. People have grown tired of advertiser bombardment, and they've learned to tune it out. If you use too much sales language in your own copy, they'll soon become tired of you and tune you out, too. Since people also dislike the thought of parting with their money, do your best to keep their minds off the financial aspects of the transaction until they've made a decision to purchase.

Alternative:
Try using "own" instead of "buy" or "purchase." The word "try" can sometimes work as well, when followed by a strong, positive statement about what the prospect will discover once she tries your product. Instead of discussing "cost" or "price," refer to "a wise investment," "real savings," or "real value." The only time it's acceptable to use the specific sales words listed above is on your website's "Purchase," "Purchase Details, "or "Shopping Cart" page. Just be sure to keep them out of your persuasive sales copy.

 

Relevant Resources

For further information on the words you shouldn't use in your ad copy, visit the following links:

Sales Words to Use and Avoid, by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Video (5:45): 5 BAD Words You Should NEVER Say (in sales copy)!
Jim Edwards (WebsiteVideoSecrets.com)

Video (10:48):  8 Bad Words Which Cause Sales Suicide
Toe-Cracker (TrevorCrookBlog.com)

 

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Effective sales copy is critical to any company's success. We all know that. Yet, we don't always know exactly which ingredients combine to make our copy powerful. In an earlier post (The 10 P's of Powerful Promotional Copy), we discussed the importance of using the right words to create the desired effect in our reader/prospect.

To paraphrase, let's simply say that the specific words we choose to use in our sales copy directly determine the degree of success (or failure) we experience as a result. That means that even if your copywriter understands the basic principles of crafting copy that creates interest in your reader, you'll still require the added element of power words to pack the persuasive punch that will push your promotional copy over the top with your prospect.

Power Words Equal Persuasive Copy

The following words are some of the most effective at eliciting the positive emotional responses that can lead to increased sales for your company:

Power Adjectives:

Free, Big, Today, Glad, Own, Important, Special, Better, Best, New, Revolutionary, Up-to-the-minute, State-of-the-art

Power Adverbs:

Today/today's, Now, Super

Power Verbs:

Save, Test, Serve, Try, Expect, Own, See, Endorse, Invest, Help

Power Nouns:

Discount, Gift, Guarantee, Trial, Savings, Reward, Sale, Blowout, Event, Clearance, Service, Support, Feedback, Future, Solution, Benefit, Secret, Investment, Offer, Answer

Power Word Combos:

Free gift, Trial offer, Free trial, Save big, Clearance sale, Special offer

Power Sentences/Phrases:

Don't wait.
Put us to the test.
You'll be glad you did.
See for yourself.
No risk
Endorsed by
Invest in your future.

Incorporate as many of the above power words and phrases into your promotional copy as possible and watch your sales exponentially increase.

Further Resources

For more information on the best ways to incorporate power words into your promotional copy (and more suggested power words to use), visit the following websites, which offer helpful articles, word lists, and videotaped tips for making your sales communications pack a powerful punch:

Power Writing Words for More Responses, Agents Insurance Marketing USA

Absolutely Stunning Key Power Word Phrases that Sell, AIM, USA

25 Million Dollar Sales Words, Buzzle.com

Increase Sales - Use These Words to Make More Sales, Jeff Schuman, SEO Web Design Talk

How to Attract Attention to Sales Copy With Power Words, by Leva Duell

Video (YouTube - 6+ minutes):  Chuck's Coaching Corner of the Week, Chuck Bauer (chuckbauer.com): Words that Sell - Sales Training and Coaching (Book), by Richard Bayan

Back in the "old days" of 2007, if a blogger wanted to let people know about another blogger's blog, blog post, or website, s/he would link to it from a blog post. All of a sudden, free, easy inbound links were flowing freely.

But now the river may be drying up. Today, when bloggers want to tell the world about a web page, they link to it on Twitter - as well as a host of other social media sites. Links from Twitter Tweets are "no follow" links, meaning they create no Google search engine juice for the linkee.

The trend is sure to continue.
 

• It's easier and faster to Tweet a link than to blog it
• Twitter users like the practice - easier to zero in on relevant reading via Tweets than by scouring blogs
• Publicizing links on Twitter can produce a large influx of traffic - more than a blog can do in many cases

What are the implications for search engine marketing?

Inbound links from high authority sites continues to be a very important factor in achieving high position on search engines. Linkbuilding will take more work and for many firms will necessitate outside, professional assistance. Link exchanges, a practice that has been abused, seems to be making a comeback - after a year or two of virtually no activity, I get anywhere from 5 to 10 requests a week.

Quality content, always crucial, will grow even more in importance. It'll take a compelling blog post or web page to inspire bloggers to link to it on their blog. That's probably as it should be.

Firms will simply have to understand Twitter and other key social media sites with business utility, such as Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. These sites have huge potential for driving qualified traffic. This potential cannot be ignored, if for no other reason than compensating for a shortfall in quality inbound links.

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The power of language to influence, persuade, and ultimately convince makes the written word one of the most effective methods of communication and one of the most compelling motivators to action. Yet, to create the impression - and action - we desire, we must carefully and deliberately choose our words and combine them in ways that inspire the precise outcome we hope to achieve.

The following tips for using words effectively in your next sales campaign represent 10 of the most important characteristics of writing that gets results:

 1.  Stay positive. Instead of focusing on the problem or need, word your promotional copy in a way that highlights all the benefits of your product or service. If, for example, your product provides relief for an unpleasant or painful symptom, say more about the relief than the symptom - and if possible, avoid mentioning the symptom altogether. Concentrate, instead, on all the positives your product has to offer: freedom, comfort, well-being, vigor. These are the concepts you want your prospects to visualize as they consider purchasing your product.

 2.  Pack a punch. Use power words. (More on these in an upcoming post.) Say what you have to say in a way that grabs the reader's attention and doesn't let go. Power words elicit strong, positive emotional responses because they speak to a reader's deeply rooted desires, dreams, hopes, and aspirations and relieve his fears, worries, anxieties, and uncertainties.  They confirm her inherent sense of self-worth, satisfy his natural need for validation, and promise to answer that wholly human search for an improved quality of life.

 3.  Paint word pictures. Of course you'll offer facts and other information about your product or service; yet, it's every bit as important - if not more so - to show as it is to tell. Picturesque speech and writing allow the hearer/reader to visualize - and vicariously experience - the reality of the idea being expressed. This makes your appeal come alive to your target audience in a way that merely stating facts or statistics never could.

 4.  Keep it pithy. Make every word count. Use snappy, upbeat, to-the-point prose.  Depending on your audience and message, you may be able to use a reasonable number of highly descriptive adjectives and adverbs to good effect. But never let your modifiers make you lazy or complacent. Don't use them in place of colorful nouns or lively, vigorous verbs that add vitality and momentum to your appeal.  Use prepositional phrases wisely, since they can dilute prose and destroy its impact. Tightly written copy is the gold standard of promotional copywriting. 

 5.  Get personal.  Demonstrate empathy, warmth, and understanding of your prospect's need, desire, problem, or plight. Convey the impression that not only have you been there but you care about the fact that your potential client is there now. Generously offer the solution of a fellow-traveler who has the wisdom of experience to impart. The personal touch will take you far in building rapport with your prospect.

 6.  Ignite passion. Light the fire of passion in your prospect by demonstrating some passion of your own. Passion for your mission, service, product, or discovery can pique your listener's interest. Genuine passion is contagious. If you can effectively kindle and fan that flame to a white hot glow, there's little your prospect won't do to make you her mentor, guide, supplier, and friend.

 7.  Write with purpose. Tell the world what you stand for.  Share your mission, your philosophy, and your desire to be more to your prospect than just another self-serving, profit-seeking organization.  Create a meaningful experience for your customer rather than merely offering an opportunity for him to purchase a product.

 8.  Focus on the present. In sales, the most important time is now.  So, make your message immediate, your appeal urgent; then expect your prospect to respond with the same sense of urgency you've instilled in him or her.

 9.  Make a promise. Then keep it. Exude integrity with everything you say and do. Follow through on every commitment you make, whether stated or implied. Create an excellent track record for your company, and pride yourself in that symbol of success and trustworthiness. In that way, you'll create an atmosphere of reliability that turns prospects into customers and keeps customers coming back.

10.  Prepare a plan.  In sales and marketing - which of course include writing effective promotional copy -  preparation and planning have no successful substitute and no worthy rival. So, plan your sales and marketing copy as carefully as you plan your overall campaign. Use the above nine items to build your well-thought-out plan for turning current prospects into future loyal customers. 

For further insight into writing more effective promotional copy, visit Michel Fortin's post, titled, To Up Sales, Up Words! Then, start planning your next sales campaign! 

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Market Research: The Promise and the Challenge

Market research can help you not only evaluate the initial development of your product or service; it can also facilitate more effective targeting of your advertising and other promotional campaigns. Nevertheless, market research can be tricky, and knowing the best way to plan and execute an effective market study can mean the difference between success and failure for your product, your service, or even your business.

The following resources will help clarify the market research process.

Market Research Guides and Tutorials

The Small Business Administration's Small Business Planner answers the "what," "why," and "how" of market research, offering a step-by-step guide for creating your own personalized market research program.

In the above guide, the SBA states the following about the process:

Marketing research is not a perfect science. It deals with people and their constantly changing feelings and behaviors, which are influenced by countless subjective factors. To conduct marketing research you must gather facts and opinions in an orderly, objective way to find out what people want to buy, not just what you want to sell them.

Marketing Research tutorials, from KnowThis.com's Principles of Marketing Tutorials series, provide varied and helpful marketing-related guidance, including the following sections, specifically related to our topic:

• Marketing Research
  
• Planning for Market Research 
  
• Finding Secondary Research

Market Research Articles

Inc. Magazine offers numerous marketing research-related articles, from How can I find an affordable market research service? to Grandma got run over by bad research.

Market Research Information Centers

Another great resource for all things market research is Market Research World, which provides information and resources of many types, including a selection of helpful writings in its multi-section Library of Research Articles.

 

Market Research Videos

A number of videos are available online which provide greater insight into the market research process, from short niche marketing videos to a full-length, in-depth assessment of the all-important customer, offered by Google.

Niche Marketing: Niche Market Research (a 9+ min. video on online market research)
 
Niche Marketing: Finding Hungry Buyers, (approx. 4 min. video)

Conducting Market Research (2-1/2 min. video from Idea Buyers - offers online marketing research resources)
 
How can we better understand customers? (a 50+ minute Google Tech Talk video)

Check out the above group of valuable marketing research resources, and learn how to successfully lay the groundwork for your next product or business launch.

 

Social Media: A Great Way to Get the Word Out

Doing business on the Web offers you the opportunity to place your product or service before an audience of millions, with the added potential of attracting tens of thousands of customers. But, that's only provided you can get the word out to the right people, and that's where social media come in. Social media provide a simple, dependable, and free method for promoting your business or professional expertise and increasing the visibility of your product, service, or skill.

Brad recently covered various social networking sites here at The Whoa Factor, highlighting the ways they can be used to get the word out about your company, thereby maximizing profits. (See Brad's roundup post, Recap - Can Social Media Help Your Business?) The current post focuses on LinkedIn, another social site which, though similar in approach to other social media, offers an added dimension for business and professional people.

The Changing Social Media Landscape

Social media have undergone a few changes since their inception, the main change being that they aren't just for finding friends anymore. The popularity of social media for connecting with colleagues, employers, service providers, vendors, and potential customers is on the rise in our globally focused, Internet-driven economy - primarily because social networking works. Social media marketing is old-fashioned networking upgraded and repackaged for the new millennium. It's traditional marketing with a new twist. Any company that ignores this modern social/business phenomenon, does so at its own peril.

LinkedIn: Its Mission and Focus

The LinkedIn name provides a hint to the purpose of the site, which is specifically to link businesses and professionals together in mutually beneficial relationships. As mentioned above, unlike most social media sites, LinkedIn was originally intended for more than mere social networking; rather, its primary focus has always been professional networking. And, while other social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., also offer valuable opportunities for professional networking - in addition to their social connection component - LinkedIn is built around the business networking model.

The LinkedIn website would be the best place to start if you'd like to learn more about the network. When you visit, be sure to check the About page, where you'll find the following rationale for this free networking service, along with a great deal of other information about the site:

Our mission is to connect the world's professionals to accelerate their success. We believe that in a global [sic] connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends [sic] upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.

You'll also find other helpful info on the LinkedIn Blog and elsewhere on the site. Take the time to explore what's available and get a feel for the LinkedIn network.You can also learn more about LinkedIn on other sites, via blog posts and videos posted by various individuals. Some of these resources follow.

 

LinkedIn Resource Links

CrunchBase offers some background info and stats in its LinkedIn Company Profile, which you may find relevant, as you consider how beneficial the site might be to your own business or professional endeavors.

For a simple explanation/demonstration of how LinkedIn works, check out the following brief YouTube video: What Is LinkedIn?

Another YouTube video that can help clarify the potential of LinkedIn for your company's development is How LinkedIn referrals helped build a company.

To learn more about the practical value that LinkedIn can have for your business or profession, in terms of online visibility and search engine marketing/marketability, visit Guy Kawasaki's definitive post, Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn, at How to Change the World.  It should give you some workable ideas for making the most of your LinkedIn networking opportunities. (Guy's post was later republished on the LinkedIn Blog.) 

If you still aren't totally convinced of the potential value of LinkedIn to your company's or your own success - or you simply want to know more about the site - watch the following 9+ minute YouTube video presentation, by Matt Dickman, of techno//marketer: Inside//Out: LinkedIn. In this video, Dickman provides a fairly extensive overview/review of LinkedIn that you're sure to find helpful.

If you're looking for a new way to network, why not get linked at LinkedIn!

Image via Microsoft Office Online

 

An effective call to action is the gold standard of sales techniques. It also may very well be the single most important factor in moving a potential customer from thought to action. We might have the most wonderful product in the entire universe or the most helpful service imaginable. We may even have managed to convey that fact to our prospect quite effectively during our sales message. Yet, without an effective call to action, we can still lose the sale.  What, exactly, does it take to craft a call to action that actually inspires our prospect to act?

The 10 Keys to an Effective Call to Action

Here are 10 key factors to consider before, during, and after the creation of your next call to action:

 1.  Understand precisely what you have to offer your customer.

• Take the time and effort to fully understand your product. 
• Know what makes your product better than someone else's.
• Decide what added value you'll provide that will set your company apart from all the rest.

 2.  Believe in your product or service.

• Choose to offer a quality product that your company can proudly stand behind.
• Sell yourself first on all the features and benefits of owning your product.
• Offer something that you yourself would be happy to own and eager to purchase.
• Allow your own enthusiasm about your product to become contagious.

 3.  Know your ideal customer.

• Understand what's important to her. 
• Know what motivates him.
• Study your market data and know what it takes to reach the type of customer you hope to attract.

 4.  Attract your ideal customer.

• Draw him in with a lead he can't ignore.
• Address her known interests.
• Demonstrate that you take every customer seriously by treating each one like your only customer.

 5.  Appeal to your ideal customer's needs and interests.

• Identify with your customer by putting yourself in her place.
• Envision his frame of reference and validate it. 
• Find common ground and frame your appeal in the context of that created connection.            .

 6.  Address your ideal customer's most pressing problems or concerns.

• Sell solutions - not just products. 
• Tackle a specific need or desire that's critical to your customer's quality of life. 
• Demonstrate your ability to competently solve the problem or satisfy the need of your customer.

 7.  Give your ideal customer a reason to care about your company, as well as your product.

• Use goodwill gestures to build rapport. 
• Offer your customer or prospect something for nothing. 
• Demonstrate your genuine commitment to customer satisfaction.

 8.  Make your ideal customer eager to respond without delay.

• Create a sense of excitement about your offer. 
• Sell the sizzle, instead of the steak (Wheeler*) - the intangible but very real "payoff" of owning your product. 
• Promise something extra for a limited time or for the first so-many customers who respond.

 9.  Keep your call to action simple.

• Don't confuse your prospect with multiple calls to action. 
• Focus on a single, easy-to-understand response. 
• Make the desired action intuitive and easy to complete.

10.  Build customer loyalty, while creating anticipation for your next call to action. 

• Offer an excellent product. 
• Stand behind that product. 
• Provide unfalteringly excellent customer service. 
• Continuously upgrade your product quality and customer relations strategies. 
• Devise a customer appreciation program.

Once your initial call to action has transformed your prospects into customers and your unwavering commitment to excellent customer service has turned your customers into fans, you've paved the way for a continuous cycle of satisfying customer encounters that will virtually ensure a favorable response to your future calls to action.

And who could complain about that!

Relevant Links:

For more information about creating effective calls to action, check out the following content:

Those with business blogs would clearly benefit from reading Darren Rowse's Calls to Action - 12 Tips to SNAP Readers Out of Passivity, at ProBlogger.

For some practical examples of great call-to-action headlines, visit Ads from Scratch and read People to take action: How to write a call to action headline, by Markus Allen. (You'll also find a number of links to other helpful "Call to Action Discussions" on this page.)

In fact, if you'd like to Find Answers to Your Burning Marketing and Advertising Questions, check out Stump Markus, a free, live, interactive weekly talkcast offered by Markus Allen which covers "all things related to marketing" and takes place every Thursday at high noon (NY time).  (A recording of each discussion is available for seven days after the original talkcast.)

________________________________________

 

* From Tested Sentences That Sell, by Elmer Wheeler. The foregoing link will allow you to read the full text of this popular out-of-print sales classic completely free online.

To enjoy the immediate benefit of Wheeler's wise insights - more commonly known as "Wheelerisms" - on the best techniques for getting the sale (aka, creating an effective call to action), jump ahead to Chapter 11:  The Best-Looking Dotted Line Won't Sign Itself. Though this chapter focuses on face-to-face selling, its timeless principles are sure to help you craft more effective calls to action. 

 

Image via Wikipedia

 

In an earlier Whoa Factor post, we discussed the difference between doorway pages and landing pages. We learned that doorway pages are low-quality pages which are stuffed with keywords and contain little in the way of helpful content, whereas landing pages are legitimate, well-designed, information-rich pages that offer something of value to the visitor, even while asking that visitor to complete a specific action.       

Now that we understand the difference between these two similar-sounding page types, let's tackle some of the elements that make a landing page effective.

In Landing pages - what are they?  at Email Marketing Reports, Mark Brownlow offers the following statement about the potential of well-designed landing pages:

Custom landing pages for different promotions or communications can make an astonishing difference to results. So they're a critical tool for marketers: choosing and designing a suitable landing page simply gets more people to take the desired action.

Of course, the big issue is how you actually use and design landing pages to elicit that desired action, whether it be a click, a purchase, a download, a read, or whatever.

Most experts agree on the main elements of a good landing page.  Some of them follow. 

Effective landing pages

• Are well-targeted to the type of visitor they hope to attract
• Focus on a single product, line, or desired visitor action
• Are relevant to the reason the visitor clicked through
• Use design elements that keep the user focused on the objective
• Limit the distraction of too many navigation options
• Place the most important information above the "fold"
• Establish credibility and reduce visitor anxiety or distrust
• Use an effective, attention-grabbing hook
• Avoid hype, using well-written sales copy instead
• Use copy that's the right length for the purpose
• Make the desired action as easy as possible for a prospect to complete
• Use techniques that reduce the tedium of filling out forms
• Capture the prospect's contact information

In short, effective landing pages are designed with the user in mind. 

The following links will help you get your landing pages up to snuff:

11 Ways to Improve Landing Pages, at Digital Web Magazine 

Landing Pages for SEO, at SEOmozBlog

Six Elements for Effective Landing Pages, at Marketing Pilgrim

To gain a better understanding of the many factors that affect the success or failure of your landing pages, be sure to check out the above three posts. Each one goes into greater detail about the landing page characteristics listed above, which are all-important to your company's SEM strategy.

Happy landing! 

Image via Wikipedia

 

Doorway Pages: "Black Hat" All the Way

Have you ever seriously considered using doorway pages to attract visitors to your website and control where on your site they end up? If so, you'll want to hear what the experts think about this very popular SEO tactic that's frequently used by overzealous webmasters and perhaps even more frequently pushed on the reticent entrepreneur by profit-seeking SEO companies.

But, first, let's define our terms so there's no confusion about the type of page we're referring to. According to Wikipedia, doorway pages (also called gateway pages, portal pages, entry pages, and jump pages, among other names) are

low-quality web pages that contain very little content but are instead stuffed with very similar keywords and phrases. They are designed to rank highly [sic] within the search results, but serve no purpose to visitors looking for information. A doorway page will generally have "click here to enter" on the page.

Here's what Marc D. Ensign, CEO of Sound-n-Vision (a NJ web design and Internet marketing company) has to say about doorway pages and SEO in his article, Debunking the Top 10 Search Engine Myths, posted at SiteProNews:

Many companies will sell this idea of increasing your ranking by creating hundreds of one page sites loaded with keywords that link to you from various domains. This is considered spamming the search engine and is not recommended. If you properly optimize your site and focus on the correct way to get listed, you will increase your ranking much quicker than these doorway pages ever could. 

The use of doorway pages is considered by many experts to be a "black hat" SEO tactic that should be avoided at all costs. Beanstalk offers a list of Black-Hat SEO Tactics  that it states quite simply are "not legitimate." It also warns that, "while some (black-hat SEO tactics) may work in the short term, they WILL get your website penalized and/or banned eventually." As you may have guessed, one of these serious breaches of SEO "Netiquette" is doorway pages.

Beanstalk offers this further counsel about doorway pages that are generated by software and added to a site automatically - such a deceptively simple and seemingly innocuous activity:

This is a very dangerous practice. Not only are many of the methods of injecting doorway pages banned by the search engines but a quick report to the search engine of this practice and your website will simply disappear along with all the legitimate ranks you have attained with your genuine content pages. 

According to an SEO Bank post, called (you guessed it), Black Hat SEO,

Black Hat techniques are just plain bad business practice. They also do the search engines and the search users a huge disservice by contributing to poor quality of results. This adds nothing to the end user experience. 

SEO Bank also states that black hat techniques are "not ethical" and adds that they are "probably illegal." It also offers the following warning, which website owners would do well to heed: "Black Hat techniques will always increase the risk that a site will be deliberately removed from a search engine's index."

Landing Pages: The "White Hat" Alternative 

Doorway pages shouldn't be confused with landing pages, which are content-rich web pages used by businesses and other organizations to capture sales leads, make contact for later interaction, or encourage immediate online transactions. Whereas doorway pages are designed to mislead both the website visitor and the search engine, the use of landing pages is a legitimate SEO/SEM technique.

According to Wikipedia, landing pages (also known as lead capture pages) come in two varieties.  Reference landing pages provide such helpful content as text, images, and links that are relevant to a visitor's interest area (which can be determined by the search terms, or keywords, he or she has used to arrive at a particular landing page). They provide something of value to the visitor, and that something is relevant information. Transactional landing pages attempt to convince the visitor to complete a transaction of one kind or other - whether it be filling out a form or purchasing a product. Transactional landing pages can be every bit as relevant to a visitor's search string as reference landing pages can, which is why they, too, (unlike doorway pages) represent a legitimate SEO/SEM strategy.

Check out Landing Page Tutorials and Case Studies, on Copyblogger, where Brian Clark will help you get started using or improving your current landing pages to make them more effective. (This post is chock full of links to helpful tutorials providing just the guidance you need to optimize or create your own landing pages.) 

So, what's the difference between doorway pages and landing pages? They're as different as black and white: black hat and white hat. Doorway pages equal black hat SEO (the kind you don't want to touch with a 10-foot pole), and landing pages equal white hat SEO (the kind that can enhance your business and increase your profits without jeopardizing your long-term search engine ranking - two methods of attracting website traffic that are as different as night and day.

Which one will you choose for your business?

During recessions, many companies elect to pull back or even eliminate advertising. If those companies are relying on traditional print advertising, they may be justified in their decision. However, a much wiser choice would be to shift advertising dollars from print to online media. From a purely common sense perspective, pay per click advertising offers one enormous advantage -

Online advertising reaches qualified prospects when they are ready to act.

It's as simple as that. Think about it. When an engineer is flipping through a trade journal or a work at home mom is perusing a health magazine, how carefully are they scrutinizing your ad? Sure, they might be thinking about purchasing your wares, but more likely, they are thinking about the articles, a business issue, what to make for dinner, or the weather. Your ad is likely to go in one eye and out the other.

Contrast this to the pay per click model. When that same engineer or work at home mom is Googling for your wares, they are keying in searches using your keyword phrases. When your ad displays on the SERP (search engine results page), you have one big thing going for you - your pay per click ad is relevant.

Pay per click advertising puts customers in control of the ads they view. While people tune out print ads - over which they have no control - they may just tune in those pay per click ads.

So how would you rather spend your precious advertising dollars - print and hope, or target and convert?

Simple point, really. But we tend to overlook simple, and SEM is one of the easiest places to do it. Too often, search engine marketing gets itself wrapped up in jargon and statistics and dazzling technologies. Not that those things aren't important, but there are far more fundamental reasons why online advertising is growing double digits as print advertising continues its decline.