Karen Scharf's Articles

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Improve Your Own Conversions With These Simple Steps My friend Steve recently asked me to critique a web site and suggest changes that could improve conversion rates. There were several backbone upgrades that I recommended. 7 Tips to Speed Up Your Web Site and Capture Holiday Shoppers The holidays can be a stressful time, and when you add in the fact that the US economy has been a bit bleak, your visitors will be in no mood to wait endlessly while your dinosaur of a web page finally loads in their browser. Best Practices For Your Email Newsletter Email newsletters are an excellent way to market your business, highlight your expertise and build a relationship with your prospects and customers. Email newsletters are relatively easy and inexpensive to produce, but that doesn't mean they're fool-proof. Measure What Matters, Dump What Doesn't I recently met with my friend Neil to discuss several business building strategies. I shared with him a tool that I use in my own business on a daily basis. You can create this tool on your own, it's super easy to use, and I guarantee it will help you grow your business exponentially. Everything But the Kitchen Sink My sister-in-law recently shared a little tip with me, and even though the tip was related to housekeeping, I thought it was a great concept to apply to any business. Here's what she said: she always ends her day by making sure her kitchen sink is cleaned. That way she can wake up to a clean sink, and the rest of her day just goes more smoothly. 6 Steps For Collecting Testimonials That Aren't Stupid Sam told me he never bothered collecting testimonials since he always thought they were "stupid". He claimed that reading testimonials never inspired him to make a purchase since they always sounded like they were made up anyway. Email Marketing Plan of Attack to Increase Holiday Sales Here's a great plan of attack for using email marketing to supplement your sales during the holiday - and beyond. 5 Incredibly Easy Ways to Add Fresh Content to Your Web Site You probably know by now that your web site needs to be updated on a regular basis. Updating your site is vital because search engines love fresh content. Write Effective PPC Ads - Keep These 6 Tips In Mind Google's recent changes to AdWords make it easier for novices to get started with pay per click advertising. But if you've never created a PPC ad before, the task can seem a little intimidating. 8 Steps To Getting Your Web Site Crawled Every SE has its own web crawler program and its own formula for ranking pages. However, while page factors might be ranked differently by different engines, the idea behind the web crawlers is basically the same. Getting your site crawled often is a good indicator that the SE finds your site important. Proven Formula For Setting Your 2009 Income Goals I just finished up my business plan for 2009 (and if you haven't updated your 2009 plan yet, I urge you to get started soon!) and I'm working with several clients to update their plans also. One of the roadblocks many of clients run into is the difficulty of setting concrete goals and objectives. Never Used AdWords? Here's Some Good News If you haven't used pay per click advertising to drive traffic to your web site, now might be a good time to get started. Google has recently announced several changes. They'll No Longer Pay For Botched Surgeries I came across a local news story a few months ago that had me absolutely astounded. A health insurance company here in Indianapolis released a statement saying they will no longer pay hospitals for performing the wrong surgery. 8 Copywriting Tips The Pros Use My most popular service lately has been copywriting, both for online web pages and offline sales letters. Whether you're a service provider or a retailer, a solidly constructed sales letter (or better yet, a three-letter series) can work for you... How To Market In A Bad Economy Does this sound like you...the economy is going south, and you're starting to panic. You're worried about the financial health of your small business. You think about slashing your prices to stimulate your sales. You assume you need to cut back on your... Automatic Income For A Down Economy I don't know about you, but I get a little annoyed by the big-name pundits who declare "I refuse to participate in the bad economy." Sure, it's a great philosophy, but for the small business owner who sees his income shriveling away, who has to lay off long-time staff members... 3 Simple Steps for Gathering Effective Testimonials I've recently suffered a computer crash, and one of the folders that wasn't backed up was one that contained all my testimonials. So I'm now on a mad-scramble to try to acquire new testimonials to use... Your 5 Day Marketing Plan Unfortunately, since many small business owners don't consider marketing as a core business activity...it's often the task that gets set aside when time is crunched. But by taking just a few minutes to plan ahead, your future marketing activities can go much smoother; you'll be able to complete your marketing activities quickly and easily. Tell Them Why They Should Buy Our customers don't know our products inside and out. They do not make the mental leap from features to benefits. We need to show them, to spell out exactly what our product or service will do for them. 12 Tips To Get The Most ROI From Your PPC Pay Per Click campaigns are not set it and forget projects. Without advanced planning and continued monitoring, they can become extremely unprofitable. Use these proven techniques to squeeze the most ROI out of your PPC: These 7 Tweaks Doubled The Conversion Rate If you're using a free report as a lead generator, you obviously want your conversion rate as high as possible. If your landing page is clunky or confusing, you might be losing out on many valuable prospects. I've recently implemented a few simple changes to a client's landing page that resulted in double the conversions. These changes are all easy to do, so I urge you to try them yourself: Address Their Objections To Increase Your Sales One of the services I provide for my clients is sales copy critique, and one of the problems that I see over and over again in sales copy is the "too good to be true" syndrome. I do understand the importance of highlighting all the great benefits of your product or service; but it's important to address the downside also. Top 5 Reasons Your Search Engine Rankings Dropped Don't get too comfortable with that cushy search engine position you've been experiencing. Chances are, your rankings will go through quite a few fluctuations over time. A minor move up or down is nothing to get alarmed over. But if your rankings suddenly plummet, consider these top reasons: Does Short Web Copy Outperform Long Copy? On the web, attention spans are extremely fragile. Web surfers are looking for immediate gratification. Do they really want to stick around and read a gazillion word sales letter? Does long copy outperform short copy, even on the internet? How To Plan Your E-zine Re-Send You crafted a great e-zine campaign, and yet the sales aren't pouring in as you expected them to. Only a fraction of your readers actually opened your e-zine. Now what? Want a Better Search Engine Ranking? Try These Easy Steps Having a hard time ranking in Google? Why not try optimizing for Yahoo? After all, Yahoo commands over 22% of the search market - and 22% of billions of users is quite a lot! How To Design Your E-zine For "Images Off" Many internet service providers and email clients now default to displaying html messages with the images turned off. Up to 50% of your readers will never see any of the images embedded into your e-zine, but that doesn't mean they can't have a great user experience. Business Planning: It's The Second Quarter... Do You Know Where Your Business Is? Can you believe the first quarter of the year is almost over?! When you look at your business, the amount of money you've earned, the number of new clients you've added, are you 25% to where you want to be for the year? If not, why not? And what do you plan to do about it? Website Not Generating Enough Leads? Is It Really Trying To? Many web site owners mistakenly believe that a "Contact Us" page will cause tons of prospects to fill out an online form or to pick up the phone and call... How Does Your Landing Page Measure Up? You managed to entice your email reader or web surfer to click your link or your ad. In today's cluttered web marketing world, that's quite an accomplishment. But don't start celebrating yet. It's what happens after the click that determines the success of your campaign. Top 10 Ways To Support Someone In Being Their Best One of the greatest responsibilities we have is to support ourselves and others in living at our highest and best. Whether we're parents, partners, friends or leaders, it's incumbent upon us to help others to live as close to their unique potential as we can. 7 Simple Steps to Getting Your Mo-Jo Back Ugh, it's that time of year again when we look at what we've accomplished and what we still have to do and for some of us, we kind of teeter out. Has this ever happened to you: How to Create an Abundant Flow of Perfect Customers What is the greatest weapon a small business can have in its marketing arsenal? Most marketing experts and small business owners alike agree that the single most cost effective and efficient way to grow any business is with referrals. Celebrate Your Success An important element of the science of achievement is the need to celebrate our successes. It's also one that's easily ignored and even contradicted. Turning Your Direct Mail Campaign Into An Online Lead Generating Machine Here's a GREAT way for you to save time, save money, and increase your sales leads. Let me tell you a quick little story... I have a client for whom I run a lead generation direct mail campaign. I've been trying to persuade him to move some of the campaign online in order to cut down costs and increase conversions. He's been a pretty hard sell, but I've finally managed to convince him. Business Is All About Relationships It's important that we cultivate and nurture our relationships. Being honest, playing win-win and treating people fairly isn't just a moral thing to do--it's good business--now, and in the future. Do Your Readers See What You See? You've set up a beautiful email campaign. Your copy is tight, your graphics are eye-catching, you are just sure the click-through rate will be more than respectable... How To Optimize Your Website For Ask While Ask's share of the search market is comparatively small, it offers some great features that are sure to catch on. Consider grabbing a good ranking now before the word gets out and a tidal wave of webmasters start clamoring for top spots. Building Solid Foundations When it comes to erecting a building, few people would dispute the importance of establishing a strong foundation. It's no different in building a business, a family or a life. Can Your "Free" Marketing End Up Costing You Thousands? Many entrepreneurs start email marketing campaigns because they provide an easy, inexpensive way to stay in touch with prospects and clients. But beware! If you're not following these few simple rules, your "free" marketing could land you with thousands of dollars in fines. Overwhelmed? You Don't Need to Be For most of us, the holidays make our already busy lives become even more hectic. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. So here's my Top Ten Ways to Deal with Overwhelm. What Happens When We Don't Make It? It's great to read about successes. We get encouraged by the achievements of others. We're inspired when we hear about how others overcame difficult odds. But what happens when things don't go as planned? What happens when we just don't make it? How To Create Your Own Information Product Information products, such as e-books and special reports, are the most profitable products you can sell on the internet today, not to mention the easiest. If you've spent anytime in internet marketing, you're probably already aware of this fact. Discover The Amazing Profit Pulling Power Of Marketing With Audio Audio is a great tool for your lead generation and relationship building, and it also makes a relatively easy-to-produce info-product that you can use to generate revenue. If you have a service business, or if it's very important that your prospects trust you and really feel comfortable with you before they would consider becoming your client, then audio would be a great asset to your marketing mix. 53% of Your Email Subject Lines Are Probably Broken Do you realize that 53% of your email subject lines are probably broken? According to a recent study by Pivotal Veracity, that's how many email subject lines don't display as the sender had intended. And, if you are doing your own email marketing, there is a very good chance that your own subject lines are among those that don't display properly. How To Optimize Your Website For Yahoo Having a hard time ranking in Google? Why not try optimizing for Yahoo? After all, Yahoo commands over 22% of the search market - and 22% of billions of users is quite a lot! Time to Plan for Your 2008 Email Success October is generally the time I like to get ready for the next year. And in order to plan for 2008, it's imperative to evaluate 2007. Here is the straightforward assessment I use to critique my email marketing campaign for the year. I suggest you apply this evaluation to your own campaign as you put your 2008 email marketing plan together. Simply ask yourself the following questions. 7 Quick Fixes To Gear Up For Holiday Shoppers As the holiday shopping season is drawing near, it's time to get your website ready for what could possibly be your busiest time of the year. Here are 7 quick fixes you can easily implement on your site in one single afternoon. 7 Quick Fixes To Gear Up For Holiday Shoppers As the holiday shopping season is drawing near, it's time to get your website ready for what could possibly be your busiest time of the year. Here are 7 quick fixes you can easily implement on your site in one single afternoon. Top 10 Tips For Designing Your Holiday Email Campaign If you haven't started planning your holiday email campaign yet, what are you waiting for? Your competitors have had their plans in the works for weeks now. Here are a few ideas to help get you started. How To Deal With Bounced Email I have a client who sells advertising in her e-zines, so she is hesitant to remove bounced addresses from her list. She mistakenly believes that she can charge more for her advertising, even though at least 20% of her list is "no good". I've been trying to convince her that she is doing more harm than good, and I thought I'd share some facts with you to prevent you from making the same mistakes. How To Yield a 7% Sales Increase With An Incredibly Easy Redesign I have some very interesting split test results that I think will really surprise you. Here's the story of a major retailer who increased sales over 7% by going against conventional wisdom. Optimize Your PDFs For Better Search Traffic I recently came across a quote from a web marketer saying that people who include PDFs in their websites don't realize the search engines cannot see this text. Fortunately, that's not really the case. I believe the real problem is that most people don't take the appropriate care when creating their PDFs. PDF documents can be a great way to improve your traffic, as long as you follow a few rules. Are You Leaving Money On The Table With Your Upsells? I have always advised my clients on the importance of upselling, and, as a marketing student, I was indoctrinated with the common practice of gradually working new customers up the price ladder. Obviously then, it would be a normal procedure that the price of upsells be only slightly higher than the original item being purchased. But, is this necessarily the best practice? Increase Open Rates: Be Direct With Busy Readers On-line marketer, ProspectZone, increased open rates by 28% and click-throughs by 53% in a recent split-test. What can you learn from their results? One More Tactic For Increasing Your Customer Base on a Budget Small business owners often struggle to grow their customer base. They're caught between the time and expense involved in traditional advertising, and limited marketing budgets. However, there are four extremely powerful and practically free marketing tools that we all have at our disposal, but we often over look. Another Simple Tactic For Increasing Your Customer Base and Growing Your Small Business Small business owners often struggle to grow their customer base. They're caught between the time and expense involved in traditional advertising, and limited marketing budgets. However, there are four extremely powerful and practically free marketing tools that we all have at our disposal, but we often over look. Small Business Marketing on a Budget - Easy Technique for Growing Your Customer Base Small business owners often struggle to grow their customer base. They're caught between the time and expense involved in traditional advertising, and limited marketing budgets. However, there are four extremely powerful and practically free marketing tools that we all have at our disposal, but we often over look. The Simplest Tactics For Increasing Your Customer Base and Growing Your Small Business Small business owners often struggle to grow their customer base. They're caught between the time and expense involved in traditional advertising, and limited marketing budgets. However, there are four extremely powerful and practically free marketing tools that we all have at our disposal, but we often over look. Take Advantage of Eye Tracking Tests Sure, eye tracking studies designed specifically for your web site could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. So, until you're ready to spend that kind of dough, you might want to take advantage of data garnered from studies of other websites.

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