Ask Gorilla. Internet Marketing Tips and Tricks

What Can a Grocery Store Teach us About Internet Marketing - Part 1 - Layout

For a newbie venturing into the online world a grocery store offers many lessons in web design, layout and structure.  The parallels between your site and a grocery store are very similar and clear.  Learn these lessons and you will have a huge head start and a solid mindset for building an online business.

PART 1 - LAYOUT

The most apparent thing you will notice in any grocery store is the layout.  Below you will see a basic floor plan of any grocery store.  Most grocery stores follow the same pattern and it is not by accident.  Lets take a look further look.

The layout of a grocery store has one purpose: "To guide you through the entire store so that you end up in the check out line"

This is no difference between the layout of a grocery store and the layout of your site.  Websites have 1 purpose and that is to sell.  Your website needs to have that same purpose too.

SLOW THEM DOWN WITH FRESH CONTENT

In almost all grocery stores you will start off in a produce section.  This is for 2 reasons.

1.  Because these items are the most perishable, they want you to stock up on them as soon as you arrive.  This helps keep the items fresher.

2.  Number 2 is even more important.  THIS LAYOUT SLOWS YOU DOWN.  You have to zig and zag.  Once you think you have found  a clear path another obstacle or customer will get in your way.  The longer you are in a store, the more $ $ $ $ $ you are likely to spend.

Why are understanding these two principles so important for your own online business?
Because you want to have the freshest content available to your audience.  It does not have to be the best content available, but you want to keep it new and consistently put it out there. 

Also, good content slows down your visitors and keeps them on the page.  Most visitors get click happy and just start clicking one link after another.  Give them something to stop and think about.  Give them relevant content that keeps them on the page.

Slow them down, get their attention and then hit them with a call to action.  Tell them exactly what you want them to do.  Tell them about a product or insert an image or use any means necessary to get them to do exactly what you want them to do.

Similar to a sale sign or an employee of the produce department recommending a particular fruit because it is a new crop and in season.

STEERING THEM IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

A successful layout in a grocery store gets you to follow a particular sales path.  You might not have even been aware of it in the past, but like the produce section there are all kids of items placed in your way. Not just to get your attention of a particular sale, but to guide you in a certain direction.  Layouts get you commit to one direction without you even thinking about it.

Look at the bottoms on aisles between 1 and 2 and also between 3 and 4.  These little displays help steer you down the right aisles.  The goal of these are to make sure you go through every aisle.

Your website needs to do the same exact thing.  If your purpose is to make sales, everything you do needs to lead that customer to the shopping cart.  If your purpose is to make new contacts and generate leads, then everything you do on your site needs to drive that potential customer to a sign up form.

Your website needs to be laid out in a way that the call to action that you want the customer to take is louder than the

ONE WAY IN....ONE WAY OUT

Grocery stores have one advantage huge advantage over your website.  There is ONLY one way in and one way out.

There are 1000's of ways people can find your website.  Search engines, Directories, Video Sites, Social Networking Sites, Direct URL, Forums, Blogs, Random Sites, and places you would never expect are all ways people can find your website.  There are 1000's of entryways into your website.

What about Exits?  Obviously, the first exit is when they use the Back Button.  No one wants that. That is just a waste of a visit.  But what most of you don't realize or track, are how many people are actually doing just that?  Do you know how many people look at one page and then exit?  If not, you should.  And you should be testing and improving that everyday.

Tragically, the other exits that exist on your site are ones that you create.  Whether it is a link to a friends site, a site that my be beneficial, your Facebook, your MySpace, or your Twitter account they are all links to sites outside of your website.

Once they leave they are gone and you opened the door for them to leave!  You didn't utilize their visit.  No sale was made, no information was captured.  They already have accounts on those video pages and social network pages.  Are you going to keep your fingers crossed and hope that everyone you send away from your site is going to be your friend on a social network site?

Remember, the purpose of your website is to make sales.  The purpose is not to send them to your Facebook account.  You want to use those sites to drive traffic to your website, not that other way around.

So close those doors and drive the traffic to where you want them to go!

Part 2 - Structure - Coming Tomorrow!

How Does Ask Gorilla Help Your Online Business?

So often I am asked, "What is it that you do?"

When I respond, "I do Internet Marketing."

I almost always get, "Great, build me a website!"

Of course, I don't mind building the sites for my clients, but that is not what I really do and that is not what I am passionate about.  I have done internet marketing consulting for clients who range from start up companies to companies whose services are into the 6 digits.  I thrive on building a marketing strategy for companies to dominate online.

But my services really kick in after you already have a website.  There are great designers out there who can put together a site for you in a few weeks.  But then what do they do?  You make the payment for the site, and they move on to the next person who needs a site

You have this tremendously powerful tool, but most of you don't know how to turn it on.

So what is it that I do:  I show small to medium sized businesses how to be competitive online and carve out their piece of the online market place.  I coach what to do and what not to do. I work on finding simple little tweaks that will have a tremendous impact on sales and profits. We work together to find, build and retain a base of customers who are hungry for your products. My goal is always "Long Term Sustainable Growth"

But even more than coaching, I just love marketing online.  I've been doing this for over 10 years now.  I simply can not get enough of it.  I've personally had some busts online and I have also had some very great success stories online.  Not everything works.  But we test, figure out what went wrong and either implement or move on.

Most of what you will find out about internet marketing is so simple that it will force you into seeking out more and more information to perfect your craft.  If you put the time into building your online business the right way, you can literally put it on auto pilot and watch it grow.

But you have to take the time.  You have to learn how this whole process works.  There are some short cuts, but there are no golden tickets.  People very rarely get rich on accident online. It takes planning and strategy.  It takes consistent work.

No matter what you may have heard about building an online business, there are no easy ways to do it.  I am sure you have all seen an email that says, "Just install, push a button and BOOM you'll have money rolling into your bank account 24/7". 

It just doesn't work that way.  Even the best of the best can not 100% duplicate a system.  Some may get close, but there are so many variables that need to be worked out.  Traffic Sources, Ad Sources, Amount of Traffic to a Page.....and that is without even getting into Conversions, Captures, Sales Processes.....the list goes on.

So What is AskGorilla.com Going to Do for Your Online Business?
We (myself and the Gorilla!) are going to be your eyes and ears for all things marketing online.  We are going to show you what to do and what not to do.  We'll review new products and software.  There is a button on every page for you to Ask The Gorilla a question for FREE! That's right! You can get World Class Internet Marketing Coaching just by Asking the Gorilla!

Not only that, but we even go a step further.  There are 1000's of ways to achieve success online.  I am only one person with a couple of ideas per problem.  So many of you will see the same exact problem, and come up with a completely different solution.  I invite you to shares those solutions with all of us.  

We are here to help you build your own strategy.  I want you to be able to function online independently of any designer or marketer.  You can truly can do internet marketing

We will also be introducing our own products and software that we have been working on for the past  year.  Many of these are the same products and tools we use ourselves. We'll be rolling them out every couple weeks......so get ready.

Thanks again for the support and THE GORILLA IS BACK! ! !

Changing the Direction of Ask Gorilla

 I've decided to change the direction of AskGorilla.com a little (and for good reason).  There seems to be an influx of Internet Marketing materials that are either identical to each other, or they have no value to you. 

Some materials are simply over hyped and over priced.  Some are packed with so much information that it can over whelm and discourage people from achieving their goals. 

Some internet marketers actually bank on the fact that most of you won't do anything with the materials they sell you.  They know that you will just keep on buying.  Sure, you will try for a little, but then you will get discouraged when you don't get the "miracle" results they promised and give up. 

Do you know what happens next?  They wait, and they wait.  They know that you are looking for the "next big thing" and the "this is it!".  Guess what happens?  They sell you all over again.

I am passionate about what I do for my clients.  They are excited about the results I achieve for them.  The truth is, you can do everything the so called internet marketing gurus tell you that you can accomplish and more. In fact, in most cases I can show you how to do it on much less than you can ever imagine.

And please, don't get me wrong.  There is also a ton of good marketing materials produced by honest, ethical and credible sources.  My goal for you is to sort through the jungle out there and give you honest and unbiased feedback.

Sit back and enjoy.  I'll be bringing you some fresh content very soon.  In the meantime, if you would like me to review your product please Ask Gorilla to Review Your Internet Marketing Product

Anatomy of a Pay-Per-Click Ad - Part 3 - URL

The URL is actually a 2 part process.  We are going to dive into both parts in this post.  This is going to be a 2-For!

When building your online Pay Per Click ads you will need to decide on both a Display URL and a Destination URL.  The Display URL is what will be shown to the reader of the ad.  The Destination URL is where the reader will be taken when they click on your ad.

In the example above, the reader will see the Display URL and will be taken to the Destination URL when they click on the ad.  It is important to note that the reader never sees the Destination URL until they arrive at your site.  The page they land on is called the Landing Page.  We will get more into landing pages when we cover Destination URL's.

DISPLAY URLS

There are a few tricks we want to keep in mind when we create a Display URL's.

1. We must keep in mind that we are limited to only 35 Characters.  Keep it short and to the point. NO HTTP or WWW.
2. Choose a Domain Name this is highly relevant to  your target market.  For example, if you sell computers a domain name that sounds high tech will convert better than one that sounds low-tech.  (This should actually be considered before you start building your site.  But if you are still at the research phase then consider this now before you buy your domain name )

3. RELEVANT.  This is the last chance to catch the readers attention.  Make the Destination URL be equal to the type of content that will appear on the landing page.

In this example to the left, we can clearly see that the creator of this ad added  HTTP and the www into their ad. 

By eliminating the HTTP and www from the ad we save 11 of the 35 spaces we are allotted.

Another Tip is to use the First Letter Capitalization Strategy that we used in Part 1 Headlines and Part 2 Descriptions. 

In the example to our right, we can see that I capitalized the A and the G to help the domain name stand out.  But we can even take it 1 Step Further!

In this last example, we can see that we have added the word "Headlines" to our Display URL.  This is highly relevant to the example ad that we have worked on.  And because of this relevancy we are rewarded with having our keywords bolded.

DESTINATION URL

This is the actual URL of the page we are taking the reader.  It is the exact URL path that takes the reader directly to the information they are looking for.

This first page that they view is called the Landing Page.  Just as you split test your ads to see which ones get better Click Thru Rates and Convert Better you can also split test your landing pages to see which ones covert best.

If you are looking for a free tool to track your results, you can't go wrong with Google Analytics.  You can use this to track what is going on within your website.

Anatomy of a PPC Ad - Part 2 - Killer Descriptions

As we learned in How to Write Headlines for Pay Per Click Ads, the headline is what you use to get the readers attention. The description is your chance to get the customer to click on your ad.  There are a few tips and tricks to get them to do that.

Lets start off with the amount of space you get to capture the readers attention.

Generally you get 70 characters or 2 lines of 35 characters.  Pay close attention to each PPC Network you use because the amount of characters for your description will vary from search engine to search engine.  Some will only display a short description of your ad on some networks, while others may only display your headline.

Just like in the headline portion of your ad, your description section will BOLD the text that matches the keywords you have bid on.  In this example, let us say we are creating an ad for a product that helps readers write good headlines.

In this case, we can see that that word Headline is now showing in our ad and it is Bolded TWICE!

Why is this effective?  Because people scan pages from left to right going down the page.  As your eyes move down the page the two times you see the word headline will be more likely to catch your attention. 

It is good practice to spread your keywords out in your ads.  This gives you a better chance at catching your readers eye.

The best advice is to run 2 ads at a time and see which style of wording works best for your market.  This is called split testing. 

Always put one ad up against another.  You can usually tell in a few hundred page views which ad is the stronger ad.  Once you have determined which ad has a stronger CTR or converts better, delete the ad that is under performing.  Then create a new ad and compete it with the previous winner.    

 

Anatomy of a Pay Per Click Ad - Part 1 - Headlines

To the left you will see a sample of a Pay Per Click Text Ad.  These generally look the same on the big 3 Pay Per Click Ad Programs.  The Programs are Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN Adcenter.

For today and for the next 3 days we are going break down the 4 main sections of a Pay Per Click Text ad.  These 4 sections are Headline, Description, Display URL,and Destination URL. 

Tip #1:  Using Capital Letters in Headlines

Lets Get Started With Headlines.  One of the first things you want to do when creating a headline is to get that headline to POP!  You want it to stand out above all the rest.  Let's take a look and how you may write your first headline. This is a common mistake new comers make when creating an Pay Per Click Ad.

In the example above, only the first letter of the first word is capitalized.  This is not much of an attention getter.  Let's redo the same ad so that every main word is capitalized.

Can you see and compare the difference?  The second headline jumps off the page.  It is easier on the eyes for readers to read.  The trick is to capitalize words just like they were the title of a book or a movie.

Tip #2:  Using Your Keywords in the Headline

If you are trying to capture a reader's attention with a specific keyword or keyword phrase, why not include it in the title?  By doing this, your Keyword will show up in BOLD letters.  In this case, we are bidding on the word "Example" and it also appears in our ad.

 

This helps to make your ad highly relevant and can increase your CTR's (Click Through Rates).  In the case of our Pay Per Click Example above, someone was searching for the word Example.  We were bidding on the term Example and we also listed it in our Headline.  Because it is in our headline, it was automatically bolded for us.  When the reader scans the page, they are more likely to see our ad as being relevant and click on it.

TIP #3 - Grabbing Their Attention

Of course, this is the whole purpose of a headline.  You want the reader to click on your ad over all the others on the page.  Some people will use their company name for the headline.  In very few instances is this recommended.  Unless you have 1 product and it is only known by the name of your company, it is highly unlikely that you would need to use your company name .

For the example, I am going to pretend like I am writing an ad for this post.  Here are the two examples:  Which do you prefer?

Now think of this from a searchers point of view.  Chances are someone was searching for Headline Tips.  If both ads were served up then the one that is most relevant is most likely to get clicked on.  In this case Headline Secrets and Tips is more relevant that Marketing tips since Headline Tips are EXACTLY what the user was searching for.

Tomorrow's Focus on the Anatomy of a Pay Per Click Ad: Descriptions

Reader Question: Increasing CTR's

From:  Ben
Subject of Question:Adwords Advertising

Your Question for Gorilla is: My click through rate (ctr) on Adwords isn't very good.  It's usually below 1%.  I'm getting a lot of impressions but not a lot of CTR.  What do I need to do to get more CTR?  Should I do something more with my keywords?

ANSWER:
This is a great question and one I often hear from new clients.  Many people do not fully grasp how Adwords and other PPC advertising actually work.  But before, I go any further I want to make sure that everyone knows that Click-Thru-Rates (CTR's) are just one piece of the puzzle.

Let's dive into some possible issues:
The first thing that always comes to mind with High Impressions and Low CTR's is Bid Amount.  If you look to the Column for Average Position you will probably find that you are showing up in the 8+ position.  This means that on most computers your add will be showing below the fold. 

The fold is any part of the webpage that you have to scroll down to see.  This means that while your ad is technically showing on the page, it is out of view from the competition.  This means that the 7 people above you are getting most of the exposure.  They are also going to get higher CTR's because they are the first ads that are seen by the reader of that page.

When it comes to Google Adwords, it is often a better strategy to bid aggressively in the beginining of a campaign. 

Here is why:
What is the one thing Google loves?  Relevancy.  Google will actually reward you when you place a relevant ad.  So if you bid aggressively up front you will be in the higher positions on the page.  This will most likely increase your CTR's.  When your CTR's are higher, Google views that ad as something that their users are interested in.  Because of that, you will be rewarded with a lower Bid Amount to reach the same position.  You can then gradually begin decreasing your bid amounts and maintain the same position in the search results!

The second part of your question refers to your keywords. 
Without seeing your list of keywords I can offer you a few suggestions:

1.  Your current set of keywords may be too broad.  For example, let us say you are in the business of selling printers.  If you are just bidding on the keyword "printers" you are in a very competitive category with very few buyers.  The word printers is going to be reserved for some one who wants general information on printers and is not likely to buy at this time.  But lets say you sell a specific model named Super Printer 5000.  That is a very specific type of printer and when people search for Super Printer 5000 your ad will show.  Not only that, but Super Printer 5000 is very targeted to EXACTLY what someone is searching for. Also, people who search for Super Printer 5000 are more likely to buy a printer.

2.  You could be running 1 ad with too many keywords that do not acurately reflect that actual text of the ad.  Break the ads up and make them more specific to your keywords.

3.  Split test your ad. You are able to run multiple versions of ads.  You should always run at least 2 versions of ads and see which one performs the best. Lets say AD #1 gets 1.3% CTR and Ad #2 gets 1.6% CTR then you have a slightly stronger ad with Ad #2.  I would toss in a 3rd Ad and see where that one falls.  Then after 24-72 Hours get rid of the lowest CTR Ad and test another one.  Continue testing the ads and continually raising your CTR's.

This is a great question from one of our readers.  It actually came at the perfect time since I am now working on a series of posts what will be related to Pay-Per-Click Ad Campaigns.  Check back tomorrow when we dive in starting with Headings.

Are You Killing Your Business?

The biggest obstacle to your businesses success is often YOU! Either because your "Big Idea" ran out of steam or life caught up with you and the time constraints to grow your business are far too great.

The biggest thing you are doing wrong right now is doing NOTHING. This is where most people fail at business. In fact, most businesses fail before they even start. The sad truth is that many of you who read this post will get very excited, turn the interent off, and then slowly fade back into your normal daily life.

Is running a business easy? ABSOLUTELY NOT
Is it rewarding? ABSOLUTELY

Are you excited about your business?
Do you love what you do?
Do you believe in the products you are selling?
Do you have something to share with the world?

If you answered YES to all of those questions, then this post is going to benefit you in ways you could not have ever imagined.

So today's tip is going to be one of the most important tips on this site: TAKE ACTION. This does not mean you have to implement every Tip today. In fact, I would strongly discourage you from doing that.

Here is why: Too much change, too fast can actually be harmful to the over all business. The goal of this post and this site is to slowly and ethically build your business. Each one of these tips takes time and resources away from you.

As your sales grow and you implement different strategies you will need to hire on more employees. Those employees can specialize in certain areas that this site covers. Let their strengths propel your business for you. And as you bring on more employees, implement more strategies.

Just one of these tips could save you hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars. Better yet, just one of these tips could MAKE YOU THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.

You found this site for a reason. Now TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. Use it to its full potential.

TODAYS ACTION PLAN:

Get together with a friend, collegue or neighbor who has a similiar interest in building a strong online business. Share this site along with the tips and tricks we provide for you. Then Challenge each other to meet goals and then exceed them.

Go back through some of our posts and build a strategy for making your business an online sucess. Also, you can sign up for our

Internet Marketing News Letter and get tips and tricks delivered right to your inbox.

Ask Gorilla an Internet Marketing Question

This is the feature I am most excited about when it comes to AskGorilla.com.  I have opened this site up to your questions.  You can ask any questions you have on Internet marketing and E-Commerce. Your questions can span SEO, Web 2.0, Product Submit, PPC, RSS, Blogging, Social Medias, Email Marketing, Video Marketing and anything else you can think of on the Internet.

But where AskGorilla.com differs from other sites is that our answers are open to other readers suggestions.

Here is why:

I've been doing this since the year 2000 and have learned certain tricks and tips.  I know what has worked for me and my clients.  But, I also know that the way I do things is not the only way to do it.  There are always different approaches to different matters.  Each situation can have 20-30 different answers.

There is no right way or wrong way.  Well, let me rephrase that......THERE ARE DEFINITELY WRONG WAYS to market on the Internet!  But what I mean is that there are different perspectives to solving the same problem.

So I invite you to ask questions and read through the advice I give.  I also ask that you respond to the information I give.  If you use it and implement it, let us know how it turned out for you.  Let us know how you fine tuned the idea to make it work for you.

That is what this site is about.  Helping each other.  Let us help you and in return you can help us by telling 40 of your closet friends about AskGorilla.com.

Thanks again for the Support!
Jeff "Gorilla" Revilla

Free Marketing Tool - EmailMeForm.com

I wanted to tell you about a 100% Completely free service I used to for building part of this site.  When you click on AskGorilla an Internet Marketing Question over there to the right, the link takes you to a page where you can actually AskGorilla a question.

On that page you will see a form.  You can build a form like that for any site in a matter of minutes (without knowing any coding!) and have it up and running.  Your readers will be able to fill out the form and the results will be mailed directly to you.

Check it out Here:  EmailMeForm.com