REALITY... Marketing Numbers to Focus On
by Rhonda Hailey
You might think that 478K readers means you should expect at least 400
sales. ( I've actually had customers with such lofty expectations.)
In reality... advertising...
ezine, search engine, direct mail or otherwise is a method to attract
qualified prospects...not sales. Your website.. and your follow up
system and customer service has the job of making the sale.
I always like to round it off... say for instance: 478K readers = 3%
open rate... (people who see your headline, and are intrigued or
curious enough to open
your email) = 14,340 who actually look at your marketing message. You
should expect effective advertising to generate between 1- 3 %
response rates.
Of that 14,340.... 3% actually click thru to visit your site... = 430
unique visitors.
Of your 430 unique visitors... 1 out of every 10 should respond to the
information on your website for more information, equating to 43 new
qualified prospects.
Numbers you need to focus on....
- The number of people who see your ads, read your articles or receive
your
mailings.
- The percentage of these people that RESPOND to your ad. It's not how
many ads you run, but how many people pay
attention to them that matters.
- The percentage of respondents that actually give you their contact
information
and add themselves to your database. These
are the people who have tagged
themselves as qualified prospects, and are
interested in learning more.
It's essential to identify these numbers daily and weekly to track the
success of your marketing, both in terms of your advertisings' ability
to generate traffic, and your websites' ability to convert that
traffic into qualified prospects.
Do the math:
1. Determine the number of UNIQUE visitors to your web site daily or
weekly.
This information is in your weblogs
available from your cpanel. Using
tracking
software to determine where your visitors are coming from will
help
you spend your advertising dollars
more wisely.
2. Divide the number of unique visitors by the number of people
who contact
you, either by filling out a sub form
on your site, or calling the contact number
given. This is your conversion rate of
site visitors to qualified prospects.
At least one out of ten visitors should be contacting you and adding
themselves to your list of qualified prospects. Your job is to
maintain contact until you have provided enough information for them
to make a buying decision.
Nothing works better than a phone call.. but auto-responders
are the answer to immediate gratification for your prospect, and 24/7
hands free automation for you, until you can make that telephone
contact.
For every 100 unique visitors to your site per week, 10 to 25 should
be sending you an email or calling to request more information about
your products and services. With consistent
advertising each month, your list of qualified prospects should
grow.
The conversion of qualified prospects to sales is a function of your
website.. not your advertising. If your advertising message is
generating the traffic; but they aren't converting to sales... you may
need help
with the design of your website.
Sometimes it is something as simple as color choices and or how much
information is on the page, or even the size of the fonts. Small
changes like one or two words or phrases can turn your site into a
sales conversion machine.
For assistance with copy writing,
contact the author of this article.
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© Rhonda Hailey, publisher of RUMBLES from the Jungle Ezine,
an ongoing safari thru the jungle of online advertising. Subscribe
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