Ask Gorilla.com Online Marketing

Reader Question: How to Maximize Sales in the Minimum Amount of Time

2010-02-27T11:01:36-05:00

Your Name: Ben K
Subject of Question: Sales

Your Question for Gorilla is:: How long would you recommend a business have a sale for on products? How do you get the maximum amount of orders on a sale in the minimum amount of time? And how often should a business have sales?

Your Answer: I will answer the first and third questions at the same time for you. They are not exactly the same question, but they are similar enough to be covered together in this blog post. The reason being is that I don't think that you are planning on running just 1 sale! This is probably (and should be) part of your long term sales strategy.

In most cases, people just follow what other people are doing when it comes to running sales. That is a fine strategy. Most people do things that work and then they repeat them. Millions of dollars are spent to determine the best way to run a sale in a particular market. Why not capitalize on their strategies?

For Example:
Grocery stores run sales on a weekly basis
Music stores usually have deals the week music is release
Specialty stores have deals if you pre-order merchandise
Hardware stores run monthly seasonal deals
Restaurants run Daily Specials or Features
All stores have 1 Time Buy Offers While Supplies Last

You will find that in most of those industries all the competitors follow the same sales model. The shorter the sale, the higher the turnover.

Grocery stores know that next week you will be out of food again and you will be looking for more. So what do they do? They change up their weekly specials to lure you back in.

Hardware stores know that people only buy lawnmowers and snow shovels once a year, so they spread out the deals over a longer period of time.

Specialty stores want to get low prices by buying in bulk and also don't want to be stuck with leftover merchandise. They use pre-orders to drive down the price. Then they cash in on release day or when the product lands at their store.

Here's Where it Gets Good:

What I like most about your 3 questions is that you really aren't interested in the length of the sale but how to maximize sales from it! That is what makes this such a great question.

Here is the second question again: How do you get the maximum amount of orders on a sale in the minimum amount of time?

AskGorilla's Simple 3 Part Formula for Max Sales

1. Promote Your Sale.

People will need to know about your sale if they are to make a purchase. Sounds simple right?

But many business owners simply put things on sale and expect the best. The figure the price will make the doors fly open and people will just rush in. But nothing could be further from the truth.

You need to capitalize on all the things that bring traffic to your store in both your online world and your brick and mortar store. If people don't know it is on sale, they won't come in to buy it.

Put it on everything and Put it everywhere.

2. Up-Sell.

Once you have a customer ready to make a purchase, offer them another version or an accessory to the product they are purchasing.

They are already open to the idea of spending money with you, so figure out ways to make them spend more.

This is one of the most simple ways to maximize sales.

3. Capture.

When I do consulting, my goal with a new client is always establishing a formula for long term sustainable growth. By capturing information about a customer you are able to promote, sell and offer to them time and time again.

Even if they did not make a sale this time, you still need to capture their information. They may not be ready to buy today, but they have an interest in what you sell. You know they have an interest because they walked through your doors or visited your website.

Capture = Growth. While they may not have been planning on making a purchase today, you can throw one final curve ball to change things up.

There is One Final Kicker: Since you have engaged them and they have provided information to you why not give them a special offer for first time visitors? Maybe a 5 or 10% discount for making their first purchase today. I think you would agree that getting 90 - 95% off the purchase price is better than getting no sales at all..

They may have had no intention of making a purchase today, but this exclusive and time sensitive offer may just make it happen.

Imagine all of your previous sales where people just came and went from your website without making a purchase.

You don't know who they were.
You didn't get any contact information from them.
They didn't buy anything.

What if you could have converted just 1% more of your current traffic? Would that have made a difference to your annual sales?

Think of it this way:
Most websites convert at around 1% on average. So for every 100 visitors only 1 person will buy something. That means that 99 people didn't. Your website fails at a rate of 99%.

What if you could fail just a little less? What if your website could fail at a rate off 98%? 2 out of every 100 people would make a purchase. Does that seem reasonable?

If you can accomplish that, then you just doubled your sales ! ! !

These 3 techniques can be applied to your next sale and will maximize your sales in the minimum amount of time.

If you would like some assistance with implementing an online sales strategy for your company, please Contact AskGorilla . We will customize a strategy for your business.

How to Market Your Youtube Videos

2010-02-14T13:44:18-05:00

Is your business using video sharing sites, like YouTube, for traffic and lead generation? If not, you may be pleased with all of the traffic, credibility and sales you can generate.

YouTube visitors watch up to 100 million videos per day. This means for your business you have the opportunity to let YouTube show your videos to hundreds or thousands of people per day.

The best part is that YouTube is Free for you and their visitors. It can cost a few bucks to a couple hundred dollars to produce a video. But after the work is done, it is uploaded forever. Your actual cost on a daily basis will be just pennies per day to market your message, brand or products!

If this sounds interesting to you, then you will want to examine other ways to market your YouTube videos. Just a few of the many marketing approaches that you can take are outlined below.

One of the many ways that you can market your YouTube video is by having any of your videos appear on any websites or blogs that you have.

What is nice about YouTube is that you can easily get the HTML code for your video. Those codes will enable you or any other internet users to post a YouTube video anywhere online. It is not uncommon for bloggers to insert a YouTube video in their blog, by using generated HTML codes.

Generally you will want to your own YouTube videos on your own websites. You can also encourage anyone else who has a blog to have your YouTube video appear on their blog. In most cases, you will find that even strangers are willing to do so, as long as your YouTube video is connected, in one way or another, to their blog or website.

Social Media Marketing:
Another way to market your video online is to share that content with your other social media accounts. These are accounts that you probably already set up on sites like Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Stumbleupon and 100's of others. On these sites you have already established a relationship with your customer base. These are people who are already interested in your message and products. If the video you made would improve their lives, go ahead and share it!

Twitter That!
Twitter is Social Media and really belongs in the category above. But it is just different enough that it needs its own category.

For most, Twitter is a whole new area of marketing. But what it essentially does is take almost everything out of the marketing process and streamlines it into 140 characters! There is no quicker way to get a message out than to Twitter it. Even tho, it is really simple to use, it takes some time to figure out and get used to how things work. You will also have to test what works for your market and what does not.

Blast that Content
Developing an email marketing campaign is another simple method of marketing that will help you distribute your videos online. Most email marketing accounts can be set up and running in a few hours.

Once you have a contact list in place, you can begin sending them messages based on the content they have requested. It is important to keep the content 100% related to what they have asked for.

For example, if you are making videos for your business and they signed up for your business newsletter, then chances are the video will be related. But if you made a home video of your kids at the park or a video for another one of your companies, then those videos would not be related to the information they have signed up for. By keeping the information relevant, you will increase click through rates and reduce SPAM complaints.

Using Online Message Boards
You can also market your YouTube videos on online message boards. Online message board marketing can be done two different ways. For instance, there are message boards that are 100% concentrated in your niche market and allow you to share information with their board members.

You may want to think about posting links to some of your YouTube videos, especially if you think the other members would enjoy watching them. If you belong to an online message board or forum that allows you to have a signature, you will want to look into doing so. Your signature will always appear at the end of each of your messages; therefore, the more active you are online, the more exposure your YouTube videos are likely to get.

Now that you know a few ways that you can go about marketing your YouTube videos to other internet users, you may be wondering exactly why you should. As it was mentioned above, YouTube, alone, is likely to generate thousands of viewers for your targeted videos.

If you are looking for more views, whether just to increase your online popularity or to help you get new clients, you will want to take the time to market your YouTube videos. What is nice is that you have a number of different methods available, including the ones mentioned above, and most are free. In fact, marketing your YouTube videos to other internet users isn’t only free, but it is easy to. Many marketing tactics will only take up a few minutes of your time, if even that and they last forever.

The decision as to whether or not you want further market your YouTube videos is yours to make. If you find yourself unsatisfied or unhappy with your current YouTube viewer ship, you may want to think about doing a little bit of your own marketing or hiring a professional consultant to help get the ball rolling

Internet Marketing Lessons from a Grocery Store - Part 3 - Branding

2010-02-05T23:24:00-05:00

In this post I want to talk about Branding. We have all been to a grocery store and we've all seen brands of products. It is no surprise to anyone that products have labels on them and those labels have company logos and product logos on them.

But what is surprising to most people is how easy it is to brand your own products, website and message.

Branding goes beyond product and company logos. Your customer service, quality of product, quality of content and the experience you provide your customers all go into how your brand is perceived by your customers.

Actually Brand Your Product. If you sell a product or if you are known by selling another company's product, then you have an opportunity to offer the same product with your own name on it. Chances are you already have enough volume to have the product you sell made for you. If not, you can find a supplier who offers a similar product that is unbranded. Take that product and make it your own. Package it, label it and put it on the market.

In most cases, you can actually pay less for the unbranded product than you do wholesale for the major branded product you carry. Since your store is the only place they can get your new high quality product you will be able to charge a premium for it! It is EXCLUSIVE to your store.

Give them Something to Remember You By. All grocery stores have a customer service desk or a means to service their customer by. The goal is to make sure you have a good experience, but if you didn't, they will make it right.

The trick to this working online is making sure they have a great experience with your website every single time the visit.

That sounds simple right? But simple things in the online world can make the difference between a good experience and one that will cause them to go running.

The Gorilla's 4 Point Check List for a Great Website Experience

Make sure EVERY link is functional and lands somewhere. No broken links or links to the wrong content. Give the visitor exactly what they are looking for 100% of the time
Easy Navigation. Not only do your links work, but the structure and layout of your website make sense to the average visitor. One way I always test sites is to let someone who knows nothing about your niche or website to surf your site. If they can figure it out, you are good to go. But any little bump in the road is something that need addressed immediately. Just because it makes sense to you, do not assume that your customers know what to do. In most cases you need to tell them directly.
Is your contact information readily available? If they need to get a hold of you can they? In some cases it is best to offer Live Help Chat. Wouldn't that give you a leg up on your competition? How would your visitors react if you were right there at the EXACT time they needed you
Using Photos and Video. A few images here and there really add a professional dynamic to your website. They are visually pleasing and engage the visitor to read more. They help break up content and force the readers eye to certain locations on your web page

Learning Internet Marketing from a Grocery Store - Part 2 - Structure

2010-02-04T22:34:35-05:00

This is the second installment of a series I am creating called Real Life Marketing. These series of posts are tailored to the very new beginner in Internet Marketing. They are geared towards you if you are just starting out online, need some clarity or looking for a fresh perspective about the online world. Some of the content is in very basic form and very obvious, but bare with me. I promise to throw in some good golden nuggets for your enjoyment.

If you have not already checked out What Can a Grocery Store Teach us About Internet Marketing - Part 1 - Layout please do so. I'd like to hear what you think about this series. The goal of these 3 posts are to simply give you a visualization of a website using a store layout that is common to all of us.

PART 2 - STRUCTURE

In Part 1 we took a good look at grocery store layouts. Structure takes Layouts 1 step further.

While the layout for your website will include such things as header and navigation, structure is a detailed plan with organization and purpose.

Let's take a good look at our friend the Grocery Store.

All Grocery Stores are laid out in a relatively similar manner. You enter in through the produce section and then travel through a series of aisles.

And for the most part, all websites are are laid out in a relatively similar manner. You have an entry page, landing page or a home page where the visitor enters your site. They click on a series of links and make a purchase (hopefully).

In either situation, the visitor (customer) does the same exact things. They follow series of laid out options to get to an end result - a SALE!

How Does the Structure of Your Site Affect its Performance?

Lets take a look at a typical layout in a Grocery Store. Listed below are Aisles 1 - 6 and the typical products you will find in each aisle.

1. Cereal	2. Pasta	3. Baking
4. Frozen	5. Cleaning	6. Dairy

Each of these 6 aisles are what you would put on your website as "Categories". In most cases they will be product categories. In the case of a blog, they may be information, event, video, audio and other categories to fit the content of your site.

Because of the structure of the Grocery Store, you are able to quickly find related products. Using the following chart you can see where each product fits into the store.

1. Cereal

Instant
Cold
Hot
Granola Bars

2. Pasta

Gluten Free
Whole Wheat
Different Shapes
Sauces

3. Baking

Cake Mixes
Oils
Icing
Flour

4. Frozen

Dinners
Vegetables
Ice Cream
Pizza

5. Cleaning

Paper Towels
Bleach
Mops
Buckets

6. Dairy

Milk
Cheese
Yogurt
Eggs

You will notice that a grocery store uses the EXACT same structure as you would use if you were laying out a website. For example, let us say you get in a new style of ice cream. You know instantly that it goes into aisle 4 and placed with the other ice cream.

Now as obvious as that may seems, you need to apply the same discipline to your website. You need to develop a structure or a process for adding new items or content to your site. When you have a system in place, not only is it easier for you to bring new products to market, but you also make navigation easier for customers to find the products they are searching for.

Websites just don't happen. They take a ton of work and planning. By keeping everything in order and organized you will build a stronger site than your competition on the front end and on the back end. This dedication to structure will give you a great advantage

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

2009-12-23T15:26:24-05:00

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 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"

There is no difference between the layout of a grocery store and the layout of your site. Websites have one 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 necessarily 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.

This would be 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 your online 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 the most apparent part of your page

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?

2009-12-22T13:05:16-05:00

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

2009-04-14T09:16:26-04:00

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

2008-11-06T09:24:50-05:00

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.

We must keep in mind that we are limited to only 35 Characters. Keep it short and to the point. NO HTTP or WWW.
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 )
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

2008-11-05T13:32:44-05:00

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

2008-10-22T15:09:25-04:00

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