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#5.02: The “More Sales After The Search” Issue

Learn to turn more visitors from search engines into customers, without spending more money.

1> Don’t Lose Them on the Landing Page
2> Shoot For a Relationship, Not a Sale
3> Nestle: Don’t Get In Your Own Way
4> Check It Out: Weapons of Mass Destruction

1> Don’t Lose Them on the Landing Page

Your landing page (the page visitors land on after they click on your link in a search engine) determines if you make money from a search campaign. For a fixed number of clicks (and cost), a good landing page can double or triple your total sales. Put real effort into testing copy, offers, and page design. Just as important, every landing page should repeat and reinforce the offer in the search. Link directly to the specific item they are searching for. Imagine you call a toll-free number at 3 a.m. to order “Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits” — and the operator answers rudely, “What do you want?” The same thing happens when your link in a search engine lands your customer on a generic home page. They clicked on your listing to find something specific — make sure they get it without looking around. Don’t forget to prominently repeat any discounts offered in the link, or visitors will feel that you’re trying to pull a bait-and-switch.

THE LESSON: Clicks come from searches — sales come from landing pages.

2> Shoot For a Relationship, Not a Sale

Let’s say one out of ten visitors from a search engine link ends up buying. The other nine come and go, never to be heard from again (unless they click on another search link, making you pay for their traffic a second time). You’re better off trying to get new visitors to sign up for an email newsletter instead of pushing for a sale. It’s a much lower commitment to ask for, and many more visitors will sign up. They came to your site for a reason, and a good email offer will catch their eye. Once you’ve got that email address, you can sell to them again and again, at no additional cost. You’ll still get that one in ten who planned on buying, but you’ll also be able to keep selling with email to a greater percentage for free.

THE LESSON: Sales are great, but permission to send email will be more valuable in the long run.

3> Nestle: Don’t Get In Your Own Way

With search engine marketing, you are competing against every website out there — so make sure you’re not competing with yourself. Try creating specialized, search-friendly pages if you have a complicated site or product catalog. Nestle owns six different brands of bottled water (Poland Spring, Deer Park, and others). They realized that it would cost a fortune to try to get each brand on the top of the search listings. Instead, they pooled their resources and created a simple website called myspringwater.com. Focusing their search investment on that one page pushed them quickly to the top of the listings. Even better, the streamlined site is very effective because its only purpose is gathering leads for their brands.

THE LESSON: You can do better in search engines with special-purpose pages that target exactly what searchers want to find.

MORE INFO:
http://www.myspringwater.com/
Try the Google search for “bottled water”

4> Check It Out: Weapons of Mass Destruction

One webpage, well written, can hit the top of the search listings. It helps if it’s funny too.

Go to http://www.google.com, type in “Weapons of Mass Destruction” then click the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

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