I’ve been involved in sales and marketing for over twenty years – half my adúlt life. And sometimes I still get confused when I browse the Internet and visit websites searching for information, or to make a purchase. I’m absolutely amazed at how complicated some marketers make doing business on the internet.

Let’s talk about searching for information for a moment. After all, most people go online not to purchase anything, but rather to search for information to solve a problem they have. Knowing this is important, because if you understand that the Internet is driven by information and information seekers, as a marketer, you can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

1. You can provide information seekers with the information they’re looking for.

2. You can educate potential prospects and turn them into customers.

Educate Your Visitors First

If you visit my website, you won’t see any banners or advertising of any kind. Why? Because I built my site as a free marketing resource to educate my visitors. I’m not selling anything, so the only thing you’ll see on my site is free information… lots and lots of free information.

So how do I monetize my site? How do I make any money? Well, people read my marketing articles on highly-respected websites like SiteProNews, then they visit my website. And between the advice I dispense in my articles and on my site, as well as select small business forums, people can determine for themselves if I know what I’m talking about. Once they become convinced of my expertise, they inquire about my marketing consulting services… become satisfied clients, word-of-mouth kicks in, and voila… my cup runneth over!

In other words, I create content to educate people and help them solve a particular problem. And I do this without an agenda – without asking for anything in return. But a funny thing happens when you educate people – provided the information has value and is accurate. You enhance your credibility and boost the value of your products and services.

And this method of marketing works regardless of what you’re selling – even if you sell something as nondescript as a glue stick. Yes, a glue stick! Become the glue stick expert. For example, you can create content about the glue stick industry and related products. Educate people about glue sticks. Enhance your company’s credibility, and boost the value of your products and services.

So am I suggesting that you shouldn’t have any banners or other types of advertising on your site? No, I’m not suggesting that at all. Whether or not you choose to feature advertising on your site is a decision you have to make for yourself. I choose not to. What I am suggesting, however, is that you put educating your visitors first – ahead of profíts. If you do that, the money will follow… I promise you.

The Power of Giving

“The universe operates through dynamic exchange… giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.” – Deepak Chopra

The bible says…

“Give, and it shall be given to you. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return.” – Luke 6:38

In other words, the more you give to others, the more you will get back in return. You’ll find this law is infallible – provided you aren’t giving with the express purpose of getting something back in return. You see, giving disingenuously is both manipulative and calculative. And while you may reap some benefits in the short term, eventually, bad karma will come knocking at your door, and you will have to pay the piper. So when you give, give freely and mean it sincerely.

I think the great Seth Godin put it best…

“Gifts with strings attached don’t make good gifts.”

How To Create A User-Friendly Website

1. Have fast-loading pages. Slow loading pages are annoying to searchers and affects their ability to access content quickly. If your pages load slowly, this may frustrate visitors and cause them to exit your site, not ever to return.

You can quickly check your page speed at Page Speed Online, a free web application offered by Googlelabs. This tool tests the speed of your page and gives it a score from 1-100, based on the performance of your page. The Page Speed Score indicates how much faster a page could be. A high score indicates little room for improvement, while a lower score indicates more room for improvement. In other words, the higher the score, the better. The Page Speed Score does not measure the time it takes for a page to load – just whether or not it loads quickly. If you score on the lower end of the scale, read “How to Speed Up Web Pages,” to learn what you can do to speed up your pages.

2. Have a crystal clear identity. Have you ever landed on a website and didn’t know what it was about? How did you feel? You didn’t like it did you? And I’ll bet you probably clicked out of there pretty quickly. Well, your visitors don’t like it either. Don’t let your visitors have to try and figure out what your website is all about. Make it crystal clear, right from the beginning. Having a big, descriptive headline on your home page is an excellent way to announce what your website is about. Also, choose relevant keywords for your pages, as opposed to trying to trick people just to get eyeballs. Keep your keywords relevant to your web pages.

3. Keep it simple. Don’t worry about trying to impress with all kinds of unnecessary whistles and bells. (Does anyone really need flash?) Focus on usability, sales and conversions. Simple website designs convert.

4. Stay away from clutter. Have a clean, user-friendly site that makes it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Remember, white space is a good thing. Also, if your website has a lot of content and/or pages, add a search box, to make it easier for your visitors to find what they’re looking for.

About The Author
David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business! http://free-marketing-tips-blog.com

Website Engagement Techniques: The Caricature Effect

Marketing is all about getting noticed, getting remembered, and motivating people to action. Whether it’s a website, display ad, or video, it must first grab people’s attention, it must stop the viewer from going onto the next website, turning the magazine page, or clicking the stop button. In order to accomplish that increasingly difficult task, you must understand the Caricature Effect.

The Caricature Effect

The Caricature Effect simply stated says that what we notice is variation from the norm. Caricature artists exaggerate reality because that is how we visually distinguish one person from another. Human beings are preprogrammed to look for patterns and variations in those patterns, it’s how we recognize who people are, and it is a basic survival mechanism that helps us recognize danger and distinguish friend from foe.

By distorting an individual’s prominent facial features the caricature artist mimics the human brain’s way of remembering who’s who. Our brains are not cameras that take pictures and file them away for future reference. Our memories are malleable, they change and alter over time and experience, and as a result the things we remember best are the things that stand out, things like Bob Hope’s ski-jump nose or Albert Einstein’s wild white hair. The reason caricatures are so effective is because they emphasize the distinguishing differences that we recognize and remember. So how do we use this fundamental, hard-wired human characteristic to further marketing agendas?

What We Notice Is Variation From The Norm

Getting noticed is job-one of any marketing vehicle, so in order to get people to stop, look, and listen we need to use all the available communication elements at our disposal.

When developing a video campaign we use concepts that demand the mental processing of information by shocking, stimulating, puzzling, or tickling the funny bone of the viewer. These techniques force the audience to think, process, and decode the message, and by generating this mental activity we embed our client’s message in the audience’s consciousness. Depending on the brand and/or product, implementation can range from subtle to obvious with the trick being to make people sit-up and take notice by forcing them to think.

Pattern Recognition – The Same But Different

Human beings have evolved to watch for patterns and when an audience recognizes a familiar scenario they leap to a conclusion. It’s a way of making quick decisive decisions that can either help or hurt communication. Properly used pattern recognition can lead your audience where you want to take them, but if the pattern is too obvious or hackneyed, it can lead to viewers dismissing your message.

Let’s face-it, consumers have become increasingly jaded by too many ads that yell at them like a Billy Mays commercial, or promise improbable results like so many diet schemes, or scare the hell out of people with legal disclaimers warning of everything from headaches to heart attacks like most prescription drug ads. These feeble attempts to standout like a pair of John Daley golf slacks only succeed in reminding the audience how completely desperate, or disengaged the advertiser really is.

If you want people to remember your message you have to alter the pattern by varying from the norm so that it forces people to mentally process your information. It’s as simple as a story with a twist like how a comedian sets-up a punch line, or how a magician sets-up an illusion.

In other articles I’ve written extensively about techniques for using video but here let’s discuss something even more universal – photography. It is one of the most economical ways to create the kind of mental stimulation that makes people remember your site and your message.

Photo-Visual Engagement Techniques

Most every website has photography of some sort on it, but like most video implementations, it is rarely used to its full potential. Obviously, do-it-yourself snapshots reek of amateurism but even professional royalty-free images can be as innocuous as DIY snaps are unprofessional, and as we have stated, bland, featureless images are just not going to stimulate anyone’s memory.

Cinegraphs

Cinegraphs are photographs that move. They are created by combining a series of still images into a gif animation. The best cinegraphs use subtle movement like hair or clothing blowing in the wind to cause the audience to take a second look. What appears at first to be a regular photograph creates a “Did I just see it move?” reaction, and that’s the kind of subtle yet powerful feature that can get people to remember your site, your product, and your brand. Like any technique you have to know how and when to use it in order to enhance your presentation and reinforce your message. Just parachuting in a technique for technique’s sake is no better than a meaningless royalty free image used as filler.

Sequence Images

A sequence image is a still image that combines a series of images into one photo. Unlike cinegraphs, the image doesn’t move but it does provide a kinetic quality by showing a series of varying poses all combined into one photograph. This kind of image can be very striking and powerful and can cause your viewer to take a moment to decode the story it tells.

Selective Color

Color is another area that often gets forgotten. Different colors have different psychological effects depending on the context in which they are used. In addition to the color choice, using color as a consistent marketing communication element helps enhance and embed your identity and brand image. Many Internet entrepreneurs pay little or no attention to color imaging and it is really unfortunate as it is often an inexpensive but effective way of making a profound impression.

Photographs today are generally full color images but if you’re not controlling the color in your images then you’re missing a great chance to make a memorable impression. Of course lack of color (black and white photography) can be just as powerful if used properly. Jack Daniel’s is a brand that uses black and white and selective color extensively in its marketing.

There are several ways to use selective color in your photographic imaging. Jack Daniel’s uses a lot of black backgrounds or B&W photos and copy combined with color product shots of the bottle that has a B&W label but is filled with the golden elixir.

About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com, www.136words.com, and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.