1. Know What Results You Want

Before you start, know exactly what results you want. It’s not enough to walk into a marketing office and say “I want someone to do my marketing.” Instead, walk in with a specific strategy you want executed.

Strategies might include AdWords, SEO or Social Media. There are many firms that specialize just in one of those three strategies.

Do your research on the specific method before you meet with the firm. Know what’s reasonable and what’s not. That way if they try to over-promise you (i.e. “We’ll guarantee a number one ranking”), you’ll know.

Always ask about their exact methodology for getting you the results. For example, if you’re hiring an SEO firm, ask them how they get their rankings. What’s their on-page strategy? What’s their backlink strategy?

Never take a firm’s word blindly – always ask before you commit.

Finally, ask about their past results. Ask for examples as well as references. Call the references and make sure the results are real.

2. The Process of Picking a Firm

Talk to at least three different firms before making your decision. Any one firm might make a great sales pitch, but until you have a chance to compare and contrast you really won’t know what the market has to offer.

Talk to both local firms and national firms. Local firms have the benefit of easy face-to-face meetings and are often lower priced. National firms often (though not always) have more experience.

Avoid working with one-person firms unless you really know and trust them. Most internet marketing firms need a wide range of skills (copywriting, tracking, design, SEO, etc.) and do a better job by having many specialists rather than one generalist.

3. The Money

How much does a marketing firm cost?

Generally you can expect some kind of commission split, along with a cash payment. Few firms will accept just commission and few clients will accept just cash.

A 10% to 30% payment on revenues or profits is standard. There’s usually a minimum of $2,000 to $3,000 a month, sometimes more depending on the firm.

Avoid arrangements that work based on a percentage of ad spend. That encourages the firm to spend more money, rather than generate more revenue.

You now know some of the most important things you need to know about hiring an internet marketing firm. Do your research beforehand, know how to compare companies, what to look for in a firm and what you can expect to pay.

This involves people coming to your website. What you want to count are your unique visitors. These are people who visit for the first time. Repeat visitors are great for sales but to gain interest, the more people who come, the better.

In order for a business to make money it needs traffic. These people will do something for you on your site that will enhance their life and make money for you. There are a variety of ways to do it but for any method you use to be cost effective, you will need traffic.

One way to gain traffic is to have a focus. This is your niche. This will determine which traffic comes your way and if they are going to buy whatever you decide to offer on your site.

Now, turn your attention to your content. That is why your traffic is there in the first place. If you haven’t already, optimize it for a wider readership. This involves targeting certain keywords in your articles, blog posts, headers and picture text. Not only will your content get ranked higher for those keywords, but also your website. If you haven’t done so already, register your website with the major search engines.

Monetizing Your Website

Now that you have made a few tweaks to gain more focused traffic, you are ready to start making money with your website. Here are some ways that you can use to get the job done.

* PPC – This basically means that you are posting ads that people will click on. Whenever someone clicks on that ad, you get paid. Depending on who you are using for your service, there are other ways to do this besides just the click-through rate. One you can start with is Google AdSense.

* Banner Advertising – This is a way to get noticed. If you have a good fan base and have networked with others in your business niche, this can work for you. Sell advertising space on the top of your website. You can also sell on the sides, but keep in mind that the top half of your web page is where people’s eyes tend to gravitate.

* Affiliate Marketing – You not only advertise for others and sponsor their products, but you also get access to lots of helpful tools so you can do just that. Earn commissions on your click rate as well as sale rate depending on how the affiliate program is set up.

* Paid surveys – Companies will pay you to offer surveys to your visitors. Each time one of them takes the survey you get paid.

There are many other ways to monetize your website but this is just the beginning. Once you have started, try other ways to make your expertise work for you.

Step #1 An Attention Grabbing Headline

Your headline is the single most important part of your sales letter. If it doesn’t grab your prospect’s attention, they won’t read the rest of your copy and they’ll never get to the call to action.

So what types of headlines grab attention?

* Promises – Promise to solve their problem.

* Curiosity – Arouse curiosity to motivate them to continue reading

* Make them an offer they can’t refuse

One great way to ensure you have a great headline each and every time is to start collecting top selling headlines. They call it a swipe file and it’s a wonderful way to both learn how to write great sales copy and to perfect your skills.

Step #2 Your Opening Paragraph.

The goal with your opening paragraph is to establish a connection with your reader. You may paint a picture of the struggle they’re dealing with and imply that you have the answer. You may share a personal story of your own so they begin to trust you. The first paragraph’s job is to identify the problem that your product or service solves and to motivate them to continue reading.

Now quite often if your headline and first paragraph do their job, your prospect is now going to do one of two things. They’re either going to skim the bold print and bullet points on your sales copy and then read your call to action.

Or

They’re going to skip right down to your call to action. This means your first paragraph is the second most important thing on the page. The third..your call to action but we’ll get there in a minute.

Step #3 Features and benefits.

Benefits first. The body of your copy will highlight exactly how your product or service is going to solve the reader’s problems. You accomplish this by focusing on the benefits. How is it going to change your reader’s life? We make buying decisions based on our emotions. The most successful copywriters know this and really tap into the emotions and the benefits prospects are truly seeking.

We justify our buying decision based on facts. You’ll want to then add some credibility to your claims. You can use endorsements, supporting data, testimonials and your credentials or experiences and successes to back up your claims.

Highlight the areas you want to emphasize in your sales letter with bullet points and bold lettering. As we mentioned, people skim often the copy and they’re looking for keywords to help them make a buying decision.

Step #4 Your call to action. Every successful sales letter has a call to action. Without it, your prospect won’t know what they’re supposed to do next. Collect a swipe file of calls to action as well.

Step #5 The PS. Interestingly enough, the postscript is often the last thing people read before they make a buying decision. You can use the postscript(s) to add a guarantee, to add scarcity or urgency to your message.

Writing good sales letters takes practice. However, with these key elements you’re on your way to good conversions and profits. Print and keep compelling sales pages in a swipe file. You can pull them out when you need inspiration and guidance.

This is the kind of knowledge that can really make a difference when planning your next marketing campaign, since the longer your material stays on the minds of your target audience, the more you get from each dollar spent getting that message out to them.

The book breaks down the creation of sticky ideas into a formula made up of six element; simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories. Using examples from the real world including sticky ideas ranging anywhere from real world ad campaigns to urban legends that everyone has heard of and no one can forget, the brothers do an excellent job of clearly demonstrating the application of the principals that they write about.

Over the next few weeks we’ll do an series of six posts, an element by element review of the theories put forth in Made to Stick, analyzing the ideas set forth in each section and seeing if the ideas the brothers are presenting are in themselves sticky! Make sure to check back often, so as not to miss any of the six parts!