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More Clients the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert Middleton

In This Week's Issue: How you can make sure people
understand your value from the very first words they read.

 

The Sausage Factor

Have you ever read a headline on the home page of a web site
similar to one of the following:

Welcome to Our Web Site!

We'll Make it Easier for You

Does this sound familiar?

John Brown and Associates

These are what I call "sausage headlines" because, for all you
know, the web site could be about making sausages. The reader
really has no idea from these headlines what it is you do and
what it means to them.

Compare the above to these headlines:

How to turn your expertise into a book that attracts a lifelong stream of clients

THE Economic Consulting Firm for Small Business

Larry White Voiceovers specializes in cutting edge, creative sound design

Fast, Affordable, Effective, Full Service Web and Print Design

For all of these, there is no sausage factor. There is absolutely
no concern that the web visitor will misunderstand what it is that
these businesses are offering. These headlines accomplish a few
things in just a few well-chosen words:

They give you a good idea what the business is about, they
promise a benefit or an advantage, and it's pretty clear to whom
they are targeted.

Pretty simple, right?

You'd think so, but it continues to amaze me how many
businesses on the web are suffering from the sausage factor. In
fact, it's not unusual that you can read the whole home page and
several interior pages of a site and still not be very clear about
what a company is offering.

The bottom line about marketing is clear communication. People
are wondering, "What do you do, what problem do you solve, are
you for me, and what do I get if I work with you?"

And if you don't answer those questions in a headline and a few
concise paragraphs, your web visitors are going to go somewhere
else pretty fast -- usually never to return.

The next thing you need to ask, once you've communicated with
crystal-clear clarity about what your business is about, is
"What do I want visitors to do once they come to my site?"

My experience is that most small business owners have
unrealistic expectations.

They want visitors to read all about their services and pick up the
phone. But is this likely to happen after the first visit? Very
unlikely. And since most small business sites only get visited once
by any particular web surfer, the chances are that your site isn't
helping your business much at all.

You should really only have ONE purpose for a first-time visitor
to your web site. And that's to capture their name and email
address so that you can keep in contact with them over time.

In other words, your web site is really only half a marketing tool.
A web site that builds a qualified email list is a complete
marketing tool. An eZine sent to your web visitors can and will
direct them back to your site over and over so they can...

Read articles and information

Learn more about your services

Send you an email and ask a question

Sign up for a free teleclass

Buy information products online

So there are two things you need to work on immediately to
improve your web site: Re-think your headlines and web content
so that you clearly communicate who you are and what your visitors
get (no more sausage factor), and set up your site to increase the
number of people who opt-in to your eZine list.

With these two simple things in place you'll increase the impact
and results from your web site dramatically.

More about "The Sausage Factor" in Marketing Flashes below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The InfoGuru Marketing Manual

This comprehensive marketing manual for Independent Professionals
is the flagship product of Action Plan Marketing. Written by Robert
Middleton over several years, it contains the accumulated wisdom of
over twenty years on how to attract clients with less struggle.

Why is the InfoGuru Manual for you?

- It was developed exclusively for Independent Professionals such
as consultants, coaches, trainers and other service professionals
who are great at what they do but have a hard time consistently
attracting clients to their businesses.

- The manual is based on a few powerful marketing principles that,
once you understand them, might seem obvious but are missed by
almost everyone (and implemented by even fewer).

- The marketing principles contained will help you: increase interest
in your services, build trust and credibility with prospects, get prospects
wanting to learn more about what you do and create a steady stream of
word-of-mouth business.

- It goes way beyond theory, vague generalizations or concepts and
contains hundreds of hands-on marketing strategies and action plans
that are easy to implement, even if you have no marketing experience.

- Includes foundational marketing information on things like creating
an attention-getting marketing message and then goes into depth on the
most recent marketing techniques of web marketing and eZines.

- You can read it like a book, you can go through it slowly and do
the exercises like a home-study course or you can refer to it whenever
you have a question about marketing your business.

- It comes with a boatload of extras, including audio files, articles,
and the InfoGuru Support Forum, where you can get any question
about marketing answered for free.

- The Support Forum can be used to answer questions, provide
resources, review marketing materials, web sites, proposals and
sales letters, as well as explore the more complex and confusing
aspects of attracting clients to your business.

- It will help remove the mystery and struggle about marketing
and selling that so many Independent Professionals experience and
will help you realize that marketing can actually be fun.

- It comes with my unconditional guarantee. Get it and try it. If you
don't think it's worth much more than what you paid, tell me and I'll
refund 100% of your purchase price.

- Unlike most marketing information sold on the web, the manual is not
only available in digital form (pdf file) for immediate download, but for
just a few dollars more you can get a printed manual as well.

- The InfoGuru Marketing Manual was published in February of 2001
and it's just as relevant today as I add to it regularly with updates of
the manual that can be downloaded repeatedly at no additional cost.

- If you are looking for one tool that will help you attract clients with
an approach and methodology that is highly effective but doesn't
compromise your integrity, you've found it!

For complete details and to order online go to:

http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html

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Marketing Flashes on "The Sausage Factor"

* When your copy could just as easily be about selling sausage
as about selling your services, it's time for a rewrite. "We strive
for the highest standards of excellence," is sausage copy. "We
provide in-house training at no additional cost to all our
database system clients," is copy that means something.

* Don't just put a headline on the home page of your web site.
Put interesting headlines on every page. Instead of "Case
Studies" put "Some Case Studies of Clients Who Now Have
Better Cash Flow."

* Use "mother's comprehension rule." This means that
everything on your site is clear enough to be understood by
your mother. Your mother is no dummy, but she also doesn't
appreciate overly-technical industry jargon (or sausage copy).

* Make a list of all the questions that you have heard from
prospects and clients in the past. Now go to work to answer
every single one of those questions in your web copy. And don't
bury the answers so deep that your visitors will never find them.

* Give value at every single click. Nothing irks me more than a
bullet pointed list that leads to another bullet pointed list that
leads to an "under construction" page. Every click should give
valuable information that leads them to taking action.

Until next week, all the best,

Robert Middleton

ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Helping Independent Professionals Attract More Clients

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.actionplan.com

210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790

click for email

© 2004 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You are free
to use material from the More Clients eZine in whole or in part,
as long as you include complete attribution, including live web
site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.
The attribution should read:

"By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit
Robert's web site at
http://www.actionplan.com for additional
marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional
service businesses."

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