When you think of a landing page, what do you picture? A single page, long copy, highlighted text, lots of bolding and italicizing, strong headline?
That’s one design for a landing page, most likely a rapid conversion landing page or email capture page. Rapid conversion landing pages are used to entice a user to enter a low-risk (also known as a low-friction) transaction. Either with a free offer or delayed payment option (a bill-me-later offer). … Continue Reading »
The priority code landing page lets you know where sales leads originate in order to control advertising expenses.
The priority code landing page is a hybrid dedicated landing page that’s part of the online order flow. A publisher might drive users to a priority code landing page where they can enter a proprietary combination of letters or numbers (alphanumeric code) in order to qualify for a special discount or express service. … Continue Reading »
A wrap-up of the best ideas from SiPA’s 25th annual mid-year marketing conference that took place this week in Las Vegas
We love the wrap-up sessions at the end of SiPA conferences. They allow us to hear the best-of the best that we may have missed, as there are always great sessions running concurrently. Here are the tips, along with supplemental Mequoda Daily content that can help put you on path to more profitability and success online. … Continue Reading »
Think about every page on your site as a landing page and start converting all of your visitors into subscribers or buyers.
Many people think that a landing page is just one type of page. When you think of a landing page, what do you picture? A single page, long copy, highlighted text, lots of bolding and italicizing, strong headline?
Sure, that’s one design of a landing page, most likely a rapid conversion landing page or email capture page. Or maybe it’s a salesletter landing page selling a single eBook. … Continue Reading »
Mequoda Summit attendees leave with the most robust and inspirational take-aways out of any online publishing conference out there. We know this because attendees tell us all the time!
The sessions you’ll attend at the Mequoda Summit aren’t your run-of-the-mill sporadic conference sessions. Each session at the Mequoda Summit focuses on a specific strategy that your company needs to master in order to be successful online.
Take a look at the seven strategies below and ask yourself the following questions:
Editorial Strategy: Do you understand how to effectively repurpose your paid content into other products such as blogs, membership websites and podcasts for new revenue opportunities? Do you know which platforms you should use as opposed to other publishers?
“Learn how the Web’s top publishers are using podcasts, webinars, book, and other new media platforms to build loyal customer relationships.”
Master the new media—websites, email, blogs, RSS feeds, audio programs, video seminars, conferences, workshops and more. Offer customers information and entertainment on multiple platforms, using a variety of business models and marketing channels.
We’ll show you how to offer users many products on many platforms, how to give them a free, robust online content, and a personalized marketing experience.
Plus you’ll discover how to use different platforms for distributing your branded content and how to determine which combination of platforms will work best for you.
Business Strategy: Do you know which business models you are running? What about which business models are complimentary to each other and make the most revenue when run together? Should your business have a social network? What about a membership website?
“Discover how to choose and use the right business model for your online business.”
Every website is not the same. Depending on your goals and the way you generate profits, your design should fall into one of ten different strategic designs.
Get real-world, practical guidance on the 12 media business models and how each generates revenue for publishers.
Website Strategy: Do you know how to make sure every page on your website is optimized so that every visitor to your website wants to sign up for your email newsletter or buy a product?
“Learn the 12 web page templates used by today’s top publishers to capture the most visitors.”
You don’t need to be a professional graphic artist or information architect to understand the secrets of an effective publisher’s website.
Your overall strategy must be to drive traffic to a primary online venue, capture visitors’ email addresses, establish a permission-driven database, market products to the database, and build loyal customers and repeat sales.
Just as in direct mail (postal) marketing, the money is in the list!
We’ll show you how to establish a permission-based database and all the ways to drive traffic to your site. Plus, how to monetize these site visitors and convert them to paying customers.
Keyword Strategy: Do you know what your primary keywords are? Are the topics or categories on your blog optimized for search engines? What about your articles? Do your editors have a keyword list in front of them that guides their editorial strategy?
“Learn the SEO strategies every writer, editor and publisher needs to get found on the web.”
In 2008, no online publishing business should be hiring an outside SEO firm. The job of search engine optimization should be in the job description of every writer and editor. It is a logical extension of the editorial process. Hiring outside only doubles the work and expense and adds to the time putting out articles, blogs, and other website content.
You’ll learn how to choose keyword phrases, determine keyword popularity, optimize article headlines and subheads, measure keyword density, optimize your meta tags, optimize your URL’s and maximize internal and external linking.
And if you are not part of the editorial staff, we’ll provide you with all the information you’ll need to kick them into gear.
Email Strategy: Do your email newsletters and promotions get delivered? If they do, what makes the difference between someone reading them and someone throwing them into their junk folder? Do you know what best practice emails look like?
“Discover how to create email newsletters and promotions that get delivered, opened and read.”
While success or failure of an email newsletter or promotion should be directly tied to bottom line goals (sales, revenue, etc.), there are some things that can help—or hurt—a newsletter’s chances of achieving those goals.
No matter how valuable its content, an email newsletter is ineffective unless it gets delivered, opened and read.
We’ll introduce you to email newsletters that get the highest conversion rates and email revenue per thousand and show you how to design your email newsletter for the same results.
Organizational Strategy: Do you know the best way to staff an online publishing team? Do you know how to write accurate job descriptions in the new publishing environment and staff accordingly?
“Learn how to organize activities around your content and build an effective online publishing staff.”
Most publishers load more responsibilities onto their existing print staff but those in
the know are hiring dedicated staff to run their online business units.
Learn why it’s critical to isolate your online teams before you integrate and how to eventually leverage all your editorial assets, cross promote print, Web and email circulation and create synergies for sponsors.
Reporting Strategy: Do you know which metrics are the most important to your online publishing success? Do you have a key metrics dashboard in front of you every day that tells you exactly where your business needs improvement?
“Learn the key metrics every online business manager should know.”
In order to run an effective online business, you need to know what statistics you should be watching (both yours and your competitors).
We’ll show you the key metrics you should know at the end of every day, week and month in order to keep in control of your online business, make the right changes at the right time, and generate the most profit for your online business.
FuelNet announces the release of a free Smart Paper to help growing companies improve the success rates of their creative direct mail … Continue Reading »
For most growing businesses, building strong, long-lasting customer relationships is akin to finding the Holy Grail. Only a select few have mastered customer relationship marketing and made it to the top of their industry. … Continue Reading »
Copywriter and Contributing Editor, Mequoda Group, LLC
Peter J. Fogel is a high response copywriter who specializes in website, direct mail and radio copy. He’s written copy for Agora Publishing, Thompson Cigar, Stealth Stock Investor, Taipangroup and Musical Heritage Society.
Copywriter and Contributing Editor, Mequoda Group, LLC
Robert W. Bly is an independent copywriter and consultant with more than 20 years of experience in B2B, high-tech, industrial, and direct marketing. Robert has written copy for over 100 clients including Network Solutions, ITT Fluid Technology, Medical Economics, Intuit, Business & Legal Reports and Brooklyn Union Gas.
Robert is the author of 60 books including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Direct Marketing and The Copywriter’s Handbook. He writes sales letters, direct mail packages, email marketing campaigns, websites, and other marketing materials for his clients. He consults on marketing strategy, mail order selling, and lead generation programs.
Robert has presented marketing, sales, and writing seminars for various associations, including the U.S. Army and the American Marketing Association. He also taught B2B copywriting and technical writing at New York University.
Lowell Allen specialized in direct mail design for publishers before moving to Web design and development. He has worked as creative director for an ecommerce production company, where his experience expanded beyond graphic design to include HTML markup and programming. He has designed and developed a number of custom Content Management Systems and database-driven websites.
Lowell is currently assisting the Mequoda Group with delivery of forward-compatible websites using streamlined, standards-compliant code for search engine optimization and accessibility.
Lowell received his B.A. in Visual Design from the School of Design at North Carolina State University. Please visit his website for more information about his professional experience and services. … Continue Reading »
Harvard has opted not to use a traditional landing page to sell the Harvard Health Letter.
Instead, the main sales page for the Harvard Health Letter is a minimal transaction page with the barest of copy and graphics, and is devoid of the selling effort one would normally expect when promoting a paid subscription publication online.
Knowing the smart marketers at Harvard, we have to believe that this is a deliberate choice. As we recall, they don’t use this “bare minimum” approach in print promotions: their paper direct mail that we’ve seen consists of strong, long-copy sales letters that sell the publication and its benefits, and sell it hard. Why then would they opt for this “bare bones” approach online? This review really addresses a broader, more important question: are online and offline copy fundamentally the same or fundamentally different? … Continue Reading »
Bob Bly shares his tips for writing subject lines that get your email opened and read at SiPA’s 32nd Annual International Newsletter & Specialized-Information Conference … Continue Reading »
Join Don and Kim at the SiPA conference in DC and learn all the latest trends and best practices in this new publishing environment … Continue Reading »
Choosing the Right Keywords to Attract Targeted Website Traffic
Don considers this “the new direct mail”. Keyword research and implementation is perhaps the most complex, yet effective way to drive the most search traffic to your website. The idea is that if you research your keywords and compare the search to pages ratio, you can choose your keywords based on your likeliness to show up on page one. … Continue Reading »
Paid media programs balance your Internet marketing system
While patience is a required virtue for earned media programs, paid media programs offer the Mequoda Marketing System operator the opportunity for quick results with a reasonable ROI (return on investment). Each of these programs involves finding and buying traffic by spending money to buy advertising, leads or lists. … Continue Reading »
Key components of the Mequoda Internet Marketing System
The launch and operation of a Mequoda Marketing System can be divided into four phases. Most of the steps in each phase are then repeated over and over again to build email circulation and monetize customer relationships. … Continue Reading »
The same high quality copywriting and design elements can be used for online, email and postal mail sales pitches.
Multiplatform publishing in the 21st century means offering users many products on many platforms, and using the Internet to recycle, reuse and republish information in many different formats.
This involves taking the same information and turning it into any format a user could possibly want—from e-books to streaming video to email newsletters. Publishers not only save on material costs, but the same information is being cheaply repackaged and sold in a multitude of formats to maximize customer satisfaction and revenue. … Continue Reading »
All online direct response transactions begin on landing pages
Mequoda research indicates that on most websites, a maximum of 20 percent of the traffic arrives at the home page. In fact, on many sites, as little as four or five percent of website traffic arrives at the site’s home page, with the rest arriving at much “deeper” pages.
Unlike traditional direct mail or retail marketing, where the user experience is more linear, every page on your website is a potential landing page. That’s because a landing page is the first page a user sees when entering your site, and a user can enter your site and “land” almost anywhere. … Continue Reading »
Some publishing skills have not changed and are not expected to
Publishing’s transition from print to digital has caused a lot of changes over the years. Your office is loaded with computers. You have website, an email newsletter and digital reports. You might not even consider your business a magazine or a newsletter anymore, but a provider of useful information. Has anything stayed the same?
Copywriting, for one, has been a vital skill for decades, and it’s unlikely to disappear or change anytime soon. … Continue Reading »
Use this simple process to make your Internet marketing system a continuous improvement machine that produces ever-increasing revenue and profit
About 80 to 100 times a year, I get hired to audit or review the Internet marketing strategy for a publisher who has a website that is making money. The goal of the review is to find five to ten changes to their current Internet marketing system that will make more money. … Continue Reading »
Strategic Profits is looking for a Director of Marketing to take responsibility for this rambunctious group, help them grow, and continue getting the outstanding results we are used to.
We are looking for someone that can handle acquisition and retention marketing efforts designed to drive website traffic and sales. These include paid and natural search, affiliate programs, partnership marketing/content integration programs, email marketing acquisition, and retention programs. … Continue Reading »
A report shows 5 tactics are commonly executed and commonly fail
A mantra that remains true across email marketing and direct mail is “the money is in the list.”
Email marketers are always trying to grow their list, but a recent study shows that many of them are planning to use tactics that others in the industry say show little results.
Silverpop’s “2006 Email List Growth Survey” asked 321 companies what methods they planned to use to grow their list and which were most successful. … Continue Reading »
Find out how this email newsletter is raking in revenue and awards
We are happy to announce that the 19th Annual Awards for Publishing Excellence awarded HR Daily Advisor the grand award in its newsletter category.
HR Daily Advisor is a human resources management newsletter running on a Mequoda System. It and seven other newsletters came out on top of the 540 entries in APEX’s newsletter category. … Continue Reading »
There are dozens of goals shared by Internet marketers across the globe.
Somewhere at the top of almost everyone’s list is “increase visits to the website.”
It is probably on your list, but is your website ready for a surge of visitors?
As we discussed yesterday, not every website is.
To ensure that your website is ready, a system has to be in place that directs users to webpages that are designed to answer their needs. … Continue Reading »
The Motley Fool uses its powerful brand to launch seven successful print newsletters for personal investors that will generate $22M in 2005 revenues. Traditional advertising-driven Internet business model takes a back seat.
After the 2001 dot-com stock market crash occurred, The Motley Fool was forced to change its online business model. The years of generating more than $20 million in advertising revenue were long gone, much like the employees who suffered layoffs. They abandoned the advertising model for the print subscription model and today are succeeding handsomely. The Fool’s first print investment newsletter The Motley Fool Stock Advisor (launched as a partnership with Phillips Investment Resources) proved to be very popular and profitable. Its success has now spawned the launch of six more print titles, making The Motley Fool a major player in the paid subscription content business. … Continue Reading »
Learn how one company is applying lessons from direct mail, and find out who won our Mequoda Summit Raffle for SIPA attendees
It’s widely known that direct mail campaigns are more successful when written with personalized information. Using the reader’s full name in the from-line or their job title in the copy will usually boost response rates.
This is proving to be true for email and landing page marketing, according to marketing software company Naehas, Inc. … Continue Reading »
This newsletter publisher seeks an energetic, organized person with experience in subscription or membership marketing plans and executing subscription acquisition and renewal campaigns. Located in Old Town Alexandria, VA, our office is convenient to Metro. Familiarity with direct mail and online promotions preferred but not required. Opportunity to promote recognized publications and hone direct marketing skills in a collaborative setting. Competitive salary plus bonus plan, paid parking, health, dental and vision, 401(k). Send cover letter, resume, and salary requirements to newhire (at) douglaspublications (dot) com. … Continue Reading »
Cabot Heritage Corporation, a financial newsletter publisher located in Salem, MA, is looking for a marketing expert to join our team. This position will be responsible for creating strong, benefit-oriented copy for direct mail, website and electronic marketing. … Continue Reading »
Promotional codes are an inexpensive way to identify what is working for your online business and what needs to be changed.
Metrics are vital to knowing if you are reaching your audience. Detailed metrics are increasingly available in the digital world, but with so many channels for reaching users, and with several metrics for each channel, the blessing of metrics can be a confusing curse. Simple systems that track how users are converted are either scarce or expensive—until now. … Continue Reading »
Email newsletters are not like the direct mail campaigns of old. They are based in a volatile environment where spam laws and software capabilities constantly change, and where best practice rules are still undefined. The emerging use of preview panes in email software is the latest change to that environment. … Continue Reading »
User-Generated Content, Online Video and Social Networking Big Focus at the MPA’s 3rd Digital Publishing Conference
The magazine industry showed great enthusiasm and initiative on Tuesday in New York about getting their websites on the same playing field as the rest of the world’s popular and successful websites—those that are heavy into user-generated content, social networking and use of online video. … Continue Reading »
As an online publisher, part of your job is to make information easier to manage for your subscribers
The majority of membership websites and email newsletters are instructional. Members join or subscribe in order to access content that is not available to non-subscribers. Much of this proprietary information is of the how-to variety.
If you’re a publisher of an email newsletter, and you’re stuck for a story idea, think checklist. You’ll almost never run out of ideas and you’ll provide your subscribers with valuable tools that increase your credibility as an expert. … Continue Reading »
Every Retail Media Website has two business goals. First, the website must allow users to buy products. Second, the website must begin a user relationship with both buyers and non-buyers that will lead to future sales. … Continue Reading »
A membership website is a user driven, content-based website satellite that generates the majority of its revenues from user access fees. This website business model is similar to a book club, professional association or user group that accepts little or no advertising, relying primarily on user support. … Continue Reading »
Today, the challenges of email newsletter marketing are similar.
Unfortunately, many Internet marketers spend too much time building the number of names on their list. But they don’t devote enough effort to assuring that their existing subscribers actually receive and open their email newsletter.
The math is simple but bone-chilling: If you’re sending a regular email newsletter but the “open” rate is only 50 percent or less, you’re simply not getting through to half (or more) of your potential customers. … Continue Reading »
Online sales represented a tiny 2.2 percent of total retail sales in the first quarter of 2006. That means publishers who want to prosper selling ancillary products to consumers should look to broaden their retail distribution channels rather than simply posting additional product offers on their e-commerce websites. … Continue Reading »
Are you looking to use your extensive experience in email marketing to make a significant impact on the growth of an email marketing channel at a leading online retailer? Socrates Media (owner of Socrates.com, CompleteLandlord.com, RentSlicer.com and several sites under development) is looking for an experienced marketer who will be recognized as our email marketing guru. This role will be filled by an ambitious individual who will provide the requisite leadership to grow our email marketing channel and improve the way we communicate with our customers. This is a great new opportunity for someone with experience in the field to take his/her career to the next level by leading a significant marketing channel and gaining new experiences from talented marketers at Socrates. … Continue Reading »
The most succinct copywriting tip we’ve heard in a long time came from Fred Gleeck at a product development seminar. Fred cited this maxim in a discussion of how to title your book. But the adage is just as valid whether you’re writing a headline for an advertisement or a press release, or a pithy subject line for a convincing email message, or a list of product benefits. … Continue Reading »
Instead of our usual company-seeks-candidate job posting, today we bring a rare opportunity for your company. We have a candidate-seeks-company job posting that you should pay close attention to.
This isn’t just any ol’ candidate. This is a highly respected, highly qualified ecommerce director that I have great admiration for. He is a pioneer in the Internet marketing and publishing space and the company that hires him, in my opinion, will be extremely lucky, immediately grateful, and ultimately more profitable. … Continue Reading »
The four-legged stool technique was developed originally by Bill Bonner of Agora Publishing, strictly for selling financial newsletters.
Expert copywriter Robert W. Bly noticed, however, that these four elements also work for 90 to 95 percent of all information products.
The concept is pretty simple: a four-legged stool is very stable. If you pull one leg off, it’s only relatively stable—you can still sit on it, but not as comfortably as you would a four-legged stool. … Continue Reading »
“The Internet and its potential really spoke to me,” says visionary publisher Rodney Friedman. “The librarians caught onto it first. They were using it as a tool very early on. I just thought the Internet offered so much more.”
Indeed. Mr. Friedman, a seasoned veteran of both print and online publishing, has experienced a professional life filled with both extraordinary successes and a few missteps along the way. … Continue Reading »
We see lots of publishers that still don’t understand how to integrate the Internet into their marketing operations. They understand the importance of coming up with a free giveaway, they understand the value of publicizing it, but they don’t understand how to convert website traffic into customers. Basically, it’s the old media/new media paradigm at work. … Continue Reading »
The sessions you’ll attend at the Mequoda Summit aren’t your run-of-the-mill sporadic conference sessions. Each session at the Mequoda Summit focuses on a specific strategy that your company needs to master in order to be successful online.