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Happy New Year! Now that all the holiday celebrations are over, it's time to take stock of the major online developments that happened last year so you can start off 2007 on the best possible foot!

In this newsletter, I'm going to review the five hottest strategies I told you about in 2006, so you can put them to work for your business — and get the leap on your less 'Net-savvy competitors!

Specifically I'm going to show you how to:

• Seed the Web with articles that will drive swarms of eager buyers to your website
  
  
• Segment your list to laser-target your subscribers and generate tons more sales
  
  
• Create "win-win" business relationships to increase your profits without a ton of work
  
  
• Establish your expertise to instill confidence and encourage sales from new visitors and existing customers
  
  
• Network your way to top search engine placement

So let's jump right in and take a look at how you can rev up your business for the year ahead...

Top Strategy #1: Write articles that will increase your website traffic by 100% — OR MORE!

Writing short, targeted articles and distributing them to the far corners of the Web is an incredibly effective way to boost your rankings in the search engines, increase your website traffic, and establish your credibility!

And best of all, it's EASY!

Here's what you need to do:

1. Use Wordtracker to build a list of keywords related to your business. Ideally your keywords will have a good number of people searching for them, but not too many sites optimized for them. (For more about using Wordtracker, check out my two-part blog post.)
   
   
2. Write a SHORT, informative article (no more than 400 words!) for each of your top keywords. The keyword you are highlighting should appear in the title and in the first 90 characters of your article. And it can't hurt to plug it into the last paragraph as well.
   
   
3. Write a short, credibility-building "About the Author" blurb that you can tag onto the end of your articles — and make sure you include a link back to your website.
   
   
4. Submit your articles to directory sites with a high Google PageRank. (You can find a list of the top directories in Issue 129 of "Marketing Tips.")
   
   
5. Repeat weekly or monthly for best results!
   

For more information about this traffic-generation strategy, check out Issue 129 of my newsletter.

Top Strategy #2: Segment your list to laser-target your customers' desires... and increase your revenue by up to 781%!

Segmenting your opt-in list simply means dividing your subscribers and customers into smaller, more focused groups, according to factors such as:

• Whether they've bought something from you
• Which products they've bought
• What their specified interests are
• Where they live
• Their age group
• And so on

You then create different mailout promotions for each group that specifically targets their particular needs.

By following this strategy, you're guaranteed to see better results with your promotions. In fact, a study from Jupiter Research found that business owners who segmented their lists according to what customers bought, where they clicked on the website, and other collected information improved their conversion rates by up to 355% — and increased their revenues by an amazing 781%!

However, the study found that only 11% of marketers actually use this kind of data to segment their list! That means if you start segmenting your list, you'll get a definite edge on your competitors.

Here's how you can put this proven technique to work for your business:

1. Sort your current opt-in list into highly focused segments — such as customers who have purchased specific products from you before, subscribers who have never purchased, new subscribers, or any other segments you can create based on the information you have about your existing opt-in list.
   
   
2. Then create different mailout promotions for each segment of your list, so that you target them with highly personalized messages that speak directly to their wants and needs.

The sooner you start segmenting your list, the sooner you can start enjoying increased conversion rates and profits! Check out Issue 134 of "Marketing Tips" for more information about this strategy.

Top Strategy #3: Create profitable strategic alliances to unleash a FLOOD of new profits for your business!

With the right business partner, you can put your products in front of new customers and get fresh new products to sell to your existing customers. You can expand your reach AND boost your profits — talk about a "win-win" situation!

In business, these kinds of partnerships are called strategic alliances or joint ventures.

And the great thing is, strategic alliances are ESPECIALLY effective for online businesses.

So do a bit of research and find a partner who's right for you — and then hit them with an offer they can't refuse!

Here's how to start:

1. Look for potential partners by using the search engines. Check out any businesses that are trying to sell something to the same market as yours — something complementary but not competitive.
   
   
2. Use the Alexa toolbar to give potential partners the "once-over." (Look for a good traffic ranking in particular.)
   
   
3. Create joint venture proposals tailored to your list of potential partners, and make sure you include details about how they will benefit from the relationship.
   
   
4. Contact potential partners personally — with a phone call or face-to-face meeting.
   
   
5. Be sure to look for offline partners, too!

Many established businesses have been able to expand their product offerings, skills, and expertise through profitable alliances. With this plan — so will you!

To learn more about how to make strategic alliances work for your business, check out Issue 128 of my "Marketing Tips" newsletter.

Top Strategy #4: Use testimonials to establish your credibility and win over potential customers

Never underestimate the power of a good testimonial! Posting reviews and comments from satisfied customers on your website is a terrific way to increase your credibility in the eyes of visitors and encourage sales from first-time buyers.

An effective testimonial can convince your reader that your product really DOES do exactly what you promise — especially if you run a small business and don't yet have a widespread reputation.

Here's how to gather quality testimonials and benefit from them immediately:

1. If you already have some positive feedback from clients, ask their permission to include their comments on your site. Try to choose testimonials that are packed full of concrete benefits that tell your customers exactly what they can expect to gain from purchasing your product or service.
   
   Every testimonial should also have a first name, last name, and location — they help prove the recommendations are coming from real people.
   
   
2. To encourage new testimonials, add a link to your site attached to a form that allows customers to give you their vote of confidence. For example, "Click here to tell us what you think!"
   
   
3. Create an autoresponder that contacts your buyers after they've purchased your product to ask them how they're enjoying it.
   
   
4. When customers send you glowing praise in a letter or email, contact them and ask for permission to add it to your site.
   
   
5. If you don't have any testimonials yet, offer your product free of charge to a group of customers in exchange for their thoughts on the product.

Once you've accumulated some good testimonials, include them on your site:

• Put your best testimonials on your homepage.
• Insert some testimonials in the middle of your salescopy.
• Create a page on your site that features only testimonials.
• Put testimonials on each page of your website.

It's that simple!

For more information about increasing your credibility with testimonials, check out Issue 119 of "Marketing Tips."

Top Strategy #5: "Socialize" your way to improved search engine placement

Social media and networking sites such as MySpace, Flickr, and Digg are some of the fastest-growing sites on the Web today... and they're also a great way to improve your site's search engine placement!

That's because these sites all have high Google PageRank numbers — which means that if you can get links on these sites that point to your site, you'll be able to improve your search engine rankings DRAMATICALLY!

Here's how to get started:

1. Check out a few different social media sites to get an idea of what they're all about. For a list of the top sites, check out my blog.
   
   
2. Choose one or two sites that interest you and start participating in discussions and posting your new content. Just remember, these are social sites — so be sociable, not "salesy."
   
   
3. Create a profile of yourself to include with your posts — and make sure it contains a link back to your site.
   
   
4. Create some content to post on the sites you are interested in — such as a short article, list, or entertaining video — and then give it a snappy, attention-grabbing headline.

Here are some content ideas to get you started:

• Compile an entertaining or informative list related to your industry.
  
  
• Take existing content from a newsletter or blog and re-purpose it for social media sites.
  
  
• Create a funny compilation video.
  
  
• Post an interactive product demonstration.

5. Tag your submissions with keywords that describe your content. This will maximize the chances that other site members will find you and add you to their favorites — boosting your popularity and the number of people who view your content!
   
   
6. Invite all your friends to go online and vote for your links.

For more information about how you can "socialize" your way to better search engine placement, check out Issue 131 of "Marketing Tips."

Final thoughts

By now your mind should be full of possibilities for how your business can profit in the year ahead...

All you have to do to make it happen is to take ACTION with the steps outlined for each strategy. Consider this your roadmap to greater levels of Internet prosperity:

• Attract droves of highly-targeted traffic to your site by writing short, targeted articles that can be picked up by other web owners and spread to the far reaches of the 'Net.
  
  
• Maximize your mailout profits by segmenting your subscriber list into highly targeted groups and giving each group exactly what they desire.
  
  
• Dramatically increase your income by finding business partners who will help you reach new markets and expand your product offerings.
  
  
• Encourage first-time sales by using credibility-boosting testimonials... and make sure you place them on your site where they will have the greatest impact.
  
  
• And don't forget to take time to visit the 'Net's most popular social networking and media sites and socialize your way to improved search engine placement!

Once you start implementing these top 5 strategies, I guarantee you'll see HUGE results with your business. And I'd love to hear about them!

Here's to making 2007 your most profitable year ever!

***NEW FEATURE***

Inside the Internet Entrepreneur Club Forum

As you know, we recently created our Internet Entrepreneur Club. And even though the club is still in its early days, there are already so many great questions and discussions going on in the club members' forum that we just had to share some of them with you!

Here's a particularly good question posted by one of our members in the forum — and the response from one of our in-house experts...

***

This issue's question comes from club member "Brian":

Hi everyone,

I'd be interested in hearing people's results from their email campaigns, in a general percentage way of course so I can get an idea of whether my expectations are set too high or not from my campaigns.

Two weeks ago I offered a sale price to our email list, and followed that up on the last day of the sale with a reminder and summary of benefits.

From around 200 emails sent out, we had 35 unique visitors to the ad campaign's landing page, and of those visitors we made 7 sales. Our JV partner also sent out a letter and generated hits to a different landing page, but with slightly lower percentage results.

I haven't had too many problems with bounced emails or unsubscribes so far (touch wood), with only a couple of requests.

I expected to get more visitors from my emails, and more purchases from my visitors - but am I setting my expectations too high?

I'd appreciate some ideas on the sorts of percentages I should be aiming for regarding email delivery, clickthrough rates, and conversions.

Cheers,

Brian

And the answer from Jennifer, one of IMC's top marketing specialists:

Hey Brian,

I've got a lot of experience with email marketing, so let me be the first to congratulate you.

People would KILL for your conversion rates! ;-)

You sent 200 emails.
Got 35 visitors.
And got 7 sales.

That means, 1 in 6 people you emailed clicked through to your website. And 1 in 5 of your website visitors purchased.

That's excellent.

Generally speaking, click-throughs of 1 in 50 to 1 in 300-500 (no kidding) are considered good. And visitor-to-sale conversion rates of 1 in 20 to 1 in 100 are considered really good.

Why are the ranges so big? Because your conversion rates will vary dramatically depending on:

#1... How targeted is your email list? (i.e. You'll get higher conversions mailing a list of people with a narrowly defined interests, like ferrets, than people with a broad interest, like "pets.")

#2... Do you have a close relationship with your list? Do they know who you are right away? Do you have a good relationship with them?

... I would GUESS, based on your conversion rates, that you're mailing a targeted group of people, with a narrowly defined interest.

So if you want to increase your sales with your email marketing campaigns at this point, my advice would be to focus on attracting more opt-ins.

Cheers,

Jennifer

***

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