In the past few years that I have been involved with internet marketing, I have come to realize that there really are only a few key skills that contribute to the success of someone when it comes to succeeding in email marketing.

With that being said, I am convinced that the number one skill aside from a few others that is key in email marketing is… COPY WRITING!

What is copy writing? In short, it is salesmanship in written form. When you are driving down the street and you see a billboard that catches your attention and it gets you to look into a certain product or service, that is copy writing that is designed to grab your attention.

Here is an example off the top of my head:

Car need maintenance? At Jiffy Lube, get your $19.95 oil change now. Free 15 point inspection included. All in 30 minutes or less or its FREE. Only through March 31st, Stop in NOW!

This is kind of a silly example, but you get the point. The idea of copy writing is to get the reader to take action on what you are wanting them to do.

In this case what do they want them to do? The answer is simple, get into Jiffy Lube and get there oil changed at a low price so they can then try to up-sell you on more services. Don’t we do that same thing in internet marketing?

Some of your best places to study the art of advertising is just to look around at the advertisement signs on the street. The big corporations that advertise everywhere you go have literally invested millions upon millions of dollars into advertising campaigns and know what works.

Take their best stuff and mesh it with your product of service.

If you have attended some of my webinars lately on copy writing you will see that I refer to the “5 point formula for persuasion”… What is the “5 point formula for persuasion”?

Identify the big problem – This is were you hit hot buttons. This is literally where you hit right at the heart of what the overwhelming statistics show. For instance, if you are in network marketing you would see that the statistics show that a majority of people struggle with lead generation. This is a hot button that will get people to take action on what you are asking them to do as long as you can provide the solution.

Unique benefit or promise – So going inline with identifying the big problem in point one, how is it that your product or service will fix the problem they are facing? For example: “If you lack leads, join our system and learn how to generate 10-20 laser targeted leads everyday for your business”. You see? This shows them what is capable with your system or product. This is where they can picture themselves attaining the results you’re referring too.

Provide factual proof – This is your opportunity to show results from people or yourself where you have gotten results with your product or service. This can be very powerful and very persuasive to the reader. There is one thing that I caution you against though, and that is making up fake testimonials. DON’T DO IT! It’s important to be truthful with your message, and not break the law. But providing proof of results is very, very persuasive and can convert optins and sales.

Risk free offer – This is where you basically take away their apprehension in taking action. For instance, someone might hesitate to take action because the don’t want to be on another email list. This is where you assure them that you will only send them value based information that will help them in their business. It can also include things such as a “30 day money back guarantee” if you’re selling a product or “7 day free trial for $1?” or something of that sort. This is designed to remove the apprehension from the reader, and help them to make a fear free decision to take action.

The take away – Ahh yeah, this is my favorite… lol. The good old move now or forever hold your peace call to action… lol. This works so well because the greatest thing most people fear is not getting a good deal. Or missing out on that awesome training program that will take their business to the next level. You can use language such as “Limited time only” or “Only available to the next 20 buyers”. The key here also, is don’t say it unless you MEAN IT! Don’t make it up. If you are only making it available to 20 people, make it 20 people and be done. Don’t just say that to get people to move. You loose credibility when you do that and you hurt your reputation, so be honest in your take away.

By integrating this into your email marketing, you will get much better results, and it will cause you to have more fun in your business.

I don’t know about you, but I like to have fun and get results with what I do. If I am not getting results, I stop, re-evaluate and then make a change. Good copy writing will get you results all the time.

There are two things I want to recommend to you if you want to improve your copy writing skills.

Copy Writing 101 webinar – I just recently did a webinar training for ViralURL solely on this topic alone. It is 78 minutes long and is jammed packed with good information that is really going to help you get results. This webinar is full on content rich value for your business. You can attend this webinar free of charge and take advantage of the training.

Copy writers guild course – This is for those that really want to take their business to a whole new level. This is for the person that is not messing around with their business and really wants to step up their game in not only their email writing skills, but their copy writing skills in general. This course is not free, but in my opinion the best information never is free. If you want to invest in yourself and your business, go pick up this course right now as you will not regret it one bit. Once I went through this course and applied what I learned I saw an immediate response in my marketing, so much so that I would venture to say it was the best money that ever spent. Remember, the best investment you can ever make is in yourself. I recently did a blog post about this, and you can check that out here…

Why Investing In Your Skills Will Make You Money

Focus on your skills, and your copy writing for emails, and you will see results.

To your success,

Mark Harbert
ViralURL & Viralinbox Team Member
http://markharbert.com/

Niche Vs Internet Marketing? Which One Is Best For Me?

There is a lot of marketing going on the Internet. With so much going on, it can be extremely difficult to distinguish the differences in the two. I am going to make it a little clearer for you, I will review some of the differences between Internet marketing and niche marketing.

Internet marketing and niche marketing are apples and oranges, they are both fruit, but yet have their unique differences. Internet marketing is the apple, where niche marketing is the orange.

What is Niche Marketing?

Niche marketing is when you are selling a specific product to customers looking for that particular product. There are some niches that are extremely competitive, and some that have little or no competition. You can also take a niche market and create a microniche market. The key is for you to find the niche with little or no competition.

There are so many of the larger niche markets that are open to the latest and greatest marketing strategies, whereas the smaller niches are much easier to break into because they aren’t swamped with all the big-time Internet gurus posing as your competition. By going with your own niche market, you get to promote it yourself, or promote a niche affiliate product.

How To Find A Niche Market?

You can find a niche market for anything! If you can imagine it, you can sell it. All you need is a great idea, great product (whether you create it or not), some advertising, and a strong will and intention to succeed.

What Is The Internet Marketing Niche?

This is where you are promoting your own Internet marketing product. There is a lot of competition in this market and much harder to break into and see quick results.

You are competing with a lot of very wise men and women who are the best of the best when it comes to Internet marketing, also known as Internet Gurus. Does this mean it is impossible? NO…you CAN DO IT!

You are in a world that works with supply and demand, meaning if you have a product that can go up against the big guys, and if you have an iron will to win, then by all means, you will succeed in the big league. Remember however, there are easier ways to get started than jumping right into the ball field with the hard hitters.

There are innumerable niches that are still untouched, just waiting for you to jump in and take over. Go with something that you are familiar with, a hobby, a talent, something you are passionate about. Not only will this give you an edge in the market, but you can have fun with it too.

Niche Marketing Tips

1. Make your niche very appealing for anyone to sell or resell your product. By making your product appealing, you make it easier and more cost effective to advertise in a specialized market.

2. Focus on the specific needs of your target audience and create your product to meet those needs.

3. Maybe you have written an Ebook on beating insomnia, giving proven methods to overcome this safely and easily, and can virtually apply to everyone. You will be sought out by those who suffer insomnia, searching for the information you have to offer.

4. If you have a website, blog or product that focuses on writing the perfect resume’, you will not be attracting the market looking to start an online business. Focus on your market, your targeted audience.

Summary…Remember, Apples and Oranges…

By using your creativity, a little elbow grease, some committed action, and niche marketing will become a very effective and cost efficient way to sell your products and services, advertise to a specific audience, and bring in buyers of your product or service.

WOW – Sorry to everyone who reads my posts here, I guess I need to focus more on the ‘blogging’ side of life!

Just got back from a 2 week cruise around Northern Europe and had a great time, visited many places that I hadn’t been to before and met a few really cool people too, so all in all a trip well worth it.

Before that I was very focused on my main business and have to give a shout out to Frank Bauer – Superman – for holding down the fort whilst I was done. We have some VERY exciting things planed in the coming months, so stay tuned… Oh, and I promise I will put up a nice, content filled post early next week

Hope you had a great month too… Onward and Upward

What can you do to become a pro-blogger?

Well, you need to get a lot of traffic to your blog.

And now you thinking….’I already know that, but HOW am I going to do it? I have some trade secrets to let you in on. By using these trade secrets, you too, can become a pro blogger.

Today, you are going to learn some great tricks of the trade to grab the attention of StumbleUpon, and use their platform to set your blog on fire. These tips and tricks will get you anywhere from the hundreds up to the thousands of StumbleUpon visitors each day.

StumbleUpon does lean toward some niches more than others, and you need to use this to work for your advantage. You will find that StumbleUpon can be one of the greatest viral marketing tool out there. So here are some tips:

• If you do have a niche that is lacking in the mass appeal, StumbleUpon will be a great boost for you where the others won’t. Digg uses a broad forum which keeps their power from weakening in traffic. StumbleUpon works a bit differently by creating more specific categories, providing a more targeted audience.

• Write posts that appeal to the particular social media, if you go for the general appeal, you are going to lose your followers. For instance, Del.icio.us likes anything that their users prefer, Digg likes the appeal of the masses. You have to have content that is going to get thousands of hits, or you won’t become a pro-blogger.

• When you are writing for StumbleUpon, you don’t need to worry about pleasing the masses, matter of fact, you benefit more by sticking with your niche, yes, even your small ones, and this will bring you some highly targeted traffic.

• So, write your content for your niche, not for the general public. By doing this, you will increase your chances to your post will be submitted to receive more traffic in a more specific category.

In another blog, I will go into the types of posts you should and should not be making. I will go into the types of content and the things you can do to make your blog more appealing to StumbleUpon.

You Know About SEO, But, Do You Know About SMO?

SEO is Search Engine Optimization, which is known to most Internet marketers throughout the world. But there are many who are not totally aware of SMO, which is a new term than SEO. SMO is a branch off the SEO tree, but there are many who are in the Internet marketing business that are not aware of this wonderful tool to increase their popularity in the search engines.

What is SMO? It is Social Media Optimization

As you would use SEO on the search engines, SMO will work on the social media sites. As you may well know, the Social Media sites to not focus on the business aspect of the Internet, but they do focus on social interaction such as the blogs, forums, communities, video websites, music sites, etc…

Search Engine Optimization is great in providing long term ranking to your websites, whereas, SMO’s are great at creating a viral marketing buzz to your business. You can look at this as a great gossip columnist spreading the buzz or news about your site, and watching the buzz take off like fire. You will be creating not only a buzz, but bringing in visitors just out of sheer curiosity.

Are There Any Disadvantages of SMO I Should Be Aware Of?

Yes, there is a drawback and that is the speed of which it takes off then fades. This works like the news, it comes out, hits the papers, then becomes old news. SEO, however, is very effective and permanent, giving it a higher ranking among Internet marketers.

But what happens when you combine the two, SMO and SEO? You then create a great partnership linking your website to some high quality content, while the website is named on the social media sites. You will be creating a win/win situation, using great content which is essential to both the SEO as well as the SMO techniques.

There are a number of websites that are social media sites which include rich content. One of these sites is Yahoo! Answers. This site answers queries while promoting their own websites indirectly.

It is important to have search engine optimization in promoting your website and making it visible to the viewers, however, coupled with social media optimization, you will reap the rewards of higher results than SEO techniques alone.

How To Get SMO Going For You

I am going to recommend you using Google Gadgets, which are tiny bits of code that can be downloaded for free right from Google. You can apply these Google gadgets as your own signature as you post on blogs or forums, attracting interest to your website, all at no cost to you.

Another option is to visit a few of the social media network sites and create your own page. This is simple to do and won’t take up a lot of your time. You may find that there are more people on the Internet that share your same interests. Send them a note with your cute Google gadget in your signature.

Social marketing is an ideal way to get a target market. If you want to direct people to your website, you need only visit some of the different social network sites on the Internet and make a page. This can be done in a matter of minutes. Then find others who share your interests and send them a note with your own personal signature, complete with a cute little Gadget. Gadgets can be customized and make a fun signature at the end of your post. They can be used to link others to your website.

Visit relevant websites and forums, creating your own ‘buzz’ just by using SMO. And as you search out relevant blogs and forums, don’t limit yourself, take a chance on the .org, .gov., .edu and so on…there is more out there than just the dot.coms. As for the .edu sites, these are a great market as they are typically the colleges and Universities.

CONTENT IS KEY!

Create excellent and keyword rich content which will help you with search engine optimization, which will also help you in your brand marketing. You want to use the Google Gadgets, providing ample exposure to your website, creating your own ‘buzz’ and increasing your ranks on the search engines. You will create your Google Gadget for your product or website, use it as your post to the relevant forums and blogs. You will soon be the hot topic on the web.