How Can People Find Your Site If They Don’t Know What To Search?

We all know it is difficult to promote commercial products, especially those commodity items. People selling commodity items are generally submitting their sites to search engines, such as Google and getting links from other sites to increase page ranks. But you will lose some potential customers who don’t know what or how to search.

When we look at how people are using Internet, there are basically two types of people who use Internet for shopping. The first type is they know what they want and try to find out where they can buy on the Internet. The second type is they want to buy something but don’t know
what to buy. Who are they? The best example is the people who shop for gift giving.

In general, when you buy something for yourself, you know what to buy, but don’t know price and place. So you go to Google to search shopping sites. For the people who shop for gift, they may not know what to buy to fit their friends’ styles, not to mention what they can search using search engine. Perhaps, the only word they can search is gift. Therefore, a gift giving sites can guide them to shop better gifts for their friends.

Don’t forget those people who visit the gift giving sites are willing to spend money. They are not just looking for product or background information. They are not doing web research. They have intention to buy something. This is what you want.

Moreover, gift giving site can sell a little bit more expensive, or call upscale items. People may buy cheap things for themselves, but they won’t buy cheap things for their friends. Otherwise, you won’t see people borrow money from banks or credit cards for gift giving.

As I said before, some visitors may not even know what is the correct keyword they should use to search. If you sell something that is unique or the product type is new, then how can you expect people can search your site using correct keyword?

For example, assuming you are selling “Car Reversing Aid”, a new and unique product. You would probably use Pay-Per-Click advertisement with keyword “Car Reversing Aid” to promote your product. Then take a look at how many searches for “Car Reversing Aid”. There are only 83 searches in a month. It is true that the cost of keyword “Car Reversing Aid” should be very cheap, but it is meaningless because nobody or only a few people have “Car Reversing

Aid” in their mind.

Gift Giving sites eliminate this problem by showing products in open areas that are easy for visitors to see. Categorize the gift ideas into different hobbies, events and type of people (Example: http://www.StyleAndMatch.com/snm2/giftlink.html ), which help gift shoppers to find out what they want.

Yes, there are a lot of gift giving idea sites on the Internet. But most of them are ecommerce sites that focus on selling their own products. There are couple sites really providing different kinds of gift giving ideas but those sites are relatively immature. There are a lot of areas that can be improved.

There are two types of sites that provide gift giving ideas based on people and events. The first type of gift giving site is they show product details and images on their web sites. Usually, these product images and details are submitted by vendors for Pay-Per-Click Advertisement. This approach may limit the number of products or product categories showing on the site.

The other type of gift giving site is they don’t show products details for gift ideas, but show lots of different ideas for specific events or type of people. However, they don’t tell or guide people where to buy. Even I can find some of them have links to other sites, but those are standard banners that point to other sites’ home pages. That is not convenient to customers.

Therefore, gift giving sites are not perfect today. There are a lot of areas that can be improved. You should use some creative marketing ideas on promoting gift giving site. Not only that, gift giving site is also extremely good for selling advertisement, as long as you have enough traffic to your site.


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Wayne Liu is the founder of www.StyleAndMatch.com, a Gift Giving ideas site that provides thousands of gift ideas and information for different kinds of events and different kinds of people. He can be reached at liuwayne@earthlink.net .

Increase Your Profit Through Effective Entry and Exit Strategies

It is amazing that so much time goes into building great looking websites, promoting them, yet most webmasters pay little attention to how their visitors will actually use them. You could be throwing profits away, if you don't pay attention to entry and exit strategies - that is, looking at how your visitors enter, walk through and leave your site, and how you can steer their course to increase your profits.

Let's look at entry strategies first. Where can visitors enter your site? Check your wesbite statistics for more information (you are doing this anyway, aren't you?). Often, many visitors enter through a "side door" unintentionally left open. By this we mean they enter at a page, which was not designed to be an entry page, and they are left floundering around lost, not knowing where to go next, a bit like wandering into an office building through an open fire escape door!

This often happens because of search engine indexing, where a keyword rich page gets an unintended good ranking. Remember, any page can become an entry page (unless you use the Meta robots tag to avoid indexing), so ensure visitors who appear in the wrong place are efficiently & easily lead to the "front reception".

Once in, what do you want your customers to do? Read content and gain exposure to advertising? Read sales copy and make a purchase? Sign up for a newsletter/ezine? Often, it's a combination, so make sure it's not all screaming for their attention at once. A visitor who becomes overwhelmed, will soon dash out the door!

Lead them through, one thing at a time. I particularly cannot understand websites, which, as soon as you enter, request your email address, via a pop up box, and I suspect many others feel the same . I like to get a feel for a site first, experience their subject matter and see if their expertise fits with what I'm after, before I sign up for a newsletter, or other communication. So, lead them through, reassuring them that you can be of great assistance, becoming their friend, stating the advantages of keeping in touch , before gently requesting their details.

Now to exit strategies - I see many puzzled faces here! Like it or not, every visitor is destined to leave your site. They can do one of two things :

1) Stop surfing and go and do something else
2) Continue surfing and visit another website.

You can influence them in both instances. By channelling them to a partner site, via a banner or an affiliate link, you can profit. You must do it at a logical point identify the points where customers are likely to leave, and provide an "emergency exit" for them. Analyse your own "surfing" habits, and those of your friends and colleagues.

For instance, if I'm visiting a website which I find is not for me, I always subconsciously scroll down to the bottom of the page before I leave. I don't know why - perhaps it's because I don't want to feel I'm missing out on something they could be giving away $20 bills at the bottom you never know! One or two attention arousing links to affiliated sites could be placed tastefully there, tempting a "lost" customer to visit and perhaps earn you some commission through an affiliate scheme.

What about purchasers? Where do they leave? Most usually through an order confirmation page, where there's only a link "back to home". Well, let me point out that people usually purchase after they've gleaned all the information they can from your site to make their decision. They've decided what they want and purchased it .Why would they go back immediately? Give them a place to go links to affiliate sites of related interest. Make the links provocative; arouse their curiosity to click through. Text links are usually more effective than banners, particularly when they are in the form of an endorsement or personal recommendations.

In short, analyse where your visitors go and are likely to go. Ensure visitors entering through "side doors", get speedily directed to the reception foyer. Position strategically placed "emergency exits" which lead to partner sites. Join some affiliate schemes, do some joint venture deals, and get profiting from those "lost" customers that leave your site.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.


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David Bell http://www.wspromotion.com/ Advertising research and development center.

Standing Above The Crowd

In today’s highly competitive business environment it is critical to find ways to separate yourself from the other companies who sell the same – or similar – product and/or service. Here are several strategies that can help you accomplish this:

Help your clients achieve their goals. Virtually every business person has specific goals they are striving to achieve. These can include everything from increasing their market share and sales, to reducing operating expenses, to streamlining the business, to incorporating new business practices. Invest time learning the key objectives of each of your customers. Then determine how your products and services can help them achieve their targets. In some cases, you may not be able to help them but recommending someone who can assist them will be recognized and remembered. The more you can help them achieve their goals the more valued you will become.
Under-promise, over-deliver. As old as this expression is, it is still one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd. Far too many people make commitments to their customers and fail to follow through as promised. It’s easy to fall into this trap, particularly for service-oriented individuals. We have every intention of delivering on a promise but often, unexpected circumstances crop up that prevent of from doing so. While this is acceptable by most people – once in a while – frequent occurrences will drive your customers to your competition.

Be innovative. Most companies do business the same way until a crisis, emergency, or significant change in the marketplace forces them to adapt. The most successful organizations are creative and innovative. They constantly look for new ways to do business, gain more their market share, please their customers, and offer new products and services. The inherent challenge with this is that you will encounter resistance from many people both inside and outside of the company; I have experienced this first-hand in several companies I have worked for.

However, if you try to be innovative ONLY when it’s absolutely necessary, you will never get the head-start on your competition. Watch for trends in other industries as well as yours and think of how you can incorporate these into your business. Be a leader instead of a follower.

Surprise them. Look for ways to surprise your customers and do something completely unexpected for them. Make a charitable donation in their name. Invite them to a special event. Give them a bonus gift or service. Find out what networking events your clients might like to attend and send them a complimentary invitation. If they enjoy reading send an occasional book in their area of interest. Gift certificates to a show or play may be appreciated by some of your customers.

Two words of caution: i) Be careful that your “surprise” is not misinterpreted as a bribe to do business with you. There cannot be any strings or hidden conditions attached to this offering. ii) Make sure your client is allowed to accept a gift. Some organizations have a strict “no gift” policy and you must respect it.

Keep in touch. Very few people keep in touch on a regular basis with their customers. Yet, this is the best way to keep your name in their mind. An effective strategy – without appearing like a pest – is to send them useful information on a regular basis. You can send a newspaper clipping or a magazine article. You can also send them helpful and practical tips to improve their business; this can be set up quite easily electronically.

Send cards on special occasions but instead of the standard Christmas cards send some on lesser promoted days such as St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween, etc. You can also send postcards from exotic locations – just be careful not to write a tacky message. This past winter I traveled to St. Maarten in the Caribbean and found a beautiful postcard of a beach along the Caribbean Ocean. I sent this card to about four dozen clients and prospects with the message, “When the winter starts getting you down, take a three minute vacation by picturing yourself on this beach.”

Have a VIP day. You can organize a golf tournament – assuming of course your customers play the game. If you’re a retailer, you can invite your best customer to an invitation-only special sale.

Every year, a friend of mine organizes an evening filled with networking opportunities, guest speakers, great food and beverages and invites his clients, prospects, and friends to attend. Another friend of mine takes several of his clients on excursions to a local winery. He ensures they get a tour, a private tasting of premium wines, and a five-star dinner.

© 2005 Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved


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Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, works with businesses to help them increase their sales and motivate their employees. He is also the author of “Stop, Ask & Listen – Proven Sales Techniques to Turn Browsers into Buyers.” Receive a FREE copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” by subscribing to his free sales and motivational newsletter available at www.kelleyrobertson.com. Contact him at 905-633-7750 or Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com.